Indications For Drug Treatment Research Articles

On the choice of antiarrhythmic drug in patients with ventricular arrhythmia of mixed character

Background. The choice of an antiarrhythmic drug, proof of its effectiveness and safety in a short period of time in patients with non-coronary ventricular arrhythmia are the most pressing problems of practical arrhythmology. Objective. To resolve the issue of choosing an antiarrhythmic drug in patients with a mixed nature of ventricular arrhythmia, several ectopic foci, and to optimize further tactics for their management. Design and methods. Of 167 patients with ventricular arrhythmia distribution during periods of wakefulness who performed a stress test, 32 individuals with non-coronary arrhythmias of a mixed nature (by the participation of the autonomic nervous system) were selected. All patients underwent an acute pharmacological stress test with a beta-blocker. Antiarrhythmic therapy was selected under the control of multi-day ECG telemonitoring. Results. In the pretest of exercise tests, single ventricular parasystole was recorded in all 32 patients. In 3 patients, the arrhythmia persisted throughout the entire load, in 4 patients it progressed, in 25 patients the parasystole of the initial morphology disappeared, and at the peak of the load/early recovery period, arrhythmia of a different morphology appeared. Indications for drug treatment were determined for all patients with the choice of the drug after acute pharmacological tests. Then, therapy with two antiarrhythmic drugs was initiated using multi-day ECG telemonitoring, the purpose of which was to control the efficacy, safety, choice of doses and time of drug administration. On days 5–6, combination therapy was effective in 25 patients (78 %). Conclusion. With the help of stress tests, it is possible to accelerate not only the search for the cause of ventricular arrhythmia, but also the choice of a personalized method of treatment. Supplementing the examination with pharmacological tests allows predicting the result of combined antiarrhythmic therapy with a beta-blocker and a class IС drug with an anticholinergic effect.

Risk scores, prevention, and treatment of maternal venous thromboembolism.

At present, the preventive treatment for pregnancy-related venous thromboembolism (VTE) in China is in its infancy, and there is no uniform or standardized industry guide. Drug prevention and treatment of pregnancy-related VTE rely highly on foreign guidelines; however, due to the differences in ethnicity and national conditions, there are many controversies over the indications for drug treatment, drug selection, and dose selection for anticoagulant therapy. To investigate the risk scores, prevention, and treatment of maternal VTE to promote the prevention and standardized treatment of maternal thrombosis. A retrospective analysis was performed on 7759 patients who gave birth at our hospital from June 2018 to June 2019. Risk factors for pregnancy-related VTE, prenatal and postpartum VTE risk scores, prophylactic anticoagulant therapy, side effects after medication, and morbidity were analysed. The risk factors for VTE were mainly caesarean delivery, obesity, and advanced maternal age. Regarding pregnancy-related VTE risk scores, there were 7520 patients in the low-risk group with a prenatal score < 3 points and 239 in the high-risk group with a score ≥ 3, and 44 patients received drug prevention and treatment during pregnancy. There were 4223 patients in the low-risk group with a postpartum score < 2 points and 3536 in the high-risk group with a score ≥ 2 points, and 824 patients received drug prevention and treatment for 10 d. Among the patients who did not present with VTE before delivery, we found one case each of pulmonary embolism secondary to lower extremity venous thrombosis, intracranial venous sinus thrombosis, and asymptomatic lower extremity venous thrombosis during the postpartum follow-up. VTE poses a serious threat to maternal safety, and the society should increase its vigilance against pregnancy-related VTE.

Inappropriate use of medicines and associated factors in Brazil: an approach from a national household survey.

This article aims to describe the inappropriate use of medicines in the Brazilian urban population and to identify associated factors. We conducted a data analysis of a household survey carried out in Brazil in 2013–14. The sampling plan was done by clusters with representativeness of the urban population and large regions of the country, according to gender and age domains. For this analysis, we considered a sample of adults (≥20 years) who reported having chronic non-communicable diseases, medical indication for drug treatment and medicine use (n = 12 283). We evaluated the prevalence of inappropriate use in the domains: non-adherence, inappropriate use behaviour and inadequate care with medicines, all verified in the following groups of independent variables: demographic and socio-economic characteristics, health and pharmaceutical care, health status and use of medicines. Crude and adjusted prevalence ratios were obtained using robust Poisson regression. It was found 46.1% of people having at least one behaviour of inappropriate use of medicines. The worst results were found for the domain of inappropriate use behaviour, a situation of 36.6% of the users, which included unauthorized prescriber, inadequate source of information and indication of the medicines by non-authorized prescribers. The best result was found for the lack of medicines care, informed by only 4.6% of users who kept expired drugs at home. The inappropriate use of medicines was associated with gender (female), region of residence (Northeast), not visiting the doctor regularly or visiting more than one doctor, not having free access to medicines and using of five or more medicines. There was a high prevalence of inappropriate use, which was associated with both individual and health system characteristics pointing out the need to set priorities as for health education and public interventions.

Guideline recommendations for treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases are not implemented in clinical practice-results of a non-representative survey.

There is a growing evidence for over-, under-, or misuse of health care in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Most studies looked at treatment variability or used quality measures, which mostly capture supportive interventions rather than treatment of IBD in itself. We aimed to evaluate if current recommendations in clinical practice guidelines regarding the medical treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases are being followed in Germany. A questionnaire was sent to 1901 patients insured with two large German statutory sickness funds and an ICD 10 diagnosis of Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC). The questionnaire asked about drug treatment, indications for drug treatment, provision of surveillance endoscopies in ulcerative colitis patients, and smoking status in Crohn's disease patients. Out of 460 evaluable patients, 62.4% of UC patients and 53.9% of CD patients were treated with mesalamine according to guidelines, 91.3% of all patients were treated with glucocorticoids according to guideline recommendations, while only 75.6% received recommended immunosuppressive treatment. Of UC patients, 94.5% had surveillance colonoscopies at the recommended interval and 58.8% of CD patients were non-smokers. No predictor for overall treatment according to guidelines could be found while being of age older than 60 or being treated outside of a dedicated IBD clinic was associated with less immunosuppressive treatment. A large proportion of patients with IBD do not receive drug treatment in accordance with clinical practice guidelines. Quality improvement measures are much needed.

Important Aspects of Pharmacist-led Medication Reviews in an Acute Medical Ward.

In some hospitals, clinical pharmacists review the medication to find drug-related problems (DRPs) in acutely admitted patients. We aimed to identify the nature of identified DRPs and investigate factors of potential importance for the clinical implementation of pharmacist suggestions. In 100 randomly selected medication review (MR) notes, we retrospectively evaluated the clinical implementation and classified (1) timing and communication of the review; (2) DRPs and related suggestions for the physician; and (3) DRPs' potential clinical relevance to patients as 'beneficial', 'somewhat beneficial', 'no relevance' or 'other relevance'. Of 327 DRPs (0-13 DRPs per patient), 42% were implemented. The clinical implementation was higher if the MR note was made prior to (instead of after) the physician's admission, and even higher if the suggestions were communicated verbally (instead of only in writing) to the physicians (44% versus 79%, p < 0.05). The clinical relevance of the DRPs was either 'beneficial' (16%), 'somewhat beneficial' (43%), 'no relevance' (22%) or 'other relevance' (19%). The 'beneficial' DRPs had a higher clinical implementation (53%) than 'no relevance' (34%) (p < 0.05). The most frequently implemented suggestions were based on DRPs concerning 'indication for drug treatment not noticed', 'inappropriate drug form' and 'drug dose too low', with implementation rates of 83%, 67% and 63%, respectively. In our sample, the pharmacist's MR suggestions were only implemented by physicians in 42% of the cases, but review prior to physician contact and verbal communication of the suggestions, higher clinical relevance and specific types of DRPs were associated with a higher implementation rate.

Primary care diabetes prescribing rates: latest analysis shows continued rise in volume and cost

Primary care diabetes prescribing rates: latest analysis shows continued rise in volume and cost

A cluster-randomized educational intervention to reduce inappropriate prescription patterns for elderly patients in general practice – The Prescription Peer Academic Detailing (Rx-PAD) study [NCT00281450

BackgroundAge-related alterations in metabolism and excretion of medications increase the risk of adverse drug events in the elderly. Inappropriate polypharmacy and prescription practice entails increased burdens of impaired quality of life and drug related morbidity and mortality. The main objective of this trial is to evaluate effects of a tailored educational intervention towards general practitioners (GPs) aimed at supporting the implementation of a safer drug prescribing practice for elderly patients ≥ 70 years.Methods/designApproximately 80 peer continuing medical education (CME) groups (about 600 GPs) in southern Norway will be recruited to a cluster randomized trial. Participating groups will be randomized either to an intervention- or a control group. The control group will not receive any intervention towards prescription patterns in elderly, but will be the target of an educational intervention for prescription of antibiotics for respiratory tract infections. A multifaceted intervention has been tailored, where key components are educational outreach visits to the CME-groups, work-shops, audit and feedback. Prescription Peer Academic Detailers (Rx-PADs), who are trained GPs, will conduct the educational outreach visits. During these visits, a set of quality indicators (QIs), i.e. explicit recommendations for safer prescribing for elderly patients, will be presented and discussed. Software will be handed out for installation in participants' practice computers to enable extraction of pre-defined prescription data. These data will subsequently be linked to corresponding data from the Norwegian Prescription Database (NorPD). Individual feedback reports will be sent all participating GPs during and one year after the intervention. Feedback reports will include QI-scores on individual- and group levels, before and after the intervention. The main outcome of this trial is the change in proportions of inappropriate prescriptions (QIs) for elderly patients ≥ 70 years following intervention, compared to baseline levels.DiscussionImprovement of prescription patterns in medical practice is a challenging task. Evidence suggests that a thorough evaluation of diagnostic indications for drug treatment in the elderly and/or a reduction of potentially inappropriate drugs may impose significant clinical benefits. Our hypothesis is that an educational intervention program will be effective in improving prescribing patterns for elderly patients in GP settings.

Relationship between antipsychotic drug use and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia in old people with cognitive impairment living in geriatric care

Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) commonly occur among cognitively impaired people in geriatric care. BPSD are often managed with antipsychotic drugs, despite the associated serious health risks. The aim of the present study was to discover factors associated with the use of antipsychotics. A cross-sectional study in all geriatric care units in the county of Västerbotten, Sweden, which included 2017 residents aged 65 years and over with cognitive impairment (mean age was 83.5 years). Data were collected from prescription records and observations made by care staff of BPSD among residents during the preceding week. A multivariate regression model was constructed to find factors independently associated with antipsychotic drug use. Eleven factors were independently associated with the use of antipsychotics. Aggressive, verbally disruptive and wandering behavior, hallucinatory and depressive symptoms, male sex, living in a group dwelling for people with dementia, imposed mental workload, the ability to rise from a chair, activities of daily living (ADL) dependency and lower age all correlated significantly. Antipsychotic drug treatment of old people with cognitive impairment in geriatric care is common, and determined not only by the patient's symptoms but also by factors related more closely to the caregiver and the caring situation. These findings raise important questions about the indications for drug treatment in relation to the patient's quality of life.

Diagnostic and treatment strategies for depressive disorders in alcohol dependence

Alcohol dependence is one of most common chronic diseases in Germany. Many alcoholics attribute mental disorders as causative for their elevated alcohol consumption intending to cope with these disorders. Epidemiological studies show that alcoholics have a high lifetime prevalence of psychiatric illnesses, particularly of depressive disorders. The complex relationships between elevated alcohol consumption and depressive symptoms frequently lead to problems in finding the diagnosis and thereafter in planning therapeutic strategies. The indication for drug treatment should be based on the psychopathological findings about 14 days after cessation of drinking, since in many subjects depressive symptomatology abates within the first weeks of abstinence without any treatment. Up to now no specific recommendations can be given because the results of the few published controlled studies showed some discrepancies. Summing up, thus far the efficacy of psychopharmacological drugs in treating alcoholics with depressive disorders have not been investigated sufficiently.