During drug development, a biomarker is sometimes identified as separating a patient population into those with more and those with less benefit from evaluated treatments. Consequently, later studies might be targeted, while earlier ones are performed in mixed patient populations. This poses a challenge in evidence synthesis, especially if only…

This study aimed to explore experiences and practices of key research team members in obtaining informed consent for pharmacogenetics research and to identify the approaches used for enhancing understanding during the consenting process. Data collection involved 15 qualitative, in-depth interviews with key researchers who were involved in…

This article offers a longitudinal computational-rhetorical analysis of biomedical writing on opioids. Using a corpus of 1,467 articles and essays published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" and the "Journal of the American Medical Association" between 1959 and May 2019, this study evaluates diachronic shifts in (a) the…

The purpose of this study is to determine the drug-use habits in North Cyprus and to prepare a demographic study of drug wastage. A total of 450 questionnaires containing 36 questions were handed out in 5 major cities of North Cyprus. Participants' pharmaceutical consumption habits and basic knowledge on rational use were compared with respect to…

Medical education is moving towards more interactive teaching methods. During Year 1 at Manchester Medical School (MMS), students study the heart in preparation for the hospital-based years of study. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the main cause of mortality worldwide and thus, the content studied in Year 1 is essential for practising clinicians.…

To reduce medication errors, medical educators must nurture the early development of rational and safe prescribing. Teaching pharmacology is challenging because it requires knowledge integration across disciplines, including physiology and pathology. Traditionally, pharmacology has been taught using lecture-based learning, which conveys consistent…

Introduction: Knowledge translation (KT) initiatives have the potential to improve prescribing quality and produce savings that exceed the cost of the KT program itself, including the cost of evaluation using pragmatic study methods. Our objective was to measure the impact and estimated savings resulting from the distribution of individualized…

Biederman and colleagues reported that a CBCL profile identified youngsters who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Some studies found that this CBCL profile does not reliably identify children who present with bipolar disorder, but nonetheless this CBCL does identify youngsters with severe dysfunction. However, the nature of the impairment of…

Pharmacogenetics holds the promise of minimizing adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes of cancer patients by identifying patients at risk, enabling the individualization of treatment and the planning of close follow-up and early remediation. This review focuses first on methotrexate, a drug often implicated in neurotoxicity, especially when used in…

Introduction: In a physician-pharmacist collaborative-care (PPCC) intervention, community pharmacists were responsible for initiating lipid-lowering pharmacotherapy and adjusting the medication dosage. They attended a 1-day interactive workshop supported by a treatment protocol and clinical and communication tools. Afterwards, changes in…

Background: Medication errors can result in harm, unless barriers to prevent them are present. Drug administration errors are less likely to be prevented, because they occur in the last stage of the drug distribution process. This is especially the case in non-alert patients, as patients often form the final barrier to prevention of errors.…

Objective: To examine in children and adolescents the 24-hour, steady-state clinical pharmacokinetics of an extended-release (XL) formulation of bupropion (Wellbutrin XL). Method: Subjects were six male and four female patients (ages 11.5-16.2 years) prescribed bupropion XL in morning daily doses of either 150 mg (n = 5) or 300 mg (n = 5) for at…

Objective: Psychiatric care in many rural communities has been demonstrated to be less adequate compared with urban environments partially because of attitudes and stigmatization issues. Educated pharmacists with professional attitudes can have a major impact in helping mental health patients receive more accurate diagnostic assessments and safe…

Objective: To examine the long-term effects of the methylphenidate transdermal system (MTS) on the growth of children being treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Method: Height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) were measured in 127 children ages 6 to 12 at longitudinal assessments for up to 36 months of treatment with MTS. These…

The variable expression of autism over the lifespan is likely to lead to different symptoms and support requirements, and to distinct responses to pharmacotherapy treatment, in older patients compared to children. This systematic review considers the effectiveness of pharmacological treatment in managing autism spectrum disorder in adolescents and…