About two-thirds of long-term users of benzodiazepines in the population are able to discontinue this drug with the aid of supervised programmes for tapering off. Little is known about the long-term outcome of such programmes, and they have never been compared with usual care. After a 15-month follow-up of a randomised controlled trial comparing such a programme with and without psychotherapy w...

A positive reinforcement contingency increased opioid abstinence during outpatient dose tapering (4, 2, then 0 mg/day during Weeks 1 through 3) in non-treatment-seeking heroin-dependent volunteers who had been maintained on buprenorphine (8 mg/day) during an inpatient research protocol. The control group (n=12) received $4.00 for completing assessments at each thrice-weekly visit during dose ta...

WHAT DOES THIS PAPER ADD? ▸ This paper provides level 1 evidence that a 20 min discussion by GPs about the risks of benzodiazepines, alongside provision of a selfapplied, written, stepped-dose, tapering protocol results in discontinuation rates of 45% at 1-year in primary care patients without severe comorbidity. This approach is as effective and more time efficient than the same educational in...

Anti-IgE therapy, using recombinant humanized anti-IgE antibodies, is clinically effective in patients with eosinophil-related disorders such as allergic asthma, allergic rhinitis, and chronic urticaria. Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia tends to respond promptly to systemic corticosteroid therapy, however; relapses are common following corticosteroid tapering. We treated two patients (17- and 19-...

Clinical scenario: A 12 year old girl with primary generalised epilepsy comes to clinic for review. She has been seizure free for two years on sodium valproate 600 mg twice daily. Following discussion with her and her mother, an agreement is reached to withdraw the medication. You advise that the medication should be tapered off over a six week period. At this point the mother informs you that ...

glucocorticosteroids are mainly used for inflammatory and non-inflammatory diseases as well as cancers. unawareness of their function, indications and side effects may lead to patient’s hazard. thus, medical staff should be completely familiar with these drugs.objectives: promoting medical staff knowledge about glucocorticoids’ side effects, function and indications. promoting their knowledge a...