OBJECTIVE To identify prescription drug-seeking behaviour patterns among young people who subsequently died of heroin-related overdose. DESIGN Linkage of Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Coroner's Court records from Victoria. SUBJECTS Two hundred and two 15-24-year-olds who died of heroin-related overdose between 6 January 1994 and 6 October 1999. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Patt...

Objectives. This study was conducted to verify the necessity of corresponding prescription to the diagnosed pattern in acute cerebral infarction patients. Methods. We studied cerebral infarction patients hospitalized within 30 days after the ictus. Forty-four clinical indicators, Motricity Index (MI) score, Scandinavian Stroke Scale (SSS) score, and herbal prescriptions were checked twice, two ...

Introduction: The Caring Does Matter (CDM) programme aims to improve medication adherence amongst Pacific patients with high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. This paper examines CDM baseline (preintervention) data for patterns of poor medication adherence. Methods: Electronic medical records from 14 general practices are analysed with respect to prescribing patterns for antihypertensive, chol...

organic nitrates are commonly used in angina pectoris and ischemic cardiomyopathy. in order to optimize their effectiveness and patient convenience, several aspects must be observed. adequate doses, suitable dosage forms and asymmetric pattern of usage to prevent the nitrate tolerance are some factors that a physician must be familiar with. the objective of the present study was to define the p...

BACKGROUND Chinese herbal products (CHPs) have been frequently used among patients with chronic diseases including hypertension; however, the co-prescription pattern of herbal formulae and single herbs remain uncharacterized. Thus, this large-scale pharmacoepidemiological study evaluated the frequency and co-prescription pattern of CHPs for treating hypertension in Taiwan from 2003 to 2009. M...

BACKGROUND The knowledge about the pattern of prescription and consumption of solid oral drugs dispensed as unitary doses (UD) in Mexico is sparing. PURPOSE The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of prescription and consumption of solid oral drugs dispensed as unitary doses (UD) in a third level private hospital of Mexico. A retrospective study of a 60-month period (from 2007 to 20...

PURPOSE To explore whether and how longitudinal medical records could be used as a source of reference in the early phases of signal detection and analysis of novel adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in a global pharmacovigilance database. METHODS Drug and ADR combinations from the routine signal detection process of VigiBase® in 2011 were matched to combinations in The Health Improvement Network ...

Multidrug use is well documented among nonmedical users of prescription stimulants. We sought to provide insight into the drug use patterns of those reporting nonmedical use of prescription attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) stimulants in an attempt to discern whether such use is a first step in a pattern of drug-abusing behavior or, conversely, is a later development accompanied o...