In the first part of this article, drug utilization and prescribing practice is discussed as seen from a Norwegian general practice perspective. Which are the data sources available? What kind of studies have been performed? Prescription-diagnosis studies are reviewed, in particular the Møre & Romsdal Prescription Study (MRPS). Because the wholesales drug statistics do not include information a...

Exercise works, exercise is medicine—this is something most readers will attest to. Exercise is the first line of intervention for many clinical presentations and has been repeatedly shown to outstrip pharmacological and surgical approaches to the management of a wide range of medical, musculoskeletal and psychological conditions. Whether we are physiotherapists, physicians, sports scientists o...

Background: Nowadays pharmacists should be involved in patients care and providing pharmaceutical care more than before, but still there is a gap between standard of care and pharmacy practice in pharmacies. Objective: In this study we aimed at evaluating the pharmacists experiences and attitudes about ethical professional practice in pharmacies. Setting: The study was conducted in the Tehran ...

INTRODUCTION Overuse of antibiotics has contributed to the development of organism resistance. The acquisition of antibiotics without prescription by the general population seems to be common practice in pharmacies of Damascus, Syria. This study aimed to determine the proportion of pharmacies dispensing antibiotics without medical prescription and without seeing the patient. METHODOLOGY A cro...

BACKGROUND Free-text medication prescriptions contain detailed instruction information that is key when preparing drug data for analysis. The objective of this study was to develop a novel model and automated text-mining method to extract detailed structured medication information from free-text prescriptions and explore their variability (e.g. optional dosages) in primary care research databas...

CONTEXT Narcotics are frequently prescribed in the Emergency Department (ED) and are increasingly abused. Prescription monitoring programs affect prescribing by Emergency Physicians (EPs), yet little is known on how EPs interpret prescription records. OBJECTIVE To assess how EPs interpret prescription narcotic history for patients in the ED with painful conditions. DESIGN/MAIN Outcome Measure...