BACKGROUND Antibiotic overprescription is a worldwide problem. Decisions regarding antibiotic prescription for respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are influenced by medical and non-medical factors. METHODS In family medicine practices in Białystok, Poland, family medicine residents directly observed consultations with patients with RTI symptoms. The observing residents completed a questionnai...

The decision to authorize a patient for continued enrollment in a state-sanctioned medical cannabis program is difficult in part due to the uncertainty in the accuracy of patient symptom reporting and health functioning including any possible effects on other medication use. We conducted a pragmatic convenience study comparing patient reporting of previous and current prescription opioid usage ...

INTRODUCTION Self-care oriented people are more likely to undertake self-care activities in order to treat lay self-diagnosed symptoms and restore their own health without professional assistance. One of these activities is self-medication, which refers to the use of medications without medical consultation. The absence of permanent doctors in rural Greece encourages self-medication practices. ...

BACKGROUND Erectile dysfunction is a common condition, yet in the past most affected men did not seek medical treatment. OBJECTIVE To examine how sildenafil (Viagra), a new medication for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, has been incorporated into general medical practice. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The study population consisted of all male members of a group-model Massachusetts health mai...

Miconazole is widely used in prescription and non-prescription products, including extensive use for vaginal yeast infections; in addition to medical use, azole molecules are widely used in agriculture. Despite this widespread use, the only known circumstances in which resistance to azole antifungal agents has developed conspicuously, unequivocally and measurably is among HIV-infected individua...

Pharmacological cognitive enhancement (CE) is a topic of increasing public awareness. In the scientific literature on student use of CE as a study aid for academic performance enhancement, there are high prevalence rates regarding the use of caffeinated substances (coffee, caffeinated drinks, caffeine tablets) but remarkably lower prevalence rates regarding the use of illicit/prescription stimu...

Objectives: The aim of this research has been to evaluate: (a) the frequency of the use of non-standard terms in medical prescriptions; (b) the proportion of “new drugs of irrelevant therapeutic value” or medication of low therapeutic utility (LTU); and (c) the use of Generic Pharmaceutical Specialties (GPS). Materials and methods: Descriptive transversal observational study with analytical com...

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to assess the antihypertensive medication adherence in patients who were newly diagnosed with hypertension in Korea. METHODS Study subjects were diagnosed with hypertension for the first time by the General Health Screening in 2012 and were 65,919. As indices, visiting rate to medical institution, the antihypertensive prescription rate, medication po...