BACKGROUND National and local monitoring of policies on illicit drug use requires information on the number of problematic drug users in a country. This article reports the findings from a study that estimated the number of problematic and injecting drug users for all Drug Action Teams (DATs) in England for 2001. METHODS The Multiple Indicator Method (MIM) is a statistical technique for using...

OBJECTIVE To describe the severity of adverse drug reactions as a factor in hospital admission of older patients, and to identify risk indicators for severe adverse drug reactions in these patients. DESIGN Observational cross-sectional study. SETTING Five wards in a university hospital in The Netherlands. SUBJECTS Patients aged 70 and over admitted to general medical wards. METHODS Use ...

Background: Improved method of examining drug prescribing in a health service are a necessary prerequisite for planning measures intended to bring about financial economics in drug use with the least possible impairment of the quality of medical care. This study was therefore carried out to evaluate the prescribing pattern of General Duty Medical Officers (GDMO) of CGHS. Methodology: This healt...

Introduction A major challenge to the provision of health care worldwide is the irrational use of antibiotics. To help promote rational use of drugs, standard treatment guidelines (STG) and essential medicine lists and facility-specific formularies have been developed to be used by clinicians. This study assessed the prescription pattern of antibiotics and explored the use of STG by clinicians....

OBJECTIVE To test a methodology to evaluate, at population level, the effectiveness of homeopathic treatment through standard objective public health indicators. METHODS AND SETTINGS Indicators of hospitalization and drug use were obtained from the Health Statistical Documentation System of Tuscany for two homeopathic centers in the Local Health Authority of Pisa, Italy. We compared homeopath...

Objectives: The current study was undertaken to review and assess the medication usage pattern in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: A 12-month prospective observational carried out at Shadan Teaching General Hospital, Peerancheru (Hyderabad), involving 384 CKD considering inclusion exclusion criteria. Medication evaluation for optimization done using World Health Organization...