Generic prescribing for epilepsy remains controversial. This study aimed to ascertain if a change occurred in the incidence of seizures or side-effects when a different pharmaceutical manufacturer's version of the same antiepileptic drug was taken (a 'switch'). Forty general practices with a list size of 350 168 were recruited. They identified 2285 people being treated for epilepsy with either ...

Family communication about adult-onset hereditary illness can be problematic, leaving some relatives inadequately informed or ignorant of their risk. Although studies have explored the barriers and facilitators in family communication about genetic risk, questions remain about when, what, how and indeed whether to tell relatives. The process of disclosure is also dependent upon the way in which...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of depressive symptoms in older people may be as high as 20 %. Depression in older people is associated with loss, loneliness and physical co-morbidities; it is known to be under-diagnosed and under-treated. Older people may find it difficult to speak to their GPs about low mood, and GPs may avoid identifying depression due to limited consultation time and referral opt...

This study examines pragmatic language production deficits in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Participants (PD and non-PD) were interviewed and their responses coded for degree of informativeness. PD participants were more under-informative than non-PD participants. Response underinformativeness was associated with decreased executive control, mental status, and speech act comprehension m...

Introduction. It is challenging for young people to determine who or what information sources they can trust in health issues. This study examines adolescents’ understanding of health, needs and credible discusses the ways some be regarded as cognitive authorities matters. Methods. Thirty-seven Finnish secondary school students from fourteen sixteen years were interviewed during a education pro...

Recent community based studies have shown that only a minority of visually impaired people who are eligible to be registered as partially sighted or blind are actually registered as such. To determine how many unregistered but eligible people are attending ophthalmic clinics a prospective study was undertaken of all patients (n = 1543) attending ophthalmic outpatient departments, at a single sp...

A sequential mixed method approach was used to answer the research questions that guided this study. First, a survey was conducted among principals. Using a stratified random sampling 250 primary school principals from all over Cyprus (total population was 336) participated in this study. Data were collected through questionnaires, which were mailed to the principals. One hundred and thirty one...

BACKGROUND Rising dementia prevalence rates rise combined with the policy objective of enabling people with dementia to remain living at home, means that there will be a growing demand for dementia care in the community setting. However, GPs are challenged by dementia care and have identified it as an area in which further training is needed. Previous studies of GPs dementia care educational ne...