Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia such as agitation and aggression are commonly treated with atypical antipsychotic drugs, which are associated with severe side effects. However, there is increasing evidence of potential harms associated with use of these drugs in people with dementia, and guidelines increasingly recommend restricting their use. In Europe, only risperidone is c...

OBJECTIVE To improve medication appropriateness and adherence in elderly patients with multimorbidity, we developed a complex intervention involving general practitioners (GPs) and their healthcare assistants (HCA). In accordance with the Medical Research Council guidance on developing and evaluating complex interventions, we prepared for the main study by testing the feasibility of the interve...

T e a r t i c l e t i t l e d “ S u c c e s s f u l management of highly drug resistant Tuberculosis with individualized drug susceptibility testing” in this issue of the Journal deserves special attention. It brings forth an important issue of fallacies and benefits of TB treatment offered by private practitioners versus treatment offered by publ ic sector physicians under the revised national...

W HEN I visited the Antipodes and Canada on a Nuffield Travelling Fellowship, I was soon aware of the fact that the vast majority of patients attending the doctors' surgeries came in a motor vehicle. All those who lived any distance away, and many who lived close to the surgery, came either in a private car or by taxi. Pram parks were considered unnecessary. Patients were firmly persuaded to at...

OBJECTIVE To explore women's views on the deregulation of hormonal emergency contraception (EC) prior to it becoming deregulated on 1 January 2001. DESIGN Qualitative study using face to face, semi-structured interviews. SETTING A NHS family planning clinic, a voluntary sector family planning clinic and a general practice in the South West region. SUBJECTS Twenty-seven women aged 18-29 ye...

Interviews conducted with 81 patients after their initial visit with trainee general practitioners in the UK indicated that patient satisfaction was associated with 3 factors: 1) the patient feeling understood, 2) the patient actually telling the doctor what he or she wanted from the visit, and 3) increasing age of the patient. Satisfaction was not associated with the patients' feeling improv...

BACKGROUND The continuity of care is one of the cornerstones of general practice. General practitioners find personal relationships with their patients important as they enable them to provide a higher quality of care. A long-lasting relationship with patients is assumed to be a prior condition for attaining this high quality. We studied the differences in use of care between recently enlisted ...

BACKGROUND Within the UK, during September, there is a pronounced increase in the number of unscheduled medical contacts by school-aged children (4-16 years) with asthma. It is thought that that this might be caused by the return back to school after the summer holidays, suddenly mixing with other children again and picking up viruses which could affect their asthma. There is also a drop in the...

AIMS The aims of this study were to determine the recording of drug sensitivities of elderly care home residents, to describe the nature of sensitivities and to identify and describe discrepancies in the documentation of drug sensitivity status in general practices, pharmacies and care homes. METHODS A random sample of residents within a purposive sample of care homes (nursing and residential...

BACKGROUND Although studies are available on patients' ideas, concerns, and expectations in primary care, there is a scarcity of studies that explore the triad of ideas, concerns, and expectations (ICE) in general practice consultations and the impact on medication prescribing. AIM To evaluate the presence of ICE and its relation to medication prescription. DESIGN OF STUDY Cross-sectional s...