background medication error in hospitals is a major cause of errors, which may cause disruptions in the workflow of the health care systems. the aim of this study was to assess medication errors made by nurses and the relationship of such errors with job and demographic characteristics. material and methods this was a descriptive study on 225 nurses in various hospitals, selected through multis...

STUDY OBJECTIVE Medication history is an essential part of patient assessment in emergency care. Patient-reported medication history can be incomplete. We study whether an electronic pharmacy-sourced prescription record can supplement the patient-reported history. METHODS In a community hospital, we compared the patient-reported history obtained by triage nurses to a proprietary electronic ph...

In this essay, I argue that prescription drug laws violate patients' rights to self-medication. Patients have rights to self-medication for the same reasons they have rights to refuse medical treatment according to the doctrine of informed consent (DIC). Since we should accept the DIC, we ought to reject paternalistic prohibitions of prescription drugs and respect the right of self-medication. ...

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between the self-report of craving prescription medication and subsequent opioid misuse among chronic pain patients prescribed opioids for pain. METHODS Six hundred thirteen patients taking opioid medication for chronic noncancer pain were asked how often they have felt a craving for their medication on a scale from 0=never to 4=very often. All participan...

Despite increased availability of online promotional tools for prescription drug marketers, evidence on online prescription drug promotion is far from settled or conclusive. We highlight ways in which online prescription drug promotion is similar to conventional broadcast and print advertising and ways in which it differs. We also highlight five key areas for future research: branded drug websi...

BACKGROUND Adherence to oral antidiabetic medications is often suboptimal. Adherence differences may contribute to health disparities for black diabetes patients, including higher microvascular event rates, greater complication-related disability, and earlier mortality. METHODS In this longitudinal retrospective cohort study, we used 10 years of patient-level claims and electronic medical rec...

OBJECTIVE Prescriptions for anxiety medications have increased substantially in recent years. Individuals with anxiety disorders are at risk of nonmedical use of these medications, but information about whether this risk is elevated among patients with a prescription for such medications is lacking. The authors compared risk of nonmedical use in individuals in a national sample with and without...

BACKGROUND Inappropriate medication prescription is a common cause of preventable adverse drug events among elderly persons in the primary care setting. OBJECTIVE The aim of this systematic review is to quantify the extent of inappropriate prescription to elderly persons in the primary care setting. METHODS We systematically searched Ovid-Medline and Ovid-EMBASE from 1950 and 1980 respectiv...

BACKGROUND The use of psychotropic medications and their adverse effects in frail elderly has been debated extensively. However, recent data from European studies show that these drugs are still frequently prescribed in nursing home residents. In Austria, prevalence data are lacking. We aimed to determine the prevalence of psychotropic medication prescription in Austrian nursing homes and to ex...

232 WMJ • DECEMBER 2014 medication in the past month increased from 43% to 48% during the last decade; the proportion of those using at least 5 prescription medications increased from 6% to 11%, and 53% of women and 43% men used at least 1 prescription medication in the past month.1 Prescription drug spending was estimated at $234.1 billion in 2008, more than double the spending in 1999.1 The r...