Background Warfarin is the only oral anticoagulant available in Brazilian public health system. Health knowledge and treatment are essential to achieving desirable therapeutic effect. However, data on these aspects among primary care patients still lacking. Objective To assess literacy, patient knowledge, adherence anticoagulation with warfarin, as well medication regimen complexity units munic...

BACKGROUND Medication education is vital for positive patient outcomes. However, there is limited information about optimal medication education by nurses during hospitalization and care transitions. OBJECTIVE Examine nurses' attitudes and behaviors regarding the provision of patient medication education. The secondary objectives were to determine if nurses' medication education attitudes exp...

S years ago, during a workshop that focused on the integration of psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacologic treatment, a young woman patient was presented who had problems with both severe manicdepressive illness and borderline personality disorder. She was extremely sensitive to medications, but even during times of stability of her manic-depressive illness, management was difficult. Following...

BACKGROUND Current health policies emphasize the need for an equitable doctor-patient relationship, and this requires a certain level of patient empowerment. However, a systematic review of the empirical evidence on how empowerment affects medication adherence-the extent to which patients follow the physician's prescription of medication intake-is still missing. The goal of this systematic revi...

A touch screen-enabled "Personal Education Program" was modified to the "next generation" to capture self-medication behaviors of older adults with hypertension and assess related knowledge and self-efficacy. The program analyzes patient-entered information and delivers interactive educational content tailored to the reported behaviors. Summaries of self-reported symptoms, medication use (inclu...

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease affecting <1% of the population. Incompletely controlled RA results in fatigue, joint and soft tissue pain, progressive joint damage, reduced quality of life, and increased cardiovascular mortality. Despite an increasing range of disease modifying agents which halt disease progression, poor patient adherence with me...

This study aims to map out to what degree medication is being crushed and mixed into the patients' food and beverages and how often this practice included medication, which has a statement in the Norwegian pharmaceutical compendium that this should not be done (inappropriately altered medication (IAM)). Data from a total of 2108 patients in 151 wards in 65 nursing homes were collected. The data...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major public health problem, associated with considerable morbidity and health care costs. The global burden of COPD morbidity is predicted to rise substantially in the coming decade, but could be moderated by better use of existing management strategies. Smoking cessation, medication therapy, and pulmonary rehabilitation have all been shown to ...