http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online shows how seasonal changes in outpatient antibiotic use – retail sales of antibiotics typically get a boost during the winter – can significantly alter seasonal patterns of drug resistance. The findings suggest that hospital campaigns to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use should be coordinated with efforts in the broader community if they are to be most effective. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-role-seasonal-antibiotic-resistance.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 02 Jul 2012 04:31:28 EST news260422261 More drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and fewer antibiotics are being prescribed to US children and teenagers compared to a decade ago, said a US study on Monday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-adhd-drugs-antibiotics-kids.html Pediatrics Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:21:47 EST news259233701 Each year, an estimated four million Americans experience adverse reactions to prescription medications. Many of these reactions, ranging from mild rashes and drowsiness to hospitalization and death, could be avoided if warning labels were more effective, according to a Michigan State University study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-oft-ignored-prescription.html Health Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:20:01 EST news258977186 The rapid growth of Internet commerce has led to an explosion of counterfeit drugs sold around the world, with China the biggest source of fake medicines, pharmaceutical experts said Thursday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-internet-global-explosion-fake-drugs.html Medications Thu, 14 Jun 2012 07:16:33 EST news258876949 (HealthDay) -- Long-term medication side effects such as fatigue can be key for patients deciding which cancer drug to take, new research suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-long-term-side-effects-key-cancer.html Cancer Sat, 02 Jun 2012 14:00:01 EST news257862311 (AP) -- Doctors increasingly are ditching the prescription pad: More than a third of the nation's prescriptions now are electronic, according to the latest count. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-doctors-ditching-prescription-pad.html Health Thu, 17 May 2012 04:38:47 EST news256448307 (Medical Xpress) -- A major study of GP prescribing, led by The University of Nottingham, has found that while the vast majority of prescriptions written by family doctors are appropriate and effectively monitored, around 1 in 20 contain an error. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-gp-good-standard.html Medications Wed, 02 May 2012 07:10:01 EST news255158758 (HealthDay) -- A new U.S. government analysis shows that more than 70 percent of people who first misuse prescription medications get those pills from their friends or relatives. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-misuse-prescription-pills-friends-family.html Medications Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:20:01 EST news254593884 (HealthDay) -- While most pharmacies report having emergency contraception (EC) in stock, misinformation regarding what age women can take it without a prescription is common, according to a study published online March 26 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-emergency-contraception-access-common.html Health Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:46:22 EST news251999171 The vast majority of sinus infections are caused by viruses and should not be treated with antibiotics, suggest new guidelines released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-sinus-infections-dont-require-antibiotics.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:01 EST news251481997 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans with mental health diagnoses, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder, are more likely to receive prescription opioid medications for pain-related conditions, have higher-risk opioid use patterns and increased adverse clinical outcomes associated with opioid use than veterans with no mental health diagnoses, according to a study in the March 7 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-war-veterans-mental-health-prescription.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:00:05 EST news250268714 Criminal gangs are increasingly using the internet to market life-threatening counterfeit medicines and some have even turned up in legitimate outlets such as pharmacies, according to a review led by Dr Graham Jackson, editor of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice, and published in the March edition. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-fake-drug-sales-internet-legitimate.html Medications Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:15:45 EST news249131736 Prescriptions for narcotic painkillers soared so much over the last decade that by 2010 enough were being dispensed to medicate every adult in the United States around the clock for a month. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-networking-fuels-painkiller-boom.html Medications Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:20:05 EST news248977195 The number of oxycodone pills sold by Florida doctors dropped dramatically in 2011, following a series of high-profile arrests and a legislative crackdown on the storefront "pill mills" that made South Florida the hub of a nationwide black market in prescription painkillers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-sales-oxycodone-doctors-fall-florida.html Medications Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:20:01 EST news247399795 In an Essay that expands on a previous proposal to use the courts to prosecute those involved in ghostwriting on the basis of it being legal fraud, Xavier Bosch from the University of Barcelona, Spain and colleagues lay out three outline specific areas of legal liability in this week's PLoS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-legal-remedies-ghostwriting.html Other Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:00:07 EST news246643866 (Medical Xpress) -- Working-age adults who take combinations of prescription medication may be doubling their risk of serious falls at home according to research from The University of Auckland. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-multiple-medicines-fall-young-middle.html Medications Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:34:42 EST news246526473 The use of anti-depressant drugs in England has soared by 28 percent in the past three years, coinciding with the country's fall into recession and the global economic crisis, new figures showed Friday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-anti-depressant-soars-england-linked-recession.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:27:43 EST news244448852 Almost two-thirds of women in British Columbia filled at least one prescription at some point in their pregnancy, including drugs with potential risks, according to a new study by University of British Columbia researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-majority-bc-women-prescription-drugs.html Health Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:19:39 EST news243177571 US regulators on Wednesday rejected a drug company's request to make emergency contraception available over the counter to consumers of all ages instead of by prescription to those under 17. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-restrictions-morning-after-pill-sales.html Medications Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:49:23 EST news242484543 A new study has shown harmful prescription patterns of powerful painkillers among a substantial number of Ontario patients who received methadone therapy to treat their opioid addiction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-patterns-painkiller-prescriptions-methadone-patients.html Medications Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:28:57 EST news241712925 More than 20 percent of American adults took at least one drug for conditions like anxiety and depression in 2010, according to an analysis of prescription data, including more than one in four women. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-adults-behavioral-meds.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:00:31 EST news240681617 Atrial Fibrillation patients who are prescribed the powerful blood thinner warfarin often take it with vitamins or supplements that can hamper its effectiveness, or skip doses completely, increasing their risk for stroke, according to new research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-heart-patients-vitamins-medication.html Cardiology Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:33:08 EST news240514381 In Britain, the popular U.S. painkiller OxyContin is considered similar to morphine and used sparingly. Vicodin isn't even licensed. And at most shops, remedies like ibuprofen are sold only in 16-pill packs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-painkillers-british.html Medications Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:58:31 EST news240166683 Despite significant improvements in stroke prevention over the past decade, and a fall in incidence and deaths, UK doctors are still undertreating one of the major risk factors - atrial fibrillation - reveals research published in BMJ Open. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-uk-doctors-undertreating-atrial-fibrillation.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:32:04 EST news237695514 People who receive medical care in an integrated health care system with electronic health records linked to its own pharmacy more often collect their new prescriptions for diabetes, cholesterol and high blood pressure medications than do people who receive care in a non-integrated system, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-health-delivery-electronic-medication-adherence.html Health Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:44:38 EST news234524650 Patients often do not renew prescriptions for their chronic diseases after they are released from hospital. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-icu-patients-renew-prescriptions-discharge.html Other Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:11:16 EST news233395860 Americans are no strangers to antidepressants. During the last 20 years the use of antidepressants has grown significantly making them one of the most costly and the third most commonly prescribed class of medications in the U. S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 2005-2008 nearly 8.9 percent of the U.S. population had at least one prescription in this drug class during any given month. A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examines national trends in antidepressant prescribing and finds much of this growth was driven by a substantial increase in antidepressant prescriptions by non-psychiatrist providers without any accompanying psychiatric diagnosis. The results are featured in the August 2011 issue of Health Affairs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-prescriptions-antidepressants-individuals-psychiatric-diagnosis.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:12:20 EST news231754325 Antibiotic overuse and resistance have emerged as major threats during the past two decades. Following an outbreak of Clostridium difficile infections, which often result from antibiotic use, health care professionals in Quebec, Canada targeted physicians and pharmacists with an education campaign that reduced outpatient antibiotic use, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and now available online. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-simple-guidelines-decreased-unnecessary-antibiotic.html Health Tue, 26 Jul 2011 03:45:16 EST news230870663 Nursing home residents taking certain antidepressant medications are at an increased risk of falling in the days following the start of a new prescription or a dose increase of their current drug, according to a new study by the Institute for Aging Research of Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-nursing-home-residents-heightened-falling.html Health Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:30:01 EST news229967182 The Obama administration turned a bright spotlight on prescription painkiller abuse in April when the Office of National Drug Control Policy released a national action plan and a statement from Vice President Joe Biden. With a cover article in the July edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA), dentists focus that spotlight on themselves both as major sources of opioid drugs and as professionals with largely untapped power to recognize and reduce abuse. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-dentists-role-painkiller-abuse.html Medications Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:33:02 EST news228735150