National guidelines set goals to improve care of asthmatic patients. Simple, straightforward objectives are set forth, including the prevention of chronic symptoms, maintaining normal lung function and activity levels, preventing exacerbations, and lessening the need for emergency department visits and hospitalizations.
Bronchial Asthma, Book
Family physicians interested in asthma would find parts of this book valuable, but on the whole, it is not for family physicians. In the preface the editors declare that they hope the book will be useful to those who treat asthma, and for specialists it might well be. Although chapter authors include physicians from Australia, Japan, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, and Canada, most are from the United States.
Diarrhea in practice. Case 2
Mrs Choudry is collecting her regular repeat prescription for antihypertensive treatment. You ask how she and the family are, and she tells you that several members of the family have been suffering with diarrhea on and off.
Constipation in practice. Case 3
A man comes into the pharmacy and asks for some good laxative tablets. Further questioning by the pharmacist reveals that the medicine is for his dad who is aged 72 years.
Asthma Medications and Devices: Drug Delivery Devices
In order for medications to reach the lungs when using aerosol drug delivery devices, the proper particle size must be achieved. Particles >10 um in diameter deposit in the mouth and pharynx and are subsequently swallowed. Particles from 5-10 um deposit in the large bronchi and trachea.
Chronic Asthma Management: Concomitant Diseases. Action Plan
It is well accepted that certain diseases exacerbate asthma. In my practice allergic rhinitis, chronic sinusitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease are common among asthmatic patients. I therefore find it useful to ask about postnasal drip, purulent rhinorrhea, and heartburn.
Constipation and Rectal Prolapse
It is worth remembering that almost every patient with a rectal prolapse has some abnormality of bowel function. Whether the abnormality of bowel function is the cause of the prolapse or whether the functional bowel abnormality is a consequence of the prolapse is difficult to say.
Asthma treatment during pregnancy
The treatment goal for the pregnant asthma patient is to provide optimal therapy to maintain control of asthma for maternal health and quality of life as well as for normal fetal maturation, as per the National Asthma Education Prevention Program (NAEPP). Minimal or no adverse effects from medications.
Exacerbations
During the course of their pregnancy, studies show that 20% of asthma patients have exacerbations severe enough to seek urgent medical care. Approximately 6% require hospital admissions.
Finding the Right Antidepressant
I am a 46-year-old female with major depression and severe seasonal affective disorder. I also have agitation/anxiety and possible hypomania, seizures, mild OCD and have problems with concentration.
Asthma: A Healthy Lifestyle
My asthma worsens each month near my period. Thirty to forty percent of women with asthma who menstruate experience exacerbation of their asthma symptoms in relation to the menstrual cycle.
Switching Antipsychotics
Our son was just switched from risperidone to olanzapine. He was on risperidone for almost two years, which alleviated the extrapyramidal and tardive symptoms, but did not control the delusions and auditory hallucinations.
Antidepressants Overused in Bipolar Treatment
Bipolar disorder is often underdiagnosed, mistaken for unipolar depression and treated with antidepressants rather than mood stabilizing agents, reported S. D., senior investigator with the Center on Neuroscience, Medical Progress and Society, George Washington University.
Drug Treatments
Confronted with the increasingly favorable treatment outcomes associated with cognitive behavioral packages, there are three possible reasons why pharmacological interventions might be considered. First, it could be that pharmacological interventions achieve the same outcomes as the cognitive behavioral therapy packages but at a cheaper cost (financially to the patient or in terms of therapist time), with fewer dropouts, lower relapse rates, and with fewer associated difficulties (such as side-effects). Second, it could be that pharmacological treatments may be useful adjuncts to the cognitive behavioral therapy packages.
Acute asthma during pregnancy
Keeping the use of medications to a minimum – or not using them at all – is often a choice women make when they become pregnant. But this is not always possible, nor wise.
Leukotriene-receptor antagonists. Pharmacologic considerations
Montelukast (marketed as Singulair) is rapidly and nearly completely absorbed following oral administration. Peak plasma concentrations are reached in 2 to 3 hours for the 5- and 10-mg formulations.
New Drug Offers Quick Relief for Asthma Suffers
As an asthma sufferer, you may have wished for a miracle drug that would alleviate your symptoms, yet have no adverse effects. Well, after decades of research, a new class of asthma medications known as “antileukotrienes” have hit the North American market. But what are these new agents? Are they the answer to your prayers?
Questions to Ask Your Physician about Allergies and Asthma
How do I know whether I have allergies or asthma? If I have no family history of allergies or asthma, is it true that I won’t get them? How old does a child have to be before getting tested for allergies or asthma?
Fighting Asthma With Facts
At 2 a.m., 3-year-old Nancy wakes up crying that she can’t breathe. Her parents rush into her room and discover that she is breathing much faster than normal.
Diarrhea in practice. Case 3
Mrs Jean Berry wants to stock up on some medicines before her family sets off on their first holiday abroad; they will be going to Spain next week. Mrs Berry tells you that she has heard of people whose holidays have been ruined by holiday diarrhoea and she wants you to recommend a good treatment.
Panic disorder and agoraphobia
In 1988, Barlow examined the evidence from around the world and concluded that “with specifically targeted psychological treatments, panic is eliminated in close to 100% of all cases, and these results are maintained at follow-ups of over 1 year. If these results are confirmed by additional research and replication, it will be one of the most important and exciting developments in the history of psychotherapy”. The question facing researchers and clinicians alike is, with the benefit of more than a decade of subsequent research and replication, “Is it possible to concur with Barlow’s statement?”.
The management of constipation
Constipation can be defined as the passage of hard stools less frequently than the patient’s own normal pattern. Patients should be aware that a daily bowel movement is not always necessary or ‘normal’.
Evaluation of Severe Chronic Constipation. Results. Management
Groups II and III younger than Group IV (p < 0.04). Fewer patients in Groups I and III stooled spontaneously than patients in Group IV (p < 0.02).
Out from the Shadow of Asthma
At first, Gavin Huntley-Fenner’s asthma came on slowly. While training with his high school wrestling team, he grew short of breath whenever he ran laps outside in the cold. Huntley-Fenner didn’t worry too much, though, because his symptoms were never severe, and they disappeared in warm weather.
Complex Tourette’s Case
I am a child/adult psychiatrist in Austin, TX and I have been treating a boy with Tourette’s for 3 years. Up until last month, he has presented with moderate multiple tics, mostly motor (mouth grimace, eye roll, foot twisting), but he does sniff and grunt sometimes. He also has had some OCD symptoms (wanting symmetry) and some chronic low-level defiance.