British journal of clinical pharmacology
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1. Medication errors are common in general practice and in hospitals. Both errors in the act of writing (prescription errors) and prescribing faults due to erroneous medical decisions can result in harm to patients. 2. ⋯ The complexity of the prescribing procedure should be reduced by introducing automated systems or uniform prescribing charts, in order to avoid transcription and omission errors. Feedback control systems and immediate review of prescriptions, which can be performed with the assistance of a hospital pharmacist, are also helpful. Audits should be performed periodically.
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1. Medication histories are important in preventing prescription errors and consequent risks to patients. Apart from preventing prescription errors, accurate medication histories are also useful in detecting drug-related pathology or changes in clinical signs that may be the result of drug therapy. ⋯ In the context of acute hospital admissions they reduce error, the risks of adverse drug reactions, and prescription costs. Electronic prescribing may reduce transcription errors, but it can facilitate other errors and still depends on an accurate medication history. 4. Education of prescribers, both in clinical pharmacology and in taking accurate medication histories is vitally important in reducing errors.
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1. Although rates of dispensing errors are generally low, further improvements in pharmacy distribution systems are still important because pharmacies dispense such high volumes of medications that even a low error rate can translate into a large number of errors. 2. ⋯ More and better studies are still needed in these areas. 3. More research is also required into: dispensing errors in out-patient health-care settings, such as community pharmacies in the USA and Europe; dispensing errors in hospitals and out-patient health-care settings in middle- and low-income countries; and the underlying causes of dispensing errors.
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To investigate serial electrocardiogram (ECG) parameters, haemodynamic changes and arrhythmias following venlafaxine overdose. ⋯ Venlafaxine overdose causes only minor abnormalities in the QT and QRS intervals, unlikely to be associated with major arrhythmias, except possibly with large doses.
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Br J Clin Pharmacol · Mar 2009
Randomized Controlled Trial Meta Analysis Comparative StudyPain on injection with microemulsion propofol.
To evaluate the incidence and severity of injection pain caused by microemulsion propofol and lipid emulsion propofol in relation to plasma bradykinin generation and aqueous free propofol concentrations. ⋯ Higher aqueous free propofol concentrations of microemulsion propofol produce more frequent and severe pain. The plasma kallikrein-kinin system may not be involved, and the agents that reduce injection pain may not act by decreasing aqueous free propofol concentrations.