International journal of psychiatry in medicine
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Int J Psychiatry Med · May 2017
A commitment to health equity: Reflections on why; One journey toward how.
Many health care practitioners and educators feel stymied as to how to address the pervasive and persistent problem of health care disparities between racial and ethnic groups. The closing plenary for the 37th Forum for Behavioral Science in Family Medicine held in September 2016 reminded participants of the urgent need to attend to health inequities and provided both a theoretical framework as well as some sample resources for where to begin.
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Int J Psychiatry Med · Mar 2017
Case ReportsPearls and pitfalls for prescribing opioids in a climate of increased provider scrutiny.
In August 2016, U. S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, issued a letter to healthcare providers requesting aid in addressing "an urgent health crisis facing America: the opioid epidemic." In this article, we address some of the more poignant challenges that surface in treating patients with opiate addiction. We provide an outline of recommendations from the leading medical organizations to educate primary care providers on how to navigate patients to decreased or discontinued medication loads.
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Int J Psychiatry Med · Jan 2015
Depression: An important factor associated with disability among patients with chronic low back pain.
The study aimed to compare the associations of pain indices, depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms with disability among outpatients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). ⋯ Depression was the most powerful factor associated with disability of CLBP among depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms. Depression should be evaluated when investigating disability among patients with CLBP.
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Int J Psychiatry Med · Jan 2015
Psychosocial correlates, psychological distress, and quality of life in patients with medically unexplained symptoms: a primary care study in Karachi, Pakistan.
To examine the psychosocial correlates and association of psychological distress and quality of life (QOL) in patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) compared to those with medically explained symptoms (MES) in a primary care setting in Karachi, Pakistan. ⋯ Our findings confirm that even in the developing world, patients with MUS are common among primary care attendees. However, patients with MUS in urban Karachi, Pakistan may differ from Western MUS subjects in the role of stress, support, and anxiety in their presentation, and may be reflective of a conceptually different group of difficulties.