The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
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Prescription medication sharing refers to the lending or borrowing of prescription medications where the recipient is someone other than the person for whom the prescription is intended. Sharing prescription medication can cause significant harm. Adverse consequences include an increased risk of side effects, delayed health seeking, and severity of disease. Prevalence estimates vary across different populations and people's reasons for, and perceptions of risks from, sharing are poorly understood. ⋯ Findings suggest that medication-sharing behaviour is common and involves a range of medicines for a variety of reasons. Data on the prevalence and predictors of prescription medication sharing are inconsistent. A better understanding of non-modifiable and potentially modifiable behavioural factors that contribute to sharing is needed to support development of effective interventions aimed at mitigating unsafe sharing practices.
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Bipolar disorders are serious mental illnesses, yet evidence suggests that the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder can be delayed by around 6 years. ⋯ Psychiatric diagnoses, psychotropic prescriptions, and health service use patterns might be signals of unreported bipolar disorder. Recognising these signals could prompt further investigation for undiagnosed significant psychopathology, leading to timely referral, assessment, and initiation of appropriate treatments.
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Review Comparative Study
Comparing dietary strategies to manage cardiovascular risk in primary care: a narrative review of systematic reviews.
Nutrition care in general practice is crucial for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and management, although comparison between dietary strategies is lacking. ⋯ For primary prevention, energy deficit, Mediterranean-like diets, and sodium substitution have modest evidence for risk reduction of CVD events. Strategies incorporated into clinical nutrition care should ensure guidance is person centred and tailored to clinical circumstances.
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Understanding pre-diagnostic prescribing activity could reveal windows during which more timely cancer investigation and detection may occur. ⋯ Prescription rates for UTIs increased 9 months before bladder and renal cancer diagnoses, indicating that there is potential to expedite diagnosis of these cancers in patients presenting with features of UTI. The greatest opportunity for more timely diagnosis may be in females with bladder cancer, who experienced the earliest increase in UTI prescription rate.
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Rates of blood testing have increased over the past two decades. Reasons for testing cannot easily be extracted from electronic health record databases. ⋯ The utilisation of a national collaborative model (PACT) has enabled a unique exploration of the rationale and outcomes of blood testing in primary care, highlighting areas for future research and optimisation.