Physical symptoms with uncertain medical explanations are some of the most common presentations in primary care. As many as 25% of visits to primary care physicians are prompted by physical symptoms that lack any clear organic pathology [1]. Although some patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms experience mild and/or transient discomfort, others experience substantial discomfort, ...

Outpatient antibiotic use in Europe and association with resistance: a cross-national database study. Antibiotic prescription rates for acute respiratory tract infections in US ambulatory settings. Predictors of broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections in adult primary care. report, sub-task 2 (prepared by RTI International for the Centers for Medicare & Medi...

CONTEXT Although overuse injuries are gaining attention, epidemiologic studies on overuse injuries in male and female collegiate athletes are lacking. OBJECTIVE To report the epidemiology of overuse injuries sustained by collegiate athletes and to compare the rates of overuse and acute injuries. DESIGN Descriptive epidemiology study. SETTING A National Collegiate Athletic Association Divi...

Familiarity with the risks associated with medication overuse and the importance of headache prophylaxis is key to easing your patient's pain.

This study has evaluated depression in patients with episodic migraine (n=98), chronic migraine without medication overuse (n=23), and chronic migraine with medication overuse (n=57). The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to evaluate depressive symptoms in these three groups. The mean BDI score obtained in all patients was higher than that observed in asymptomatic subjects (episodic migr...

Background. Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) caused by opiate abuse or overuse has been well documented in the medical literature. Most documented case reports have involved either heroin or hydrocodone/acetaminophen. Recently, case reposts of methadone induced SSHL have been published. Case Report. We present the case of a 31-year-old man who developed SSHL after a methadone overdose i...

BACKGROUND Prescription opioid-acetaminophen products account for the majority of cases of acetaminophen-related acute liver failure in the United States. We sought to examine the frequency of opioid-acetaminophen overuse at the Providence VA Medical Center and improve the quality and safety of opioid-acetaminophen prescription practices in a system employing electronic health records and e-pre...

Medical Infrared Thermography (MIT) is a non-radiating and contact-free technology to monitor physiological functions related to skin temperature control. The efficiency, safety and low cost of MIT make it a useful auxiliary tool for detecting and locating thermal abnormalities characterized by increases or decreases in skin surface temperature. It has been successfully utilized in the field of...

Increasing numbers of children are becoming involved in competitive sport. International trends in pre-adolescent sports participation are mirrored in New Zealand, where promising young athletes are being exposed to high-intensity training from an earlier age. As a consequence, overuse injuries which were traditionally described in more mature athletes are now becoming recognized in pre-adolesc...

When x-rays were first discovered, the harmful effects of radiation had to be manifest in the early users before they were known. Today, radiation protection and safety have been established and the effects of radiation, as well as its risks, are known. Even so, medical radiation, in particular the growth in the use of computed tomography (CT), has resulted in soaring radiation doses received b...