Articles related to Family Medicine/General Practice

This 62-year-old man had a lung transplant 3 years previously for IPF and is on tacrolimus, mycophenolate, and prednisone. Which therapy is most appropriate for their zoster outbreak? IV acyclovir Oral famciclovir Oral valacyclovir Herpes zoster vaccine

Use of Carnett sign, greater trochanter palpation, and a simple extension to typical joint examination can reduce imaging and orthopedic referrals by primary care physicians and bring faster effective treatment to the patient.

A layered approach to care is described with lifestyle interventions being a key feature of the updated recommendations. The recommendations now include therapies proven to improve cardiovascular and kidney outcomes in patients with diabetes and CKD.

The US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) this week. The NDSUH offers a window into Americans’ experiences with mental health disorders, substance use, and their pursuit of treatment during the second year of the COVID epidemic through chosen estimates by race, ethnicity, and age group. Enough said—the outcomes aren’t appealing.

If eponyms are avoided, Wernicke encephalopathy, commonly known as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome or alcoholic encephalopathy, is a kind of thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency that is frequently observed in alcoholics. Imaging typically reveals mamillary bodies, dorsomedial thalami, tectal plate, periaqueductal area, and/or the area around the third ventricle as areas of symmetrical enhanced T2/FLAIR signal.

The literature on chronic pain and stigma was reviewed by a group of academics from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, who published their findings in the journal Pain and Therapy. Perhaps most unexpectedly, they discovered that stigma surrounding pain persists even in clinical settings, resulting in clinicians’ inadequate evaluations of patients’ pain, doubt about the reality of their suffering, and lower pain ratings. These factors frequently result in inadequate treatment of pain and a propensity to believe that it is solely a psychological disorder.