Published in Pharmacotherapy
The scope of community pharmacy practice has expanded beyond the provision of drug product to include the provision of patient care services. Likewise, the community pharmacist's approach to patient safety must also expand beyond prevention of errors during medication dispensing to include optimization of medications and prevention of adverse event...
Published in Pharmacotherapy
Prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in hospitalized acutely ill medical patients is a well-established practice. Despite the increased use of inpatient prophylaxis, the duration of hospitalization is typically shorter than the duration of VTE prophylaxis provided in clinical trials. In addition, VTE events after hospitalization are not unu...
Published in Pharmacotherapy
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has found substantial evidence that cannabis (plant) is effective for the treatment of chronic pain in adults, and moderate evidence that oromucosal cannabinoids (extracts, especially nabiximols) improve short-term sleep disturbances in chronic pain. The paradoxical superiority of the ca...
Published in Pharmacotherapy
Patients with schizophrenia are known to have higher rates of metabolic disease than the general population. Contributing factors likely include lifestyle and atypical antipsychotic (AAP) use, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. The objective of this study was to identify metabolomic variability in adult patients with schizophrenia who were ...
Published in Pharmacotherapy
Carfentanil and related fentanyl analogs have been linked to a number of overdose deaths from drug users in several cities across North America. Diagnosis of carfentanil exposure requires a very high index of clinical suspicion, especially because available laboratory narcotic screens do not detect this agent. We describe a 34-year-old man admitted...
Published in Pharmacotherapy
We assessed the influence of age on warfarin dose, percentage time in target range (PTTR), and risk of major hemorrhage. Warfarin users recruited into a large prospective inception cohort study were categorized into three age groups: young (younger than 50 yrs), middle aged (50-70 yrs), and elderly (older than 70 yrs). The influence of age on warfa...
Published in Pharmacotherapy
Blocking muscarinic receptors could have an effect on cardiac function, especially among elderly patients with overactive bladder (OAB). To investigate the risk of cardiovascular (CV) events in users of antimuscarinic drugs to treat OAB. Cohort study of new users of darifenacin, fesoterodine, oxybutynin, solifenacin, tolterodine, or trospium, 18 ye...
Published in Pharmacotherapy
Obesity is a worldwide epidemic often complicated by multiple comorbidities, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Bariatric surgery is an increasingly common and effective weight-loss strategy for obese patients that may result in resolution of metabolic-related disease states, such as T2DM. Although bariatric surgery has many positive outcom...
Published in Pharmacotherapy
Kidney transplant induction therapy often includes inpatient administration of rabbit antithymocyte globulin (rATG) over multiple days. To reduce hospital length of stay (LOS) and drug expenditures, the rATG induction course was completed in the outpatient setting via peripheral intravenous administration. The present study assesses early readmissi...
Published in Pharmacotherapy
While not designated as guideline-recommended first-line anticoagulation therapy, about one in five patients in the United States receive rivaroxaban for the treatment of cancer-associated venous thrombosis (CAT). A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to evaluate the incidences of recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE), major bleedin...
