ABSTRACT
With revolutionary success of internet and mobile usage in India, use of information technology for healthcare promotion by pharmaceutical industry and other healthcare sectors is increasing. Information technology provides an unlimited opportunity for promoting correct healthcare practices for prevention of certain diseases, providing information for maintaining health and other suitable information to the expected target audience. Information technology provides numerous advantages including extended reach, quick dissemination of facts, providing unlimited amount of information and also eliminates the need of large number of manual resources. There is enormous potential for improving the awareness about healthcare through digital media and information technology. However, with its increasing usage, there are some challenges, responsibilities and precautions which need to be considered while using information technology as a resource for healthcare promotion. This article discusses the use of information technology in healthcare promotion along with the challenges in its usage.
ABSTRACT
Although many atypical antipsychotics are available, there is a need of an atypical antipsychotic effective in all symptom domains of schizophrenia and well tolerated especially for side effects like extrapyramidal side effects, weight gain and blood prolactin elevation. Blonanserin is an atypical antipsychotic which blocks dopamine D2 and serotonin 5HT2A receptors. Its efficacy and safety has been studied in patients with schizophrenia and delirium. Blonanserin is found to be effective and well tolerated in both conditions. This article has reviewed efficacy and tolerability of blonanserin in these two psychiatry diseases.
ABSTRACT
Allergic rhinitis is a common chronic disease in adults as well as children. Allergic rhinitis has negative impact on sleep and quality of life of the patient. Antihistamines are widely used in the management of allergic rhinitis. First generation antihistamines cause sedation and drowsiness. Second generation antihistamines cause minimal or no sedation. There is difference in propensity to cause sedation amongst second generation antihistamines. As sleep is important for physical as well as mental health, present article reviews impact of allergic rhinitis and antihistamines on sleep.
ABSTRACT
In a recently published study Sugumar R et al evaluated self medication prevalence in primary dysmenorrhea in India. The results of the study prompted me to write regarding drug induced issues with self medication in primary dysmenorrhea and other diseases in general. The results of this study give some insights on the self medication pattern in primary dysmenorrhea among urban Indian women. The authors have highlighted the high prevalence (42%) along with inappropriate self-medication practices in a large number of participants. Inappropriate self-medication practices inadvertently pose the patient to both the risk of lack of efficacy in case of sub-therapeutic dose as well as adverse events in case of excess than recommended dose. Mefenamic acid, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) or its combination i.e. mefenamic acid + dicyclomine was used by close to one third (35%) of study population consumed mefenamic acid containing product for treatment for primary dysmenorrhea. NSAIDs can cause adverse events; it is important to point out some of the reported findings related respiratory, renal and gastrointestinal safety of mefenamic acid.
ABSTRACT
Non-compliance is a common problem in chronic diseases including psychiatric disorders. Various attempts have been made for improving adherence in psychiatry; one of them being simplifying dosage regimen by designing modified dosage formulation. For example, depot formulation, oral disintegrating tablets or extended release formulations are some of the strategies for improving compliance in psychiatry patients. Modified dosage formulations also have some other advantages too. For example, oral disintegrating tablet of olanzapine cause lesser weight gain compared to standard olanzapine tablet while Zolpidem extended release tablet provides better sleep maintenance in middle of night. This article reviews some of the modified dosage formulations in psychiatric diseases with their advantages.