ABSTRACT
This is the first systematic investigation of the very long-term effects of severe closed head injury (CHI) on objective measures of memory, and the first to employ both a normal control group and an 'other injury' control group consisting of spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. The CHI group displayed significantly poorer performance on every memory measure, and the effect sizes were large. This impairment in episodic memory is neither due to pre-injury nor post-injury differences between CHI and normal control subjects because the same differences were found when the CHI group was compared to a group of SCI patients. The findings demonstrate severe impairment in learning and retention many years after sustaining a severe CHI, which is likely in part due to the bilateral hippocampal damage shown in neuropathological studies. This life-long memory impairment needs to be addressed by community service programs.
Subject(s)
Cognition Disorders/etiology , Head Injuries, Closed/psychology , Memory , Adult , Female , Head Injuries, Closed/complications , Humans , Male , Neuropsychological Tests , TimeABSTRACT
A pharmacy automated drug interaction screening (PADIS) system is described which detects possible drug interactions by screening patient medication profiles. The data base contains approximately 24,000 drug interaction combinations of drugs marketed in the U.S. and also foreign and investigational drugs that have been implicated to cause drug interactions. It is updated on a monthly basis. The PADIS system operates as a batch run program which screens all patient medication profiles on a daily schedule. A patient drug interaction profile is printed by the computer for use by the pharmacist to suggest alternative therapy to the physician. The computer detects potential drug interactions in approximately 9% of the patients per day at the 635-bed hospital at which the system was developed.
