The Repatriation General Hospital in Daw Park, South Australia has produced the RGH E-Bulletin since 2001 as a service to the industry. The weekly bulletins are distributed in electronic format, with the aim of presenting concise, factual information on issues of current interest in therapeutics, drug safety and cost effective use of medications.
Avoiding the use of high-risk and inappropriate drugs is a simple and cost-effective way to reduce medication-related problems in older people.
Twas the night before Christmas, and it would seem, no drugs were dispensed by the pharmacy team.
Alcohol has the potential to interact with many medications, but the clinical significance of these interactions is often queried.
Dietary sodium is found in most foods as sodium chloride (salt), but also as sodium bicarbonate and monosodium glutamate in processed foods, and in food additives as sodium phosphate, sodium carbonate and sodium benzoate.
Drug use in clinical practice often varies from that seen in controlled clinical trials.
Zonisamide (Zonegran®) is an antiepileptic drug that has been used for many years around the world but has only recently become available inAustralia.
While alternative oral anticoagulant drugs such as dabigatran have recently been developed, warfarin is currently still the most commonly used and only PBS-listed oral anticoagulant in Australia for the prevention and treatment of thromboembolism in patients with mechanical heart valves, atrial fibrillation and deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolus.
Iron deficiency is a common cause of anaemia, and oral iron (100 - 200 mg elemental iron/day) is regarded as first line therapy.
