American family physician
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American family physician · Oct 2005
ReviewSupporting self-management in patients with chronic illness.
Support of patient self-management is a key component of effective chronic illness care and improved patient outcomes. Self-management support goes beyond traditional knowledge-based patient education to include processes that develop patient problem-solving skills, improve self-efficacy, and support application of knowledge in real-life situations that matter to patients. ⋯ Family physicians can support patient self-management by structuring patient-physician interactions to identify problems from the patient perspective, making office environment changes that remove self-management barriers, and providing education individually and through available community self-management resources. The emerging evidence supports the implementation of practice strategies that are conducive to patient self-management and improved patient outcomes among chronically ill patients.
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Genital herpes simplex virus infection is a recurrent, lifelong disease with no cure. The strongest predictor for infection is a person's number of lifetime sex partners. The natural history includes first-episode mucocutaneous infection, establishment of latency in the dorsal root ganglion, and subsequent reactivation. ⋯ Effective oral antiviral medications are available for initial, episodic, and suppressive therapy but are not a cure. There is some evidence that alternative therapies such as L-lysine, zinc, and some herbal preparations may offer some benefit. Counseling patients about the risk of transmission is crucial and helps prevent the spread of disease and neonatal complications.
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Though relatively common, syncope is a complex presenting symptom defined by a transient loss of consciousness, usually accompanied by falling, and with spontaneous recovery. Syncope must be carefully differentiated from other conditions that may cause a loss of consciousness or falling. Syncope can be classified into four categories: reflex mediated, cardiac, orthostatic, and cerebrovascular. ⋯ Older patients and those with underlying organic heart disease or abnormal electrocardiograms generally will need additional cardiac evaluation, which may include prolonged electrocardiographic monitoring, echocardiography, and exercise stress testing. When structural heart disease is excluded, tests for neurogenic reflex-mediated syncope, such as head-up tilt-table testing and carotid sinus massage, should be performed. The use of tests such as head computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, carotid and transcranial ultrasonography, and electroencephalography to detect cerebrovascular causes of syncope should be reserved for those few patients with syncope whose history suggests a neurologic event or who have focal neurologic signs or symptoms.
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Milk thistle has been used as a cytoprotectant for the treatment of liver disease, for the treatment and prevention of cancer, and as a supportive treatment of Amanita phalloides poisoning. Clinical studies are largely heterogeneous and contradictory. ⋯ Significant drug reactions have not been reported. Clinical studies in oncology and infectious disease that are under way will help determine the efficacy and effectiveness of milk thistle.
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Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, the most common enzyme deficiency worldwide, causes a spectrum of disease including neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, acute hemolysis, and chronic hemolysis. Persons with this condition also may be asymptomatic. This X-linked inherited disorder most commonly affects persons of African, Asian, Mediterranean, or Middle-Eastern descent. ⋯ Acute hemolysis is self-limited, but in rare instances it can be severe enough to warrant a blood transfusion. Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia may require treatment with phototherapy or exchange transfusion to prevent kernicterus. The variant that causes chronic hemolysis is uncommon because it is related to sporadic gene mutation rather than the more common inherited gene mutation.