The Journal of clinical psychiatry
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Exploring regional variation in antipsychotic coprescribing practice: a Danish questionnaire survey.
The pharmacologic treatment of schizophrenia is characterized by excessive use of antipsychotic polypharmacy, which reflects a gap between evidence and practice. The aim of the present study was to investigate regional differences in treatment setting characteristics and in physician and nurse attitudes toward antipsychotic polypharmacy and clinical guidelines. ⋯ Albeit no causal relationships can be inferred from this cross-sectional observational study, we recommend the furtherance of a treatment environment characterized by easily accessible clinical guidelines, frequent academic activities, and an unruffled atmosphere.
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Fibromyalgia affects an estimated 2% of the American population. Current understanding explains it as a neurologic disorder of central pain processing that causes the perception of pain in response to stimuli that in healthy individuals would not be painful. ⋯ Unfortunately, because of the chronic nature of the pain condition and associated counterproductive behaviors and disability, patients and physicians may rapidly become frustrated with each other and abandon the pursuit of adequate diagnosis and treatment. If the physician instead recognizes the diagnostic pattern of pain and appreciates the real nature of the underlying pathology, then he or she can be of great benefit to patients and their families in managing this chronic disease.