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• We defined by consensus criteria for selecting an antiseizure medication (ASM) for first add-on use. • Key criteria identified include efficacy, adverse effects, drug interactions, mechanism of action, and ease of use. • Among key factors, interaction potential and mode of action are especially relevant to add-on use. • The need to optimize adherence and to tailor drug selection to individual characteristics was emphasized. When monotherapy used alone or sequentially fails to achieve seizure control, a trial of combination therapy may be considered. To define optimal criteria to guide choice of an antiseizure medication (ASM) for use as first add-on. A standardized Delphi procedure was applied to produce a list of consensus statements. First, an Expert Board consisting of 5 epileptologists agreed on a set of 46 statements relevant to the objective. The statements were then finalized through an iterative process by a Delphi Panel of 84 Italian pediatric and adult neurologists with expertise in the management of epilepsy. Panel members provided anonymous ratings of their level of agreement with each statement on a 9-point Likert scale. Consensus, defined as agreement by at least 80% of Panel members, was reached for 36 statements. Medication-related factors considered to be important for drug selection included efficacy, tolerability and safety, interaction potential, mechanism of action, and ease of use. The need to optimize adherence and to tailor drug selection to individual characteristics was emphasized. Choice of an ASM for first add-on requires consideration of many factors, many of which also apply to choose initial treatment. Factors more specifically relevant to add-on use include drug interaction potential and the preference for an ASM with a different mechanism of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment, including combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), have transformed HIV into a chronic condition. Kidney diseases cause morbidity and mortality in patients living with HIV (PLWH), though cART has permitted kidney transplants with acceptable post-transplant graft and patient survival. Risk of allograft rejection remains high, which may be related to interactions between cART, specifically protease inhibitors (PI), and immunosuppressants prescribed post-transplant. This systematic review evaluates renal transplant outcomes in PLWH treated with PI- vs non-PI-based cART. A search strategy was generated with terms related to renal transplant, HIV, and cART and run on PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane. Studies were evaluated using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines on Covidence by two reviewers and then evaluated for bias. Of 803 studies, 9 were included. Included papers were prospective or retrospective cohort studies or chart reviews of adult patients. Outcome measures included acute graft rejection, graft survival, and patient survival. One study had significant results demonstrating that PI-based therapy was correlated with increased graft rejection rates. Two studies demonstrated significant graft survival benefit to non-PI-based therapy, while one demonstrated significant benefit to PI-based therapy. Two studies found significant patient survival benefit to non-PI-based therapy. For each outcome measure, remaining data suggested improved outcomes with non-PI-based therapies without achieving statistical significance. The results demonstrate superior outcomes in PLWH taking non-PI-based cART, though the paucity of significant results suggests that PLWH who require PI-based cART for virological control may continue their regimen safely post-kidney transplant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents Auriculotherapy White Paper in 2020 Collective work for the Glem. Rouxeville coordinator Yves, which includes Auriculotherapy, a coordinated collective work by Dr Yves Rouxeville with the collaboration of six other authors recognized in this domain, direct pupils of Paul Nogier, the brilliant discoverer of this medical field, which was to take place in June 2020 and is postponed to next year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This special issue focuses on reporting on novel types of chemical probes and chemical tools, including but not limited to pharmacological modulators regardless of mechanism of action (inhibitors, activators, degraders, etc.), fluorescent probes, crosslinking probes and reagents, probes for activity-based profiling, chemoproteomic probes, etc. The focus is on reports that directly provide evidence for how these tools advance drug discovery and/or how they can be integrated into drug discovery pipelines. [Extracted from the article]

The aim of this study was to further evaluate and optimize the Transwell® system for assessing the dissolution behavior of orally inhaled drug products (OIDPs), using fluticasone propionate as a model drug. Sample preparation involved the collection of a relevant inhalable dose fraction through an anatomical mouth/throat model, resulting in a more uniform presentation of drug particles during the subsequent dissolution test. The method differed from previously published procedures by (1) using a 0.4 µm polycarbonate (PC) membrane, (2) stirring the receptor compartment, and (3) placing the drug-containing side of the filter paper face downwards, towards the PC membrane. A model developed in silico, paired with the results of in vitro studies, suggested that a dissolution medium providing a solubility of about 5 µg/mL would be a good starting point for the method's development, resulting in mean transfer times that were about 10 times longer than those of a solution. Furthermore, the model suggested that larger donor/receptor and sampling volumes (3, 3.3 and 2 mL, respectively) will significantly reduce the so-called "mass effect". The outcomes of this study shed further light on the impact of experimental conditions on the complex interplay of dissolution and diffusion within a volume-limited system, under non-sink conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing price of prescription drugs is an ongoing concern for Medicare and Medicaid, particularly for patients with chronic health conditions who are using multiple medications and patients in these programs taking high-priced brand-name specialty drugs. Shifts in benefit design, including higher deductibles and a movement away from copayments to coinsurance, have increased patient out-of-pocket costs and put pressure on program budgets. In this paper, the American College of Physicians expands on its position paper from 2016 and offers additional recommendations to decrease out-of-pocket costs for patients, enhance the government's purchasing power, and address existing policies that add costs to the health care system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study assesses and analyze the global "Pharmacopoeia" research output on a set of quantitative and qualitative metrics to explore the status of research activity on pharmacopoeia at global, national, organizational, and also at individual level. The study provides a domain to the most productive countries, institutions or organizations, communication channels, authors, and research themes. Publications data (556 publications) were retrieved using Scopus database for the study timespan 2000–2020. The network visualization maps including research collaboration were created by utilizing the VOSviewer program. The pharmacopoeia research output registered a 15.76% annual average growth and accrued an average of 7.05 citations per paper during the period. The leading role of China was reflected in the analysis as topped country, organization, and leading communication channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Prior to implementing a new computerized prescription order entry (CPOE) application, the potential risks associated with this system were assessed and compared to those of paper-based prescriptions. The goal of this study is to identify the vulnerabilities of the CPOE process in order to adapt its design and prevent these potential risks. Methods and materials: Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) was used as a prospective risk-management technique to evaluate the chemotherapy medication process in a university hospital oncology clinic. A multidisciplinary team assessed the process and compared the critical steps of a newly developed CPOE application versus paper-based prescriptions. The potential severity, occurrence and detectability were assessed prior to the implementation of the CPOE application in the clinical setting. Results: The FMEA led to the identification of 24 process steps that could theoretically be vulnerable, therefore called failure modes. These failure modes were grouped into four categories of potential risk factors: prescription writing, patient scheduling, treatment dispensing and patient follow-up. Criticality scores were calculated and compared for both strategies. Three failure modes were prioritized and led to modification of the CPOE design. Overall, the CPOE pathway showed a potential risk reduction of 51% compared to paper-based prescriptions. Conclusion: FMEA was found to be a useful approach to identify potential risks in the chemotherapy medication process using either CPOE or paper-based prescriptions. The e-prescription mode was estimated to result in less risk than the traditional paper mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Green fluorescent CM-CDs were prepared using cysteine and maltose as precursors. • Green fluorescent CM-CDs showed λ Ex/Em at 420/511 nm. • CM-CDs acted as a sensor for sensing of venlafaxine via fluorescence "turn-off" mechanism. • This method exhibited wider linear range (0.1–180 µM) with a LOD of 75.15 nM for venlafaxine. • This method successfully applied to assay venlafaxine in biofluids and pharmaceutical samples. In this work, the green emissive carbon dots (CDs) were fabricated using cysteine and maltose as bio-precursors via refluxing process. The emission and excitation peaks of fabricated cysteine-maltose CDs (CM-CDs) are noticed at 511 and 420 nm, respectively. The as-fabricated CM-CDs displayed average mean size of 3.63 ± 1.12 nm with uniform spherical shape and good quantum yield of 32.81 %. Importantly, the as-fabricated CM-CDs act as a sensor for venlafaxine an anti-depression drug sensing via a fluorescence "turn-off" mechanism. The fluorescence lifetime of CM-CDs was 1.34 ns. The as-fabricated CM-CDs were highly sensitive towards venlafaxine, displaying good linear range from 0.1 to 180 µM with the limit of detection of 75.15 nM. The fluorescence of CM-CDs was reduced with the interaction of venlafaxine, thereby favoring to develop CM-CDs-based cellulose paper sensor for venlafaxine assay. The fabricated sensor was effectively utilized for the quantification of venlafaxine in pharmaceutical and biological samples with good recovery rates (96.01––99.65 %). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug abuse has been and is a major social and health problem in the Republic of North Macedonia, the region and around the world, because the consequences arising from the direct and indirect effects of this phenomenon are many times harmful to the person himself, the family and society as a whole and affects state security. The purpose of the paper is to examine the factors that influence drug crime, the implementation of the criminal legislation of the Republic of North Macedonia in relation to the prevention and detection of crime involving narcotic substances - drugs and the sanctioning of the perpetrators of crimes related to illegal traffic and unauthorized production of drugs. In the preparation of this paper, the statistical method was used, based on the results of the official statistical data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the period 2019-2023, we note that for the criminal offense “Unauthorized production and circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors - Article 215” is increasing, while for the criminal offense “Enable the use of narcotic drugs - Article 216” is decreasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of international public-sector contributions to Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs and vaccines allows for a more thorough examination of the global biomedical innovation ecosystem by institution of origin. Using new and existing methods, we have identified 364 FDA-approved drugs and vaccines approved from 1973 to 2016 discovered in whole or in part by Public Sector Research Institutions (PSRIs) worldwide. We identified product-specific intellectual property contributions to FDA-approved small molecule and biologic drugs and vaccines from the FDA Orange Book, our peer network, published studies, and three new sources: reports of medical product manufacturers' payments to physicians and teaching hospitals under The Sunshine Act of 2010, a paper by Kneller and 64 royalty monetization transactions by academic institutions and/or their faculty that one of us (AS) maintains. We include a total of 293 drugs discovered either wholly by a US PSRI or jointly by a U.S. and a non-U.S. PSRI. 119 FDA-approved drugs and vaccines were discovered by PSRIs outside the U.S. Of these, 71 were solely discovered outside the US, while 48 also involved intellectual property contributions by US PSRIs. In the context of the global public sector landscape, the US dominates drug discovery, accounting for two-thirds of these drugs and many of the important, innovative vaccines introduced over the past 30 years. Contributions by Canada, UK, Germany, Belgium, Japan, and others each amount to 5.4% or less of the total. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This correction notice is related to a research paper on the antimicrobial susceptibility of Gemella bacteria to various drugs. The authors have requested corrections to the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and gene possession ratios of two strains. The correction only affects a p-value mentioned in Section 2.2.4 and does not impact the content of the paper. The study found that Gemella strains were resistant to drugs like erythromycin, clindamycin, and levofloxacin, but not to beta-lactams and vancomycin. The mechanisms of resistance varied across different species of Gemella. The given text provides tables with valuable information on the susceptibility of Gemella strains to different antibiotics, as well as the distribution of specific genes and antibiotic resistance in Gemella isolates. [Extracted from the article]

Healthcare is a critical area where blockchain technology (BT) is being heralded as a potential game-changer for facilitating secure and efficient data sharing. The purpose of this review is to examine BT applications, performance challenges, and solutions in healthcare. To begin, This review paper explores popular blockchain networks for data exchange, encompassing both public and permissioned platforms, such as Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. This paper analyzes the potential applications of BT's decentralized, immutable, and smart contract capabilities in healthcare settings, including secure and interoperable health data exchange, patient consent management, drug supply chain oversight, and clinical trial management. The healthcare industry might greatly benefit from the increased privacy, transparency, and accessibility that these technologies provide. Despite BT's promising medical uses, the technology is not without its drawbacks. High energy consumption, throughput, and scalability are all concerns. We wrapped up by discussing the solutions that have been implemented, including consensus processes, scalability measures like sharding, and off-chain transactions that are designed to mitigate the drawbacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From year to year, drug abuse is growing at a high rate, slowly becoming a very disturbing phenomenon for man and society itself, perhaps their effects on all are quite harmful to human health. In this regard, local and international institutions must do their best to prevent this negative phenomenon, perhaps their negative effects are multideional. In this paper, some issues related to drugs will be elaborated, with special emphasis in the Tetovo region. Among other things, some statestic data obtained from the Tetovo Internal Affairs Sector, which belongs to the period 2021-2023, related to adequate submissions against persons involved in incriminating activities of this nature, types of drugs and their quantity. In the course of the paper, the analysis method, statestic method, comparative method, observation method, etc. will be used. In conclusion, some concrete conclusions and recommendations will be made that should be taken into account in the fight against this type of crime. Given the negative effects of the use of narcotics in society, this work aims to increase awareness among state officials especially those who are called to fight criminality to be more responsible in carrying out official authorizations and duties. Also this paper provides knowledge to ordinary citizens not to fall prey to manipulations that affect the use or distribution of narcotics. In this regard, we hope that the work in question, however little, represents a modest contribution to scientific and practical rafhs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper explores the reasons why Indonesia must have legal regulations to provide protection and guarantees for health workers in carrying out the profession in overcoming corona virus disease (COVID-19). This paper also explains the legal regulations as the foundation for today's medical workers' protection. This paper also aims at providing an ideal legal construction that safeguards the rights and obligations of health workers in overcoming COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the author used qualitative research methods with a socio-legal approach. The data were obtained through literature study and analysis of laws and regulations through the socio-legal method. Findings: Various challenges and professional risks taken by health workers in dealing with COVID-19 derive from several factors, such as shortage of personal protective equipment, ineffective implementation of informed consent from the patients and the negative stigma spreading in the community. Moreover, the current legal regulation has not particularly modulated the protection of health workers, relying only on available articles that are actually irrelevant to be applied in the COVID-19 pandemic. Research limitations/implications: This research is focused on problems faced by health workers in combating COVID-19 and law concessions to ensure their protection. Practical implications: The final results of this research will be useful for The House of Representatives (DPR), the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemenkes RI) and the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) in establishing legal and regulatory construction for the protection of health workers in tackling COVID-19. Social implications: This research aims at strengthening legal protections for the health workers so that their rights and obligations are well guaranteed. Originality/value: This paper proposes an ideal legal construction for the protection of health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is currently still not specifically and rigidly regulated, to realize a guaranteed and sustainable life for health workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive joint disease, that occurs frequently in the aging population and is a major cause of disability worldwide. Both glucosamine and chondroitin are biologically active molecules that are substrates for proteoglycan, an essential component of the cartilage matrix. Evidence supports the use of glucosamine and chondroitin as symptomatic slow-acting drugs for osteoarthritis (SYSADOAs) with impact on OA symptoms and disease-modifying effects in the long term. Glucosamine and chondroitin are administered in exogenous form as a sulfate salt and multiple formulations of these agents are available, both as prescription-grade products and nutritional supplements. However, while all preparations may claim to deliver a therapeutic level of glucosamine or chondroitin not all are supported by clinical evidence. Only patented crystalline glucosamine sulfate (pCGS) is shown to deliver consistently high glucosamine bioavailability and plasma concentration in humans, which corresponds to demonstrated clinical efficacy. Similarly, clinical evidence supports only the pharmaceutical-grade chondroitin sulfate. The European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO) advocates, through careful consideration of the evidence base, that judicious choice of glucosamine and chondroitin formulation is essential to maximize clinical benefit, patient adherence and satisfaction with treatment. In future, the ESCEO recommends that complex molecules with biological activity such as pCGS may be treated as “biosimilars” akin to the European Medicines Agency guidance on biological medicinal products. It seems likely that for all other complex molecules classed as SYSADOAs, the recommendation to use only formulations clearly supported by the evidence-base should apply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To evaluate an e-diary developed for measuring headaches, triggers, and medication consumption, in terms of reliability and validity, and variables such as ease of use and participant compliance. Background For many decades, behavioral treatment of headaches has been evaluated via participants completing paper diaries recording their headaches and associated phenomena. There is some limited evidence supporting the reliability and validity of paper diaries, and criticisms have been offered such as the large amount of effort involved for both participants and researchers. This study evaluates a new e-diary that will operate on virtually any device that can connect to the internet, and yields 5 of the recommended outcome measures. Methods One hundred and eighty-one participants (146 females, 35 males) were allocated to 2 groups, e-diaries vs paper diaries, via a disproportionate stratified allocation process. The e-diary group included 4 subgroups based on the technology available to the participant, and the paper diary group included 2 subgroups, one parallel to the e-dairies (short paper), and one representative of traditional paper diaries (long paper). The study commenced with individuals who had self-identified as headache and migraine sufferers attending a screening session that included headache diagnosis. Participants who met selection criteria then completed the Headache Disability Inventory and a measure of quality of life (SF-36) to assess the convergent validity of the diaries, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales to assess the discriminant validity of the diaries. They also completed a Measure of Acceptance Questionnaire. Participants then completed the headache diaries over the next 30 days. Finally, participants completed for a second time the questionnaires completed previously. Results The 5 outcome measures - headache frequency, peak intensity, average intensity, duration, and medication usage - were found to have strong test-retest reliability ( r, 0.68-0.79), for all 3 types of diary. These 5 measures for the e-diaries were shown to have good convergent validity via comparison with scores on the Headache Disability Inventory ( r, 0.46-0.55) and SF-36 ( r, −0.35 to −0.49), and divergent validity via comparison with scores on the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale ( r, 0.10-0.25). The long-paper diaries had significantly higher missing data scores ( M = 15.20, SD = 14.84) and more errors in data completion ( M = 5.47, SD = 3.28) than the e-diaries and short-paper diaries ( P < .05). In addition, the long-paper diaries were evaluated by the participants as more burdensome and significantly less easy to use than the e-diaries and short-paper diaries. Conclusions The e-diaries evaluated in this research would prove a useful tool in clinical trials of behavioral treatment for headaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the electrochemical behavior of five β-blockers at the polarized liquid–liquid interface formed between aqueous solution (sodium chloride solution or Britton–Robinson buffers) and bis(triphenylphosphoranylidene)ammonium tetrakis(4-chlorophenyl)borate (BTPPATPBCl) dissolved in 1,2-dichloroethane (the organic phase). All measurements reported in this work were conducted using cyclic voltammetry (CV). The effects of the concentration of analytes, the pH of the aqueous phase, and applied electrochemical parameters on the analytical performance of the studied system are studied and discussed. The linear dynamic ranges (LDRs) of the studied β-blockers were in the range of 5–200 μmol L−1 and the lowest limit of detection (LOD) value was determined for pindolol (LOD = 1.96 μM μmol L−1). The highest LOD value was 4.96 μmol L−1 found for nebivolol. In addition, physicochemical parameters such as the formal Galvani potential difference (Δ aqorg φ), formal Gibbs free energies of the ion transfer reaction (Δ aqorg G′) and partition coefficients (log P′aq/org) for all studied molecules were determined. The latter were compared and correlated with the available literature values of log Poctanol. Finally, a standard addition method was used to determine the concentration of nebivolol in pharmaceutical preparations using a platform based on the electrified liquid–liquid interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prescription drug cost-sharing is a barrier to medication adherence, particularly for low-income and minority populations. In this systematic review, we examined the impact of prescription drug cost-sharing and policies to reduce cost-sharing on racial/ethnic and income disparities in medication utilization. We screened 2,145 titles and abstracts and identified 19 peer-reviewed papers that examined the interaction between cost-sharing and racial/ethnic and income disparities in medication adherence or utilization. We found weak but inconsistent evidence that lower cost-sharing is associated with reduced disparities in adherence and utilization, but studies consistently found that significant disparities remained even after adjusting for differences in cost-sharing across individuals. Study designs varied in their ability to measure the causal effect of policy or cost-sharing changes on disparities, and a wide range of policies were examined across studies. Further research is needed to identify the types of policies that are best suited to reduce disparities in medication adherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cold medications are widely used in daily life, and the quality and safety of the medications are directly related to the personal health of the user. However, with more and more lawbreakers imitating medications for profit and medication regulation looming, it is important to distinguish among cold medicines with similar ingredients. In this paper, the combination of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) with t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding (t-SNE) and back propagation neural network (BPNN) was proposed for classification and traceability of cold medications with the same main ingredient, compounded paracetamol and amantadine hydrochloride. Firstly, the elements contained in six extremely similar cold medications were analysed by LIBS. Then, t-SNE, a method of high-dimensional data visualization and dimensionality reduction, presented better classification results than other methods, i.e., principal component analysis (PCA), local semantic analysis (LSA), independent component analysis (ICA), linear analysis (Linear), Isomap and local linear embedding (LLE). However, it has limitations because of the number of datasets. Finally, BPNN was used to accurately trace these cold medications with its highly self-learning and self-adaptive ability, and the recognition accuracy was up to 96.7%. The results show that LIBS combined with t-SNE and BPNN provides assistance in drug classification as well as traceability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dry eye disease (DED) is a common condition that affects mainly older individuals and women. It is characterized by reduced tear production and increased tear evaporation. Symptoms include burning, irritation, tearing, and blurry vision. This paper reviews key trials of various new DED treatments, including their mechanism of action, study outcomes, safety, and efficacy. The paper also includes a critical assessment of the trial's validity and potential pharmacy applications of these new treatments. The literature search was conducted through PubMed, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Google Scholar. The keywords "Dry Eye Disease", "lifitegrast", "cyclosporine", "loteprednol etabonate", "varenicline nasal spray", and "perfluorohexyloctane" were used to identify these medications' landmark trials. The articles deemed these medications safe and efficacious, with minimal side effects. Our randomized controlled trial validity comparison found the trials robust with predominantly low bias. Cyclosporine and loteprednol are effective when artificial tears fail, while perfluorohexyloctane reduces tear film evaporation and is preservative-free. Varenicline offers drug delivery via the nasal route and is appropriate for contact lens users. In conclusion, these FDA-approved novel medications exhibit safety and efficacy in managing DED. Further research is needed on long-term outcomes, efficacy, and side-effect comparisons, and combination therapy benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of patients' experiences using a precision medicine (PM) clinic that conducts pharmacogenomics-based (PGx) testing for adverse drug reactions. The study aimed to identify the features of the clinic valued most by patients and areas for improvement. A paper survey was used to collect data. Survey questions focused on patients' perceptions of the PM testing and the overall clinic experience. Sixty-seven patients completed the survey. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS and frequencies were reported. Open-ended responses were coded and organized thematically. Patients reported that the clinic services increased confidence in their medication usage. Feeling respected by staff, receiving education, and quick appointments were highly valued by patients. Suggested areas for improvement included better communication from the clinic to patients, expansion of clinic services, and education for other healthcare providers. The findings demonstrate that patient experience goes beyond the clinical care provided. Current and potential future providers of PM should invest the time and energy to configure their care delivery system to enhance the patient experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug development is a complex and lengthy process that involves several stages, from the discovery of a potential drug molecule to its approval for marketing and distribution to patients. The drug development process typically takes several years and involves extensive testing and evaluation to ensure the safety and efficacy of the drug. All the possible effects based on drugs, such as addiction, drug abuse, alcohol use, drug development, drug discovery, and the use of drugs by students, are studied in this paper. This paper discusses how the rating of drug use changes over time and how to control it. This crucial information has been presented in this paper to regulate individual's use of drugs and reduce the world's susceptibility to drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global drug policy is currently dominated by great enthusiasm about human rights, including the idea that rights can generate less punitive approaches to drugs. But if human rights were an effective framework for the prevention of punitive approaches towards drugs, why haven't they prevented them previously? One possibility is that rights are less reliable for those society considers 'less than human'. In Western liberal contexts that valorise voluntarity, rationality, authenticity, and order, people who use drugs figure as compulsive, irrational, duplicitous and chaotic. Rights can reproduce these logics of abjection, including through the repetition of ideas about drugs and proper ways of being. A body of critical drug scholarship seeks to intervene in these constructions. This work mobilises 'habit' as an otherwise to 'addiction' and argues that habit is the foundation of realities. Habits, and thus realities, can be changed. This paper draws on these approaches to explore whether insights from critical drug scholarship can help to generate something after rights, made possible by new habits and modes of connection. To make this argument, we consider habits as a site of both repetition and rupture. We ask whether habits can help us rethink or disrupt rights, and the 'human' therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 30 and 40% of 18-year olds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland enter tertiary education (university) each year. Young adulthood (ages 15 to 25) is the usual period in which problems with alcohol, drugs or other behaviors begin to emerge, and yet these issues have received limited study in the UK. Government policy dictates that a full continuum of treatment and recovery services should be available in each area of the country, but uptake of these services by university students appears to be limited. In this discussion paper we describe the background to, and components of, the Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP), an initiative that has grown rapidly in the USA in the past decade. We then describe how the first UK University-led CRP was set up, before outlining what has been learnt so far and the potential challenges facing this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The routine use of antimicrobial therapy to treat diabetic foot infections has been widely published. However, effective treatments can be interrupted with complications such as antimicrobial resistance, systemic toxicity and allergic reactions. This paper looked at 26 individual cases using calcium sulfate (Stimulan®, Biocomposites Ltd) as a carrier for delivering antimicrobials, in the form of beads, at a local level and at the site of infection. In 69% of patients, oral and parenteral antimicrobials were ceased at the point of treatment. Patients were managed under local protocols by the podiatry team to the point of wound closure. Additionally, average healing rates were seen to be significantly reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the harsh punishment and measures taken to crack down on drug-related crimes in China, drug offending presents a growing threat. This paper, based on in-depth interviews with 24 drug offenders who are now under incarceration, explores how drug offending is described and presented. The results reveal that drug offending is not merely simplified as good or evil, but constructed as individuals' only, attractive, or non-existent option. The implications of the results are briefly discussed in regard to the reduction in drug crimes and policy improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To conduct a discursive review on continuous glucose monitoring use among Black older adults and to address the issue of racial disparities in diabetes management and outcomes. Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a global health concern with significant complications and mortality rates. Black older adults are disproportionately affected. Initially designed for type 1 diabetes, continuous glucose monitoring has emerged as an innovative tool for type 2 diabetes mellitus management. Despite its potential, there are challenges related to adherence and digital literacy among Black older adults for managing Diabetes. Design: A discursive review. Methods: Searching literature in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar for papers published from 2017 to 2023, we explored the use of continuous glucose monitoring in Black older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus, examining barriers, facilitators and challenges. Discussion: We highlight recommendations from the literature which included barriers, facilitators, and cultural factors associated with continuous glucose monitoring use. Findings underscore the importance of addressing these challenges to reduce racial–ethnic disparities in type 2 diabetes mellitus management among Black older adults. Nurses and advanced practice registered nurses are at the forefront and can play a pivotal role in exploring and implementing interventions to promote access and proper use of continuous glucose monitoring among Black older adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]