Polypharmacy, or the concurrent use of five or more medications, is common in older adults and increases the risk of adverse drug interactions. While deprescribing unnecessary drugs can combat this risk, the decision-making process can be complex and time-consuming. Increasingly, there is a need for effective polypharmacy management tools that can support short-staffed primary care practitioners. In a new study, researchers from the Mass General Brigham MESH Incubator found that ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, showed promise as a tool to manage polypharmacy and depr ..read more

A new study from the University of South Australia is putting people’s experiences of pelvic pain at the front of pain education to develop better pain management strategies and improved outcomes. Persistent pelvic pain is an umbrella term for pain in the pelvic area (below the belly button) which may be accompanied by symptoms suggestive of gynaecological, lower urinary tract, bowel, sexual, and pelvic floor dysfunction. In Australia, one in two women and people assigned female at birth experience persistent pelvic pain, with one in four reporting that pelvic pai ..read more

Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are a class of drug that can be used to treat type 2 diabetes by reversing insulin resistance, one of the main hallmarks of the disease. While TZDs were extremely popular in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, they have fallen out of use among physicians in recent decades because they were discovered to cause unwanted side effects, including weight gain and excess fluid accumulation in body tissues. Now, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine are exploring how to isolate the positive effects of these drugs, which could help yield new treatments ..read more

Whether it’s costs, safety risks or “pill fatigue” they’re trying to reduce, many health systems and clinics have started working on ways to encourage deprescribing of medications that patients may not need. Now, a new study published in the BMJ shows the potential promise, and pitfalls, of a massive effort to reduce overuse of a common class of heartburn medications known as proton pump inhibitors or PPIs. The findings also reveal that some of the feared risks from PPIs may be overblown. The study tracks the impact of an intervention that imposed limits on PPI prescription size ..read more

Weight training can help reduce body fat and increase muscle strength and mass in older people, contributing to functional autonomy and avoidance of falls and injury. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that it can also benefit the mental health of older people, especially those who suffer from anxiety and depression. These benefits were confirmed by a study reported in the journal Psychiatry Research. The study involved a systematic review and meta-analysis of more than 200 articles on the subject. The analysis was conducted by Paolo Cunha, a postdoctoral fellow with a ..read more

Newly published research from the University of Houston College of Pharmacy reveals an alarming trend in diabetic medication expenditures. While pharmaceutical spending in the U.S. has long been recognized as higher than in other affluent nations, diabetic medications, including insulin, are now at the forefront of this surge in prescription drug costs. From 2011 to 2020, total annual prescription medication expenditures rose from $341.49 to $473.12 billion per year with metabolic agents being the costliest category. Among the metabolic agents, antidiabetic agents were the most expensive thera ..read more

A register-based study from Finland identified three distinct BMI trajectory groups among patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. In a four-year follow-up, most patients followed a stable trajectory without much weight change. Only 10% of patients lost weight, whereas 3% gained weight. Mean BMI exceeded the threshold of obesity in all groups at baseline. Weight loss is a central treatment goal in type 2 diabetes, but the study shows that few patients succeed in it. The study was carried out by researchers at the University of Eastern Finland, and the results were published in Clini ..read more

Diagnosing infectious conditions can be challenging. Diagnosis is especially challenging for uncommon and emerging infectious diseases for which there’s limited clinical experience. Nevertheless, successfully identifying patients with infectious diseases, especially communicable ones, is critical, so patients can be isolated to reduce disease spread. To address this challenge, investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, recently developed and validated a computer program that can be incorporated into electronic medical rec ..read more

Following federal approval for over the counter emergency contraception in 2006, emergency departments across the U.S. saw dramatic decreases in related visits and medical charges, a new study suggests. Emergency room visits related to emergency contraception fell by 96 %, from 17,019 to 659, while total related hospital expenses decreased by $7.2 million – from $7.6 million to $385,946 – between 2006 and 2020. The most notable decrease was between 2006-2007 for people primarily seen for emergency contraception. The Michigan Medicine led findings appear in JAMA Network Open. “Emergency de ..read more

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended the approval of twelve new products, following reviews by its key human medicines committee (CHMP). This brings to twenty-five the number of newly approved medicines in 2024. The CHMP backed the granting of marketing authorisation for: Awiqli (insulin icodec) for the treatment of diabetes mellitus in adults. Emblaveo (aztreonam-avibactam), an antibiotic indicated for the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal and urinary tract infections, hospital-acquired pneumonia and infections caused by certain types of bacteria (aer ..read more