November 1, 1998

Options for the management of Alzheimer's disease are expanding to include modification of the patient's environment, alterations in caregiving and medications such as tacrine and donepezil.

Many obstetric complications occur in patients without risk factors. Common peripartum emergencies include nonreassuring fetal status, maternal hemorrhage, fetal shoulder dystocia and eclampsia.

Patients who are homebound or whose needs require skilled care, such as wound care, intravenous therapy or monitoring for pain control, may be eligible to receive home health care benefits under the auspices of Medicare.

The psychiatric review of symptoms is a useful screening tool in diagnosing psychiatric disorders. Rapid and thorough, it can easily be incorporated into the standard history and physical examination.

Beta blockers such as carvedilol may improve left ventricular function and survival rates in patients with congestive heart failure. Beta blockers provide family physicians with an additional therapeutic option for treating patients with this syndrome.

(Australia—Australian Family Physician, May 1998, p. 371.) Dysfunctional uterine bleeding is particularly common around menarche and during the perimenopausal period. Once other causes of abnormal bleeding have been eliminated, bleeding can usually be managed by manipulation of…

With this issue, AFP is publishing its 318th patient information handout. Placed in one stack, AFP's more than 650 pages of handouts represent a whole book full of carefully tailored educational materials for your patients. Well appreciated by our readers, these award-winning…

Selected policy and health issues news briefs from AAFP News Now.

Apparently, there are just not enough people dying to get into New York's medical schools. According to The Wall Street Journal, the cadaver population has decreased dramatically in the city and schools are having a difficult time finding enough to go around. Cadavers are…

As a population, blacks have one of the highest rates of coronary artery disease (CAD) in the world.1 Evidence from the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) suggests that CAD has an earlier onset and is particularly severe in this group. The median age at death from…

Until recently, Medicare-financed home health care has escaped negative public opinion and cost-cutting. It is an area of health care that has grown at a phenomenal pace, because there is no out-of-pocket deductible or co-payment for the beneficiary except for medical equipment…

From time to time, medical students and family practice residents visit our practice. Remembering how removed from reality our rotation experiences were when we were residents, we strive to give these visitors a taste of what life is like “on the outside.” On this particular…

Photo Quiz presents readers with a clinical challenge based on a photograph or other image.

This case represents an all too common reality in family physicians' offices around the country. The 15-year-old's symptoms were still present at her third office visit in two weeks. As such, the physician did well to personally review all aspects of her history. In so doing…

Since 1995, fewer cases of measles, rubella and mumps have been reported than at any time since disease reporting began. The year 2000 objectives of the U.S. Public Health Service include eliminating measles, rubella and congenital rubella syndrome and reducing the incidence of…

Since 1982, no progress has been made in reducing the rate at which American women die of pregnancy and childbirth complications, according to a report in the September 4, 1998, issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Having declined substantially in the previous 40…

Book Reviews

Alzheimer's disease is a condition that damages several parts of the brain. Usually, the first sign is a poor memory or having trouble doing things that the person used to do, like balancing a checkbook, grocery shopping or finding the right words when talking. The disease may…

Congestive heart failure, or CHF, is a type of heart disease. When the heart can't pump blood properly to the rest of the body, we call it CHF. This may be a temporary problem, or it may last a long time.