Advances in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

PHILIP D. SLOANE

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.

Common Peripartum Emergencies

ELIZABETH H. MORRISON

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

Home Health Care

SUSAN LOUISA MONTAUK

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: A Screening Tool for Family Physicians

DANIEL J. CARLAT

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.

Carvedilol: The New Role of Beta Blockers in Congestive Heart Failure

BRUCE T. VANDERHOFF, HEATHER M. RUPPEL, PETER B. AMSTERDAM

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.

Newsletter

Rosemarie Sweeney, Verna L. Rose

Nancy Ann Min Deparle, director of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), has created the Physician Regulatory Issues Team to look at the workload for physicians and their employees as a result of Medicare regulations. The team, headed by Steven Gleason, M.D., a...

Family Practice International

Anne D. Walling

(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...

Patient Information Survey

JANIS WRIGHT

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...

Quantum Sufficit

Monica A. Preboth, Shyla Wright

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...

Cardiovascular Risk Profiling in Blacks: Don't Forget the Lipids

DAVID S. KOUNTZ, SUSAN L. LEVINE

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...

Medicare-Financed Home Health Care

MICHELE L. MARZIANO, CHARLES A. CEFALU

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...

Diary from a Week in Practice

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...

All Thumbs

Marc S. Berger, JEFFREY J. MEFFERT

A 47-year-old woman presented to the office with an “ugly” thumbnail on her right hand that she had had for more than a decade. After she began a more challenging job two years ago, the thumbnail on her left hand began to show similar changes (see the accompanying photograph)...

Common Questions About Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin

JIM NUOVO

Effects of Postpartum Depression on Children

ANNE D. WALLING

Multidrug-Resistant Pneumonia Among Nursing Home Residents

JEFFREY T. KIRCHNER

Exercise and Weight Training in Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes

KARL MILLER

Menorrhagia: Thermal Balloon or Rollerball Ablation?

ANNE D. WALLING

Fenofibrate for Treatment of Hypertriglyceridemia

BARBARA APGAR

Atherosclerosis and Cardiac Risk Factors in Young Persons

JEFFREY T. KIRCHNER

Clinical Behavior Problems in Children with Nocturnal Enuresis

JEFFREY T. KIRCHNER

Prognosis of Acute Renal Failure in the Elderly Patient

GRACE BROOKE HUFFMAN

Depression in Men Before and After the Birth of a Child

KARL MILLER

Lumbar Support for Prevention of Occupational Back Injury

GRACE BROOKE HUFFMAN

Itraconazole Oral Solution for Oropharyngeal Candidiasis

JEFFREY. T. KIRCHNER

Home Use of Rectal Diazepam Gel for Repetitive Seizures

JEFFREY T. KIRCHNER

A Pregnant Teen: Defusing a Family Crisis

WILLIAM L. TOFFLER

A 15-year-old girl came into the office for a third visit in two weeks; it was, however, her first visit with me. Her mother, who was concerned about her daughter's constant vomiting, had accompanied her to each visit. The girl's last menstrual period was noted in the chart...

ACIP Issues Recommendations to Eliminate Measles, Rubella and Congenital Rubella Syndrome and to Control Mumps

Verna L. Rose

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...

Clinical Briefs

Verna L. Rose

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

CAROLINE WELLBERY, LARS C. LARSEN

Book Reviews

Use of Evidence-Based Studies in the Application of GAPS

When the Diagnosis is Alzheimer's Disease

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...

Managing Your Congestive Heart Failure

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.