Prevention and Treatment of Common Eye Injuries in Sports

JORGE O. RODRIGUEZ, ADRIAN M. LAVINA, ANITA AGARWAL

Preparticipation ocular examination and use of protective eyewear can help to prevent sportsrelated eye injuries in athletes.

Nocturnal Enuresis

C. CAROLYN THIEDKE

The bed-wetting alarm is the single most effective therapy for nocturnal enuresis. Desmopressin or imipramine can also be effective, but relapse rates are relatively high.

Osteoporosis in Men

JANET M. CAMPION, MICHAEL J. MARICIC

As men age, their risk for osteoporosis and fracture increases; one year after hip fracture, men have a higher mortality rate than women.

Recognition of Alcohol and Substance Abuse

DAVID J. MERSY

Regular screening and awareness of “red flags” can help family physicians detect substance abuse in their patients.

Fusiform Excision

THOMAS J. ZUBER

The fusiform excision technique is commonly performed by family physicians for removing skin and subcutaneous lesions. This office procedure offers the advantage of a definitive, single-stage diagnostic and therapeutic intervention.

Recruiting for an AFP Panel of Reader Representatives

Janis Wright

In an earlier column, I invited readers to join a panel of representatives who would provide AFP's editors with occasional feedback on various topics. We are looking for some volunteers to act as a sounding board when we want to test new ideas, products, or services, and to...

Family Physicians Are an Important Source of Mental Health Care

While comprising about 15 percent of the physician workforce, family physicians provided approximately 20 percent of physician office-based mental health visits in the United States between 1980 and 1999. This proportion has remained stable over the past two decades despite a...

Newsletter

Matthew Neff

Agencies Respond to Potential Risks of Supplements Containing Ephedra | FDA Proposal Creates Production Standards for Dietary Supplements | HHS Proposes Smallpox Vaccination Compensation Plan | Report Shows Health Care Costs Top Americans' Economic Concerns | AAFP Adds New...

Just Enough

Sarah Evans, Heather McNeill

If your patients don't like shots, they can join the Congregation of Universal Wisdom. As reported in an article published in The New York Times, members of the Congregation are not allowed to have any foreign materials of unhealthy or unnatural composition injected, ingested...

Screening and Intervening for Patients with Substance Use Disorders

DANIEL C. VINSON

As Mersy1 points out in his article in this issue of American Family Physician, substance use problems are common and serious. They are also hidden.

Hormone Therapy: Continuing Discussion and Debate

BARBARA S. APGAR, DAVID G. WEISMILLER

On July 9, 2002, the Data and Safety Monitoring Board of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) announced the abrupt termination of the continuous hormone replacement therapy (now referred to as hormone therapy, or HT) portion of the WHI trials sponsored by the National...

Diary from a Week in Practice

The towering young man squeezed himself onto the mobile coach and into the clinic examination room. The medical student took a detailed history and physical examination, but she was unsure of the diagnosis or plan. Living in the woods along the Scioto River during one of the...

Postherpetic Neuralgia

TIM LANCASTER, DAVID W. WAREHAM, JOHN YAPHE

One systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) has found limited evidence that acyclovir given for seven to 10 days reduces pain at one to three months. One RCT found that famciclovir versus placebo significantly reduced pain duration after acute herpes zoster....

Screening for Depression

REBECCA FERRINI, BARBARA CLARK

Your office is reviewing its disease screening policies and procedures, and you wonder if depression screening should be included. You are concerned about the effectiveness of screening, your partners' comfort with depression diagnosis and treatment, and the amount of time...

A Nonhealing Ulcer of the Hand

SYED S. AZHAR

A 65-year-old woman presented to the clinic with pain, swelling, and redness of three weeks' duration in her right hand. The patient was putting clothes to dry on a line in her backyard. When she raised her hand, she felt a sudden onset of pain at the radial aspect of her...

Herpes Simplex Virus Vaccine Is Safe and Effective

MARK EBELL

CT Is Best for Evaluating Patients with Microhematuria

DAVID SLAWSON

Shock Wave Therapy Is Ineffective for Tennis Elbow

HENRY BARRY

Is Collaborative Care Effective for Depression?

ALLEN SHAUGHNESSY

Alternative Medicines for Menopausal Symptoms

RICHARD SADOVSKY

Impact of Newer Antipsychotic Agents on Hyperlipidemia

KARL E. MILLER

Unrefined Echinacea Does Not Ease Common Cold Symptoms

RICHARD SADOVSKY

Subclinical Thyroid Dysfunction Affects the Heart

RICHARD SADOVSKY

Morphine Does Not Hinder Evaluation of Abdominal Pain

RICHARD SADOVSKY

Early Recognition and Treatment of Latent TB

CHUCK CARTER

Early Hospital Discharge Following Mastectomy

ANNE D. WALLING

Relationship Between WBC and Degree of CAD

KARL E. MILLER

Predicting Coronary Events in Asymptomatic Volunteers

SUMI M. SEXTON

Managing Asymptomatic Primary Hyperparathyroidism

RICHARD SADOVSKY

Treatment of Benign Headache in the Emergency Department

RICHARD SADOVSKY

Evidence Basis for Four Commonly Used Herbs

BILL ZEPF

Diagnosis and Management of Patients with Anal Fissures

RICHARD SADOVSKY

Splenectomy for Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

ANNE D. WALLING

Hypertonic Saline Solution Eases Symptoms of Bronchiolitis

KARL E. MILLER

Study of Statin Therapy and All-Cause Mortality

CAROLINE WELLBERY

ACOG Releases Guidelines on Diagnosis and Management of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Barrett M. Schroeder

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recently published a clinical management guideline on the diagnosis and management of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The guideline appeared in the December 2002 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Clinical Briefs

Carrie Morantz, Brian Torrey

CDC Guidelines for QuantiFERON-TB Test | NIH Launches HIV/AIDS Web Site | AHRQ Launches Web-Based Quality Measures Resource | FDA Approval

Should I Give Money to My Patients?

TONY MIKSANEK

What should I do when patients ask me for money? One patient recently requested $3.25 for bus fare to visit her seriously ill sister who lived across town. Sometimes we have bus tokens in the office, but we were out of them that day, so I gave her $2.00 and explained that it...

Differentiating Foot Fractures from Ankle Sprains

ROBERT L. HATCH

Management of Risk Factors in Relatives of Patients with SAH

ROBIN GILLARD

Evaluation and Treatment of Heat-Related Illnesses

Eye Injuries in Sports

Sports cause more than 40,000 eye injuries each year. More than 90 percent of these injuries can be prevented. Overall, basketball and baseball cause the most eye injuries, followed by water sports and racquet sports.

Bed-Wetting

Bed-wetting, or losing urine during sleep, is a common problem in children. As many as 7 million children in the United States wet the bed at night. Bed-wetting happens three times more often in boys than in girls.

Substance Abuse—How To Recognize It

YES, if you are:

Fusiform Excision Procedure

The fusiform excision technique is a simple way to remove tumors or growths from the skin or from the tissues below the skin. The word “biopsy” means the removal of tissue for examination under a microscope. This procedure frequently is performed to find out whether a growth...

Abstinence: Information for Teens

Sex is any behavior that involves using a person's sex organs for pleasure. When people talk about “sex,” they usually refer to sexual intercourse, which is penetration of the vagina by the penis. But “sex” also can include oral sex, manual sex (masturbation), and anal sex....

Birth Control

The type of birth control (or “contraception”) you choose depends on your needs. Some people only need to prevent pregnancy. Other people also may want to protect themselves or their partners from diseases that can be passed by having sex. These are called sexually...

Progestin-Only Contraceptives

A progestin-only contraceptive is one kind of birth control pill. It is often called the “mini-pill.” Regular birth control pills have two female hormones: estrogen and progestin. The mini-pill has only progestin in it. Because this pill does not contain estrogen, it may not...