Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D M Gardner.
Psychopharmacologic agents may offer potentially effective treatment of child and adolescent anxiety disorders. Much further research, however, remains to be done to determine medication specificity, dosages, duration of treatment, and the optimal relationship between pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies.
Cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) has been applied to a wide range of health care procedures including TDM. The need for CEA of TDM has resulted from economic pressures for cost justification exerted by hospital administrators, government and, in the United States, by third party health insurers. The lack of well-designed studies has made it difficult to prove (or disprove) the credibility of TDM on an economic basis. When conducting a cost analysis evaluation of TDM, all costs and benefits must be identified, and to determine the program's viability, a study-specific analytical model is required. Ideally, the study should be controlled, comparative, prospective and have patient outcome as an assessed endpoint. Therapeutic drug monitoring has been shown to be cost-effective when SDCs are used with a sound pharmacokinetic basis, when the drugs monitored show a strong correlation between serum concentration and therapeutic outcome, and when the program has been well accepted by the professional personnel within the institution.
Within the professional community, a vast number of sexual abuse treatment programs have emerged to meet the needs of victims and their families. Significant variations among these programs can be observed due to differences in philosophy, system context, client focus, problem definition, and the treatment strategy adopted. Unfortunately, little comparative information is available regarding the operation of different programs and, more importantly, their relative treatment effectiveness. This article presents the findings from a nationwide survey of 553 sexual abuse treatment programs. The survey focused on program context, client, and service characteristics. Overall it was found that most programs are affiliated with a larger public or private agency, focus on treating victims, and rely on a combination of individual, family, dyad, and group therapy approaches.
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Schizophrenia is a debilitating chronic illness that has its onset in adolescence or the early years of adulthood. The benefit of early diagnosis and treatment has been acknowledged for decades, although facilitating the early identification of patients with schizophrenia remains a challenge. Research has demonstrated that many individuals are living with the symptoms of psychosis for prolonged periods in the community, and family physicians are well positioned to identify such patients. Community education is an important strategy, in that it increases the general awareness of psychotic illness and lessens the stigma of mental illness, eventually encouraging individuals to seek help. We review here some of the evidence indicating the benefit of early treatment, and describe the strategies to assist in the identification of patients with a first episode of schizophrenia and key treatment modalities available. Ultimately, there is a need for comprehensive, accessible healthcare including medications that have minimal side-effects and are effective.