Clinical

For many, the last 12 months of life is spent with significant disability, associated with rising symptom burden and functional decline. A palliative approach aims to ease difficult symptoms, encourage the best quality of life, and offer support for...

Neuropathic pain is associated with disability, reduced quality of life and employment, and increased healthcare costs. The prevalence of neuropathic pain in the general population ranges from 7% to 10%.2 The causes of neuropathic pain vary according to the...

A 76-year-old man with past medical history significant for a cerebrovascular accident, pacemaker insertion for sick sinus syndrome and transurethral resection for benign prostatic hyperplasia was rushed to the emergency department.1 The ambient temperature on the day of admission was...

A 61-year-old non-smoking woman was in apparently good physical health. She had no history of drug or alcohol addiction. Her psychiatric history was unremarkable. The patient had been taking tramadol 1700 mg/day for five years to control pain after...

The prevalence of acute pancreatitis is between 5 and 30 per 100,000 population worldwide. It also represents the most common cause for gastrointestinal hospital admission in the United States.2 The main causes of acute pancreatitis are alcohol and gall...

Almost 1.45 million Australians have some form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This equates to one in seven Australians over 40 suffering from COPD. Typical symptoms of COPD include shortness of breath, wheezing, chest tightness, chronic cough, unintended...

Dementia includes a range of neurological disorders characterised by memory loss and cognitive impairment. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 50–70% of cases.1 In 2015 approximately 342,800 Australians were living with dementia, with this...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of blindness in developed countries. The prevalence of AMD is 1.4% at 70 years of age and 5.6% at 80 years of age and 20% at age of 90 years....

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been ranked as serious a threat to society as terrorism. With millions of lives at risk, and trillions in GDP potentially lost, antibiotic misuse must be prevented to avoid widespread resistance. Today, no-one expects a scratch...

Local community pharmacists play a vital role in improving health outcomes for LGBTI people and people living with HIV. There has been greater recognition of the health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Australians among an increasing...