Comparison of a Prototype for Indications-Based Prescribing With 2 Commercial Prescribing Systems.

Importance: The indication (reason for use) for a medication is rarely included on prescriptions despite repeated recommendations to do so. One barrier has been the way existing electronic prescribing systems have been designed.

Objective: To evaluate, in comparison with the prescribing modules of 2 leading electronic health record prescribing systems, the efficiency, error rate, and satisfaction with a new computerized provider order entry prototype for the outpatient setting that allows clinicians to initiate prescribing using the indication.

Blood Pressure, Emotional Dampening, and Risk Behavior: Implications for Hypertension Development.

Objective: Elevated resting blood pressure (BP) is associated with risk for hypertension and emotional dampening, including reduced responses to emotionally meaningful stimuli. Perception of threat is a critical motivator in avoidance of risky health-damaging behavior. We hypothesize that BP-associated dampening of threat appraisal may increase risk-taking behavior.

Incorporating medication indications into the prescribing process.

Purpose: The incorporation of medication indications into the prescribing process to improve patient safety is discussed.

Summary: Currently, most prescriptions lack a key piece of information needed for safe medication use: the patient-specific drug indication. Integrating indications could pave the way for safer prescribing in multiple ways, including avoiding look-alike/sound-alike errors, facilitating selection of drugs of choice, aiding in communication among the healthcare team, bolstering patient understanding and adherence, and organizing medication lists to facilitate medication reconciliation.

Subclinical Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: Relationships with Blood Pressure, Hostility, and Sleep.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among subclinical PTSD symptoms, blood pressure, and several variables linked to both frank PTSD and the basic psychobiological adaptation to stress. The authors recruited a sample of 91 healthy, young men and women between 18 and 35 years. We examined links among subclinical posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, blood pressure, sleep quality, and hostility.