Cost-effectiveness analysis of acupuncture compared with usual care for acute non-specific low back pain: secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To assess the cost-effectiveness of a single treatment session of acupuncture, when applied in addition to usual care for acute low back pain (ALBP).

Methods: Secondary analysis of a multicentre randomised controlled trial in Norwegian general practice. In total, 171 participants with ALBP ⩽14 days were randomised to a control group (CG) receiving usual care or to an acupuncture group (AG) receiving one additional session of Western medical acupuncture alongside usual care.

Acupuncture for acute non-specific low back pain: a randomised, controlled, multicentre intervention study in general practice-the Acuback study.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a single treatment session of acupuncture, when applied in addition to standard treatment for acute low back pain (ALBP), reduces the time to recovery compared with standard treatment alone.

Design: A multicentre, randomised, controlled trial.

Setting: Conducted at 11 Norwegian general practitioners' (GPs') offices.

Characteristics of GPs responding to an educational intervention to minimise inappropriate prescriptions: subgroup analyses of the Rx-PAD study.

Background: Interventions aimed at improving GPs' prescribing practice usually apply a 'one size fits all' when analysing intervention effects. Few studies explore intervention effects by variables related to the GPs' age, sex, specialist status, practice type (single-handed versus group), practice setting (urban versus rural), and baseline performance regarding the target of an intervention.

Aim: To explore the characteristics of the GPs responding to a comprehensive educational intervention.

Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing to Older Patients: Criteria, Prevalence and an Intervention to Reduce It: The Prescription Peer Academic Detailing (Rx-PAD) Study - A Cluster-Randomized, Educational Intervention in Norwegian General Practice.

Potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIP) is drug treatment, which in general, at the group level for a median/mean patient, can be considered unfavourable meaning that the risks commonly may outweigh the benefits. This MiniReview reports and discusses the main findings in a large cluster-randomized educational intervention in Norwegian general practice, aimed at reducing the prevalence of PIPs to patients ≥70 years (The Rx-PAD study). Targets for the intervention were general practitioners (GPs) in continuing medical education (CME) groups receiving educational outreach visits (i.

Acupuncture treatments for infantile colic: a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of blinding test validated randomised controlled trials.

Objective: Needle acupuncture in small children has gained some acceptance in Western medicine. It is controversial, as infants and toddlers are unable to consent to treatment. We aimed to assess its efficacy for treating infantile colic.

Survey Email Scheduling and Monitoring in eRCTs (SESAMe): A Digital Tool to Improve Data Collection in Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials.

Background: Electronic questionnaires can ease data collection in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in clinical practice. We found no existing software that could automate the sending of emails to participants enrolled into an RCT at different study participant inclusion time points.

Objective: Our aim was to develop suitable software to facilitate data collection in an ongoing multicenter RCT of low back pain (the Acuback study).

Acupuncture for infantile colic: a blinding-validated, randomized controlled multicentre trial in general practice.

Objective: Infantile colic is a painful condition in the first months of infancy. Acupuncture is used in Scandinavia as a treatment for infantile colic. A randomized controlled trial was carried out with the aim of testing the hypothesis that acupuncture treatment has a clinically relevant effect for this condition.

Prescription peer academic detailing to reduce inappropriate prescribing for older patients: a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Background: Older patients are at particular risk for adverse drug reactions. In older people, interventions targeting potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs) are considered important measures to minimise drug-related harm, especially in the general practice setting where most prescriptions for older patients are issued.

Aim: To study the effects of a multifaceted educational intervention on GPs' PIPs for older patients.

Acupuncture for acute non-specific low back pain: a protocol for a randomised, controlled multicentre intervention study in general practice--the Acuback Study.

Introduction: Some general practitioners (GPs) treat acute low back pain (LBP) with acupuncture, despite lacking evidence of its effectiveness for this condition. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a single treatment session with acupuncture can reduce time to recovery when applied in addition to standard LBP treatment according to the Norwegian national guidelines. Analyses of prognostic factors for recovery and cost-effectiveness will also be carried out.

Do general practitioners' consultation rates influence their prescribing patterns of antibiotics for acute respiratory tract infections?

Objectives: To examine general practitioners' (GPs') antibiotic prescribing patterns for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) as compared with national guidelines. We also wanted to explore possible predictors of antibiotic prescription patterns.

Methods: Observational study based on prescription data from 440 Norwegian GPs in December 2004 through to November 2005.

A pilot study of ST36 acupuncture for infantile colic.

Objective: To conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility of a proposed design of an acupuncture trial to relieve symptoms of infantile colic.

Method: An open randomised single-blinded controlled trial, using standardised bilateral treatment of the acupuncture point ST36. Infants fulfilling Wessel's definition of infantile colic were included.

[Symptom patterns in chronic sleep disorders].

Background: Sleep disorders are classified into six main categories: insomnias, circadian rhythm disorders, sleep-related movement disorders, sleep-related breathing disorders, hypersomnias and parasomnias. The aim of this article is to shed light on differences between these categories with respect to symptom patterns.

Material And Methods: The main sources of information are the diagnosis manual published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine in 2005 and papers identified through non-systematic searches in Pubmed.

[Sleep disorders in the elderly].

Background: Sleep disorders are common in the elderly, and may lead to substantially impaired quality of life. Many of these disorders are not diagnosed or treated. This article covers treatment options and characteristics of common sleep disorders in the elderly.

Late-life insomnia: a review.

Aging is associated with substantial changes in sleep patterns, which are almost always negative in nature. Typical findings in the elderly include a reduction in the deeper stages of sleep and a profound increase in the fragmentation of nighttime sleep by periods of wakefulness. The prevalence of specific sleep disorders increases with age, such as a phase advance in the normal circadian sleep cycle, restless legs syndrome, and obstructive sleep apnea, which is increasingly seen among older individuals and is significantly associated with cardio- and cerebrovascular disease as well as cognitive impairment.

The Norwegian General Practice (NORGEP) criteria for assessing potentially inappropriate prescriptions to elderly patients. A modified Delphi study.

Objective: To establish a clinically relevant list with explicit criteria for pharmacologically inappropriate prescriptions in general practice for elderly people > or =70 years.

Design: A three-round Delphi process for validating the clinical relevance of suggested criteria (n = 37) for inappropriate prescriptions to elderly patients.

Setting: A postal consensus process undertaken by a panel of specialists in general practice, clinical pharmacology, and geriatrics.

[New guidelines for antibiotic use in primary health care].

Background: In 2000, the first national guideline is on antibiotic use in general practice wee distributed to all general practitioners and medical students in Norway. Here we describe the development of new guidelines.

Material And Methods: A working group of 30 people searched relevant databases for literature.

[Medical emergency care and patient contact at the Quart Rock Festival in Norway].

Background: The annual Quart Rock Festival (1991-2007) was the largest rock festival in Norway. During festivals in 2004-06, a daily average of 3 000 personnel, guests and artists, and 10,000 visitors, 13,000 people, were present daily. The festival had a medical care organization recruited from primary care personnel.

Sleep disturbances in an arctic population: the Tromsø Study.

Background: Prevalence estimates for insomnia range from 10 to 50% in the adult general population. Sleep disturbances cause great impairment in quality of life, which might even rival or exceed the impairment in other chronic medical disorders. The economic implications and use of health-care services related to chronic insomnia represent a clinical concern as well as a pronounced public health problem.

Assessment of febrile seizures in children.

Febrile seizures are the most common form of childhood seizures, affecting 2-5% of all children and usually appearing between 3 months and 5 years of age. Despite its predominantly benign nature, a febrile seizure (FS) is a terrifying experience for most parents. The condition is perhaps one of the most prevalent causes of admittance to pediatric emergency wards worldwide.

The association between sleep duration, body mass index and metabolic measures in the Hordaland Health Study.

Several studies show that short self-reported sleep duration is associated with elevated body mass index (BMI). Short sleep duration may change appetite hormones, but whether this also influences metabolic measures like cholesterol and triglycerides is less clear. Furthermore, obesity is linked to increases in blood pressure, and recently, short sleep duration has been shown to be an independent risk factor for hypertension.

Severity of illness and the use of paracetamol in febrile preschool children; a case simulation study of parents' assessments.

Objective: Misconceptions and exaggerated fear of fever may divert parents' attention from more predictive symptoms of childhood illness, such as appetite and level of activity. This study aims at exploring how specific predefined characteristics of febrile preschool children affected parents' assessment of the severity of the condition and the perceived need for treatment with paracetamol.

Methods: Parents judged 24 constructed cases of febrile children with different levels of fever, appetite and activity, occurring at different times of the day.