The impact of minimum unit pricing on traumatic brain injury in Scotland: a retrospective cohort study of routine national data.

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common cause of disability and mortality and is associated with alcohol consumption. On 1 May 2018, the Scottish Government introduced Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) legislation which set the floor price at which alcohol can be sold to 50 pence per unit. While MUP has led to a 7.

Physiotherapy breathing retraining for asthma: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Despite effective pharmacotherapy, asthma continues to impair quality of life for most patients. Non-pharmacological approaches, including breathing retraining, are therefore of great interest to patients. However, clinicians rarely advocate breathing retraining and access to this intervention is restricted for most patients due to the limited availability of suitable physiotherapists and poor integration of breathing retraining into standard care.

A randomised controlled study of the effectiveness of breathing retraining exercises taught by a physiotherapist either by instructional DVD or in face-to-face sessions in the management of asthma in adults.

Background: Asthma control is suboptimal, resulting in quality of life (QoL) impairment and costs. Breathing retraining exercises have evidence of effectiveness as adjuvant treatment, but are infrequently used.

Objectives: To transfer the contents of a brief (three-session) physiotherapist-delivered breathing retraining programme to a digital versatile disc (DVD) and booklet format; to compare the effectiveness of the self-guided intervention with that of 'face-to-face' physiotherapy and usual care for QoL and other asthma-related outcomes; to perform a health economic assessment of both interventions; and to perform a process evaluation using quantitative and qualitative methods.

Community pharmacy services for people with drug problems over two decades in Scotland: Implications for future development.

Background: In Scotland community pharmacies are heavily involved in service delivery for people with drug problems (PWDP) as documented through surveys of all community pharmacies in 1995, 2000 and 2006. A further survey in 2014 enabled trends in service demand/provision to be analysed and provides insight into future development.

Methods: The lead pharmacist in every Scottish pharmacy (n=1246) was invited to complete a postal questionnaire covering attitudes towards PWDP and service provision and level of involvement in services (needle exchange, dispensing for PWDP and methadone supervision).