Medical Students' Knowledge and Perceptions of Herbal Medicine in Saudi Arabia: Should Medical Schools Take Immediate Action?

Background: Herbal medicine is integral to Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which seeks to improve the healthcare system and promote alternative practices while ensuring safety through education and research. This study aims to evaluate medical students' knowledge and perceptions regarding herbal medicine in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students in three medical colleges in Saudi Arabia over a six-month period from 1 February to 31 July 2024.

Factors affecting the specialty choice among medical students of Saudi Arabia; an exploratory study.

Background: Career or specialty choice is one of the crucial steps of a medical student's life. It's a difficult yet important decision that is hard to reverse after getting into the residency program. The recent catastrophic experience of shortage and maldistribution of the health workforce among different specialties during the recent pandemic has made it critical for the authorities to look into the motivators and determinants for the specialty choice from the undergraduate medical student's perspective.

Knowledge and Perception Towards Psychotropic Drugs Among the General Population in Saudi Arabia.

Background: Mental health is crucial to overall well-being. Despite an increase in mental disorders over the past few decades, public awareness remains slow-growing, and stigmatization towards psychotropic medications persists. Therefore, this study aimed to identify knowledge and perceptions of psychotropic drugs among the general population in the Makkah Region, Saudi Arabia.

Prevalence and predictors of polypharmacy and comorbidities among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a cross-sectional retrospective study in a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of polypharmacy, comorbidities and to investigate factors associated with polypharmacy among adult patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

Methods: This was a retrospective single-centre cross-sectional study. Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COPD according to the GOLD guidelines between 28 February 2020 and 1 March 2023 were included in this study.

Knowledge of Antibiotic Use and Resistance Among Medical Students in Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) has placed great importance on providing thorough, hands-on training to medical students regarding responsible and appropriate antibiotic prescription. Accordingly, this study aims to gain a better perspective on the knowledge of antibiotic use and resistance among medical students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Methods: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 1 September to 30 November 2023.

Prescribing Renally Inappropriate Medication to Hospitalized Geriatric Patients in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: As a result of the physiological decline in renal function that comes with age and the common failure to recognise renal insufficiency, older adults aged 65 and above are at increased risk of receiving medications that are inappropriate for their level of renal function which in turn lead to increased risk of adverse effects. Little is known about how many older adults receive medications that are inappropriate for their level of renal function. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of renally inappropriate medications in elderly adults by reviewing patient files and evaluating the appropriateness of medication doses relative to renal function in patients aged ≥ 65 years at inpatient healthcare departments.

Potential Applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Managing Polypharmacy in Saudi Arabia: A Narrative Review.

Prescribing medications is a fundamental practice in the management of illnesses that necessitates in-depth knowledge of clinical pharmacology. Polypharmacy, or the concurrent use of multiple medications by individuals with complex health conditions, poses significant challenges, including an increased risk of drug interactions and adverse reactions. The Saudi Vision 2030 prioritises enhancing healthcare quality and safety, including addressing polypharmacy.

Perceptions of Saudis Toward Participating in the COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Clinical Trial.

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major public health and economic issue worldwide. Even though vaccines have been developed to reduce the spread of the infection, treating patients remains a significant challenge. This study aims to measure the perceptions of Saudis toward participating in the COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Clinical Trial.

Case Reports Study on Methanol Poisoning in King Abdul Aziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia.

Methanol poisoning is a challenging issue due to its inducing acute multiple organ failures, and especially due to a lack of preparedness, available antidotes, and management protocols. The current study presents six cases of methanol poisoning that attended the emergency department of King Abdul Aziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia, between March and November 2022. All of the patients suffered from severe metabolic acidosis and visual impairment following the ingestion of homemade alcoholic beverages and colonia.

Toxicity of Nab-Paclitaxel Compared to Paclitaxel in a Tertiary Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background Nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel has been developed to avoid the toxicities associated with Cremophor-solved paclitaxel. Although many studies confirm this hypothesis, there is recent evidence showing no difference between paclitaxel and nab-paclitaxel in their efficacy and safety profile. This study further assesses the toxicity of both paclitaxel and nab-paclitaxel in adult patients with breast and pancreatic cancer in a tertiary hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Risk of Polypharmacy and Its Outcome in Terms of Drug Interaction in an Elderly Population: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study.

The simultaneous use of multiple drugs-termed 'polypharmacy'-is often required to manage multiple physiological and biological changes and the interplay between chronic disorders that are expected to increase in association with ageing. However, by increasing the number of medications consumed, the risk of undesirable medication reactions and drug interactions also increases exponentially. Hence, knowledge of the prevalence of polypharmacy and the risk of potentially serious drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in elderly patients should be considered a key topic of interest for public health and health care professionals.

Polypharmacy among patients with hypertension attending primary healthcare centres.

Unlabelled: Saudi Arabia has several hypertensive patients who require close attention and specialised care for their medications. Polypharmacy is one of the reasons for the failure of patient compliance with antihypertensive medications. Therefore, this study aims to gain a better perspective on polypharmacy in hypertensive patients attending primary healthcare (PHC) centres in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

Over-the-Counter Medication Use among Parents in Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: Self-medication is a growing public health concern worldwide. Studies have shown a gap between best practice and the current practice of using over-the-counter (OTC) medications. Despite being a well-recognised problem in Saudi Arabia, few studies have investigated OTC medication use in Saudi Arabia.

COVID-19 vaccination side effects among the child age group: a large cross-sectional online based survey in Saudi Arabia.

Background: Multiple vaccines have been tested in clinical trials for their efficacy and safety. In Saudi Arabia, Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna were approved for children, however, previous studies to report their safety profile are limited. This research aims to understand the side effect of children's vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 infection in Saudi Arabia.

Reported Cases of Alcohol Consumption and Poisoning for the Years 2015 to 2022 in Hail, Saudi Arabia.

This study aimed to determine the pattern of alcohol consumption and its poisoning among the Saudi population in the city of Hail, KSA. Data from a retrospective cohort were collected qualitatively at King Khalid Hospital (KKH) and Hail General Hospital (HGH), covering 550 participants from 2015 to 2022. Two groups were formed comprising patients admitted to the emergency room (ER) and community members; their ages ranged from 19 to 75 years.

Efficacy and Safety of Empagliflozin in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Saudi Patients as Add-On to Antidiabetic Therapy: A Prospective, Open-Label, Observational Study.

The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) approved sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in 2018. The efficacy and safety of empagliflozin (EMPA) have been confirmed in the U.S.

A New Vision of Teaching Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics for Undergraduate Medical Students.

For many years, clinical pharmacology (CP) has been taught at schools of medicine via traditional methods including classic lectures and experimental sessions. The explosion of scientific knowledge and the availability of many treatment options have necessitated the development of new strategies for pharmacology teaching and learning. Applying information learnt in real-life situations has become more important than finding information that is readily available in many places.

Pharmacological Testing of Herbal Drugs for Anti-Allergic and Anti-Asthmatic Properties.

Background: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by reversible airway obstruction, hyperresponsiveness, and remodeling. Asthma prevalence has increased significantly globally over the last decade, and it remains incurable to this date.

Aims And Objectives: The present study evaluated some of the antiasthmatic medicinal plants to assess their mode of action.

Metabolomic identification of a novel pathway of blood pressure regulation involving hexadecanedioate.

High blood pressure is a major contributor to the global burden of disease and discovering novel causal pathways of blood pressure regulation has been challenging. We tested blood pressure associations with 280 fasting blood metabolites in 3980 TwinsUK females. Survival analysis for all-cause mortality was performed on significant independent metabolites (P<8.