The risk of severe depression, psychosis or panic attacks with prophylactic antimalarials.

Introduction/objective: Experimental and observational studies have linked mefloquine use to an increased risk of developing neuropsychiatric adverse effects such as depression or psychoses. Most of these reports relied on interview-based information from travellers. We conducted a population-based observational study using a database of medical records to quantify and compare the risk of psychiatric disorders during or after use of mefloquine with the risk during use of proguanil and/or chloroquine, or doxycycline.

Discontinuation and switching of therapy after initiation of lipid-lowering drugs: the effects of comorbidities and patient characteristics.

Aims: To evaluate the effects of comorbidities and patient characteristics on treatment continuation among patients starting their first course of lipid-lowering drug (LLD) therapy.

Methods: Within the UK General Practice Research Database (GPRD), we identified 22 408 patients who started LLD therapy due to coronary heart disease, hyperlipidaemia, or other atherosclerotic diseases, and who received > or = two prescriptions for LLD between January 1 1990 and December 31 1997. Differences in potential predictors of treatment continuation between patients who continued, and patients who discontinued/switched lipid-lowering therapy within 1 year after treatment initiation were compared by fitting multivariate logistic regression models.

Validity of the general practice research database.

The United Kingdom General Practice Research Database (GPRD) is an office-based, computer-generated, medical resource designed from its inception to be used for epidemiologic research. A distinct version of the GPRD is maintained by the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program and has been the source of more than 130 scientific articles primarily addressing drug safety issues. We reviewed evidence related to the validity of the GPRD.

Who receives lipid-lowering drugs: the effects of comorbidities and patient characteristics on treatment initiation.

Aims: Little is known about the effects of comorbidities and patient characteristics on treatment initiation of lipid-lowering drugs (LLDs), which can be helpful in the evaluation of the risks and benefits of LLDs.

Methods: Baseline characteristics among subjects who received their first ever-recorded LLD prescription in general practice between 1 January 1990 and 31 December 1997, and hyperlipidaemic patients without LLD therapy during the same period were obtained from the UK General Practice Research Database. Differences between patients who received and patients who did not receive LLDs, as well as patients who received different classes of LLDs were compared by fitting multivariate logistic regression models that adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, and year of treatment initiation or hyperlipidaemia diagnosis.

Temporal trends in orchidopexy, Great Britain, 1992-1998.

Concern has been expressed in recent years about worsening male reproductive health, possibly mediated by increasing exposures to environmental endocrine-disrupting agents. Trends suggested large increases in cryptorchidism in Britain and the United States between the 1950s and 1980s, although published data on recent trends have been scarce. We examined numbers of orchidopexy procedures, as a marker for cryptorchidism, using routine hospital admission data for England, Wales, and Scotland for fiscal years 1992-1993 through 1998-1999.

Itraconazole and fluconazole and certain rare, serious adverse events.

Study Objective: To determine rates of drug-induced, rare, serious adverse events affecting the liver, kidneys, skin, or blood, occurring within 45 days of completing a prescription or refill for itraconazole or fluconazole.

Design: Population-based follow-up study

Setting: United Kingdom-based General Practice Research Database.

Patients: Total of 54,803 users of either fluconazole or itraconazole.

Statins and the risk of idiopathic venous thromboembolism.

Aims: To evaluate the association between current statin use and the risk of idiopathic venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Methods: A population-based retrospective follow-up with a nested case-control analysis using the General Practice Research Database.

Results: There were 72 cases of idiopathic VTE.