Medication Counselling on Unlicensed Medicines Should Be Improved - Results from a Finnish Survey for Patients and Pharmacy Staff.

Background: Finnish authorities have published specific instructions for prescribing, handling, and dispensing unlicensed medicines and for the associated communication with patients. However, there is a clear research gap concerning the quality of medication counselling given by doctors and especially pharmacists to patients who are prescribed unlicensed medicines. The success of such counselling was studied with a survey for both pharmacy staff and patients.

Cystic fibrosis patient characteristics and healthcare resource utilization in Finland using linked registries.

Background: Knowledge of prevalence and epidemiology of cystic fibrosis (CF) and healthcare resource use among Finnish people with CF is incomplete.

Methods: We conducted a population-based matched cohort study using retrospective real-world data from linked Finnish national registries. Electronic healthcare data and drug purchases of 102 people with CF were analyzed between January 2015 and December 2019 (follow-up).

Reasons for not entering opioid agonist treatment: A survey among high-risk opioid users in Finland.

To characterise and understand the untreated high-risk opioid user population in Finland, and to determine the reasons why these people do not enter treatment. The study setting was a half-year cross-sectional survey in Finland during 2021-2022. An electronic questionnaire with 24 structured questions was concluded in 16 needle exchange units.

Biosimilars Would Reduce Health Care Costs But Are Yet Poorly Known - Patient Survey Study Among Biological Medicine Users.

Background: From the beginning of the year 2024, gradually implemented amendment to the Medicines Act will enable interchange of biological medicines in pharmacies in Finland. The legislative change aims to reduce health care costs.

Methods: Opinions of the biological medicine users regarding substitution in pharmacies and knowledge about biological medicines were determined by a patient survey in community pharmacies and via patient organizations in Finland.

Concomitant use of drugs known to cause interactions with oral antiplatelets-polypharmacy in acute coronary syndrome outpatients in Finland.

Purpose: Use of oral antiplatelets (OAPs) is essential for preventing thrombotic events in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Effects of clopidogrel, prasugrel, and ticagrelor may be enhanced due to pharmacodynamic interactions, but as CYP substrates, they are prone to pharmacokinetic interactions too. The aim was to study polypharmacy in ACS patients following hospital discharge.

Usage of PCI and long-term cardiovascular risk in post-myocardial infarction patients: a nationwide registry cohort study from Finland.

Background: Despite currently available treatments, the burden of myocardial infarction (MI) morbidity and mortality remains prominent. The aim of this was to investigate the risk of developing subsequent cardiovascular events in MI patients.

Methods: This was an observational, retrospective cohort database linkage study using patient level data from Finland.

Clinical factors associated with initiation of and persistence with ADP receptor-inhibiting oral antiplatelet treatment after acute coronary syndrome: a nationwide cohort study from Finland.

Objectives: To study patient selection for and persistence with ADP receptor-inhibiting oral antiplatelet (OAP) treatment after acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

Design: Observational, retrospective, cohort study linking real-life patient-level register data.

Setting: Nationwide drug usage study using data of patients with ACS discharged from hospitals in Finland.

Entacapone and prostate cancer risk in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Background: The association between Parkinson's disease (PD) and prostate cancer, both common in elderly men, is disputable. In the STRIDE-PD study, prostate cancer developed in 9 patients (3.7%) receiving levodopa/carbidopa with entacapone, a catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor, versus 2 cases (0.