Treatment patterns and medication adherence among newly diagnosed patients with migraine: a drug utilisation study.

Objectives: Prophylactic drugs currently used for migraine treatment are not specific. Furthermore, few studies in existing literature describe drugs utilisation patterns and adherence to migraine prophylactic treatment. This study is aimed to describe utilisation patterns of migraine drugs, evaluate adherence to prophylactic medications and investigate drug-related costs.

Geographical Variation in Medication Prescriptions: A Multiregional Drug-Utilization Study.

Background: Studies have emphasized the importance of geographical factors and general practitioner (GP) characteristics in influencing drug prescriptions.

Objectives: To: (i) ascertain the prevalence rate (PR) of use of drugs in six therapeutic categories used for chronic conditions; (ii) assess how geographical characteristics and GP characteristics may influence drug prescribing.

Methods: This study is part of the EDU.

Drug Utilization Pattern of Antibiotics: The Role of Age, Sex and Municipalities in Determining Variation.

Purpose: The purpose was to analyze drug prescription and antibiotic use by age and sex in Italy's Campania Region, and to estimate the distribution of prescription rates in children (≤14 years old), adults (between 15 and 65 years old), and older adults (≥65 years old) at a municipality level.

Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of pharmacy records in Campania (Southern Italy), in 2016. Difference in antibiotic prescriptions in different age groups was assessed by prevalence rates.

Fixed Versus Free Combinations Of Antihypertensive Drugs: Analyses Of Real-World Data Of Persistence With Therapy In Italy.

Purpose: To analyse the pattern of use and cost of antihypertensive drugs in new users in an Italian population, and explore the patient/treatment factors associated with the risk of therapy discontinuation.

Patients And Methods: In this retrospective study, information was collected from a population-based electronic primary-care database. Persistence with medication use 1 year from therapy initiation was evaluated for each user using the gap method.

Treatment Patterns of Diabetes in Italy: A Population-Based Study.

The steady increase in type 2 diabetes prevalence and the availability of new antidiabetic drugs (AD) have risen the use of these drugs with a change in the patterns of specific drug utilization. The complexity of this treatment is due to successive treatment initiation, switching and addition in order to maintain glycaemic control. The aim of this study was to describe the utilization patterns of ADs at initiation, treatment addition, and switching profiles and to measure factors influencing persistence to therapy.

Predictors of new oral anticoagulant drug initiation as opposed to warfarin in elderly adults: a retrospective observational study in Southern Italy.

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the predictive role of age, gender, and number and type of co-treatments for new oral anticoagulant (NOAC) vs warfarin prescription in elderly patients naïve for the aforementioned drugs.

Materials And Methods: Data collected in the period from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2014, in Caserta Local Health Unit administrative databases (Campania Region, Italy) were screened to identify new users of oral anticoagulants (OACs) who were 75 years or older and whose OAC prescriptions amounted to >90 days of treatment. Age, gender, and number and type of concomitant medications at the time of first OAC dispensation were retrieved.

Prevalence of antibiotic prescription in southern Italian outpatients: real-world data analysis of socioeconomic and sociodemographic variables at a municipality level.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyze the geographic variation in systemic antibiotic prescription at a regional level and to explore the influence of socioeconomic and sociodemographic variables.

Methods: This study was a retrospective analysis of reimbursement pharmacy records in the outpatient settings of Italy's Campania Region in 2016. Standardized antibiotic prescription rates were calculated at municipality and Local Health Unit (LHU) level.

Are you more concerned about or relieved by medicines? An explorative randomized study of the impact of telephone counseling by pharmacists on patients' beliefs regarding medicines and blood pressure control.

Objectives: The aim was to determine the impact of a telephone counseling service, provided bi-monthly by pharmacist, on patients' beliefs about antihypertensive medicines and blood pressure (BP) control.

Methods: Either hypertensive patients were randomly assigned to a control group (CG, usual care) or an intervention group (IG). All patients had BP values registered and filled in the Italian version of the Belief Medicine Questionnaire (BMQ).

Biological therapy utilization, switching, and cost among patients with psoriasis: retrospective analysis of administrative databases in Southern Italy.

Purpose: The aim was to describe the current use of biological therapies among patients affected by psoriasis and to analyze a drug utilization profile in naïve patients in terms of switching and treatment costs in a Local Health Unit (LHU) of Southern Italy.

Methods: We conducted an observational retrospective cohort analysis using the health-related administrative databases of a LHU in Southern Italy covering a population of about one million inhabitants. All subjects with a main or secondary diagnosis of psoriasis who received at least one prescription of biological therapies between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2014 were analyzed.

Rates and reasons for lack of persistence with anti-osteoporotic drugs: analysis of the Campania region database.

Subjects with chronic diseases are more likely to be nonpersistent to pharmacological treatment. Lack of persistence is common among subjects using oral anti-osteoporotic drugs, and leads to increased risk of fragility fracture. The aim of our retrospective study is to analyze the rates and reasons for discontinuation of anti-osteoporotic drugs in the Campania Region.

Italian translation and cultural adaptation of the communication assessment tool in an outpatient surgical clinic.

Background: The aim of the study is to translate and cross-culturally adapt, for use in the Italian context, the Communication Assessment Tool (CAT) developed by Makoul and colleagues.

Methods: The study was performed in the out-patient clinic of the Surgical Department of Cardarelli Hospital in Naples, Italy. It involved a systematic, standardized, multi-step process adhering to internationally accepted and recommended guidelines.