Pharmacokinetic Characteristics of Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics for Schizophrenia: An Overview.

The availability of long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia provides clinicians with options that deliver continuous drug exposure and may improve adherence compared with daily oral antipsychotics. However, all LAI antipsychotics have unique formulations and pharmacokinetic characteristics that have implications for medication selection, administration interval, and injection site. This review outlines key differences in drug formulations and pharmacokinetics among LAI antipsychotics.

Analysis of adherence to national nosocomial pneumonia treatment guidelines.

Background: Guidelines for the management of adults with hospital-acquired (HAP), ventilator-associated (VAP), and healthcare-associated (HCAP) pneumonia were recently updated. These evidence-based guidelines emphasize early, appropriate antimicrobials, as well as, de-escalation of initial therapy based upon microbiologic cultures and clinical response of the patient, and to shorten duration of therapy to a minimum effective period.

Objective: To evaluate adherence to the nosocomial pneumonia guidelines before and after a multifaceted educational intervention in conjunction with the implementation of an adult pneumonia order set.

Comparison of the modification of diet in renal disease and Cockcroft-Gault equations for antimicrobial dosage adjustments.

Background: Direct measurement of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is considered to be the most accurate method of assessing kidney function, albeit difficult and costly. With the derivation of the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equation to estimate GFR in patients with chronic kidney disease, questions exist as to whether this method should be preferred over the Cockcroft-Gault (CG) equation when making dosage adjustments for renally eliminated antimicrobials.

Objective: To determine whether a difference exists when making antimicrobial dosage adjustments in patients with chronic kidney disease based on estimation of GFR using the MDRD and CG equations.