Family Medicine
- Chronic centralized pain syndromes: A rheumatologist’s perspective
Centralized pain syndromes are vexing for patients and clinicians. In this issue, Volcheck and colleagues present a framework for understanding chronic centralized pain and for developing an actionable treatment plan for patients.
- Central sensitization, chronic pain, and other symptoms: Better understanding, better management
Clinicians have a pivotal role by providing patient education, which can affect perception, management, functional status, and quality of life.
Update on current contraceptive options: A case-based discussion of efficacy, eligibility, and useRates of unintended pregnancy are high in the United States. Clinicians need to be well-informed about the full spectrum of contraceptive options to improve reproductive autonomy.
Resistant hypertension: A stepwise approachThe authors review the definition and prevalence of resistant hypertension and its diagnostic workup and management, including lifestyle modifications, drugs, and experimental therapies.
- Vitamin D: A metabolic bone disease perspective
When checking levels, clinicians should keep in mind that vitamin D levels fluctuate by season and time of day, and that different laboratories may use different assays that yield different results.
- Test ordering: Balancing the good for the many with the good for the one
Three articles this month address how we order clinical tests, one on the question of treating the patient with asymptomatic bacteriuria, the others on the advantages and disadvantages of standing orders for “daily labs” for inpatients.
- Ignore e-cigarettes at your patient’s peril
As patients are already using these products, rather than dismiss the use of e-cigarettes, clinicians should provide accurate information to help patients make the best choices for their health.
- Does my patient need to be screened or treated for a urinary tract infection?
When patients present with symptoms that suggest but are not clearly diagnostic of urinary tract infection, urine studies should be obtained.
- Evaluation and management of gastroesophageal reflux disease: A brief look at the updated guidelines
Updated guidelines from the American College of Gastroenterology address the evaluation and management of reflux disease, consequences of long-term PPI therapy, and emerging therapies.