The American Journal of Medicine Blog

The most frequent cause of secondary adrenal insufficiency is the prolonged exposure to exogenous glucocorticoids (GCs).(1) The source of GCs is most often obvious (oral or parenteral, or even inhaled), but it may be occasionally more difficult to identify, as GCs may be found in “traditional” or “alternative” medicines.(2) We describe here the case of […]

Financial Reinforcers for Improving Medication Adherence: Findings from a Meta-analysis Increasingly, financial reinforcement interventions based on behavioral economic principles are being applied in health care settings, and this study examined the use of financial reinforcers for enhancing adherence to medications. Electronic databases and bibliographies of relevant references were searched, and a meta-analysis of identified trials […]

Adherence to a medical regimen is defined as the extent to which a patient takes a prescribed medication. The term “adherence” is often used interchangeably with “compliance,” but adherence is currently the preferred term because it implies a responsibility that is shared by both the patient and the healthcare provider. Many barriers to appropriate medication […]

The Physics of Geriatric Pharmacotherapy: Overcoming Therapeutic Inertia and Momentum In this issue of The American Journal of Medicine [June 2012], Scott et al(1) provide a framework to reduce medication use in older patients to the minimum number of necessary therapies. As the authors write, “this framework draws attention to the dangers of therapeutic inertia—whereby […]

Two new continuing medical education (CME) courses have been uploaded to The American Journal of Medicine’s website recently. Managing Chronic Pain with Nonopioid Analgesics: A Multidisciplinary Consult Presenters: Daniel Clauw, MD, and Bill H. McCarberg, MD Determining pain mechanism is important in selecting treatment for chronic musculoskeletal pain states. While broad classifications (nociceptive, neuropathic, etc.) […]

Chronic Pain Management: New Interactive CME Activities on AJM Website A new interactive continuing medical education (CME) activity with patient case videos has been posted on The American Journal of Medicine’s website: Comprehensive Chronic Pain Management: Improving Physical and Psychological Function. Here is the CME program description: Using a unique, highly interactive, video patient case […]