ting drugs were prescribed in 8.7% of itraconazole and 6.1% of fluconazole users. For
itraconazole, calcium channel blockers were the most common interacting drugs (3.3%),
followed by statins (1.7%) and clarithromycin (1.3%), whereas gestoden + ethynylestra-
diol (2.5%) and benzodiazepines (1.8%) resulted as the most common interacting drugs
among fluconazole users. CONCLUSION: Data indicate a relevant prevalence of conco-
mitant use of medications potentially leading to drug interactions among azoles users.
Because of the wide use of these medications in general practice, they should be used
with clinical monitoring in view of their known side effects as well as their potential risk
for drug interaction.
ded laboratory monitoring for statin users. METHODS: A retrospective study was conduc-
ted collecting data from the database of Italian College of General Practitioners, named
Health Search; all the participant physicians used an automatic pop-up which reminds
them to periodically check liver enzyme levels in statin-users. We examined the patients
who received their first statin prescription from 29 November 1999 to 28 November,
2002. CPK, ASL, AST, and creatinine values recorded before and after the first prescription
were evaluated. The minimum and maximum observation time before and after prescrip-
tion were 6 and 42 months, respectively. The prevalence of laboratory monitoring prescri-
bed by GPs was calculated at baseline and during follow-up for all patients and for the
subgroup of high-risk patients. RESULTS: We identified 14 120 first-ever statin users (male
47.4%). CPK, AST, ALT and creatinine tests were prescribed at least once at baseline in
8.5%, 53.9%, 50.9%, and 64.0% of patients, respectively; during the follow-up 37.8%,
64.4%, 60.3%, and 61.5% of patient received the same tests prescriptions, respectively.
No difference between high-risk and non-high-risk patients was observed. During the
follow-up enzyme levels greater than three times the upper normal limit were recorded in
0.4%, 0.1%, 0.1%, and 0.3% of subjects for CPK, AST, ALT and creatinine, respectively.
CONCLUSION: Adherence to the recommended laboratory monitoring for statin users is
very low among Italian GPs, even for high-risk patients. Automatic reminders which pop-
up whenever statins are prescribed are ineffective.
a cross-sectional study. Ann Ig. 2006; 18:313-26.
of BDZ. All subjects aged 65-84 years attending their General Practitioners were invited to
fill in a questionnaire about their consumption of BDZ and all the subjects consuming BDZ
to fill in the Medical Outcome Measures Short Form-36 (MOS SF-36) and the Primary Care
Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) questionnaires. A total of 2,246 subjects used
BDZ and 1,109 (49.4%) of them filled in the MOS SF-36 questionnaire. 1,005 of these
participants also completed the PRIME-MD questionnaire (90.6%). The presence of sleep
disorders and the characteristics of the BDZ used were not associated with any score in
the MOS SF-36 questionnaire, whereas the Prime diagnosis was the most important pre-
dictor, since subjects with depression and/or anxiety had a lower mean score on each scale
than subjects without disorders. Among a sample of Italian seniors taking BDZ, QoL was
associated with the presence of anxiety and/or depression. Age, gender, education and
the presence of cardiovascular diseases or stroke were associated with specific aspects of
QoL, when anxiety and depression were controlled for.