Pain caused by osteoarthritis (OA) is a common presentation in a community pharmacy, with many patients seeking advice on complementary and alternative medicines that can relieve pain. OA is the most common form of arthritis in Australia, occurring in...

Schizophrenia is a chronic illness characterised by a range of symptoms including positive and negative symptoms. Examples of positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and bizarre and inappropriate behaviour. Negative symptoms include affective flattening, lack of speech, lack of motivation...

A 76-year-old man with past medical history significant for a cerebrovascular accident, pacemaker insertion for sick sinus syndrome and transurethral resection for benign prostatic hyperplasia was rushed to the emergency department.1 The ambient temperature on the day of admission was...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been ranked as serious a threat to society as terrorism. With millions of lives at risk, and trillions in GDP potentially lost, antibiotic misuse must be prevented to avoid widespread resistance. Today, no-one expects a scratch...

With over-the-counter (OTC) codeine products being upscheduled, pharmacists and pharmacy staff need to review and understand every patient’s pain. In doing so, there’s an opportunity to provide better care and develop deeper relationships with those customers. Much debate and uncertainty...

We know that there are high levels of medicines use in the aged care setting, which is not surprising given the demographics of residents and prevalence of multimorbidity. We also know that there are problems with medication management in this...

A 33-year-old woman was seen by an obstetrician. The patient did not know if she had previously had chickenpox. Her varicella-zoster antibody titre signified non-immunity. She had not been vaccinated. Three months later, she became pregnant. She was told...

For many, the last 12 months of life is spent with significant disability, associated with rising symptom burden and functional decline. A palliative approach aims to ease difficult symptoms, encourage the best quality of life, and offer support for...

Almost 1.45 million Australians have some form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This equates to one in seven Australians over 40 suffering from COPD. Typical symptoms of COPD include shortness of breath, wheezing, chest tightness, chronic cough, unintended...

You don’t notice it at first but you find yourself tripping over and falling a lot more – you can’t ever remember being that clumsy. Everything seems to take that much longer because your muscles don’t do what you...