Rory Johnston MPS[/caption]
There is often a perception that people are simply overweight due to overeating, said Mr Johnston, but there are myriad conditions and medicine classes that can cause patients to gain weight, including:
Aetiology and pathophysiology 
Initial symptoms are usually mild and may include1,2,8:
Delays in diagnosis may result from various factors.11 This may include patients not seeking immediate diagnosis, initial misdiagnosis, referral to non-neurological specialists and delayed referral to a neurologist.11 General practitioners will probably only encounter one patient with MND in their careers.1,11 Differential diagnoses may include a variety of other neurological conditions, including Kennedy’s disease, an inherited disorder which progresses very slowly, involves only lower motor neurones and exhibits similar symptoms to those of MND.1,2 
Why did you decide to become one of the very first pharmacist prescribers? 
Cindy Tolba MPS[/caption]
Case scenario
Sarah, a regular customer in your community pharmacy, presents a prescription for riluzole tablets written by a neurologist for her husband David. It has been several months since David, aged 57, has been seen in the pharmacy. Sarah looks visibly upset and not her usual cheerful self.
After reading this article, pharmacists should be able to:
Competency standards (2016) addressed: 1.1, 1.4, 1.5, 2.2, 3.1, 3.5, 3.6 Accreditation number: CAP2410DMBW Accreditation expiry: 30/09/2027 |
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Introduction
Motor neurone disease (MND) is a group of progressive, degenerative disorders of the motor neurones.1 Motor neurones are nerve cells which control the muscles that enable movement, speech, breathing and swallowing, and their degeneration results in muscle weakness and atrophy.1–3
Patients diagnosed with MND have an average survival time of 2.5 years after diagnosis and usually die of respiratory failure.1–3 The initial symptoms, rate and pattern of disease progression and survival times vary between p
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