Acute repetitive seizures, more commonly known as cluster, crescendo or sequential seizures, are defined as episodes of increased seizure activity occurring in patients with refractory epilepsy who are already receiving stable regimens of anticonvulsants. They lie in the seizure spectrum between...

As physicians become more aware of the need to treat anaemia in their patients with cancer, they have to consider 2 treatment options: red blood cell transfusion or recombinant human erythropoietin [epoetin alfa; epoetin beta]. Healthcare systems are under increasing pressure to lower costs while...

Contemporary asthma management guidelines list inhaled corticosteroids as the preferred controller medication for patients with persistent asthma. Despite the availability of explicit guidelines, there is evidence that these agents are underused and that guidelines are not always adhered to....

Allergic rhinitis is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the nasal passages. It affects approximately 20% of the population, is a significant health and economic burden, and severely impairs quality of life. Two main instruments, Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form health survey (SF-36) and...

It is generally believed that small differences in health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) may be statistically significant yet clinically unimportant. The concept of the minimal clinically meaningful difference (MCID) has been proposed to refer to the smallest difference in a HR-QOL score that...

Health-status and preference-based approaches to assessing health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) in osteoporosis are reviewed. Osteoporosis-targeted health-status instruments [i.e. Osteoporosis Quality-of-Life Questionnaire (OQLQ), Osteoporosis Assessment Questionnaire (OPAQ), Quality-of-Life...

Given the growing need to value health-related quality of life, a review of the literature relating to health state valuation techniques was undertaken to appraise the current theoretical and empirical evidence available to inform on the techniques, to identify consensus, identify disagreement...

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death in women with gynaecological cancers. The most common type of ovarian cancer is epithelial ovarian cancer. Referred to as the `silent' killer, this disease is difficult to detect because of the lack of specific symptoms. The majority of women who have...

Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common chronic progressive neurodegenerative disorder associated with the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. The natural course of the disease may lead to severe disability despite a variety of pharmacological and surgical...

Mirtazapine is a noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressant (NaSSA). The antidepressant efficacy of mirtazapine has been established in randomised, double-blind comparative studies. Mirtazapine has generally shown similar efficacy to other antidepressants. There is evidence for a...