To be included, patients had to be aged 18 years or over, presenting as in- or out-patients for the treatment of acute or mixed mania, and initiating or changing oral medication for mania (except for a change of dosage).
According to Jeff Kimmell, vice president for pharmacy, traditional drugstores can offer those services because they can resell the drugs if the customer does not pick them up, but mail-order prescription drugs cannot be returned to the company for any reason -- be it a change of address or change of dosage.
Patients required a stable medication with no change of dosage within the last six months.
The change of dosage between the assessments was also calculated using the percentage of maximum dose.
A change of dosage within the same drug, however, is tolerated.
Voriconazole concentrations were determined on day 3 after the start of therapy and always 3 days after change of dosage.
Solitary living, concomitant medications with the exception of NSAIDs/Acetylsalicylic acid, age at onset, basic ADL ability, change of dosage and the variable comparing the ChEI agents were not significant.
After the blood sample had been taken the patient normally left the PHC centre and the results of the INR test including change of dosage, if any, was communicated at a later time.
The background variables solitary living, concomitant medications (with the exception of NSAIDs), age at onset, basic ADL ability, type of ChEI agent, change of dosage and the interaction effects, Gender × Carrier of APOE ε4 allele, and Type of ChEI × Dose were not significant when included in the mixed models.
