Prescription medication data were identified using Medicare Part D. Using fill dates, we identified the date of the initial prescription for antihypertensive therapy (index date).
Index date = date of initial prescription for latanoprost or travoprost-Z; Q2 = second quarter.
Patient education sessions were conducted within 24 h of the initial prescription for VTE prophylaxis.
An antibiotic combination was the initial prescription for 119 patients (76 %).
Carbamazepine an antiepileptic was the most common item on the initial prescription for those diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia (Table 1).
Adult patients (≥18 years of age) who had a schizophrenia-relevant diagnosis (ICD-10 code F20 supplemented by the Chinese description) and an initial prescription for an antipsychotic between April 1, 2008 and December 31 , 2009were included.
Polypharmacy is also prevalent in other countries; a large US study of patients with BD (n = 7406), revealed that, although 33%; of patients received an initial prescription for more than one psychotropic agent, 12 months later, the polypharmacy rate among those still receiving treatment had risen to 50%; [ 49].
The HICARE recommendations, which also include regional recommendations for the initial prescription of antibiotics for adults, represent the basis for the intervention.
Patients completed at least three visits in order to be evaluated (one for initial prescription of the single drug, one for evaluating the headache outcome with the initial chosen drug, when the inclusion of the second drug was carried out and a third visit to evaluate the outcomes with the two drugs).
Additionally, the available evidence that combinations of different classes of oral agents are more effective to lower glucose than maximal doses of a single drug, lead to recommend early or even initial prescription of combined therapies for the treatment of people with T2DM [8–12].
