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Biomedical subjects

J P Gregoire

Publications and source records attributed to J P Gregoire.

3 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Epidemiology of insomnia: prevalence, self-help treatments, consultations, and determinants of help-seeking behaviors.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To estimate the prevalence of insomnia symptoms and syndrome in the general population, describe the types of self-help treatments and consultations initiated for insomnia, and examine help-seeking determinants. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A randomly selected sample of 2001 French-speaking adults from the province of Quebec (Canada) responded to a telephone survey about sleep, insomnia, and its treatments. RESULTS: Of the total sample, 25.3% were dissatisfied with their sleep, 29.9% reported insomnia symptoms, and 9.5% met criteria for an insomnia syndrome. Thirteen percent of the respondents had consulted a healthcare provider specifically for insomnia in their lifetime, with general practitioners being the most frequently consulted. Daytime fatigue (48%), psychological distress (40%), and physical discomfort (22%) were the main determinants prompting individuals with insomnia to seek treatment. Of the total sample, 15% had used at least once herbal/dietary products to facilitate sleep and 11% had used prescribed sleep medications in the year preceding the survey. Other self-help strategies employed to facilitate sleep included reading, listening to music, and relaxation. CONCLUSIONS: These findings confirm the high prevalence of insomnia in the general population. While few insomnia sufferers seek professional consultations, many individuals initiate self-help treatments, particularly when daytime impairments such as fatigue become more noticeable. Improved knowledge of the determinants of help-seeking behaviors could guide the development of effective public health prevention and intervention programs to promote healthy sleep.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Use of explicit criteria and implicit judgments in a drug-use review program.

The degree of agreement between implicit and explicit judgments made by a pharmacist in a drug-use review program in an ambulatory-care setting was studied. During a six-month period in 1980, all prescriptions for a group of 19 drugs were reviewed for appropriateness of indication, dosage, and length of therapy by a pharmacist using implicit judgment. The same prescriptions were then reevaluated according to explicit criteria that had been approved by the prescribing physicians. A sample of prescriptions that did not meet either implicit or explicit criteria for use was subjected to review by a committee of four physicians to validate whether these prescriptions were indeed inappropriate. Of the 935 prescriptions evaluated, 36.8% were judged inappropriate by the explicit criteria and 23.5% were judged inappropriate by implicit judgment. The explicit and implicit approaches yielded concordant results for 95.5% of the observations. The proportion of true deviations as validated by the review committee was estimated at 80% for the implicit method and 74.4% for the explicit method. The implicit judgments of a pharmacist appear to be as effective as explicit drug-use criteria for identifying inappropriate prescribing in a drug-use review program. These judgments could be used to increase the efficiency of a drug-use review program when explicit criteria are not available.

Drug Utilization↗