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Biomedical subjects

K P Brown

Publications and source records attributed to K P Brown.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

The impact of nursing home patients on prescribing costs in general practice.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the costs of prescribing for older people in nursing homes with older people living at home and to compare patterns of prescribing between these two groups. DESIGN: Retrospective case-control study. SETTING: Nine general practices in Nottinghamshire. SUBJECTS: Two hundred and seventy patients aged 65 years and over living in nursing homes matched for age, sex and general practice, with 270 patients living in their own homes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A comparison of the costs of prescriptions, the number of items on prescription and the types of drugs prescribed between the cases and controls. RESULTS: The mean cost of prescriptions per patient month was almost three times higher for nursing home patients than controls (45.27 pounds compared to 16.46 pounds). The mean number of items prescribed per patient month was also higher in nursing home patients (5.60 compared to 2.55). Total costs of prescriptions for nursing home patients were higher than for controls (P < 0.0001), as were total numbers of prescription items (P < 0.001). There were differences in the types of medication prescribed between the two groups, including considerably higher costs for central nervous system drugs, ulcer healing drugs, laxatives and enteral nutrition in nursing home residents. CONCLUSIONS: When calculating general practice prescribing budgets, nursing home patients should have a greater weighting than other patients of similar age and sex.

Aged↗

Mild thalassemia intermedia resulting from a new insertion/frameshift mutation in the beta-globin gene.

Hematological investigation of an antenatal patient led to the identification of a new beta-thalassemia mutation involving the net insertion of eight nucleotides into exon 2 of the beta-globin gene. As a result of the shift in the protein reading frame, this gene codes for an elongated beta-globin chain (159 amino acids) with an abnormal amino acid sequence beyond residue beta 99. There is no evidence of any abnormal hemoglobin in the circulation. The patient has a mild form of beta-thalassemia intermedia with moderate anemia, evidence of iron overload, severe red cell morphological changes, a significant reticulocytosis, and a marked increase in the proportion of fetal hemoglobin.

Adult↗

Haemoglobin Dhofar is linked to the codon 29 C-->T (IVS-1 nt-3) splice mutation which causes beta+ thalassaemia.

Investigations of a young man with apparent thalassaemia minor showed that he was a heterozygote for a rare abnormal haemoglobin variant, Hb Dhofar. The amino acid replacement is in the beta-globin chain (beta 58 Pro-->Arg) and is therefore not consistent with the observed proportion of Hb Dhofar, as in both this and the original case, it constituted only 15% of the total haemoglobin. We have determined the basis of the low expression of this mutant, which is due to its linkage to a thalassaemic splicing mutation on the same beta-globin gene at codon 29 (C-->T). The finding of this thalassaemia mutation linked to Hb Dhofar not only explains the low level of Hb Dhofar, but also provides evidence that the codon 29 C-->T, IVS-1 splice junction mutation causes a beta+ form of thalassaemia.

Base Sequence↗

Patterns of psychotherapy utilization.

Epidemiologic research indicates that a small minority of patients make the great majority of outpatient mental health visits. This small group of long-term patients constitutes the bulk of psychotherapeutic practice and creates a disproportionate impression on mental health professionals. The authors confirmed this finding by studying 405 patients in a clinical setting with an orientation toward long-term psychotherapy: 68% of the patients attended 26 or fewer psychotherapy sessions, representing 23.3% of the total number of sessions used by all patients; 32% attended more than 26 sessions, representing 77% of the total number of sessions used by all patients.

Adult↗

General and specific self-esteem in late adolescent students: race x gender x SES effects.

This study assessed the effects of gender, race, and social class on the general and area-specific self-esteem of high school students. One hundred and ninety-five high school students served as subjects in a 2 (gender: male, female) X 2 (race: black, white) X 3 (social class: low, middle and high) factorial design. The Rosenberg General Self-Esteem, the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept, and the Brookover Self-Concept of Ability and School Achievement scales were the measures of either general or specific self-esteem. Females, whites, and lower social class adolescents were consistently lower in their self-esteem scores than were males, blacks, and upper social class teenagers, respectively. White females were found to be lower in general and happiness self-esteem than all other gender by race subgroups. High SES white students were lower on the happiness and behavior self-esteem measures than black students and white middle-class students. Black males and white females were less confident in their school ability than were black females and white males.

Achievement↗