BACKGROUND: Cancer is a leading cause of death with substantial financial costs. While significant data exist on the economic burden of care, less is known about the indirect costs of treatment and, specifically, the effect on work productivity of patients and their caregivers. To examine the full effect of cancer and the potential value of new therapies, all aspects of care, including indirect costs and patient-reported outcomes, should be evaluated. OBJECTIVE: To perform a systematic review of the literature examining the effect of cancer treatment on work productivity in patients and their caregivers. METHODS: Articles, abstracts, and bibliographies were searched in MEDLINE, Cochrane, Scopus, CINAHL, and conference lists from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, and Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy up to January 2016. The PRISMA guidelines were used. Controlled search terminology included individual pharmacologic therapies for can...

Gabapentin is widely used in the United States for a number of off-label indications, often as an alternative to opioid therapy. Increasing evidence has emerged suggesting that gabapentin may not be as benign as once thought and may be associated with substance abuse in concert with opioids. With concerns for safety mounting, it is prudent to examine the efficacy of gabapentin across its many uses to understand the risk-benefit balance. Reviews on off-label indications such as migraine, fibromyalgia, mental illness, and substance dependence have found modest to no effect on relevant clinical outcomes. This high-quality evidence has often been overshadowed by uncontrolled studies and limited case reports. Furthermore, the involvement of gabapentin in questionable marketing schemes further calls its use into question. Overall, clinicians should exercise rigorous appraisal of the available evidence for a given indication, and researchers should conduct larger, higher-quality studies to better assess the efficacy of gabapentin for many of its off-label uses.

To evaluate the association between socioeconomic deprivation and antibiotic prescribing in Scotland. Data for dispensed antibiotic prescriptions written by general practitioners were obtained for all Scottish National Health Service boards from 2010 to 2012. Deprivation was assessed linking dispensing events to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) score for the patient's datazone (neighbourhood area). The relationship between the deprivation area and antibiotic use (items per 1000 persons per day) was stratified according to the patient's age and sex and the antibiotic class dispensed. A multivariate Poisson regression model was used to formally test the associations. Approximately 12 million prescription items during 2010–2012 were assessed. Patients in the most deprived SIMD quintile had an overall prescription rate that was 36.5% higher than those in the least deprived quintile. The effect of deprivation upon prescription rates was most pronounced for women aged 40–59 years, and for penicillins and metronidazole. Deprivation was found to have a consistent association with increased rates of antibiotic prescribing in Scotland, which may have significant implications for antimicrobial stewardship and public health campaigns.