Medical

Respiratory feature interview. When we ask our patients ‘how are things with your asthma’ and the patient says ‘fine’, that may or may not mean that things are going well. There are some really important directed questions that GP’s can ask patients, asking them about disturbed sleep, restriction of activities, how often they are using their reliever inhaler etc. Patients taking regular treatment may still be experiencing quite a large symptom burden, so listen to this extended interview to learn more…

Australians who are 65 or over may not consider themselves to be older Australians, and may not understand that once they reach 65 the risk of developing pneumococcal disease increases significantly. As the flu season approaches, it’s an ideal opportunity to talk to patients about concomitant vaccination against pneumococcal disease.

Vitamin D, part 1 of a 3 part series –Adulthood & Older Age. Vitamin D is an important factor, not only for bone health, but also for muscle health. In older age the aim is to try to minimise bone loss, improve muscle function and ultimately help older people to remain independent for longer. Listen to this interview on how to diagnose, treat and manage vitamin D deficiency in your older patients.

Mental Health. Up to 50% of patients stop picking up their script for their antidepressant within three months, maybe because once a patient feels a little bit better, they’re acceptance of any side-effects is relatively low? In this interview we discuss a very powerful analysis of the efficacy and also the tolerability of all of the major antidepressants that we currently utilise.

Mental Health. The GP role in managing schizophrenia is essential, if not more important than psychiatrists. We need need to address non-pharmacological principles such as diet, exercise and other lifestyle modification, plus there are different antipsychotic therapies available that can have a positive benefit on a patient’s weight and metabolic health.

Diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy, a preventable disease yet people are still losing their vision. Working-age patients that are now unable to drive or work, due to severe visual loss through the complications of diabetic retinopathy, and the unfortunate thing is that 98% of these could have been picked up through early detection and treatment.  The GP plays a pivotal and central role in coordinating the care of patients with diabetic retinopathy and they’re best placed to control a patient’s risk factors – listen to learn more.

This audio file contains all 6 interviews on this edition.

• Track 1, Asthma Control – Do we see perception or reality? (extended feature interview)
• Track 2, Pneumococcal disease in over 65s – Very common, very serious, and vaccine preventable
• Track 3, Vitamin D for maintaining good bone & muscle health as we age
• Track 4, MDD & GAD – 2 meta-analyses that may shift our thinking about prescribing
• Track 5, What’s the GPs role in managing patients with schizophrenia?
• Track 6, The role of the GP in diabetic retinopathy before the visual impairment stage

To view reference lists or product information please go to the individual tracks.

How often do you think of osteoporosis in your day-to-day practice? As GPs we face huge challenges of dealing with older patients who have multiple complex comorbidities, and often they can seem more pressing than their bone health. So why should we prioritise the identification and management of osteoporosis? Listen to learn more….

In this interview we are lucky enough to talk with Prof. Roger McIntyre, named as one of ‘The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds’! We discuss the heterogeneous nature of depression and how to minimise residual symptoms, such as tiredness or the inability to concentrate when treating depression.

April is IBS Awareness Month. We don’t know the cause, so we have to treat the variety of symptoms. In this interview we discuss how to guide our patients towards a better diet, the judicious use of medications, and how to provide patients with a long-term management plan.