Journal articles

CONCLUSIONS: There is currently insufficient data to draw confident conclusions about the efficacy and tolerability of varenicline as treatment for CUD in youth and adult populations.

CONCLUSIONS: Heterogeneity was substantial across the studies. There is insufficient evidence that health behaviour interventions effectively reduce alcohol consumption among people living with cancer.

THE CHALLENGE: Rural and remote clinicians frequently make treatment decisions under conditions of uncertainty, exacerbated by limited access to specialist services, fewer locally available treatment options, and evidence that may not fully inform care for an individual patient.

CONCLUSIONS: Free flaps remain the standard for extensive or functionally demanding reconstructions, but pedicled flaps offer comparable outcomes with shorter surgery, lower costs and equivalent complication rates in selected cases. Flap choice should be individualised based on defect complexity, patient comorbidity and institutional expertise.

In 2023, international consensus recommendations suggested the use of prolonged-infusion beta-lactam antibiotics over short-infusion dosing in severely ill adult patients to improve mortality or clinical cure, although the certainty of evidence was very low. With the availability of several new randomized controlled trials (RCTs), this focused update re-evaluates the efficacy of prolonged versus short infusion […]

No abstract

Background/Objectives: Consensus guidelines recommend delaying conception for at least 12 months following bariatric surgery to achieve maternal weight stability; however, the impact this has on perinatal outcomes is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of bariatric surgery-to-conception interval and maternal preconception weight change on birth weight and gestational age […]

CONCLUSION: Our study explored lived experiences of adults with CF and a gastrostomy. We found there was significant psychological and social impact of growing up with a gastrostomy, highlighting the need for clinicians to provide holistic support that addresses both physical and mental challenges of long-term gastrostomy care for adults with CF.

CONCLUSIONS: Greater neonatal brain abnormality and higher early life disadvantage were independently associated with poorer academic achievement in children born very preterm. Brain abnormality severity did not modify the association between early life disadvantage and academic achievement. These findings support the assessment of both biological risk and socioeconomic disadvantage in neonatal follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS: Media coverage of fatal police shootings involving individuals with a mental illness was more likely to use humanising language and victim framing, often accompanied by greater scrutiny of police actions. In contrast, those without mental illness were more commonly portrayed through a criminal lens, with greater justification of police conduct. While general adherence to […]

PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: Perimenopause and menopause are reproductive stages marked by fluctuating and subsequent permanent loss of ovarian estrogen and progesterone production. There are important considerations in these life stages for people with epilepsy including the influence of hormonal changes and use of menopausal hormone therapy (HT) on seizure control and on antiseizure medication […]

CONCLUSION AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: A PT pre-operative education video for cardiac surgical patients can be implemented without compromising patient information recall or post-operative outcomes, and results in service efficiency benefits.

CONCLUSIONS: Levofloxacin prophylaxis failure appears to reflect an interplay between host factors and inadequate PK/PD target attainment, which was largely influenced by levofloxacin-resistant GNB colonization. The standard 750 mg dose was insufficient in a significant proportion of patients, supporting the need for prophylaxis strategies that integrate PK/PD targets and local resistance patterns.

BACKGROUND: People with schizophrenia-spectrum or bipolar disorder frequently have physical comorbidities, but the epidemiology of developing multiple physical conditions is unclear. We hypothesised that this group experiences an earlier accumulation of physical multimorbidity affecting multiple systems. Our aim was to estimate the relative and absolute incidence of physical multimorbidity in people with and without severe […]

CONCLUSION: This population-based study represents the largest Australian cohort of primary colorectal lymphoma reported to date. PCL predominantly affects older males and is most commonly treated with chemotherapy-based regimens, which are associated with favourable survival. Surgery alone should not be considered definitive therapy except in selected clinical circumstances.