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Articles

Acute Diarrhea in Adults

WENDY BARR, ANDREW SMITH

The most common cause of diarrhea is viral gastroenteritis. Travel, comorbidities, and foodborne illness are more often associated with a bacterial infection. Treatment usually focuses on preventing and treating dehydration. Diagnostic investigation should be reserved for...

Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Diagnosis and Management

JOHN P. HORNE, ROBERT FLANNERY, SAIF USMAN

The goal of scoliosis management is identifying patients who are at risk of developing a deformity, without overtesting or overreferring patients who are unlikely to have further problems. Physical examination with the Adam's forward bend test and a scoliometer measurement...

Update on Prenatal Care

ADAM J. ZOLOTOR, MARTHA C. CARLOUGH

Although much of prenatal care is based on tradition and lacks a strong evidence base, standard components include a routine physical examination, maternal weight and blood pressure measurement, fetal heart rate auscultation, and fundal height measurement. Patients should...

Common Questions About Bell Palsy

JANET R. ALBERS, STEPHEN TAMANG

Patients with Bell palsy present with paralysis or weakness of the muscles on one side of the face. Routine testing for diabetes mellitus and Lyme disease is not recommended. Magnetic resonance imaging can be helpful to rule out cranial mass effect if there is no resolution...

Editorials

What's New In Childhood Vaccines

PAMELA ROCKWELL

Recommending and providing childhood vaccines is a vital part of a family physician's role in delivering health care to our youth. This editorial reviews several changes in childhood vaccines in the past two years.

AFP's Conflict of Interest Policy: Disclosure Is Not Enough

JAY SIWEK

Medical journals go to great lengths to ensure that authors disclose potential conflicts of interest. In research journals, financial ties between authors and the makers of drugs and medical devices are inevitable because more than half of research is funded by the...

Cochrane for Clinicians

The Impact of Personalized Risk Communication on Screening Decisions

DEAN A. SEEHUSEN, CHRISTY J.W. LEDFORD

Patients presented with personalized risk information are more likely to make informed decisions about screening than patients who are presented with generic risk information. Individualizing risk appears to improve the accuracy of patients' risk perception and decrease anxiety.

AAFP News Now: AFP Edition

AAFP News Now: AFP Edition

Survey: Majority of Americans Want Physicians Handling Their Health Care | Physician Groups Urge Congress to Extend Medicaid-Medicare Parity Program | Patients Get Early Look at Rates of MRSA and <i>C. difficile</i> Infection Among Hospitals | FDA Extends Deadline for...

Photo Quiz

Pruritic Skin Rash and Fever

SABESAN KARUPPIAH, SEAN P. HAMPTON

Photo Quiz presents readers with a clinical challenge based on a photgraph or other image.

Graham Center Policy One-Pager Close-ups

Hard Decisions About Prostate Cancer

CARRIE NICHOLS, ANTHONY ZAMUDIO

The personal side of medicine told from the patient's perspective. The patient's story is followed by commentary from a physician and a list of resources.

POEMs

Screening Echocardiography Not Beneficial

ALLEN F. SHAUGHNESSY

Population-based screening for heart disease or valve disease with echocardiography will identify cardiac pathology in patients but does not decrease mortality, myocardial infarction risk, or stroke risk.

Amoxicillin/Clavulanate or Ibuprofen No Better Than Placebo for Acute Bronchitis

ALLEN F. SHAUGHNESSY

Treating acute bronchitis with amoxicillin/clavulanate or the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen is no more effective than placebo in decreasing symptoms in general or duration of frequent cough. Treatment does, however, produce adverse effects in one in eight...

Colchicine Effective for First Episode of Acute Pericarditis

NITA SHRIKANT KULKARNI

When used in addition to conventional anti-inflammatory therapy, colchicine decreases the rate of incessant or recurrent pericarditis. You would need to treat four patients with colchicine to prevent one such episode.

Practice Guidelines

ACIP Releases 2014 Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedules

JAMIE LOEHR

There are a few changes to the 2014 immunization schedule for children and adolescents, as well as the catch-up schedule, from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that are pertinent for family physicians.

Letters to the Editor Information from Your Family Doctor Corrections


Disclosure

All editors in a position to control content for this activity, AFP journal, are required to disclose any relevant financial relationships. View disclosures.


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