The Top 10 AFP Community Blog Posts of 2022

Kenny Lin, MD, MPH
Posted on December 26, 2022

Although the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over, nine out of 10 of the most-viewed posts from this year were about other topics of importance to family physicians and patients. Transitioning to a new platform in November, the AFP Community Blog also featured several guest posts by our resident representatives and others. Happy holidays from all of us at AFP!

1. Their Time Is (Past) up: Vitamin D & Omega-3 Supplements (August 29) – 2,721 views

A recently published biomarker substudy found that REDUCE-IT's placebo, a pharmaceutical grade mineral oil capsule, may have increased cardiovascular disease event risk among participants in the placebo group, creating a false appearance of benefit in the [omega-3] intervention group. 

2. How Did Family Medicine Fare in This Year’s National Resident Match? (April 18) – 1,707 views

The number of U.S. MD seniors matching into Family Medicine fell from 1,623 in 2021 to 1,555 in 2022, representing only 8.4% of all matched U.S. MD seniors and at 31.5%, their lowest Family Medicine fill rate in history.… Overall, only 12.2% of U.S. medical school graduates will be entering family medicine residency programs in July, less than half of the specialty's 25% X 2030 goal.

3. Neurosyphilis, Ocular Syphilis, and Otosyphilis Are Don’t-Miss Diagnoses (September 6) – 1,530 views

The incidence of syphilis in the United States has been rising for the past two decades due to stagnant health department funding for contact tracers and the recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Far from being ancient history, "in 2020, 133,945 cases of all stages of syphilis were reported, including 41,655 cases of primary and secondary syphilis," according to the CDC.

4. Meet the Newest Antidepressant: Dextromethorphan/Bupropion (Auvelity) (October 24) – 736 views

Auvelity's rates of adverse effects are similar to currently available antidepressants, although the adverse effects themselves are somewhat different. In GEMINI, Auvelity's most common adverse effects were dizziness, nausea, headache, somnolence, and dry mouth.… Participants, however, did not report more sexual dysfunction or weight gain than placebo, which may appeal to some patients if longer term studies confirm these findings.

5. What Are the Best Medications for Panic Disorder? (February 28) – 649 views

A newly published systematic review and network meta-analysis sought to identify the most effective medications for panic disorder and found that sertraline and escitalopram had the best balance of benefit and adverse events.

6. Do Probiotics Reduce the Risk of Clostridioides difficile Colitis? (January 31) – 552 views

The Cochrane authors found a number needed to treat (NNT) of 42 among all study participants and an NNT among participants at high risk of Clostridioides difficile–associated diarrhea of 12. 

7. Newer Glucose-lowering Drugs Also Treat Obesity and Heart Failure (January 24) – 513 views

A qualitative study of Australian general practitioners suggested that knowledge gaps, drug adverse effects, and a preference for subspecialists to initiate SGLT-2 inhibitor therapy may be obstacles to increased prescribing of these drugs, which remain very expensive in the United States.

8. Post-op Complications Increase Less Than Eight Weeks After COVID-19 Diagnosis (March 28) – 511 views

When appropriate, discussing the apparent benefit of postponing surgery [after COVID-19] with our patients and our surgical colleagues may help decrease patients' risk of post-operative pneumonia, respiratory failure, and sepsis.

9. Contraception Resources for Physicians and Patients (July 4) – 479 views

Family physicians can discuss contraception for families in between pregnancies to optimize outcomes for parents and infants.… Increasing intrapartum intervals to a minimum of 18 months is one of the aims of the March of Dimes's IMPLICIT project to reduce the prevalence of low birth weight infants. 

10. Advances in Peanut Allergy Prevention and Treatment (July 11) – 439 views

Oral immunotherapy with peanut allergen powder increases tolerance for ingesting the amount of peanut protein in a single peanut by 63% but has important downsides: one in 10 patients need to use epinephrine after administration (compared with one in 20 in a placebo group); common short-term adverse effects include abdominal pain, throat irritation, oral pruritus, and a price of approximately $3,000 annually.