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  • Articles

    Conjunctivitis: Diagnosis and Management

    Stella Winters, Winfred Frazier, Jacob Winters

    Conjunctivitis, caused by viruses, bacteria, or allergies, is one of the most common eye conditions in primary care. Viral and allergic conjunctivitis typically present as watery discharge, whereas bacterial conjunctivitis typically presents as mucopurulent discharge. A...

    Management of Obesity: Office-Based Strategies

    Michelle K. Keating, Rachel K. Woodruff, Erin M. Saner

    Clinical guidelines recommend screening at least annually for obesity in all adults. Despite the importance of obesity management, less than one-half of adults meeting the criteria for overweight and obesity received weight-loss counseling between 2011 and 2018. This article...

    Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults

    Amanda E. Olagunju, Faraz Ghoddusi

    Adult ADHD is a continuance of childhood symptoms. Other mental disorders should be considered due to the substantial overlap of symptoms and high rate of concurrence. Clinical guidelines recommend a subset of amphetamine and methylphenidate stimulants as first-line...

    Chronic Cough: Evaluation and Management

    Kento Sonoda, Ravi Nayak

    Chronic cough is a cough lasting longer than 8 weeks in adults and 4 weeks in children. The initial assessment of chronic cough should include cost-effective diagnostic tests, such as chest radiography and spirometry, and empiric and targeted treatment for the most common...

    Mastitis: Rapid Evidence Review

    Erin F. Morcomb, Carmen M. Dargel, Sydney A. Anderson

    Mastitis is a spectrum of disorders resulting from inflammation in the mammary glands and is usually associated with lactation. This article provides a review of the best available patient-oriented evidence for mastitis spectrum disorders.

    Pulmonary Hypertension

    Kelly Latimer, Michael Layne, Maya Payne

    Pulmonary hypertension presents as unexplained dyspnea on exertion and possible findings of right-sided heart failure. A delayed diagnosis is common because the symptoms are often attributed to underlying heart or lung disease.

    AFP Clinical Answers

    PrEP, Antibodies for Alzheimer Disease, Chronic Coronary Disease, Lumbar Spinal Stenosis, Aldosteronism

    Key clinical questions and their evidence-based answers directly from the journal’s content, written by and for family physicians.

    Editorials

    Supporting the Paradigm Shift: Watchful Waiting for Lactational Mastitis

    Kelley V. Lawrence

    This editorial discusses the paradigm shift in the treatment of lactational mastitis from treating empirically with antibiotics to watchful waiting.

    Practice Alert: Measles Continues to Be a Threat to Health in the United States

    Doug Campos-Outcalt

    The ACIP now recommends polio vaccine for incompletely vaccinated adults.

    Graham Center Policy One-Pager

    Continuity Matters: Financial Impact of the G2211 Code in Primary Care

    Chrystal Pristell, Hoon Byun, Jeongyoung Park

    Family medicine is financially undervalued compared with other medical specialties, and reimbursement fails to recognize the valuable longitudinal care provided to patients. To address continuity, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services created the G2211 code in 2019...

    Cochrane for Clinicians

    Blood Pressure Control for Patients With Diabetic Retinopathy

    Leesha Helm, Mary Joyce Green

    More intensive BP control in patients with diabetes mellitus and hypertension decreases the incidence of diabetic retinopathy, especially among those with higher BP.

    Diagnosing Dementia and Cognitive Impairment in Symptomatic Patients

    Kiyomi K. Goto, Juan Qiu, John James

    Primary care physicians should not rely solely on clinical judgment when evaluating patients for dementia or cognitive impairment; however, clinical judgment may help inform the choice of additional testing to confirm or exclude the diagnoses of dementia and cognitive impairment.

    U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

    Interventions to Prevent Falls in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

    The USPSTF recommends exercise interventions to prevent falls in community-dwelling adults 65 years or older who are at increased risk for falls. The USPSTF recommends that clinicians individualize the decision to offer multifactorial interventions to prevent falls to...

    Diary of a Family Physician

    Diary of a Family Physician

    R. Aaron Lambert, Roselyn W. Clemente Fuentes

    First-person accounts from the front lines of family medicine.

    Medicine by the Numbers

    Intensive Perioperative Glycemic Control in People With Diabetes Mellitus

    Kelsie Pegram, Joseph Marquez

    Given these mixed findings and the significant heterogeneity of the studies and outcome reporting, we have assigned a color recommendation of yellow (more information needed) when comparing intensive vs. usual glycemic control in patients with diabetes who are undergoing surgery.

    Photo Quiz

    Teenager With Unexplained Pain and Physical Injuries

    Kyu Kim Jana, Sukanya Roy, Nesiya Sheriff

    A 19-year-old female patient presented with a history of painful and overly flexible joints.

    FPIN's Clinical Inquiries

    SBIRT for Alcohol Use in Adolescents

    Katherine Bergs, Adam Guck, Jesse Kao, Morgan Fields, Andrew Maxwell

    It is unclear how effective SBIRT is for reducing alcohol use in adolescents. Elements of SBIRT, including a brief intervention alone with no screening or referral to treatment, may reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol-related consequences in adolescents.

    STEPS

    Tirzepatide (Zepbound) for the Treatment of Obesity

    Valerie Coppenrath, Beth Mazyck

    Tirzepatide is highly effective and may be considered for patients desiring significant weight loss who are able to administer weekly subcutaneous injections. When no contraindications exist, tirzepatide is easy to prescribe, administer, and tolerate.

    POEMs

    Scottish Screening: No Cases of Invasive Cervical Cancer in Women Who Received at Least One Dose of Bivalent HPV Vaccine at 12 or 13 Years of Age

    Henry C. Barry

    Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir Does Not Significantly Reduce Symptoms or Hospitalization in Vaccinated High-Risk Patients and Unvaccinated Patients

    Mark H. Ebell

    Imaging Guidelines for Children With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

    Allen F. Shaughnessy

    Greater Risk of Serious Bleeding With Diltiazem vs. Metoprolol in Adults With Atrial Fibrillation Using Apixaban or Rivaroxaban

    David C. Slawson

    Practice Guidelines

    Management of Patients With Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Guidelines From the AHA and ASA

    Michael J. Arnold

    The American Heart Association (AHA) and American Stroke Association (ASA) released guidelines for the management of patients with aneurysmal SAH.

    Resistant Bacterial Infections: Guidelines From the Infectious Diseases Society of America

    Michael J. Arnold

    The Infectious Diseases Society of America published guidelines for treating infections with the most common resistant gram-negative organisms. These guidelines do not apply to empiric treatment.

    Letters to the Editor

    Rethinking Breastfeeding Guidelines for People Living With HIV

    Lealah Pollock, Christopher M. Bositis, Christine Chang Pecci

    Routine Imaging Is Not Needed for Groin Hernia Diagnosis

    Dimitrios Moris, Theodore Pappas, Jacob Greenberg

    Corrections

    Corrections

    Incorrect Statistic. In the article “Managing Selected Chronic Conditions in Hospitalized Patients” (February 2024, p. 134), an incorrect statistic was listed regarding the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) during hospitalization and the effects of VTE prophylaxis....

    Corrections

    Incorrect Recommendation. In the article “Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy: Prevention and Treatment” (March 2024, p. 226), a recommendation for decreasing the development of diabetic peripheral neuropathy incorrectly included lipid levels in the last sentence of the Primary...



    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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