In episode 406, Mike, James, and Tina go over the evidence for treating opioid use disorder in primary care and the evidence is clear that it can be done in primary care but specialized opioid treatment programs are also obviously needed.

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1) Tools for Practice

In episode 405, Mike and James, with yet again the very smart and helpful Tina Korownyk, go over the evidence for buprenorphine-naloxone for pharmaceutical opioid use disorder. While the evidence is at moderate to high risk of bias the results are fairly impressive with NNTs of 3-5.

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Tools for Practice

In episode 404, Mike and James, with the very capable Tina Korownyk, go over the approach to what tools to use to help determine if a patient has an opioid use disorder (OUD). We talk about a simple tool called the Prescription Opioid Misuse Index (POMI), a 6-point questionnaire with strong predictive ability for OUD which seems to be a reasonable case-finding tool.

In episode 403, Mike and James finally finish up their clear demonstration as to why they aren’t therapeutic nihilists.  We focus on system/ecological issues and specifically primary care – the bottom line is things aren’t as bad as they sometimes seem, but things could always be better – you heard it here first.

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In episode 402, Mike and James continue to try to demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that they aren’t therapeutic nihilists. We talk about treatments that really work for symptoms – antibiotics, corticosteroids, antidepressants, proton pump inhibitors, and ED medications.

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In episode 401, Mike and James continue to try to show they aren’t therapeutic nihilists. We talk about the ballpark benefits of treating conditions like diabetes, with a focus on nutrition and activity to reduce cardiovascular risk.

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Handout

In episode 400, Mike and James talk about why they think they aren’t therapeutic nihilists and what it means to be a healthy skeptic. We then have a much longer discussion (which will go into the next few episodes) about many of the treatments that really do work. In this podcast we talk about treatments for BP, A fib and heart failure. 

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In episode 399, Mike and James discuss a new paper researched and written by the Alberta gang. There are many reasons why patients are seen in primary care. This systematic review gives all the data on what are globally, the most common presenting conditions in primary care.

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What are the most common conditions in primary care?

In episode 398, James and Mike continue their discussion of the evidence around the class of agents called monoclonal antibodies. In this podcast we focus on medications that have an effect on symptoms and at the end we put the entire class into perspective – at least as much as we can.

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In episode 397, James and Mike discuss the evidence around the class of medications called monoclonal antibodies. We talk a little bit about them as a whole and then talk specifically about 6 different agents and the trials that have looked at the effectiveness of these interesting new medications.