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The developing generic market has huge advantages of availability and affordability of therapy. The question of whether a therapeutic equivalent substitute under an unfamiliar name may cause confusion that leads to medical errors has not been sufficiently studied. This paper seeks to answer this question.

The study was triggered following sporadic reports according to which patients mistakenly consider therapeutic equivalents as unrelated medications rather than substitutes. Family physicians and pharmacists in one of eight districts of Clalit, Israel's largest healthcare provider were surveyed. The survey's questions recall episodes of medication uncertainty, confusion, misidentification, and medication mistakes associated with switching from one therapeutic equivalent to another. A total of 66 physicians and 63 pharmacists responded to the surveys (61 percent and 45 percent, respectively).

The results recall uncertainty, confusion, misidentification, and mainly cases of medication mistakes in which patients consumed both therapeutic equivalents simultaneously as was reported by 81 percent of physicians and 70 percent of pharmacists.

There are two limitations in this work, the first is the study type, which is recall survey; the second is the response rate which is not unusual among health care professionals. However, the high face‐validity and the consistency of the findings in both physicians and pharmacists surveyed indicates high validity of the study conclusions.

A practical implication is unique medication error of consuming both therapeutic equivalents simultaneously. The authors wish to raise awareness of the potential of such error, which may be difficult to disclose as each of the therapeutic equivalents is apparently the intended medication but consuming them simultaneously results practically in doubling the intended dose. Given the forecast for generic market growth, awareness is not enough and worldwide regulatory cooperation should be made otherwise these types of medication errors will inevitably emerge.

The study is original as a literature search revealed no studies evaluating potential medication mistakes attributed to a switch between therapeutic equivalents.

Medicine shortages have a detrimental impact on stakeholders in the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC). Existing studies suggest that building resilience strategies can mitigate the effects of these shortages. As such, this research aims to examine whether resilience strategies can reduce the impact of medicine shortages in the United Kingdom's (UK) PSC.

A sequential mixed-methods approach that involved qualitative and quantitative research enquiry was employed in this study. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 23 key UK PSC actors at the qualitative stage. During the quantitative phase, 106 respondents completed the survey questionnaires. The data were analysed using partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The results revealed that reactive and proactive elements of resilience strategies helped tackle medicine shortages. Reactive strategies increased relational issues such as behavioural uncertainty, whilst proactive strategies mitigated them.

The findings suggest that PSC managers and decision-makers can benefit from adopting structural flexibility and proactive strategies, which are cost-effective measures to tackle medicine shortages. Also engaging in strategic alliances as a proactive strategy mitigates relational issues that may arise in a complex supply chain (SC).

This study is the first to provide empirical evidence of the impact of resilience strategies in mitigating medicine shortages in the UK's PSC.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a pilot experiment to establish a web site to enable people undergoing therapy, or having similar problems, to communicate with one another – in effect, the cyber equivalent of a therapeutic community.

Software for a dating web site was adapted as a low cost means of driving the site. It provided for chatrooms, group discussions on topics of mutual interest, notice boards on which questions, responses, articles and poems could be posted and blogs. A volunteer Steering Group worked on the project launch and thereafter manned the site and monitored the project. User feedback indicated that a cyber community could meet the psychological needs of the participants and provide useful support, particularly between visits to a therapist. A surprising outcome was the feeling of community developed by written exchanges, i.e. blogs and forum notice boards. Direct on-line contact generated anxiety in some people, but most found it beneficial.

The paper confirms that such a site would be a useful supplement to other therapeutic services available, and would not be expensive to establish or run, but needed the backing of the NHS or a large medical charity to ensure that the number of users would be at a viable level in the long term.

As far as the author is aware the paper reports the first ever study of the potential use of a cyber therapeutic community.

The purpose of this paper is to review issues of relevance to practitioners using group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with women in secure settings.

The extant literature on CBT as applied to women in secure settings is reviewed to highlight best practice. Aspects of best practice are illustrated with examples from a women's medium secure service.

Obstacles include the characteristics of the patient group, treatment non compliance and an environment that accepts the primacy of security over treatment. Environmental and need factors amenable to intervention are highlighted in addition to CBT specific considerations that include the timing and intensiveness of treatment, content and delivery of therapy, treatment readiness and use of the group process. The use of a manualised CBT group treatment aid attempts to ensure treatment integrity is associated, and which is associated with treatment outcome. A focus on the social and environmental factors that attribute to the therapeutic milieu is vital to treatment generalisation, as is harnessing the therapeutic potential of the built environment. Finally, treatment evaluation imposes a structure that can facilitate progress in treatment.

There is comparatively little work on CBT group treatments for women in secure settings. Attempts to synthesise best practice initiatives in this area are helpful in guiding treatment developments.

Purpose – To analyse the development of pharmaceutical policy in the Dutch market for outpatient prescription drugs since the early 1990s.

Methodology – A literature review and document analysis is performed to examine the effects of pharmaceutical policy on the performance of the Dutch market for outpatient prescription drugs since the early 1990s.

Findings – Government efforts to control prices of pharmaceuticals were effective in constraining prices of in-patent drugs, but had an opposite effect on the prices of generic drugs. The gradual transition towards managed competition – that particularly gained momentum after the introduction of the new universal health insurance scheme in 2006 – appears to be more effective in constraining prices of generic drugs than earlier government efforts to control these prices.

Originality – Comparative analysis of the impact of price regulation and managed competition on generic drug prices in the Netherlands.

Implications – Implications of the changing role of health insurers are discussed for the future market for prescription drugs and role of pharmacies in the Netherlands.

In the previous chapters, we have explored some of the key debates around empirically supported treatments, and I have introduced the reader to the concept of evidence based practice as a tripartite model that speaks to a much wider understanding of therapy research and practice. In this chapter, I introduce the concept of the common factors and some of the research that supports the idea that in general all therapy approaches tend to be as effective as each other, indeed, a summary of this research going back as far as 1936 is highlighted. The common factor proposition rests on the premise that there are far more commonalities across diverse therapy methods, than differences, and that it is these trans-theoretical constructs that are responsible for the lion’s share of outcomes. After briefly reviewing some of the literature, several common factor models are presented for the reader to consider.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the experiences of nursing staff providing a residential treatment programme for high risk offenders with an intellectual disability and personality disorder.

The paper's approach is thematic analysis of focus groups, repeated measures EssenCES.

Nursing staff report increased insight into patients' risk factors, improved relationships with patients and enhanced team working.

This descriptive paper will be of interest to clinicians working with offenders with intellectual disability and personality disorder. Improvements in team functioning may be of interest to managers.

There are few published papers concerning treatment approaches with offenders with intellectual disability and personality disorder. This paper fills some of the gaps.

The millennium found the first ever training in Britain of the American Pesso-Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP) method of adult reparative growth taking place with a dozen experienced leadership development specialists. They quickly proceeded to incorporate this psychodynamic cum systemic approach within their successful practiceportfolios. What is the influence of PBSP on their coaching and personal development work with senior, fully functioning, high performing executives? A qualitative analysis based in their reported practice identifies two specific technical adaptations illustrated empirically and conceptually elaborated in this paper. The authors speculate on the implications of these preliminary outcomes from PBSP practice within the context of tentative neuroscientific understanding and underpinning psychodynamic theoretical assumptions. They conclude questioning a core premise of ‘talk therapy.’

The recurring implementation and continuous maintenance of price controls implies a deep incongruence between public policy and economic common sense. Yet, economists do not tire of concluding their papers with policy recommendations as if oblivious to the ineffectiveness of their efforts. By assuming that policy is an object of choice, economists have no alternative but to naively hope for a decision-maker sensitive to economic logic. An alternative approach is to think of policy, not as an object of choice but as an outcome of a competitive process. From this perspective, the often-lamented disregard for economic principles is not a characteristic of a deficient policymaker, but a systemic quality of institutional arrangements. I illustrate my argument with the analysis of the implementation of rigid prices for reimbursed pharmaceuticals in Poland.