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Introduction: Topics in Internal Medicine

I am pleased to bring you this issue of the Journal of Pharmacy Practice, focusing on topics in internal medicine. Internal medicine encompasses a wide variety of disease management areas, so we selected articles that focus on a few aspects of care that we find to be fairly common in an internal medicine practice. One of the articles in this issue, titled ‘‘Recent Advances in Pharmacotherapy,’’ highlights clinically important pharmacotherapeutic agents released by the Food and Drug Administration from December 2007 through May 2008. Another article, ‘‘Hyperglycemia Management in Non-Critically Ill Hospitalized Patients,’’ reviews the benefits to achieving glycemic control, identifies potential barriers to achieving such a goal, and suggests strategies for attaining success in the hospitalized patient. A third article, titled ‘‘Caring for the Elderly in an Inpatient Setting: Managing Insomnia and Polypharmacy,’’ discusses 2 major problems encountered in the care of our elderly patients in an inpatient setting. The fourth article, ‘‘Metabolic and Cardiac Side Effects of Second-Generation Antipsychotics: What Every Clinician Should Know,’’ guides the nonpsychiatry specialist in monitoring common psychotropic medications seen in an internal medicine practice. Finally, we present an interesting case of psychosis from anticholinergic medications administered at a smoking cessation clinic. We hope this edition takes you through the variety that a practitioner can encounter on a typical day on an internal medicine service. I am especially grateful to the consulting editors Dionne Knapp, PharmD, BCPS, CPP, and Susan Miller, PharmD, BCPS, MBA, and I am indebted to the reviewers Dalia Mack, PharmD, CDE, AE-C, and Valerie Brooks, PharmD, BCPP, for taking time to articulate thoughtful remarks, questions, and suggestions that led to the production of this issue.