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This week, The Pharmaceutical Journal has shared detail on the 2026/2027 community pharmacy contract, everything you need to know about neighbourhood health and research around prescribing patterns to identify previously undiagnosed antibiotic allergies in children.
Read on for more health news you might have missed this week.
Updates to NICE guidance on emergency anaphylaxis treatment
Proposed updates to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines include recommendations about a risk-stratified approach to the length of in-hospital observation following anaphylaxis.
They reiterate that hospital teams must ensure all patients discharged after emergency treatment for anaphylaxis go home with two in-date adrenaline auto-injectors that they know how to use. This brings the NICE guidance in line with guidance from the Resuscitation Council UK, which was updated in 2021.
Further reading
NHS England promises improved pain management in women’s health
NHS England has pledged to improve standards and reduce variation in gynaecological procedural and chronic pain management, including chronic pelvic pain, as part of its response to the Women and Equalities Committee’s report into the menstrual health of girls and young women.
It has outlined plans to publish a good practice guide to implementing neighbourhood working in women’s health, encouraging all providers — including general practice, pharmacy, post-pregnancy and sexual health — to work together to provide seamless contraception pathways for all women in a neighbourhood.
Further reading
Phase III trial results suggest effective Tourette syndrome treatment for children
Ecopipam is well tolerated, and induces and maintains a clinically meaningful reduction in severity of tics in children with Tourette syndrome, results of a phase III randomised clinical trial have suggested.
The selective dopamine D1 receptor antagonist induced some side effects, including somnolence (n=24; 11.1%), anxiety (n=21; 9.7%), headache (n=21; 9.7%), insomnia (n=19; 8.8%), tic (n = 17; 7.9%), and fatigue (n=14; 6.5%). However, researchers said it was notable among treatment options for the condition — for which medication frequently has adverse effects and high discontinuation rates — for the absence of clinically relevant weight gain, adverse metabolic effects and drug-induced movement disorders.
