TY - JOUR T1 - From the journals, March–April 2005 JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 405 LP - 405 VL - 55 IS - 514 AU - Richard Lehman Y1 - 2005/05/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/55/514/405.abstract N2 - 969 Maybe if UK hospitals had electronic records equal to ours in general practice, they could cut their rates of venous thromboembolism by 40%. This happened in an US trial of a computer alert for identifying high-risk surgical patients.1061 Here is the study that proved celecoxib was not a safe alternative to rofecoxib. Both drugs were tried out for the prevention of colorectal adenoma, but both trials were stopped early because of an increased rate of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality – rofecoxib being the more dangerous (see page 1092).1112 Serotonin reuptake inhibitors are relatively safe drugs on their own, but beware of combining them with other drugs such as synthetic opioids (e.g. tramadol), tricyclics, sumatriptan, valproate and St John's wort. The resulting serotonin syndrome is nasty and occasionally fatal.1179 Expect more of your post-myocardial infarction patients to be taking clopidogrel as … ER -