Our data indicate that association of ED + alcohol is very popular among students. This behavior can be dangerous. In fact, the combination of ED + alcoholic drinks can reduce adversive symptoms of alcohol intoxication including the depressant effects. As consequence, users of ED + alcoholic beverages might not feel the signs of alcohol intoxication, thus increasing the probability of accidents and/or favoring the possibility of development of alcohol dependence.

BackgroundTo describe the utilisation of antibiotics in children and adolescents across 5 European countries based on the same drug utilisation measures and age groups. Special attention was given to age-group-specific distributions of antibiotic subgroups, since comparison in this regard between countries is lacking so far.MethodsOutpatient paediatric prescriptions of systemic antibiotics during the years 2005-2008 were analysed using health care databases from the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and Germany. Annual antibiotic prescription rates per 1,000 person years were estimated for each database and stratified by age (≤4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-18 years). Age-group-specific distributions of antibiotic subgroups were calculated for 2008.ResultsWith 957 prescriptions per 1000 person years, the highest annual prescription rate in the year 2008 was found in the Italian region Emilia Romagna followed by Germany (561), the UK (555), Denmark (481) and the Netherlands (294). Seasonal peaks during winter months were most pronounced in countries with high utilisation. Age-group-specific use varied substantially between countries with regard to total prescribing and distributions of antibiotic subgroups. However, prescription rates were highest among children in the age group ≤4 years in all countries, predominantly due to high use of broad spectrum penicillins.ConclusionsStrong increases of antibiotic prescriptions in winter months in high utilising countries most likely result from frequent antibiotic treatment of mostly viral infections. This and strong variations of overall and age-group-specific distributions of antibiotic subgroups across countries, suggests that antibiotics are inappropriately used to a large extent.

A zithromycin is a widely prescribed broad-spectrum macrolide used mainly for the treatment of respiratory and urinary tract bacterial infections. Concerns have been raised recently regarding its arrhythmogenic potential, a risk already known to be associated with the first marketed macrolide, erythromycin.1-6 Several case reports have described QTinterval prolongation, 7-9 torsades de pointes 10-12 and polymorphic ventricular tachycardia 13 following use of azithromycin. Many observational studies have reported conflicting results about the association between azithromycin use and cardiovascular death.14-21 Because the known azithromycin-related cardiac events are related to QT-interval prolongation, torsades de pointes and ventricular arrhythmia, 18,19 these observational studies are limited by the broad category of cardiovascular death used as an outcome, which likely only partially captured cardiac risk associated with azithromycin use. To date, only 1 observational study has investigated the association between azithromycin use and ventricular arrhythmia specifically. 22Given the conflicting findings regarding this widely used antibiotic and the lack of data on ventricular arrhythmia specifically, we aimed to quantify the association between azithromycin use and the risk of ventricular arrhythmia using data from a network of 7 health care databases from 5 European countries. Methods Study design and settingWe conducted a nested case-control study within a cohort of new antibiotic users identified from a network of 7 populationbased health care databases in 5 European countries that partic- ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: There are conflicting findings from observational studies of the arrhythrogenic potential of azithromycin. Our aim was to quantify the association between azithromycin use and the risk of ventricular arrhythmia. RESEARCH Use of azithromycin and risk of ventricular arrhythmia