Having scanned the PPA website I am writing to seek your help on the topic of nurse prescribing in relation to the BNF group of drugs listed within section 1.6, ''Laxatives'' for constipation. I am ?????? with the Primary Care Nursing Research Unit, Dept of Primary Care and Populations Sciences at UCL. To better inform nursing practice in the management of patients with constipation we wish investigate to what extent nurses are prescribing laxatives in primary care? To date approximately 3 million people suffer from constipation in the UK and between 2003-4 over ?750 million worth of drugs were prescribed for gastrointestinal tract conditions, of which ?43 million was spent on laxative prescriptions. However, I cannot find out what proportion of this is prescribed by nurse prescribers or assess nurse prescribing trends. We need to understand this in order to provide evidence of current prescribing patterns for this common condition among nurse prescribers? Is this data available at national, regional or local levels and if so who or how can we access it?