About this guideline
NICE clinical guidelines are recommendations about the treatment and care of people with
specific diseases and conditions in the NHS in England and Wales.
The guideline was developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Primary Care. The
Collaborating Centre worked with a group of healthcare professionals (including consultants,
GPs and nurses), patients and carers, and technical staff, who reviewed the evidence and
drafted the recommendations. The recommendations were finalised after public consultation.
The methods and processes for developing NICE clinical guidelines are described in The
guidelines manual.
The recommendations in this guideline were graded according to the quality of the evidence they
were based on. The gradings are available in the NICE guideline and are not shown in this web
version.
The recommendations from this guideline have been incorporated into a NICE Pathway. We
have produced a summary for patients and carers. Tools to help you put the guideline into
practice and information about the evidence it is based on are also available