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Kaida Jiang,1 Lingjiang Li,2 Xueyi Wang,3 Maosheng Fang,4 Jianfei Shi,5 Qiuyun Cao,6 Jincai He,7 Jinan Wang,8 Weihao Tan,8 Cuili Hu8 1Psychiatry Department, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai, 2Psychiatry Department,The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 3Psychiatry Department, First affiliated Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 4Psychiatry Department, Wuhan Mental Health Center, Wuhan, 5Psychiatry Department, Hangzhou the 7th Hospital, Hangzhou, 6Psychology Department, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, 7Neurology Department, First affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 8Medical Affairs Department, Xi’an Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd., Beijing, People’s Republic of China Background: Significant anxiety symptoms are associated with poor clinical course and outcome in major depressive disorder (MDD). This single-arm, open-label study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of escitalopram treatment in patients with MDD and anxiety symptoms. Methods: Adult patients with MDD and anxiety symptoms (Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale [MADRS] ≥22 and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale [HAM-A] ≥14) were enrolled and received escitalopram (10–20 mg/day) treatment for 24 weeks. Symptom status was assessed by MADRS, 17-item-Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, HAM-A, and Clinical Global Impression Scale at baseline and the following visits. Quality of life was assessed by Short Form-12, and safety was evaluated by adverse events, laboratory investigations, vital signs, and physical findings. Results: Overall, 200 of 318 (66.2%) enrolled patients completed the 24-week treatment. The remission (MADRS ≤10 and HAM-A ≤7) rate in the full analysis set (N=285) was 73.3% (95% confidence interval: 67.80, 78.38) at week 24. Mean (± standard deviation) MADRS total score was 33.4 (±7.13) and HAM-A score was 27.6 (±7.26) at baseline, which reduced to 6.6 (±10.18) and 6.0 (±8.39), respectively, at week 24. Patients with higher baseline depression and anxiety level took longer to achieve similar remission rates. Overall, 80 of the 302 (26.5%) patients included in the safety set reported at least 1 treatment-emergent adverse event (TEAE). Most frequently reported TEAEs (>2%) were headache (4.0%), nasopharyngitis (3.6%), nausea (3.0%), and dizziness (2.6%). Serious TEAEs were reported by 1.3% patients; no deaths were reported. Conclusion: Escitalopram 10–20 mg/day was effective and well-tolerated in the long-term treatment of MDD with anxiety symptoms in adult Chinese population. Keywords: anxiety, Chinese, escitalopram, long term, major depressive disorder

Researches have shown that diet recording can help people increase awareness of food intake and improve nutrition management, and thereby maintain a healthier life. Recently, researchers have been working on smartphone-based diet recording methods and applications that help users accomplish two tasks: record what they eat and how much they eat. Although the former task has made great progress through adopting image recognition technology, it is still a challenge to estimate the volume of foods accurately and conveniently. In this paper, we propose a novel method, named MUSEFood, for food volume estimation. MUSEFood uses the camera to capture photos of the food, but unlike existing volume measurement methods, MUSEFood requires neither training images with volume information nor placing a reference object of known size while taking photos. In addition, considering the impact of different containers on the contour shape of foods, MUSEFood uses a multi-task learning framework to improve the accuracy of food segmentation, and uses a differential model applicable for various containers to further reduce the negative impact of container differences on volume estimation accuracy. Furthermore, MUSEFood uses the microphone and the speaker to accurately measure the vertical distance from the camera to the food in a noisy environment, thus scaling the size of food in the image to its actual size. The experiments on real foods indicate that MUSEFood outperforms state-of-the-art approaches, and highly improves the speed of food volume estimation.

Background: Ustekinumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of chronic moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in adults. However, factors including efficacy, tolerability, ease of use, and cost burden may affect ustekinumab utilization. Noncompliance may, in turn, affect treatment response. Objective: To evaluate ustekinumab utilization in the real-world setting in Asia-Pacific countries. Methods: In this phase 4 observational study conducted in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan, adults with plaque psoriasis receiving ustekinumab were followed for up to 52 weeks. Study endpoints were the proportion of all patients using ustekinumab according to label-recommended intervals and the proportion of Korean patients who achieved a psoriasis area severity index 75 response at week 16. Safety was assessed by monitoring adverse events. Results: Overall, 169 patients received ustekinumab (Korea, n=102; other countries, n=67). Just over half (56.2%) of patients used ustekinumab with the label-recommended interval from baseline to week 40; the proportion was higher in Korea (73.5%) than in other countries (29.9%), probably because ustekinumab was provided without charge for Korean patients up to week 40. Noncompliance increased after week 40 in Korea and from week 28 in other Asia-Pacific countries, with cost cited as the most common reason. At week 16, 56.9% of Korean patients achieved a Psoriasis Area Severity Index 75 response. Safety results were in line with those seen in previous studies. Conclusion: More than half of all patients in Asia-Pacific countries used ustekinumab as per the label-recommended dose interval, but reimbursement variations between countries may have confounded overall results. (Ann Dermatol 28(2) 222∼231, 2016)