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Health policies worldwide emphasize managing chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension through medication and lifestyle modifications. However, translating guidelines into practical application remains challenging, leading to suboptimal care and poor health outcomes, particularly in low-resource settings. This study aims to reveal significant differences between rural and urban patients requiring personalized approaches to chronic disease management based on geographical location and demographic data, considering the impact of emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from rural and urban general practitioner (GP) practices in Poland, covering four years from 2018 to the first quarter of 2021, focusing on diabetes and hypertension epidemiology, risk factors, comorbidities, resource consumption, and disease burden. The findings revealed significant differences between rural and urban patients regarding age, number of patient visits, gender distribution, and types of diagnoses and visit modalities. Rural patients tended to be older, had a higher median number of visits, and exhibited different patterns of diagnoses and visit types compared to urban patients. The study also investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on chronic disease treatment, finding that while age at visits increased during the pandemic, there were no significant changes in gender distribution, but a noticeable shift in diagnoses and visit modalities with an increase in remote visits and changes in the prevalence of specific diagnoses. These disparities highlight the need for tailored approaches to chronic disease management based on geographic location and patient demographics. The study underscores the importance of understanding the unique challenges and opportunities in managing chronic diseases across different settings and during public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, aiding healthcare providers and policymakers in developing targeted interventions to improve chronic disease prevention and management, ultimately leading to better health outcomes for individuals and communities. Further research is needed to explore the long-term effects of the pandemic on chronic disease treatment and assess the effectiveness of interventions to mitigate its impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: HIV is a severe and incurable disease that has a devastating impact worldwide. It affects the immune system and negatively affects the nervous system, leading to various cognitive and behavioral problems. Scientists are actively exploring different therapeutic approaches to combat these issues. One promising method is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive technique that stimulates the brain. Methods: This review aims to examine how tDCS can help HIV patients. Searches were conducted in the Pubmed/Medline, Research Gate, and Cochrane databases. Results: The literature search resulted in six articles focusing on the effects of tDCS on cognitive and behavioral measures in people with HIV. In some cases, tDCS showed positive improvements in the measures assessed, improving executive functions, depression, attention, reaction time, psychomotor speed, speed of processing, verbal learning and memory, and cognitive functioning. Furthermore, the stimulation was safe with no severe side effects. However, the included studies were of low quality, had small sample sizes, and did not use any relevant biomarkers that would help to understand the mechanisms of action of tDCS in HIV. Conclusions: tDCS may help patients with HIV; however, due to the limited number of studies and the diversity of protocols used, caution should be exercised when recommending this treatment option in clinical settings. More high-quality research, preferably involving neurophysiological and neuroimaging measurements, is necessary to better understand how tDCS works in individuals with HIV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most common eating disorder among those contributing to the development of obesity, and thus acts as a significant burden on the lives and health of patients. It is characterized by complex neurobiology, which includes changes in brain activity and neurotransmitter secretion. Existing treatments are moderately effective, and so the search for new therapies that are effective and safe is ongoing. Aim and Methods: This review examines the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the treatment of binge eating disorder. Searches were conducted on the PubMed/Medline, Research Gate, and Cochrane databases. Results: Six studies were found that matched the review topic. All of them used the anodal stimulation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in BED patients. tDCS proved effective in reducing food cravings, the desire to binge eat, the number of binging episodes, and food intake. It also improved the outcomes of inhibitory control and the treatment of eating disorder psychopathology. The potential mechanisms of action of tDCS in BED are explained, limitations in current research are outlined, and recommendations for future research are provided. Conclusions: Preliminary evidence suggests that the anodal application of tDCS to the right DLPFC reduces the symptoms of BED. However, caution should be exercised in the broader use of tDCS in this context due to the small number of studies performed and the small number of patients included. Future studies should incorporate neuroimaging and neurophysiological measurements to elucidate the potential mechanisms of action of tDCS in BED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial discusses graphical abstracts (GAs) as a relatively new tool used to concisely summarize a scientific paper and promote it on social media to boost the visibility of research and the number of citations. This article attempts to define GA as clearly as possible and to explain the role of GAs as scientific communication tools in medical journals. A clear definition of a GA is lacking. Several definitions from the literature are presented, which illustrates that the terms "visual abstract" and "graphical abstract" can be used interchangeably. The role of GAs can be described in 3 aspects: 1) time required for communication (GAs are meant to convey the key contents of a scientific paper in a time much shorter than required for reading the full text), 2) means of communication (social media), and 3) mechanism of communication (research results in many fields of medicine can be better conveyed through visual or at least more visual means rather than plain text). A review of the existing literature concerning the effectiveness of GAs presents studies regarding the use of GAs in promoting scientific papers on Twitter - visual abstracts attracted significantly more engagement than plain English ones, especially from medical professionals. Visual abstract tweets were associated with a significantly higher number of impressions, retweets, and link clicks compared to text abstract tweets. Journals that have introduced GAs demonstrated significantly higher impact factor (IF) increases for the past 3 years than those of journals without GAs. The longer GAs have been utilized in a journal, the higher the IF the journal had. The experience of the editors of Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine (ACEM) concerning GAs are discussed, divided by types of papers published in this journal (original papers, meta-analyses, reviews, research-in-progress articles, and editorials), illustrated with examples of well-prepared GAs, and supplemented with a brief description of the feedback from authors and readers amassed following the introduction of GAs in ACEM. Finally, the authors offer the readership of ACEM 8 practical tips on how to prepare a useful GA, and list 8 common mistakes and misconceptions regarding GAs - both in text form and summarized in tables. The conclusion of the paper is that there is currently no universal standard for GAs, which can lead to inconsistencies in their formats and content; therefore, more detailed guidelines to standardize GAs for scientific research are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]