Search

AIMS: Literature data show that one third of patients discontinue antidepressant therapy within the first month of treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether paroxetine liquid solution 10 mg/ml may influence adherence inpatients receiving long-term treatment. METHODS: 71 subjects affected by mood disorders or panic disorder were monitored for six months. The study sample was divided into two groups: controls (n=33) maintained their own therapy with paroxetine tablets; 38 patients maintained the same dosage of paroxetine, but shifted to liquid formulation 10 mg/ml. Compliance and general wellness were evaluated with the Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WhoQol). Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). RESULTS: Significant differences were found in MARS scores: patients on oral solution 10 mg/ml showed an improvement of compliance month by month. In addition, age, formulation and quality of life had a significant impacton patient compliance. Significant correlations were found between MARS and quality of life. A specific paroxetine formulation could be a variable able to influence adherence to psychopharmacological treatment. The same consideration can be made for quality of life, sex and age that showed a trend towards improved adherence when compared with controls. Inparticular, the WhoQol subscale analysis of delta scores showed a significant difference in self-perception of quality of life inpatients treated with paroxetine either in tablet or drop formulation. DISCUSSION: Formulation in drops 10 mg/ml is equally effective to tablets, but it may allow patients having a higher cognition and control on drug assumption.

The aim of this work is to illustrate the current state of a wider project whose general objective is to integrate a number of scientific and methodological approaches and technologies, in order to support local authorities and stakeholders, especially those acting in marginal areas, toward a more sustainable management and use of landscape resources. The proposed methodology has been applied in several real case studies to test its validity. In the present paper the Comunità Montana Alpi Lepontine (CMAL) case is outlined. In order to achieve the adhesion to the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas, several stakeholders and public bodies, belonging to thirteen municipalities in Northern Italy have cooperated. The efforts to preserve and boost economy in such peculiarly landscape compel to cope with landscape different aspects - scientific, historical, artistic and economical - from a multidisciplinary holistic point of view. This approach enables a complex scientific image, as a driver, in order to suggest integrated and effective planning actions for a rational use of natural and cultural landscape resources. This also requires a stronger integration and improved sharing of information among such a number of local actors. This could be better performed thanks to the state of the art of information technologies such as the paradigm of Interconnected Geo Semantic Web Communities.