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Post-COVID-19 cognitive deficits are common, persistent, and disabling. Evidence on effective treatments is limited. The goal of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a digital intervention to reduce cognitive and functional deficits in adults with persistent post-COVID-19 cognitive dysfunction. We used the remotely-delivered intervention in a randomized clinical trial conducted from July 13, 2021 to April 26, 2023. We hypothesized that participants in the intervention group would improve in measures of cognition and daily functioning. Participants were adults with cognitive deficits persisting >4 weeks following acute COVID-19 illness. Of 183 participants screened, 110 were enrolled; 98 participants (78.6% female; mean age = 48.1) completed at least one study visit. Participants were randomized 1:1 to the intervention (AKL-T01) or waitlist control. AKL-T01 is a digital therapeutic using a videogame interface to target attention and executive control. The intervention was delivered remotely for 6 weeks. The primary outcome was change in performance on a sustained attention measure (Digit Symbol Matching Task). The difference in the primary outcome between the intervention (n = 49) and controls (n = 49) was not statistically significant (F [3,261] = 0.12, p = 0.95). Secondary cognitive outcomes of task-switching (F[3,262] = 2.78, p = 0.04) and processing speed (F[3,267] = 4.57, p = 0.004) improved in the intervention relative to control. Secondary measures of functioning also improved in the intervention relative to control, including disability (F[1,82] = 4.02, p = 0.05) and quality of life (F[3,271] = 2.66, p = 0.05). Exploratory analyses showed a greater reduction in total fatigue (F[1,85] = 4.51, p = 0.04), cognitive fatigue (F[1,85] = 7.20, p = 0.009), and anxiety (F[1,87] = 7.42, p = 0.008) in the intervention relative to control. Despite the lack of improvement in sustained attention, select post-COVID-19 cognitive deficits may be ameliorated by targeted cognitive training with AKL-T01, with associated improvements in quality of life and fatigue. If replicated, the scalable nature of this digital intervention may help address substantial need for accessible, effective treatments among individuals with long COVID., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.)

Inattention symptoms represent a key driver of functional impairment in ADHD and often persist into adolescence and adulthood, underscoring a need for novel treatments targeting attentional control. We evaluated AKL-T01-a digital therapeutic that is FDA-cleared for children 8-12 y with ADHD-in adolescents and adults with ADHD in two independent single-arm trials: STARS-ADHD-Adolescent, a 4-week trial in adolescents 13-17 y (n = 162 enrolled), and STARS-ADHD-Adult, a 6-week trial in adults 18 and older (n = 221 enrolled). AKL-T01 was linked with improvements on the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA ® ) Attention Comparison Score (ACS) of 2.6 (95% CI: 2.02, 3.26; p < 0.0001) in adolescents and 6.5 in adults (95% CI: 5.35, 7.57; p < 0.0001), along with improvements in secondary endpoints. 15 participants reported adverse device effects, all mild or moderate. Though limited by a single-arm design, results provide preliminary support for the safety and efficacy of AKL-T01 for adolescents and adults with ADHD., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background & Aims: Parenteral nutrition is widely used in critically ill patients receiving nutritional support. Several previous studies associated the use of parenteral nutrition with the development of bloodstream infections. This study compared bloodstream infections in critical care patients receiving parenteral nutrition (PN) prepared via conventional compounding versus premixed multichamber bags., Methods: Records in the Premier Perspective™ database for all in patients ≥ 18 years of age, with a minimum 3-day intensive care unit stay, who received PN between 2005 and 2007 were analyzed (n = 15,328). Statistical analysis of data, grouped according to preparation method, compared differences in both observed bloodstream infection rates and adjusted rates, using logistic regression to examine the impact of hospital and patient baseline characteristics., Results: Patients receiving compounded parenteral nutrition had longer intensive care unit stays (11.3 vs. 9.1 days) and longer hospital stays (22.6 vs. 19.4 days); both P < .001. After adjusting for baseline differences, the probability for bloodstream infections was 19% higher when using compounded parenteral nutrition vs. multichamber bags (29.6 vs. 24.9%; odd ratio = 1.29; 95% confidence interval = 1.06-1.59)., Conclusion: In this retrospective review of a large patient database the adjusted probability of bloodstream infection was significantly lower in patients receiving multichamber bags than compounded parenteral nutrition. These findings need to be investigated further in high quality observational studies and prospective clinical trials., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To estimate the relative risk of incident cancer diagnosis among patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) compared to patients without JIA., Methods: A cohort of biologics-naive patients diagnosed with JIA between 1998 and 2007 and a matched cohort of comparators without JIA were assembled from the PharMetrics Patient-Centric Database. The primary outcome was any incident malignancy, excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer and carcinoma in situ. Claims profiles of patients with any cancer-related diagnosis codes were reviewed to determine outcomes. Incidence rates and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) of cancer were calculated and compared between cohorts using Cox proportional hazards regression. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) for each cohort compared to the general population were calculated using reference rates from the US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results (SEER) program., Results: The JIA and non-JIA cohorts included 3,605 and 37,689 patients, respectively, with a mean age of 11 years. The incidence rates of cancer were 67.0 (95% CI 1.3-132.5) cases/100,000 person-years (PY) for JIA and 23.2 (95% CI 12.2-34.2) cases/100,000 PY for non-JIA. The risk of cancer associated with biologics-naive JIA was elevated (hazard ratio 2.8, 95% CI 0.9-8.3). The JIA cohort had a significantly elevated SIR of 4.0 (95% CI 2.6-6.0); the non-JIA cohort SIR was not significantly above SEER rates (SIR 1.4, 95% CI 0.6-2.6)., Conclusion: We found a nearly 3-fold increased risk of cancer in biologics-naive JIA patients, which approached significance despite the small number of outcomes. This finding suggests an elevated underlying risk of cancer in this disease population., (Copyright © 2012 by the American College of Rheumatology.)

Purpose: To develop algorithms to identify metastatic cancer in claims data, using tumor stage from an oncology electronic medical record (EMR) data warehouse as the gold standard., Methods: Data from an outpatient oncology EMR database were linked to medical and pharmacy claims data. Patients diagnosed with breast, lung, colorectal, or prostate cancer with a stage recorded in the EMR between 2004 and 2010 and with medical claims available were eligible for the study. Separate algorithms were developed for each tumor type using variables from the claims, including diagnoses, procedures, drugs, and oncologist visits. Candidate variables were reviewed by two oncologists. For each tumor type, the selected variables were entered into a classification and regression tree model to determine the algorithm with the best combination of positive predictive value (PPV), sensitivity, and specificity., Results: A total of 1385 breast cancer, 1036 lung, 727 colorectal, and 267 prostate cancer patients qualified for the analysis. The algorithms varied by tumor type but typically included International Classification of Diseases-Ninth Revision codes for secondary neoplasms and use of chemotherapy and other agents typically given for metastatic disease. The final models had PPV ranging from 0.75 to 0.86, specificity 0.75-0.97, and sensitivity 0.60-0.81., Conclusions: While most of these algorithms for metastatic cancer had good specificity and acceptable PPV, a tradeoff with sensitivity prevented any model from having good predictive ability on all measures. Results suggest that accurate ascertainment of metastatic status may require access to medical records or other confirmatory data sources., (Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)