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2019 MAR 2 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Fresh data on Central Nervous System Diseases and Conditions - Brain Injury [...]

Objective: The authors sought to determine by meta-analysis the efficacy and tolerability of adjunctive atypical antipsychotic agents in major depressive disorder. Method: Searches were conducted of MEDLINE/PubMed (1966 to January 2009), the Cochrane database, abstracts of major psychiatric meetings since 2000, and online trial registries. Manufacturers of atypical antipsychotic agents without online registries were contacted. Trials selected were acute-phase, parallel-group, double-blind controlled trials with random assignment to adjunctive atypical antipsychotic or placebo. Patients had nonpsychotic unipolar major depressive disorder that was resistant to prior antidepressant treatment. Response, remission, and discontinuation rates were either reported or obtained. Data were extracted by one author and checked by the second. Data included study design, number of patients, patient characteristics, methods of establishing treatment resistance, drug doses, duration of the adjunctive trial, depression scale used, response and remission rates, and discontinuation rates for any reason or for adverse events. Results: Sixteen trials with 3,480 patients were pooled using a fixed-effects metaanalysis. Adjunctive atypical antipsychotics were significantly more effective than placebo (response: odds ratio=1.69, 95% CI=1.46-1.95, z=7.00, N=16, p Conclusions: Atypical antipsychotics are effective augmentation agents in major depressive disorder but are associated with an increased risk of discontinuation due to adverse events.

Background: Low-dose oral vitamin K decreases the international normalized ratio (INR) in overanticoagulated patients who receive warfarin therapy. Its effects on bleeding events are uncertain. Objective: To see whether low-dose oral vitamin K reduces bleeding events over 90 days in patients with warfarin-associated coagulopathy. Design: Multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Randomization was computer-generated, and participants were allocated to trial groups by using sequentially numbered study drug containers. Patients, caregivers, and those who assessed outcomes were blinded to treatment assignment. Setting: 14 anticoagulant therapy clinics in Canada, the United States, and Italy. Patients: Nonbleeding patients with INR values of 4.5 to 10.0. Intervention: Oral vitamin K, 1.25 mg (355 patients randomly assigned; 347 analyzed), or matching placebo (369 patients randomly assigned; 365 analyzed). Measurements: Bleeding events (primary outcome), thromboembolism, and death (secondary outcomes). Results: 56 patients (15.8%) in the vitamin K group and 60 patients (16.3%) in the placebo group had at least 1 bleeding complication (absolute difference, -0.5 percentage point [95% CI, -6.1 to 5.1 percentage points]); major bleeding events occurred in 9 patients (2.5%) in the vitamin K group and 4 patients (1.1%) in the placebo group (absolute difference, 1.5 percentage points [CI, -0.8 to 3.7 percentage points]). Thromboembolism occurred in 4 patients (1.1%) in the vitamin K group and 3 patients (0.8%) in the placebo group (absolute difference, 0.3 percentage point [CI, -1.4 to 2.0 percentage points]). Other adverse effects were not assessed. The day after treatment, the INR had decreased by a mean of 1.4 in the placebo group and 2.8 in the vitamin K group (P < 0.001). Limitation: Patients who were actively bleeding were not included, and warfarin dosing after enrollment was not mandated or followed. Conclusion: Low-dose oral vitamin K did not reduce bleeding in warfarin recipients with INRs of 4.5 to 10.0. Funding: Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Italian Ministry of Universities and Research.

Abstract Background: Established noninvasive pharmacologic means of alleviating pain and anxiety in children undergoing intravenous cannulation are time-consuming, and thus impractical for routine use in the emergency department. Vapocoolant sprays [...]

A study was conducted to estimate the efficacy of valacyclovir suppressive therapy in pregnant women with recurrent genital herpes. The result showed that administration of valacyclovir beginning at 36 weeks' gestation to women with a history of recurrent genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) reduced the number of women with subsequent clinical HSV recurrences.

AT THE 2016 SID ANNUAL MEETING SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. -- A single course of topical 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) prevented 62% more actinic keratoses than placebo, and this chemopreventive effect persisted for up [...]

The study evaluates the influence of two weeks of quercetin (Q) compared with placebo (P) supplementation on exercise performance and skeletal muscle mitochondrial biogenesis in untrained, young males. Results show two weeks of Q versus P was associated with a small, but significant, improvement in exercise performance, and a modest, but insignificant increase in the messenger RNA and mitochondrial DNA levels of four genes related to mitochondrial biogenesis.

Atypical antipsychotics may be associated with a small increased risk of death compared with placebo, say US researchers. Published in this week's JAMA, the paper analyses 15 trials of less [...]

Albuminuria was a powerful, independent predictor of poor prognosis in heart failure in a prospective study of more than 2,000 patients. Because diagnosis of albuminuria using a patient's spot urinary [...]

* Beta-alanine supplements may improve muscle endurance in older men and women. Researchers in England gave 2.4 grams of beta-alanine a day to 12 older men and women; they gave [...]

Montgomery SA, Feighner JP, Sverdlov L, et al. Efficacy and safety of 30 mg/d and 45 mg/d nemifitide compared to placebo in major depressive disorder. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. [...]

Topiramate appears to be a safe and effective treatment for women with borderline personality disorder, Dr. Thomas H. Loew and his associates reported. Compared with placebo, the drug significantly reduces [...]

Neither escitalopram nor fluoxetine demonstrated efficacy superior to placebo for major depressive disorder in elderly patients, reported Siegfried Kasper, M.D., of the Medical University of Vienna, and associates. In an [...]

SAN FRANCISCO -- A new drospirenone-based OC awaiting approval by the Food and Drug Administration is effective in relieving premenstrual symptoms because it is given in a low dose and [...]

PHILADELPHIA -- Treatment with the first drug from a new class of opioid-receptor antagonists led to significant reductions in ileus and other postoperative morbidity following open laparotomy, Conor Delaney, M.D., [...]

PARIS -- Treatment with paroxetine led to a significant improvement in the clinical status of patients with irritable bowel syndrome in a randomized, placebo-controlled study with 74 patients. Results from [...]

NEW ORLEANS -- The proton pump inhibitor esomeprazole was no more effective than placebo in resolving signs and symptoms of suspected reflux laryngitis in a 16-week multicenter study. "Although this [...]

NEW ORLEANS -- The proton pump inhibitor esomeprazole was no more effective than placebo in resolving signs and symptoms of suspected reflux laryngitis in a 16-week multicenter study. "Although this [...]

PHOENIX, ARIZ. -- Published case studies and open-label trials of adjunctive mood stabilizers suggest that these agents offer benefits to patients with posttraumatic stress disorder. But the first randomized, placebo-controlled [...]

Patients treated with escitalopram have significantly fewer panic attacks and symptoms of anxiety than patients treated with placebo, reported Dr. Stephen M. Stahl of the Neuroscience Education Institute, Carlsbad, Calif., [...]