METHODS: Patients prescribed mood stabilizers (lithium, carbamazepine, valproic acid, or lamotrigine) for a psychiatric condition other than bipolar disorder (codes F31.0-F31.9 in the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition, Clinical Modification) were recruited through convenience sampling. A website-based data entry system was used for data collection.
RESULTS: In total, 1557 psychiatric patients were enrolled. Schizophrenia, schizotypal, delusional, and other non-mood psychotic disorders (F20-F29, 55.8 %) was the most common diagnosis, followed by non-bipolar mood disorders (F30, F31- F39, 25.3 %), organic mental disorder (F00-F09, 8.8 %), mental retardation (F70-F79, 5.8 %) and anxiety, dissociative, stress-related, somatoform and other nonpsychotic mental disorders (F40-F48, 4.4 %). The most frequently targeted symptoms (>20 %) were irritability (48 %), impulsivity (32.4 %), aggression (29.2 %), anger (20.8 %), and psychosis (24.1 %). Valproic acid was the most frequently used medication.
CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians typically prescribe mood stabilizers as empirically supported treatment to manage mood symptoms in patients with diagnoses other than bipolar disorders, though there is on official indication for these disorders. The costs and benefits of this add-on symptomatic treatment warrant further investigation.
METHODS: We examined the prevalence and clinical correlates of clozapine treatment for BD in 13 Asian countries and regions (China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand) within an Asian Prescription Patterns Research Consortium. We compared BD patients treated with clozapine or not in initial bivariate comparisons followed by multivariable logistic regression modeling.
RESULTS: Clozapine was given to 2.13% of BD patients overall, at a mean daily dose of 275 (confidence interval, 267-282) chlorpromazine-equivalent mg/day. Patients receiving clozapine were older, more likely males, hospitalized, currently manic, and given greater numbers of mood-stabilizing and antipsychotic drugs in addition to clozapine. Logistic regression revealed that older age, male sex, current mania, and greater number of other antipsychotics remained significantly associated with clozapine treatment. Clozapine use was not associated with depressed mood, remission of illness, suicidal risk, or electroconvulsive treatment within the previous 12 months.
CONCLUSIONS: The identified associations of clozapine use with particular clinical features call for vigilance in personalized clinical monitoring so as to optimize clinical outcomes of BD patients and to limit risks of adverse effects of polytherapy.
METHODS/DESIGN: The efficacy and safety of JPSS herbal formula cream will be evaluated through a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trial conducted in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. NSCLC patients with CRF will be randomized into two groups at a ratio of 1:1. Each group will receive either 15 g of the oral JPSS herbal formula cream or placebo twice a day from day 6 to day 20 during two courses of paclitaxel + platinum/docetaxel + platinum/pemetrexed + platinum (TP/DP/AP) chemotherapy. The primary endpoint is the difference in the degree of fatigue between baseline (the day before the start of the intervention) and day 42, which will be assessed by the Revised Piper Fatigue Scale score. The secondary endpoints are quality of life (measured by the 43-item European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Lung Cancer C43), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status, and Traditional Chinese Medicine syndrome score. The toxicity of the treatments will also be evaluated at the same time. All outcomes will be measured at baseline, day 6, day 21, and day 42 of the treatment.
DISCUSSION: This randomized trial will investigate the efficacy and safety of JPSS applied for CRF in patients with NSCLC.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR1900023451. Registered on 28 May 2019.
METHODS: Publications were collected from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, Sino Med, VIP, and Wan Fang Databases. Relative risk (RR) was calculated with a 95 % confidence interval (CI). Heterogeneity was assessed. The Cochrane Collaboration's tool was used to assess the risk of bias.
RESULTS: 10 studies with 2702 patients showed that the combination therapy significantly reduced the incidence of HCC in patients with post-hepatitis B cirrhosis at 1, 3, and 5 years. However, the preventive effects of TCM were in compensated cirrhosis, but not the decompensated cirrhosis. Furthermore, TCM correlated with improved liver function and enhanced virological response.
CONCLUSION: Combination therapy with TCM demonstrated the certain potential in reducing the incidence of HCC in patients with hepatitis B cirrhosis. This is attrinuted to the improvement of liver function and enhancement of the viral response. However, the efficacy of TCM in the field still needs more high-quality RCTs to provide stronger evidence in the future.