A decade ago, the FDA issued a black-box warning about the increased mortality risk associated with atypical antipsychotics used to treat dementia-related psychosis; the warning was extended in 2008 to include typical antipsychotics (www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/ucm124830.htm). Read More
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APA highlights: Treatment trials in psychiatry
June 22, 2016
American Psychiatric Association annual meeting, Atlanta GA, May 14-18, 2016
RBC distribution width useful in differential diagnosis of stroke
June 15, 2016Calculating the red cell distribution width (RDW) may be useful in differentiating neurological and cerebrovascular disease, according to the results of a recent series of papers. Read More
Relevance of assessing body weight in MS patients
June 8, 2016A number of studies have indicated that adolescent obesity is a risk factor for the development of MS, most notably in patients with the HLA-DRB1*15 genotype (Hedstrom et al. Mult Scler 2015; epublished September 11, 2015; Hedstrom et al. Neurology 2014;82:865-872). The relationship between obesity and clinical course once MS has been diagnosed is less clear. A recent study found that obesity (body-mass index >30 kg/m2) did not appear to be associated with increased severity (relapse rate), or disability (EDSS score), nor was obesity linked to the presence of oligoclonal bands (Coban et al. Obes Res Clin Pract 2015;9:533-535).
A study of older MS patients (mean age 55.8 years) with significant disability (mean EDSS 5.5) found that obese and non-obese subjects were comparable with respect to EDSS score and number of steroid courses received (Pinhas-Hamiel et al. Eur J Neurol 2015;22:1275-1279). Read More