Day: June 27, 2022

Categories : Mental HealthTags :

ECT Particularly Effective in Treating Severe Mania

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

Most patients with mania responded to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), according to a Swedish study published in JAMA Network Open. Patients with more severe illness were also far more likely to respond to treatment, the study’s researchers found.

The study recruited 571 individuals who were in a manic episode treated with ECT, 482 (84.4%) responded. Of these, 28% of these patients were able to achieve remission of mania, the researchers found. ECT treatments were mostly given three times a week.

The patient group was 63% female, with a median age of 46. Most had mania with psychotic symptoms, and roughly a quarter were voluntarily admitted to the hospital, while 60% were involuntarily committed. About 45% had been exposed to prior ECT.

“These findings suggest that ECT may be a highly effective option for treating mania, which is in line with the literature reporting response rates of 56% to 100%,” the authors noted.

The severity of illness was associated with an increased chance of responding to ECT; 83% for markedly ill, 84% for severely ill, and 92% for extremely ill patients. Illness severity was graded according to Clinical Global Impression Improvement scale (CGI-I) score.

Additionally, patients who underwent more ECT treatments in an index series were significantly more likely to have a clinical response, with the greatest odds of response being among patients who received more than 9 treatments.

Clinical factors reducing a patient’s odds of responding to ECT included comorbid anxiety and comorbid obsessive compulsive disorder.

Factors not associated with a clinical response to ECT were age of mania onset, as well as psychopharmacotherapy before index admission, including lithium, lamotrigine, a first or second generation antipsychotic, valproate, benzodiazepine, antidepressant, anxiolytic, or a central stimulant.

“It is worth highlighting that 63% of patients in our study were treated with 1 or more antimanic agents before admission, suggesting that these treatments may not have been sufficient in reducing symptoms of mania,” the group noted.

Source: MedPage Today

Categories : Addiction Metabolic DisordersTags :

Varenicline Effective in Helping Smokers with Diabetes to Quit

On By ModernMedia
Cigarette butts
Source: Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

A new study published in JAMA Network has found that varenicline helps patients with type 2 diabetes to quit smoking.

Not only is cigarette smoking a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, it is highly prevalent among patients with type 2 diabetes. Smoking worsens the effects of hyperglycaemia and other risk factors, accelerating vascular damage in patients with diabetes.

Compared with nonsmokers with diabetes, smokers have greater risks of mortality, coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease. Quitting smoking has been associated with reduced mortality risk in patients with type 2 diabetes, as welling achieving better glycaemic control and lower cardiometabolic risk factors.

Smokers with type 2 diabetes are more reluctant quit than smokers without diabetes in part due to fear of weight gain. Weight gain needs to be controlled as part of any cessation intervention. The smoking cessation drug varenicline has been shown to help people without diabetes to quit, but considering the special behavioural and metabolic conditions of smokers with type 2 diabetes, its use and efficacy warranted investigation,

To this end, Cristina Russo, MD, and colleagues conducted a multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised clinical trial with 300 participants. Patients with type 2 diabetes, average age 57.4 years who were smoking at least 10 cigarettes a day, and who intended to quit were randomised to either twice-daily varenicline 1mg or placebo treatment. Both groups received smoking cessation counselling. The trial consisted of a 12-week treatment phase followed by a 40-week follow-up, nontreatment phase. Intention-to-treat data analysis was performed from December 2020 to April 2021.

At weeks 9 to 24, continuous smoking abstinence was significantly higher for the varenicline than placebo group (24.0% vs 6.0%). At weeks 9 to 12 (31.3% vs 7.3%) and weeks 9 to 52 (18.7% vs 5.3%) were significantly higher for the varenicline vs placebo group. Adverse events in the varenicline group compared with the placebo group were nausea, insomnia, abnormal dreams, anxiety, and irritability. Serious adverse events were infrequent in both groups and not treatment-related.

The researchers concluded that using varenicline in a smoking cessation programme for people with type 2 diabetes is effective in achieving long-term abstinence without serious adverse events.

Categories : Ageing VaccinesTags : 1 Comment

Flu Jab May Protect Against Developing Alzheimer’s

On By ModernMedia
Old man
Source: JD Mason on Unsplash

In a study with nearly 2 million older adults, those who received at least one influenza vaccine were 40% less likely than their non-vaccinated peers to develop Alzheimer’s disease over four years of follow-up, according to a new study from UTHealth Houston.

An early online version of the paper detailing the findings is available in advance of its publication in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in August.

“We found that flu vaccination in older adults reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease for several years. The strength of this protective effect increased with the number of years that a person received an annual flu vaccine – in other words, the rate of developing Alzheimer’s was lowest among those who consistently received the flu vaccine every year,” said first author Avram S. Bukhbinder, MD. “Future research should assess whether flu vaccination is also associated with the rate of symptom progression in patients who already have Alzheimer’s dementia.”

The study comes two years after UTHealth Houston researchers found a possible link between the flu vaccine and reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. This new study analysed a much larger sample than previous research, including 935 887 flu-vaccinated patients and 935 887 non-vaccinated patients.

During four-year follow-up appointments, about 5.1% of flu-vaccinated patients were found to have developed Alzheimer’s disease. Meanwhile, 8.5% of non-vaccinated patients had developed Alzheimer’s disease during follow-up.

These results underscore the strong protective effect of the flu vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease, according to Bukhbinder and Schulz. However, the underlying mechanisms behind this process require further study.

“Since there is evidence that several vaccines may protect from Alzheimer’s disease, we are thinking that it isn’t a specific effect of the flu vaccine,” said Professor Paul. E. Schulz, MD, senior author of the study. “Instead, we believe that the immune system is complex, and some alterations, such as pneumonia, may activate it in a way that makes Alzheimer’s disease worse. But other things that activate the immune system may do so in a different way – one that protects from Alzheimer’s disease. Clearly, we have more to learn about how the immune system worsens or improves outcomes in this disease.”

Past research has uncovered a decreased risk of dementia associated with prior exposure to various adulthood vaccinations, including those for tetanus, polio, and herpes, in addition to the flu vaccine and others.

Additionally, as more time passes since the introduction of the COVID vaccine and longer follow-up data becomes available, Dr Bukhbinder said it seeing if there is a similar link between COVID vaccination and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Source: The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston