Advances in Pharmacology and Therapeutics Journal
Volume:1 Issue: 2, Autumn 2021

Bruxism is a chief complaint in some patients with dementia, but there is no clear guideline for its management.Here, we presented a case with awake bruxism.

This case report study described an 88-year-old woman with severe rapidly progressive dementia (RPD) and awake bruxism, which was improved with discontinuation of sertraline, quetiapine, gabapentin, and resumption of trazodone.

In this case study, despite taking drugs from different classifications for bruxism treatment, no improvement was seen. Bruxism is an important and challenging condition for physicians and caregivers in dementia patients. Although  bruxism needs serious treatment, there is no suitable and well-defined treatment for this disorder. Further studies are needed to suggest an efficient drug for the management of bruxism.

Due to its similar opioid effects, tramadol is commonly abused worldwide. One of the notable side effects of tramadol is seizure. The present study compares the frequency of tramadol abuse among seizure and non-seizure (other reasons) patients referring to the Neurology Emergency Ward of Ali Ibn Abi Talib Hospital, a referral center affiliated to Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

This cross-sectional study reviewed 141 patients referring to the emergency ward of a referral hospital. The data were collected by clinical examination, face-to-face interviews, and a structured self-questionnaire for each client. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, non-parametric chi-square, and independent T-test.

In this cross-sectional study, 82 male (58.2%) and 59 female subjects (41.8%) were included. The results revealed the average age of patients being 30.16 ± 9.12. The incidence of tramadol abuse was approximately 36.8% in the total population study. Twenty-five and half percent of the subjects were referred to the neurology emergency ward for seizure while 16.3% of the subjects were referred to other wards for non-seizure complaints. In this study, we no relationship was found between the duration of consumption and the concurrent use of other medications; however, there was a statistically significant correlation between the dose of tramadol and the incidence of seizure.

The result of the present study illustrated a significant incidence of seizure in men with tramadol abuse and a direct correlation with medication dose.

Livedo reticularis (LR) is a cutaneous vascular pattern that presents with reticular patch morphology. LR is a manifestation of a wide range of diseases, from idiopathic to systemic. We reported the clinical image of a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and LR associated with amantadine use. On examination, mild postural tremor was left-handed and had a kinetic tremor. Rest tremor and re-emerge tremor were detected in addition to mild rigidity and bradykinesia in the patient; we proposed probable drug-induced Parkinsonism. We should notice skin lesions after amantadine use and consider LR after the prescription of it. Also, co-administration of SSRIs and amantadine may increasethe probability of LR.

This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy, Fluvoxamine, and their combination on depression in women with breast cancer.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-and post-test design. The study population was women with breast cancer who were referred to health centers in region two in 2021. Forty-five people were selected by convenience method and then randomly placed in three groups (each n=15), including dialectical behavior therapy, Fluvoxamine (medication), and a combination of both. The first group received eight sessions of 90 minutes of dialectical behavior therapy, the second group received 200 mg of oral Fluvoxamine daily, and the third group received a combination of both methods. Data were collected by Depression Inventory and analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test.

The results showed that in the pre-test stage, the groups were not significantly different in terms of depression and dialectical behavior therapy (p> 0.05), but in the post-test stage, there was a significant difference (p <0.05). The combined method significantly reduced depression compared to dialectical behavior therapy and medication, but there was no significant difference between dialectical behavior therapy and medication in reducing depression. Also, dialectical and combination behavior therapy significantly reduced depression in comparison with Fluvoxamine.

Based on the results, a combination method can relieve depression in women with breast cancer.

Cancer is one of the leading worldwide public health problems. Natural product has provided a valuable source biological active compound for maintaining humans health even after years of introduction of synthetic drugs. Fomes fomentarius (F. fomentarius), a fungus belongs to Polyporaceae family, is widely used for different medicinal purposes. Considering inadequate reports on the fungus, cytotoxic effect of its extracts on brine shrimp larvae and colon adenocarcinoma cell line (SW742) was investigated in this study.

The fruiting body of the fungus was chopped and extracted with water, ethanol, methanol, and ethanol-methanol (50-50) solvents. Regarding the results of brine shrimp lethality assay (BSLA), ethanol extract showed the highest toxicity, so subjected to fractionation with chloroform, ethyl acetate, and water. The fractions were tested for cytotoxic activity in human colon adenocarcinoma (SW742) cells by MTT assay. Ethyl acetate fraction exhibited more cytotoxic activity against SW742 cell line. Therefore, it was chosen to be purified using silica gel column chromatography. Subfractions of ethyl acetate were tested for their cytotoxicity by MTT assay. The content of these subfractions were also analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

According to the results, ethanol extract had the greatest potency in BSLA, and ethyl acetate fraction showed the highest cell cytotoxicity. Based on GC-MS chromatogram, palmitic acid was the compound with the largest quantity in the three selected subfractions of ethyl acetate.

It was found that palmitic acid with other compounds in F. fomentarius had cytotoxic activity against colon adenocarcinoma cells. This feature may provide a biological basis for further clinical evaluation.

Why was Ivermectin not mentioned by the medical community in the treatment of COVID-19? In a pandemic, emergency physicians don't have time to wait for validated studies before we try something. An example of a sentence that we hear a lot from parents of children in the community:Here are so many facts to question now: The COVID-19 mandatory injection for children, now going into effect nationwide has me shuddering! Where are the national baseline tests for antibodies for these kids, before they must have this experimental vaccine? It is still experimental people! (Until now, drugs widely used under the mandatory three-year data study by the FDA, are deemed experimental). In the last two years, humans have witnessed a deadly catastrophe called the Corona virus. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has turns to a pandemic all around the world. Despite the importance of vaccination, more efficient drugs are required to treat or manage coronavirus disease-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 150,000-200,000 new cases of COVID-19 are reported in the United States every day. In the United States, COVID-19 causes more than 2000 deaths a day and more than 300,000 deaths since January 2020(1). Many drugs, including Hydroxychloroquine, have been introduced for treatment, but clinical trials have shown multiple side effects and less benefit in treating the disease with this drug (2).

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has devastating effects on patient's quality of life (QOL). It seems that the use of ketamine in the treatment of MDD is an easy and less invasive technique compared with invasive methods, such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). As there were few studies in this regard, especially in Yazd province, the current study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic effect of repeated injected ketamine on patients with MDD  and resistant to treatment.

This hospital-based open-label prospective study was conducted from September 2017 to May 2019 at Comprehensive Psychiatric Center, Taft,Yazd, Iran. In this pre-and post- trial, 18 patients with a diagnosis of MDD were recruited. The patients were diagnosed with MDD based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5e) text revision Adapted from American Psychiatric Association (DSM 5). The patients aged between 18 to 70 years. Patients were eligible to participate in this study if they did not have history  of physical or mental comorbidity. After completing Hamilton Depression Rating Scale  (HDRS), the patients received 0.5 mg/kg ketamine infusion over 40 minutes with vital signs monitoring. After 2.5 hours of infusion, the HDRS was re-completed. The patients, who responded to treatment (≥50% reduction in HDRS score), received the treatment on days 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 after the start of the study. Patients were re-evaluated after receiving the last dose of ketamine.

After the first ketamine infusion, 13 of 18 (72%) patients responded to treatment. A significant decrease was seen between the mean depression score before (21.6 ± 8.5) and 2.5 hours after the first injection (9.7 ± 4.8) in responded patient (p<0.001). In addition, a significant decrease was seen in all of 13 patients who continued ketamine until the 11th day (6.3 ± 4.0) (p<0.001).

Findings suggested that ketamine injection was efficacious in reducing the severity of depression in patients with MDD. Due to the decrease in the average of HDRS score and the absence of significant side effects, it seems that repeated ketamine infusion therapy can be offered as a new therapy protocol for TRD.

Medical problems are common in psychiatric patients, especially in patients with schizophrenia, so more attention should be considered. Benign tumors such as Vestibular Schwannoma (VS) are also a rare condition that may occur in psychiatric patients. This study presented a 36-years-old married woman known case of schizophrenia and with cerebellopontine angle (CPA) following atypical facial pain. This study aims to draw the attention of physicians, psychiatrists, mental health personnel, and internal care to the physical and medical issues of chronic psychiatric patients. In addition, misdiagnosis in these patients can cause more problems, and drug-drug interactions can be important.