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Introduction Early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) is a serious debilitating disorder with considerable morbidity and a reduced life expectancy; therefore, early diagnosis and effective treatments are particularly important. Negative symptoms are more prominent in adolescents and children (compared with adults), and are key predictors of worse functional and clinical outcomes in EOS. Therefore, this study...
The short-term effects of benzodiazepines on memory are well established and are suspected in the long term. Eleven studies have been published so far concerning benzodiazepine use and the risk of dementia disorders; nine of these studies concluded these drugs have a deleterious effect, one found a protective effect, and one (the most recently published) observed no effect. The positive association...
Introduction Valproic acid is a versatile antiepileptic drug that is often used in the acute care setting. Intravenous valproic acid lends itself well to a continuous infusion as it exhibits a relatively short half-life. We evaluated the pharmacokinetics and clinical efficacy of continuous infusion valproic acid in hospitalized patients with migraine and seizures. Methods A retrospective cohort...
A new extended-release (ER) capsule formulation of carbidopa/levodopa (Rytary®, Numient™, IPX066) is available for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Carbidopa/levodopa ER capsules contain beads of carbidopa and levodopa, designed to release the drugs at different rates in the gastrointestinal tract and provide constant therapeutic levodopa concentrations that are maintained for 4–5 h (after...
HIV infection has become a chronic illness when successfully treated with combined antiretroviral therapy (cART). The long-term health prognosis of aging with controlled HIV infection and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) remains unclear. In this review, we propose that, almost 20 years after the introduction of cART, a change in research focus is needed, with a greater emphasis on chronicity...
Background Several case reports and epidemiological studies have raised concern about the abuse potential of pregabalin, the use of which has increased substantially over the last decade. Pregabalin is, in some cases, used for recreational purposes and it has incurred attention among drug abusers for causing euphoric and dissociative effects when taken in doses exceeding normal therapeutic dosages...
Teriflunomide is a once-daily oral agent that has been licensed in the EU since August 2013 for the treatment of adult patients with relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). More recently (September 2014), the EU summary of product characteristics (SmPC) was updated to include data from patients with a first clinical demyelinating event. This review examines the EU SmPC for teriflunomide, with...
Aim To evaluate costs and health outcomes of nalmefene plus psychosocial support, compared with psychosocial intervention alone, for reducing alcohol consumption in alcohol-dependent patients, specifically focusing on societal costs related to productivity losses and crime. Methods A Markov model was constructed to model costs and health outcomes of the treatments over 5 years. Analyses were conducted...
Cognitive deficits are prevalent in schizophrenia, and these deficits represent a disabling aspect of the illness for which there are no current effective treatments. Recent work has shown that sex hormone levels correlate with brain activity and cognitive abilities differentially in patients with schizophrenia relative to healthy control groups. There is emerging evidence suggesting that oestrogen-based...
Fingolimod, a structural analog of sphingosine derived from fungal metabolites, is a functional antagonist of the G-protein-coupled sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) receptors S1P1,3,4,5. In the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (RMS), fingolimod acts by reversibly retaining central memory T cells and naïve T cells in lymph nodes, thereby reducing the recirculation of autoreactive lymphocytes...
Clozapine remains the drug of choice for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. As a consequence of its long history and complex pharmacology, we suspected wide variation in the regulations of clozapine use across different countries. The summaries of product characteristics (SPCs) from clozapine manufacturers, as well as local and national guidelines in the following selected countries, were reviewed:...
The neuropeptide oxytocin plays a role in reward, stress, social affiliation, learning, and memory processes. As such, there is increasing interest in oxytocin as a potential treatment for addictions. The endogenous oxytocin system is itself altered by short- or long-term exposure to drugs of abuse. A large number of preclinical studies in rodents have investigated the effect of oxytocin administration...
Progress in finding a better alternative to alteplase has been slow. Tenecteplase and desmoteplase have better pharmacological profiles compared with alteplase, but definite clinical evidence of their superiority is lacking. The two major phase III studies that have tested the efficacy and safety of desmoteplase in ischemic stroke patients have shown neutral results and a promising safety profile,...
Brexpiprazole (Rexulti®) is a serotonin-dopamine activity modulator, with a unique receptor binding profile and low intrinsic D2 activity suggestive of a lower potential than aripiprazole to cause activation-like adverse effects, such as akathisia. The drug was recently approved by the US FDA for adjunctive therapy with antidepressant treatment (ADT) in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD)...
Cognitive impairment is a common symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS), adversely impacting many spheres of daily functioning. Yet the effectiveness of pharmacological interventions for cognitive impairment in MS is unclear. Clinicians and patients alike would benefit from formal guidelines regarding effective management of cognitive symptoms. We reviewed the background on the measurement, pathophysiology...
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive adult-onset, neurodegenerative disease characterized by the degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons. Over recent years, numerous genes ha ve been identified that promote disease pathology, including SOD1, TARDBP, and the expanded hexanucleotide repeat (GGGGCC) within C9ORF72. However, despite these major advances in identifying genes contributing...
Life-threatening and benign drug reactions occur frequently in the skin, affecting 8 % of the general population and 2–3 % of all hospitalized patients, emphasizing the need for physicians to effectively recognize and manage patients with drug-induced eruptions. Neurologic medications represent a vast array of drug classes with cutaneous side effects. Approximately 7 % of the United States (US) adult...
We recently conducted a comprehensive review of the psychiatric inclusion and exclusion criteria used in 170 placebo-controlled antidepressant efficacy trials (AETs) that were published between 1995 and 2014. In conducting this literature review, we identified a number of instances in which the descriptions of the inclusion/exclusion criteria were vague, redundant, or difficult to interpret. In the...
Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous, debilitating disorder characterized by three distinct sets of clinical features: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive deficits. Extant antipsychotic drugs have been most successful at treating the positive symptoms of patients with schizophrenia but have minimal therapeutic effects on negative symptoms and cognitive deficits, which are the symptoms...
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