BACKGROUND Laboratory evidence of cholesterol-induced production of amyloid beta as a putative neurotoxin precipitating Alzheimer disease, along with epidemiological evidence, suggests that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may favorably influence the progression of the disorder. OBJECTIVE To determine if treatment with atorvastatin calcium affects the cognitive and/or behavioral decline in p...

INTRODUCTION Continuation/maintenance electroconvulsive therapy has been shown to be effective for prevention of relapse in affective and psychotic disorders. However, there is a limited nubber of studies that investigate clinical management, associated costs, and perceived quality variables. MATERIAL AND METHODS A series of 8 cases included during the first 18 months of the Continuation/Main...

The relationship between the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) with other scales in schizophrenia has rarely been investigated. A systematic literature search was conducted to identify articles that reported the GAF score together with scores in the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Clinical Global Impression (CGI) or Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), using MEDLINE, EMBASE...

We performed a multicenter randomized clinical trial in 36 PDPN patients with severe lower limb pain not responding to conventional therapy. Twenty-two patients were randomly assigned to SCS in combination with the best medical treatment (BMT) (SCS group) and 14 to BMT only (BMT group). The SCS systemwas implanted only if trial stimulation was successful. Treatment success was defined as ‡50% p...

Secondary: The secondary objectives of this study were to compare the efficacy profiles of aripiprazole versus olanzapine based upon the results of efficacy scales (PANSS, Clinical Global Impression [CGI], and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale [MADRS]), and to compare the safety and tolerability of aripiprazole versus olanzapine, and the response rate and discontinuation rate in patient...

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), including autistic disorder, frequently suffer from comorbid sleep problems. An altered melatonin rhythm is considered to underlie the impairment in sleep onset and maintenance in ASD. We report three cases with autistic disorder in whom nocturnal symptoms improved with ramelteon, a selective melatonin receptor agonist. Insomnia and behavior, asses...

Forty-four hospitalized schizophrenic patients, 22 in each of two groups, were treated for a period of 6 weeks with either EGT-GPZ combination or CPZ alone. Ratings on RP scale (Rockland and Pollin, 1S65) showed that the KGT-receiving group was significantly better en several measure at second week and also had an earlier onset of beneficial response on "Affect and Mood." However, at the end of...

BACKGROUND The relative efficacy of psychotherapy and combined therapy in the treatment of depression is still a matter of debate. AIMS To investigate whether combined therapy has advantages over psychotherapy alone. METHOD A 6-month randomised clinical trial compared Short Psychodynamic Supportive Psychotherapy (n=106) with combined therapy (n=85) in ambulatory patients with mild or modera...

INTRODUCTION Depression occupies a substantial part of medical visit attendance. However, medical practitioners have very little time so that a brief, quick and reliable procedure to evaluate the intensity of symptoms and their changes could be useful. Our objective has been to analyze the reliability of a self-applied Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to measure symptom intensity in depressed patien...

IMPORTANCE The finding of factors that differentially predict the likelihood of response to placebo over that of an active drug could have a significant impact on study design in this population. OBJECTIVE To identify possible nonspecific, baseline predictors of response to intervention in a large randomized clinical trial of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. DESIGN, ...