A qualitative study was designed to explore sleep-wake experience of mothers of children in maintenance treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Interviews were conducted with 20 participants using open-ended, semi-structured questions and were transcribed verbatim. Two main themes emerged: "It's a whole new cancer world" and "I don't remember what it's like to have sleep." Mothers experienc...

Introduction: Allergen immunotherapy is an effective treatment for allergic rhinitis. Conventional immunotherapy takesat least 5 to 6 months to reach the maintenance dosage; nonetheless, rush immunotherapy accelerates to reach the maintenance dose several months earlier. However, the safety and efficacy of this treatment has not been widely investigated. The objective of the present study...

HEALTH POLITICAL BACKGROUND Methadone substitution treatment in Germany is introduced in 1988 in the framework of a scientific pilot study in North Rhein Westphalia. Recent statistics show that by now a broad offer of substitution treatment exists. From 1 June 2002 to 31 December 2003 113,000 substitution treatments have been recorded as being started of which around 56,000 have been recorded a...

LE TRAITEMENT D’ENTRETIEN À LA MÉTHADONE constitue une stratégie efficace de traitement de la dépendance aux opiacés. De nombreux obstacles, y compris les stigmates que la société impose aux consommateurs d’opiacés et aux patients qui prennent de la méthadone, limitent malheureusement l’accès à ce mode de traitement. Dans ce numéro (page 395), les Drs Mark Latowsky et Evelyn Kallen discutent de...

The introduction of novel agents (thalidomide, bortezomib and lenalidomide) in the frontline therapy of multiple myeloma has markedly improved the outcome both in younger patients who are candidates for high-dose therapy plus autologous stem-cell transplantation (HDT/ASCT) and in elderly patients. In the HDT/ASCT paradigm, novel agents may be used as induction therapy or after HDT/ASCT as conso...

This study evaluated the effects of azathioprine in combination with low-dose prednisolone in the management of patients with intractable autoimmune hepatitis. Thirteen patients with intractable autoimmune hepatitis who had an incomplete or arrested response to conventional prednisolone therapy, or who relapsed during prednisolone maintenance therapy were additionally administered 50 or 100 mg/...

BACKGROUND The optimal duration of antidepressant treatment in bipolar depression appears to be controversial due to a lack of quality evidence, and guideline recommendations are either vague or contradictive. This is especially true for second line treatments such as bupropion that had not been subject to rigourous long term studies in Bipolar Disorder. CASE PRESENTATION We report the case o...

Corticosteroids are the drugs of choice for treatment of sarcoidosis. Frequently the pulmonary parenchymal lesions with impaired lung function represent the indication for starting treatment. Oral glucocorticosteroids may cause systemic side-effects and therefore treatment is often started too late in the hope of a spontaneous recovery. With the introduction of the locally potent glucocorticost...

Amiodarone is an antiarrhythmic agent unrelated to other drugs in current use. It has been little used in Britain, and no formal clinical trials have been possible because the drug has not been licensed by the Committee on Safety of Medicines. Nevertheless it has unique properties which can be valuable in the treatment of a wide spectrum of arrhythmias, particularly supraventricular tachycardia...