OBJECTIVES To determine the effects of cholinesterase inhibition with tacrine hydrochloride for the symptoms of Alzheimer disease in terms of cognitive performance, clinical global impression, behavior, and functional autonomy. DATA SOURCES The Cochrane Dementia Group registry of trials. STUDY SELECTION Unconfounded, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials in which tacrine had b...

Materials and methods A multicenter, open label, prospective, observational study enrolled 800 patients, more 50 years old with Mild Neurocognitive Disorder (DSM IV criteria), during 24 months of treatment with galantamine 16 mg./day. Assessments included the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS-GOG), Seven minutes test...

AIMS Presence of the null FS63TER allele of the rs1800169 polymorphism in the gene encoding the ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) may increase the risk of schizophrenia. This study prospectively evaluated the CNTF rs1800169 genotype (G/G vs non-G/G) effects on response to iloperidone. PATIENTS & METHODS Iloperidone 24 mg/day was evaluated in a study of patients with schizophrenia. Efficacy m...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Assessing poststroke depression may be complicated by aphasia, other cognitive deficits, and several somatic stroke-related symptoms. We studied the possible differences in performance of some commonly used instruments in screening depression after stroke. METHODS We compared the Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, Visual Analogue Mood Scale...

OBJECTIVES To compare the efficacy and tolerability of Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort extract) with imipramine in patients with mild to moderate depression. DESIGN Randomised, multicentre, double blind, parallel group trial. SETTING 40 outpatient clinics in Germany. PARTICIPANTS 324 outpatients with mild to moderate depression. INTERVENTION 75 mg imipramine twice daily or 250 mg h...

Purpose: The aim of our work was to explore which of the most commonly used pain scales is best suited to assess treatment success in endometriosis therapy and, therefore, qualifies best to be used as primary endpoint for clinical studies in this indication. Methods: We compared patient’s responses on the different pain scales Visual Analog Scale, Biberoglu and Behrman Score, and SF-36 Bodily P...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether inpatients with disorganized schizophrenia are more resistant to treatment. METHOD Eighty-five inpatients were assessed at admission and at discharge for schizophrenia subtype, symptom severity, and treatment resistance criteria. RESULTS Disorganized patients were significantly more treatment-resistant than paranoid patients (60%, p = 0.001), and presented w...

Although there is great interest in the improving the ability to track patients' change over time in routine clinical care settings, no standardized transdiagnostic measure is currently available for busy clinicians to apply. The Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scales are simple measures widely used as outcomes in psychiatric clinical trials. However, the CGI suffers from poorly defined scorin...