World’s largest COVID-19 drug trial identifies second compound that cuts risk of death

Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Kupferschmidt
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trial ◽  
Risk Of Death

Does electroconvulsive therapy cause brain damage?

1984 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard D. Weiner
Keyword(s):  
Brain Damage ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Depressive Illness ◽  
Drug Trial ◽  
The Public ◽  
Risk Of Death ◽  
Therapeutic Benefits ◽  
Irreversible Brain Damage ◽  
Autobiographic Memory

AbstractAlthough the use of ECT has declined dramatically from its inception, this decrease has recently shown signs of leveling out because of ECT's powerful therapeutic effect in severely ill depressed individuals who either do not respond to pharmacologic alternatives or are too ill to tolerate a relatively lengthy drug trial. Notwithstanding its therapeutic benefits, ECT has also remained a controversial treatment modality, particularly in the eye of the public. Given the unsavory qualities associated with the word “electroconvulsive,” claims of possible, probable, or even certain brain damage with ECT have easily found listeners. A careful, nonselective assessment of data covering the areas of pathology, radiology, electrophysiology, biochemistry, and neuropsychology leads both to certain conclusions and to certain unanswered questions. ECT is not the devastating purveyor of wholesale brain damage that some of its detractors claim. For the typical individual receiving ECT, no detectable correlates of irreversible brain damage appear to occur. Still, there remains the possibility that either subtle, objectively undetectable persistent deficits, particularly in the area of autobiographic memory function, occur, or that a rarely occurring syndrome of more pervasive persistent deficits related to ECT use may be present. Clearly, more research directed toward answering these questions needs to be carried out so that the role of ECT can be more rigorously defined. While such research is pending, however, we cannot expect that the conditions that predispose to clinical referrals for ECT will disappear. Given the misery, anguish, and risk of death by suicide, starvation, or debilitation associated with severe depressive illness, for example, it still appears that ECT, at least for the present, must continue to be available.

Allergy Shots at Home Don't Raise Risk of Death

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
MICHELE G. SULLIVAN
Keyword(s):  
Risk Of Death ◽  
At Home

“Music First”

GeroPsych ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dane L. Shiltz ◽  
Tara T. Lineweaver ◽  
Tim Brimmer ◽  
Alex C. Cairns ◽  
Danielle S. Halcomb ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Usual Care ◽  
Psychological Symptoms ◽  
Care Facility ◽  
Care Group ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Antipsychotic Medications ◽  
Risk Of Death ◽  
Extended Care ◽  
Individualized Music

Abstract. Existing research has primarily evaluated music therapy (MT) as a means of reducing the negative affect, behavioral, and/or cognitive symptoms of dementia. Music listening (ML), on the other hand, offers a less-explored, potentially equivalent alternative to MT and may further reduce exposure to potentially harmful psychotropic medications traditionally used to manage negative behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). This 5-month prospective, naturalistic, interprofessional, single-center extended care facility study compared usual care (45 residents) and usual care combined with at least thrice weekly personalized ML sessions (47 residents) to determine the influence of ML. Agitation decreased for all participants (p < .001), and the ML residents receiving antipsychotic medications at baseline experienced agitation levels similar to both the usual care group and the ML patients who were not prescribed antipsychotics (p < .05 for medication × ML interaction). No significant changes in psychotropic medication exposure occurred. This experimental study supports ML as an adjunct to pharmacological approaches to treating agitation in older adults with dementia living in long-term care facilities. It also highlights the need for additional research focused on how individualized music programs affect doses and frequencies of antipsychotic medications and their associated risk of death and cerebrovascular events in this population.

Understanding Terminal Decline in Cognition and Risk of Death

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Rabbitt ◽  
Mary Lunn ◽  
Danny Wong
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Intelligence Test ◽  
Practice Effects ◽  
Risk Of Death ◽  
Risk Of Mortality ◽  
Impending Death ◽  
Intelligence Test Scores ◽  
Reduced Risk

There is new empirical evidence that the effects of impending death on cognition have been miscalculated because of neglect of the incidence of dropout and of practice gains during longitudinal studies. When these are taken into consideration, amounts and rates of cognitive declines preceding death and dropout are seen to be almost identical, and participants aged 49 to 93 years who neither dropout nor die show little or no decline during a 20-year longitudinal study. Practice effects are theoretically informative. Positive gains are greater for young and more intelligent participants and at all levels of intelligence and durations of practice; declines in scores of 10% or more between successive quadrennial test sessions are risk factors for mortality. Higher baseline intelligence test scores are also associated with reduced risk of mortality, even when demographics and socioeconomic advantage have been taken into consideration.

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