Publications by authors named "Alamo C"

Background: While mental health is an emerging issue in low-income countries, its promotion remains poor, with little context-oriented evidence available. Here we aimed to assess the impact and acceptability/feasibility of a community-based psychodrama intervention involving both adolescents and young adults (AYA) living with HIV (AYALHIV) and without HIV (AYAHIV-).

Methods: We used a mixed-methods approach, where the quantitative part was based on pre/post questionnaires and the qualitative one on content analysis of semi-structured interviews.

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Insomnia disorder is a common condition that is considered a risk factor for multiple physical and mental disorders, contributing to reduced quality of life and increased healthcare expenditures. Although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is typically recommended as the primary intervention, its accessibility is hindered by limited resources, prompting the prevalent use of pharmacological interventions as the primary treatment in clinical settings. This study reviews the benefits and risks of current pharmacological treatments for insomnia, with special reference to the orexinergic system as a novel therapeutic target for treatment.

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Background: Risperidone ISM is a newly developed long-acting injectable (LAI) treatment for schizophrenia in adults. In the absence of head-to-head comparisons with other similar antipsychotics, the objective of this study was to generate indirect evidence of some aspects of the safety and tolerability of Risperidone ISM compared to other LAI antipsychotics for treatment of patients with schizophrenia in the maintenance treatment setting.

Methods: A literature review was conducted systematically to identify maintenance treatment studies reporting safety and tolerability outcomes for LAI antipsychotic therapies.

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Aerosolized anthrax () spores are of extreme health concern and can remain airborne for hours and contaminate all kinds of surfaces, constituting reservoirs from which resuspension is easily produced. The assessment of decontamination techniques must therefore consider both air and surfaces. In the present study, several kinds of disinfecting fogs were experimentally tested against spores, which served as a surrogate for , both as aerosols released into the air and spread on porous and non-porous surfaces with different positions and orientations.

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Article Synopsis
  • Depression and anxiety are common in neurological disorders, significantly affecting patients' quality of life and disability levels, but they are often underdiagnosed and undertreated due to symptom complexity.
  • Early identification and treatment of depression alongside neurological conditions are crucial to prevent worsening symptoms and increased disability.
  • Treatment options exist, including medication and therapy, but their effectiveness can vary, leading to a need for collaborative care between neurologists and neuropsychiatry teams, especially in severe cases.
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The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the dangers of airborne pathogen transmission. SARS-CoV-2 is known to be transmitted through aerosols; however, little is known about the dynamics of these aerosols in real environments, the conditions, and the minimum viral load required for infection. Efficiently measuring and capturing pathogens present in the air would help to understand the infection process.

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Maintenance of stemness is tightly linked to cell cycle regulation through protein phosphorylation by cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). However, how this process is reversed during differentiation is unknown. We report here that exit from stemness and differentiation of pluripotent cells along the neural lineage are controlled by CDC14, a CDK-counteracting phosphatase whose function in mammals remains obscure.

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Antipsychotics are the cornerstone of schizophrenia treatment. Lack of treatment adherence encouraged the development of injectable long-acting antipsychotics. However, second-generation or atypical antipsychotics require a loading dose at the start of treatment and eventually oral supplementation to achieve therapeutic plasma levels.

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Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by persistent inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Moreover, ADHD is commonly associated with other comorbid diseases (depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, etc.).

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The experience of COVID19 pandemic has demonstrated the real concern of biological agents dispersed in the air and surfaces environments. Therefore, the need of a fast and large-scale disinfection method has arisen for prevention of contagion. COUNTERFOG® is an innovative technology developed for large-scale decontamination of air and surfaces.

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Objectives: Aripiprazole is an antipsychotic with a partial agonism of dopamine D and D receptors. This differential mechanism implies a rigorous appraisal of the appropriate therapeutic strategies in certain situations. To answer currently unsolved clinical questions about the use of oral and long-acting injectable (LAI) aripiprazole, we present here an expert consensus from 12 Spanish psychiatrists and a pharmacologist with extensive experience in the use of this antipsychotic.

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The role played by serendipity in the origin of modern psychopharmacology has proven to be controversial in scientific literature. In its original meaning (Walpole), serendipity refers to discoveries made through a combination of accidents and sagacity. We have implemented an operational definition of serendipity based on finding something unexpected or unintended, regardless of the systematic process that led to the accidental observation, and we have established four different patterns of serendipitous attributability.

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Adolescent mental health (MH) is a significant global health concern, which is extremely relevant when referring to adolescents and youth living with HIV (AYHIV). In Mozambique, ∼52% of the population is <18 years and the country has the world's eighth highest HIV prevalence (insert citation). We performed an observational study to evaluate anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol-drug abuse in adolescents and youth assessing health services in Sofala Province, Mozambique.

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In recent decades, pandemics and health catastrophes have caused disorders in part of the population with quite diverse consequences (SARS in 2002-2003, Ebola in 2014- 2015) showing a tendency to create generalised fear in the population, stigmatisation of the sufferers and psychological effects in health-care staff themselves.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examined research on second-generation antipsychotic drugs in Malaysia using bibliometric methods, focusing on publication trends and patterns in scientific literature.
  • A total of 105 original documents from 2004 to 2016 were analyzed, revealing exponential growth in publications, particularly for drugs like olanzapine, clozapine, and risperidone.
  • Despite the increase in publications, the research landscape showed limited diversity among journals, highlighting a potential gap in broader dissemination of findings.
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Despite the existence of effective evidence-based treatments for the management of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the therapeutic approach to this disease remains suboptimal. The availability of a therapeutic pharmacological guideline for OCD could help to improve the management of the disease in our setting and to reduce the burden of disease for the patient. With the sponsorship of the Spanish Society of Psychiatry, a group of experts has developed a guideline for the pharmacological treatment of OCD based on the recommendations of existing guidelines and following the methodology of the ADAPTE Collaboration.

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Objective: A bibliometric study was undertaken of peer-reviewed publications on atypical antipsychotic drugs (AADs) from the United Kingdom and the findings are presented herein.

Methods: We selected the documents from the Scopus database. We applied several production and dispersion bibliometric indicators, including Price's law on the growth of the scientific literature, and Bradford's law.

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The introduction of the first antidepressants in the 50s of the 20th century radically changed the treatment of depression, while providing information on pathophysiological aspects of this disease. New antidepressants drugs (agomelatine, tianeptine, vortioxetine) are providing data that give rise to pathophysiological hypotheses of depression that differ from the classic monoaminergic theory. In this sense, tianeptina, an atypical drug by its mechanism of differential action, contributes to clarify that in depression there is more than monoamines.

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In this paper, the authors review the history of the pharmacological treatment of bipolar disorder, from the first nonspecific sedative agents introduced in the 19th and early 20th century, such as solanaceae alkaloids, bromides and barbiturates, to John Cade's experiments with lithium and the beginning of the so-called "Psychopharmacological Revolution" in the 1950s. We also describe the clinical studies and development processes, enabling the therapeutic introduction of pharmacological agents currently available for the treatment of bipolar disorder in its different phases and manifestations. Those drugs include lithium salts, valproic acid, carbamazepine, new antiepileptic drugs, basically lamotrigine and atypical antipsychotic agents (olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine, ziprasidone, aripiprazole, asenapine, cariprazine and lurasidone).

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Purpose: To monitor oncologists' perspective on cancer pain management.

Methods: An anonymized survey was conducted in two waves. First, over a convenience sample of oncologists known to be particularly concerned with the management of pain.

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Objective: A bibliometric study of peer-reviewed scientific publications on atypical antipsychotic drugs (AADs) from Italy is herein presented.

Methods: We selected the documents from Scopus database. We applied several bibliometric indicators of production and dispersion, including Price’s Law about the increase of scientific literature, and Bradford’s Law.

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The treatment of ADHD has focused on the use of psychostimulants drugs such as methylphenidate or amphetamine and derivatives, or not stimulants agents, such as atomoxetine. These agents act mainly on catecholaminergic presynaptic mechanisms. Recently the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved another not psychostimulant drug, guanfacine extended release (ER), as a new option to the treatment of ADHD, which acts at postsynaptic level.

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We have carried out a bibliometric study about the international scientific publications on clozapine. We have used the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases, and we applied bibliometric indicators of production, as Price's Law on the increase of scientific literature. We also calculated the participation index (PI) of the different countries.

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Objectives: To systematically review the evidence about the switching of antipsychotics in SZA in acute and maintenance treatment.

Methods: A systematic review following the PRISMA statement identifying studies specifically conducted on, or including, SZA patients.

Results: One analysis considered uniquely a SZA population, 13 more studies including an adequate SZA subsample were considered.

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Depression in the elderly is a significant health issue that has the potential to seriously affect physical and emotional well-being. Therefore, the treatment of geriatric depression is necessary. Antidepressant treatment in older depressed patients is efficacious, but differences in the effectiveness of different classes of antidepressants have not been demonstrated.

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