Systematic Review of Research Methods and Reporting Quality of Randomized Clinical Trials of Spinal Cord Stimulation for Pain.

This systematic review assessed design characteristics and reporting quality of published randomized clinical trials of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for treatment of pain in adults and adolescents. The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42018090412). Relevant articles were identified by searching the following databases through December 31, 2018: MEDLINE, Embase, WikiStim, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials.

Optimizing inhaler use by pharmacist-provided education to community-dwelling elderly.

Objective: To assess, using a standard observational tool, the ability of patients to demonstrate and maintain proper inhaled medication administration techniques following pharmacist education.

Design: Six-month observational study.

Setting: Patients' homes or adult day health center.

Depression and glycemic intake in the homebound elderly.

Background: Depression is associated with an increase in the incidence of type 2 diabetes, but the mechanism is unclear. We aimed to study the relationship between depression and glycemic intake in the elderly, and examine whether antidepressant use modified this relationship.

Design, Setting And Participants: We evaluated 976 homebound elders in a cross-sectional study.

Quality of clinical and economic evidence in dossier formulary submissions.

Objective: To investigate the quality and completeness of clinical and economic data in dossiers submitted by drug companies to a health plan using Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy guidelines (the Format) for formulary submissions.

Study Design: We reviewed the quality of economic analyses in dossiers submitted to Premera Blue Cross Health Plan (Mountlake Terrace, Washington; enrollment 1.6 million) between January 2002 and September 2005.

Depression, antidepressants, and plasma amyloid beta (Beta) peptides in those elderly who do not have cardiovascular disease.

Background: Low plasma amyloid-beta peptide 42 (Abeta42) is associated with depressive symptoms independently of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the elderly. It is critical to investigate whether antidepressants modify this relationship.

Methods: We evaluated 324 elders without CVD in a cross-sectional study.

Screening for depressive disorders in patients with skin diseases: a comparison of three screeners.

Despite being common, depression often goes undetected in patients with skin diseases. Our aim was to examine and compare the performance of three depression screeners. We studied dermatological inpatients aged 18-65 years.

Depression screening instruments made good severity measures in a cross-sectional analysis.

Objective: Test equivalence of different survey instruments to diagnose depression and to assess its severity. Where equivalence exists, describe how to convert scores between instruments.

Study Design: Cross-sectional analysis of six convenience samples consisting of 71 members of a health plan and 107 patients of mental health specialty practices with psychiatric diagnoses were compared using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and one or more of the Primary Care Screener for Affective Disorder, Prime-MD-PHQ, Inventory to Diagnose Depression, the depression subscale of the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire, and the Mental Health Inventory from the SF-36.

Description of a clinical pharmacist intervention administered to primary care patients with depression.

The objective of this article is to provide a detailed description of interactions between patients with depression and pharmacists. Analysis was conducted on patients from the intervention arm (n=268) of an randomized controlled trial that evaluated the impact of a clinical pharmacist on the outcomes for depressed primary care patients from nine metropolitan Boston practices. The main outcome measure was the amount of intervention time spent with patients, physicians, and other activities.

The impact of a pharmacist intervention on 6-month outcomes in depressed primary care patients.

The object of the study was to evaluate outcomes of a randomized clinical trial (RCT) of a pharmacist intervention for depressed patients in primary care (PC). We report antidepressant (AD) use and depression severity outcomes at 6-months. The RCT was conducted between 1998 and 2000 in 9 eastern Massachusetts PC practices.

Antidepressant use: concordance between self-report and claims records.

Background: Researchers need valid methods to assess whether patients are taking their antidepressant medications. Two important sources of data on drug exposure are patients' self-reports and pharmacy claims.

Objective: To compare self-report and claims data for antidepressant exposure.

Assessing the performance of a new depression screener for primary care (PC-SAD).

As many as 50% of patients with major depression seen in primary care settings are not diagnosed. To facilitate efficient identification of primary care patients with depression, we developed a new patient-administered depression screening instrument (PC-SAD) that produces a DSM-IV diagnosis, and compared its performance to other screeners that yield DSM-IV diagnoses. To assess validity, the diagnostic accuracy of the PC-SAD was compared with the Inventory to Diagnose Depression (IDD) and the PRIME-MD-PHQ (PHQ) in a convenience sample (N = 312) of health plan members, primary care outpatients, and psychiatric patients (with diagnoses).