Effect of hearing experience on preschool-aged children's eye gaze to a talker during spoken language processing.

Speechreading-gathering speech information from talkers' faces-supports speech perception when speech acoustics are degraded. Benefitting from speechreading, however, requires listeners to visually fixate talkers during face-to-face interactions. The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that preschool-aged children allocate their eye gaze to a talker when speech acoustics are degraded.

Angiotensin Receptor Blockers for Hypertension and Risk of Epilepsy.

Importance: Animal and human studies have suggested that the use of angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may be associated with a lower risk of incident epilepsy compared with other antihypertensive medications. However, observational data from the US are lacking.

Objective: To evaluate the association between ARB use and epilepsy incidence in subgroups of US patients with hypertension.

Speech-in-Noise Assessment in the Routine Audiologic Test Battery: Relationship to Perceived Auditory Disability.

Objectives: Self-assessment of perceived communication difficulty has been used in clinical and research practices for decades. Such questionnaires routinely assess the perceived ability of an individual to understand speech, particularly in background noise. Despite the emphasis on perceived performance in noise, speech recognition in routine audiologic practice is measured by word recognition in quiet (WRQ).

Microstructural Changes in the Brainstem Auditory Pathway in Children With Hearing Loss.

Objective: To assess the utility of diffusion tensor imaging of the auditory pathway in children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL).

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: A single academic tertiary children's hospital.

Prenatal Exposure to Opioids and Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children: A Bayesian Mediation Analysis.

This study explores natural direct and joint natural indirect effects (JNIE) of prenatal opioid exposure on neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) in children mediated through pregnancy complications, major and minor congenital malformations, and adverse neonatal outcomes, using Medicaid claims linked to vital statistics in Rhode Island, United States, 2008-2018. A Bayesian mediation analysis with elastic net shrinkage prior was developed to estimate mean time to NDD diagnosis ratio using posterior mean and 95% credible intervals (CrIs) from Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms. Simulation studies showed desirable model performance.

Antibiotics on Demand: Advances in Asynchronous Telemedicine Call for Increased Antibiotic Surveillance.

The rapid growth of telehealth services has brought about direct-to-consumer telemedicine platforms, enabling patients to request antibiotics online without a virtual or face-to-face consultation. While telemedicine aims to enhance accessibility, this trend raises significant concerns regarding appropriate antimicrobial use and patient safety. In this viewpoint, we share our first-hand experience with 2 direct-to-consumer platforms, where we intentionally sought inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions for nonspecific symptoms strongly indicative of a viral upper respiratory infection.

Prevalence of Cochlear Nerve Deficiency and Hearing Device Use in Children With Single-Sided Deafness.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of cochlear nerve deficiency (CND) in a cohort of pediatric patients with single-sided deafness (SSD). A secondary objective was to investigate trends in intervention and hearing device use in these children.

Study Design: Case series with chart review.

Comparative Safety Analysis of Opioid Agonist Treatment in Pregnant Women with Opioid Use Disorder: A Population-Based Study.

Introduction And Objective: Receipt of opioid agonist treatment during early and late pregnancy for opioid use disorder may relate to varying perinatal risks. We aimed to assess the effect of time-varying prenatal exposure to opioid agonist treatment using buprenorphine or methadone on adverse neonatal and pregnancy outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of pregnant women with opioid use disorder using Rhode Island Medicaid claims data and vital statistics during 2008-16.

Age and Hearing Ability Influence Selective Attention During Childhood.

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to determine whether age and hearing ability influence selective attention during childhood. Specifically, we hypothesized that immaturity and disrupted auditory experience impede selective attention during childhood.

Design: Seventy-seven school-age children (5 to 12 years of age) participated in this study: 61 children with normal hearing and 16 children with bilateral hearing loss who use hearing aids and/or cochlear implants.

Maternal Complications and Prescription Opioid Exposure During Pregnancy: Using Marginal Structural Models.

Introduction: Prescription opioids are frequently used for pain management in pregnancy. Studies examining perinatal complications in mothers who received prescription opioids during pregnancy are still limited.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the association of prescription opioid use and maternal pregnancy and obstetric complications.

A systematic review of integrative medicine for opioid withdrawal.

Introduction: The United States has been battling an opioid epidemic for decades. As substance use disorders have grown, so too has investigation into treatment options, including integrative medicine approaches, for managing opioid withdrawal symptoms (OWS).

Objectives: This systematic review sought to assess the use of integrative medicine approaches for the alleviation of OWS in patients dependent on opioids and to summarize the available data.

Association of Gestational Opioid Exposure and Risk of Major and Minor Congenital Malformations.

Importance: The rapid increase of opioid-related overdoses and deaths has become a public health concern in the US. Use of prescription opioids in pregnant women has increased; results from teratogenicity studies remain controversial.

Objective: To evaluate the association between maternal prescription opioid use (excluding opioid use disorders) during pregnancy and the incidence of congenital malformations.

Intranasal Ketamine for Acute Pain.

Objectives: The aim was to review current evidence regarding the off-label use of intranasal ketamine for acute pain presenting in the setting of the emergency department, and secondary to pediatric limb injuries, renal colic, digital nerve block, and migraines.

Results: In all 5 indications reviewed, ketamine demonstrated efficacy in reducing pain. However, when compared with other agents, ketamine did not demonstrate superiority over opioids in pediatric limb injuries or renal colic and was not as efficacious as standard therapy for migraine relief.

Prescription Opioid Use among Pregnant Women Enrolled in Rhode Island Medicaid.

Objective: Our objective was to identify patterns of opioid use among pregnant women enrolled in RI Medicaid.

Methods: This study used linked RI Medicaid and RI Birth Certificate data from 01/01/2006 to 12/31/2016. We examined temporal trends of prescription opioid dispensings and identified risk factors associated with opioids use during pregnancy.

Atezolizumab for the First-Line Treatment of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC): Current Status and Future Prospects.

Atezolizumab is a programmed death ligand 1 (PDL-1) blocking antibody that was approved for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients with disease progression. Various studies have been initiated to explore the effectiveness of atezolizumab among different patient cohorts and disease statuses, including as first-line therapy. The purpose of this paper is to identify and summarize the trials that use atezolizumab as a first-line agent in chemotherapy-naïve patients with NSCLC.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Hospice and Palliative Care: A Systematic Review.

Context: The aim of palliative care is to improve quality of life for patients with serious illnesses by treating their symptoms and adverse effects. Hospice care also aims for this for patients with a life expectancy of six months or less. When conventional therapies do not provide adequate symptom management or produce their own adverse effects, patients, families, and caregivers may prefer complementary or alternative approaches in their care.

Background Speech Disrupts Working Memory Span in 5-Year-Old Children.

Objectives: The present study tested the effects of background speech and nonspeech noise on 5-year-old children's working memory span.

Design: Five-year-old typically developing children (range = 58.6 to 67.

A pharmacist-driven academic detailing program to increase adult pneumococcal vaccination.

Objectives: To describe our statewide, pharmacist-led education campaign to increase knowledge and awareness of pneumococcal immunization recommendations.

Setting: Immunization providers and residents in the state of Rhode Island.

Practice Description: A clinical pathway (i.

Multitasking During Degraded Speech Recognition in School-Age Children.

Multitasking requires individuals to allocate their cognitive resources across different tasks. The purpose of the current study was to assess school-age children's multitasking abilities during degraded speech recognition. Children (8 to 12 years old) completed a dual-task paradigm including a sentence recognition (primary) task containing speech that was either unprocessed or noise-band vocoded with 8, 6, or 4 spectral channels and a visual monitoring (secondary) task.

Age-Related Differences in Listening Effort During Degraded Speech Recognition.

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to quantify age-related differences in executive control as it relates to dual-task performance, which is thought to represent listening effort, during degraded speech recognition.

Design: Twenty-five younger adults (YA; 18-24 years) and 21 older adults (OA; 56-82 years) completed a dual-task paradigm that consisted of a primary speech recognition task and a secondary visual monitoring task. Sentence material in the primary task was either unprocessed or spectrally degraded into 8, 6, or 4 spectral channels using noise-band vocoding.