Early Reinitiation of Obesity Pharmacotherapy Post Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy in Youth: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Bariatric surgery is the most effective intervention for severe pediatric obesity, but a subset of youth experience suboptimal weight loss and/or recurrent weight gain. Early re-initiation of obesity pharmacotherapy postoperatively may improve outcomes, though this has not been evaluated in pediatric populations.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study at a tertiary care children's hospital evaluated the safety and efficacy of reintroducing obesity pharmacotherapy within six weeks after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG).

Alcoholism, depression, and abnormal cognition in head and neck cancer: a pilot study.

Objective: To determine prevalence of alcohol abuse and dependency, depression, and cognitive impairment in presurgical head and neck cancer patients.

Study Design: Standardized testing by diagnostic interview was used to determine major depression and alcoholism. Mattis Dementia Rating Scale examined cognitive ability preoperatively.

Interpersonal factors predict increased desire for hastened death in late-stage cancer patients.

Background: Cancer patients at the end of life sometimes express a wish that death would come quickly, but this desire for hastened death (DHD) remains little understood. Relationships with spousal caregivers may play a role in patients' DHD.

Purpose: This study examined factors that could predict an increase in the DHD in late-stage cancer patients over the course of 4 months, including marital and caregiving variables that have not previously been examined.

Impact of coping skills intervention with family caregivers of hospice patients with cancer: a randomized clinical trial.

Background: Family caregivers for cancer patients experience high levels of stress and burden and diminished quality of life (QOL). Interventions to improve coping skills of caregivers have been shown to be effective with other populations, but their impact has not been assessed in the difficult context of hospice care. The purpose of this study was to determine whether hospice plus a coping skill training intervention improved family caregivers' QOL, burden, coping, and mastery, compared with hospice plus emotional support, and usual hospice care.