Psychotropic Medication Monitoring: A Review.

Objective: To address a gap in the literature for concise recommendations on psychotropic medication monitoring geared to prescribers in primary care psychiatry.

Data Sources: Large institutional guidelines from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand combined with manual searches for psychiatric medication monitoring consensus and other recommendations up to January 31, 2018.

Study Selection: Any available guidelines and consensus statements making psychotropic medication monitoring recommendations for treatment of adults and published in English.

Inhaled antibiotics for the treatment of pneumonia.

Purpose Of Review: To describe recent developments in trials exploring inhaled antibiotics for treating severe pneumonia.

Recent Findings: Three recent randomized studies investigated the potential role for aerosolized antibiotics for gram-negative pneumonia in ventilated patients. One single center, nonblinded investigation suggested a benefit with inhaled amikacin for resistant gram-negative infections.

Evolutionary and ecological drivers of plant flavonoids across a large latitudinal gradient.

Flavonoids are important secondary metabolites that play an integral role in protecting plants against UV radiation and other forms of environmental stress. Given widespread impacts of environmental effects associated with latitude on a multitude of biological systems and a well-documented increase in solar radiation towards the equator, plant flavonoid production is expected to increase as a response to factors associated with decreasing latitude. Using data from a Neotropical genus (Ruellia) that spans an exceptionally broad latitudinal gradient, we tested a hypothesis of a positive latitudinal gradient in flavonoid concentration and assessed other factors that influence flavonoid production including habitat type (xeric vs.

Challenges and opportunities in the treatment of ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a distinct clinical entity characterized by an onset after 48 hours of the application of mechanical ventilation (MV). Protocols exist to aid in the prevention of VAP, but this infection carries a devastating impact on patient morbidity and potentially mortality. Areas covered: In this review we present key concepts from existing guidelines to aid clinicians.

Corticosteroids and transition to delirium in patients with acute lung injury.

Objective: Delirium is common in mechanically ventilated patients in the ICU and associated with short- and long-term morbidity and mortality. The use of systemic corticosteroids is also common in the ICU. Outside the ICU setting, corticosteroids are a recognized risk factor for delirium, but their relationship with delirium in critically ill patients has not been fully evaluated.

Next-generation sequencing in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

Schizophrenia is a debilitating lifelong illness that lacks a cure and poses a worldwide public health burden. The disease is characterized by a heterogeneous clinical and genetic presentation that complicates research efforts to identify causative genetic variations. This review examines the potential of current findings in schizophrenia and in other related neuropsychiatric disorders for application in next-generation technologies, particularly whole-exome sequencing (WES) and whole-genome sequencing (WGS).

The pharmacologic management of depression in Parkinson's disease.

Depression in Parkinson's disease (PD) is common, and it appears to worsen the motor and cognitive progression of the disease, and limits the patient's quality of life. In this paper, we review the pharmacotherapy of depression in people with PD. We find that evidence is sparse when it comes to this patient population.

A Caenorhabditis elegans p38 MAP kinase pathway mutant protects from dopamine, methamphetamine, and MDMA toxicity.

Biogenic amine systems are damaged by amphetamine abuse and in Parkinson's disease. The mechanisms mediating this damage are of high importance because of the public health impact of these problems. Here we have taken advantage of the Caenorhabditis elegans nematode model system to investigate genetic modifiers of biogenic amine toxicity.

Bacteremia in Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia: outcomes and epidemiology.

Purpose: Staphylococcus aureus represents a major cause of pneumonia in critically ill patients. Although bacteremia may complicate S aureus pneumonia, the epidemiology of and outcomes associated with bacteremia in this syndrome are poorly described.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively identified (January 2005-December 2007) all patients admitted to the hospital with S aureus pneumonia necessitating mechanical ventilation.

Manipulation of behavioral decline in Caenorhabditis elegans with the Rag GTPase raga-1.

Normal aging leads to an inexorable decline in motor performance, contributing to medical morbidity and decreased quality of life. While much has been discovered about genetic determinants of lifespan, less is known about modifiers of age-related behavioral decline and whether new gene targets may be found which extend vigorous activity, with or without extending lifespan. Using Caenorhabditis elegans, we have developed a model of declining neuromuscular function and conducted a screen for increased behavioral activity in aged animals.

Resistant pathogens in nonnosocomial pneumonia and respiratory failure: is it time to refine the definition of health-care-associated pneumonia?

Background: The concept of health-care-associated pneumonia (HCAP) exists to identify patients infected with highly resistant pathogens. It is unclear how precise this concept is and how well it performs as a screening tool for resistance.

Methods: We retrospectively identified patients presenting to the hospital with pneumonia complicated by respiratory failure.