Prioritizing vaccination based on analysis of community networks.

Many countries that had early access to COVID-19 vaccines implemented vaccination strategies that prioritized health care workers and the elderly. As barriers to access eased, vaccine prioritization strategies have been relaxed. However, these strategies are still an important tool for decision makers to manage new variants, plan for future booster shots, or stage mass vaccinations.

Impact of an auditory hallucination simulation coupled with a speaker diagnosed with schizophrenia on mental illness stigma in pharmacy students.

Introduction: Hallucination simulations improve student empathy but increase desired social distance from individuals with schizophrenia, while direct contact reduces social distance. This study describes the implementation of combining an auditory hallucination simulation with a speaker diagnosed with schizophrenia and its impact on mental illness stigma.

Methods: Pharmacy students in their last year of didactic instruction (N = 346) attended a presentation by a speaker diagnosed with schizophrenia then participated in a hallucination simulation.

Analysis of mobility data to build contact networks for COVID-19.

As social distancing policies and recommendations went into effect in response to COVID-19, people made rapid changes to the places they visit. These changes are clearly seen in mobility data, which records foot traffic using location trackers in cell phones. While mobility data is often used to extract the number of customers that visit a particular business or business type, it is the frequency and duration of concurrent occupancy at those sites that governs transmission.

Combining Antidepressants with β-Blockers: Evidence of a Clinically Significant CYP2D6 Drug Interaction.

Background: The β-blockers and antidepressants are two of the most commonly prescribed drug classes in the United States. Several antidepressants are potent inhibitors of cytochrome P450 2D6 liver enzymes (CYP2D6) and can increase the plasma concentrations of certain β-blockers when administered concomitantly, potentially leading to serious medical consequences such as hypotension, bradycardia, and falls.

Objective: The primary objective of this investigation was to determine whether initiating an antidepressant in patients receiving β-blockers increased the risk of hemodynamic adverse events.

Association between Use of Methadone, Other Central Nervous System Depressants, and QTc Interval-Prolonging Medications and Risk of Mortality in a Large Cohort of Women Living with or at Risk for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection.

Study Objective: To evaluate the association between use of methadone, other central nervous system (CNS) depressants, and QTc interval-prolonging medications and risk of mortality among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and at-risk HIV-uninfected women.

Design: Multicenter, prospective, observational cohort study (Women's Interagency HIV Study [WIHS]).

Participants: A total of 4150 women enrolled in the WIHS study between 1994 and 2014 who were infected (3119 women) or not infected (1031 women) with HIV.

Chief complaint classification with recurrent neural networks.

Syndromic surveillance detects and monitors individual and population health indicators through sources such as emergency department records. Automated classification of these records can improve outbreak detection speed and diagnosis accuracy. Current syndromic systems rely on hand-coded keyword-based methods to parse written fields and may benefit from the use of modern supervised-learning classifier models.

Evaluation of the Impact of a Multimodel Intervention on Prescribing Patterns of Sedative-Hypnotics in a Behavioral Health System.

Objective: To describe the effect of a multimodal intervention targeting chronic benzodiazepine and sedative-hypnotic prescriptions in a large behavioral health system.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzed chronic sedative-hypnotic prescription rates in patients seeking mental health services in a large behavioral health system. The multimodal intervention consisted of provider education, coordination of care with all providers involved in patient care, and guideline development and implementation for safe prescribing of sedative-hypnotics.

A Practitioner-Driven Research Agenda for Syndromic Surveillance.

Syndromic surveillance has expanded since 2001 in both scope and geographic reach and has benefited from research studies adapted from numerous disciplines. The practice of syndromic surveillance continues to evolve rapidly. The International Society for Disease Surveillance solicited input from its global surveillance network on key research questions, with the goal of improving syndromic surveillance practice.

Drug Interactions with Lithium: An Update.

Lithium has been used for the management of psychiatric illnesses for over 50 years and it continues to be regarded as a first-line agent for the treatment and prevention of bipolar disorder. Lithium possesses a narrow therapeutic index and comparatively minor alterations in plasma concentrations can have significant clinical sequelae. Several drug classes have been implicated in the development of lithium toxicity over the years, including diuretics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory compounds, but much of the anecdotal and experimental evidence supporting these interactions is dated, and many newer medications and medication classes have been introduced during the intervening years.

Modeling Evacuation of a Hospital without Electric Power.

Hospital evacuations that occur during, or as a result of, infrastructure outages are complicated and demanding. Loss of infrastructure services can initiate a chain of events with corresponding management challenges. This report describes a modeling case study of the 2001 evacuation of the Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas (USA).

Modeling hospitals' adaptive capacity during a loss of infrastructure services.

Resilience in hospitals - their ability to withstand, adapt to, and rapidly recover from disruptive events - is vital to their role as part of national critical infrastructure. This paper presents a model to provide planning guidance to decision makers about how to make hospitals more resilient against possible disruption scenarios. This model represents a hospital's adaptive capacities that are leveraged to care for patients during loss of infrastructure services (power, water, etc.

Detection and treatment rates for perinatal depression in a state Medicaid population.

Background: The purpose of this investigation was to assess detection and treatment rates for perinatal depression among women enrolled in the California State Medicaid (Medi-Cal) program in comparison to female beneficiaries of reproductive age who did not give birth during the same study period.

Methods: Investigators conducted a retrospective longitudinal cohort analysis of women between the ages of 18 and 39 years old who were continuously enrolled in the Medi-Cal fee-for-service program between January 2006 and December 2009. The perinatal cohort consisted of women with evidence of a live birth occurring between October 2007 and March 2009.

A pilot study evaluating genetic and environmental factors for postpartum depression.

Objective: To assess the influence of genetic and environmental risk factors upon postpartum depression.

Design: Case-control, prospective study.

Setting: The University of California at San Francisco Obstetric and Gynecology Clinic.

Clinical and economic outcomes of a pilot project examining pharmacist-focused collaborative care treatment for depression.

Objective: To assess the clinical and economic impact of a pharmacist-focused health management program for patients with depression.

Design: Prospective, nonrandomized, proof-of-concept investigation.

Setting: Asheville, NC, from July 2006 through December 2007.

Pharmacologic treatment for postpartum depression: a systematic review.

During the past decade, the medical community has expressed a growing concern over the high prevalence of postpartum depression and the tragic repercussions of untreated illness. However, many questions persist about the pathogenesis of postpartum depression, the natural course of the illness, and the safety and effectiveness of available treatments. To summarize the data on pharmacologic treatments for postpartum depression, we performed a systematic review of four major databases to identify original research published from 1960-September 2009 that featured pharmacologic treatments for depression detected in women during the 12 months after delivery.

Heart of Pharmacy: a course exploring the psychosocial issues of patient care.

Objective: To implement and assess the impact of a course utilizing reflective learning to explore the complex, psychosocial human issues encountered in pharmacy practice.

Design: A 1-credit-hour elective course, The Heart of Pharmacy, was offered to all pharmacy students. The course utilized both content and reflective techniques to produce a mutual exploratory learning experience for students, staff, and faculty members.

Tamoxifen treatment and new-onset depression in breast cancer patients.

The authors conducted a retrospective cohort study of female patients diagnosed with breast cancer (BRCA), evaluating the risk of new-onset depression associated with tamoxifen treatment among those with estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) tumors, versus estrogen receptor-negative (ER-) tumors, who were not receiving tamoxifen. A total cohort of 2,943 patients was identified. The hazard-ratio for new-onset depression in the tamoxifen group was nonsignificant.

Antiretroviral adherence in persons with HIV/AIDS and severe mental illness.

This study identified factors impacting adherence to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) therapies in a sample of 46 persons diagnosed with HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome and severe mental illness who were receiving care through a day care program in Northern California. Comprehensive descriptions of factors and circumstances that influence adherence behaviors were obtained through critical incident interviews, and a taxonomy of adherence factors was determined. A chi2 analysis that examined differences between patient characteristics and major adherence factors found that planning was more likely to be reported by older persons taking HIV medications over longer periods.

Evaluating the impact of pharmacists in mental health: a systematic review.

Efforts to improve the outcomes of patients with mental illness often have involved incorporating the skills of a variety of health care professionals into collaborative care models. For over 30 years, clinical pharmacists have contributed to these care models in capacities ranging from educator to consultant to provider. This systematic review evaluates the quantity and quality of medical literature examining the impact of pharmacists in mental health from 1972-2003.