Associations of Caregiver-Oncologist Discordance in Prognostic Understanding With Caregiver-Reported Therapeutic Alliance and Anxiety.

Context: Discordance in prognostic understanding between caregivers of adults with advanced cancer and the oncologist may shape caregivers' views of the oncologist and bereavement outcomes.

Objectives: We examined prospective associations of caregiver-oncologist discordance with caregiver-oncologist therapeutic alliance and caregiver anxiety after patient death.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected in a cluster randomized controlled trial from August 2012 to June 2014 in Western New York and California.

A study of chorea after tetrabenazine withdrawal in patients with Huntington disease.

Objective: To assess tetrabenazine (TBZ) efficacy by evaluating the change in Huntington disease-associated chorea resulting from TBZ treatment withdrawal.

Methods: Thirty patients treated in the long term were randomized to 1 of 3 groups assigned to withdraw from TBZ in a double-blind, staggered fashion during a 5-day period.

Results: The chorea scores of subjects withdrawn from TBZ treatment increased by 5.

Rasagiline improves quality of life in patients with early Parkinson's disease.

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of rasagiline as monotherapy on quality of life (QOL) in patients with early Parkinson's disease (PD). Rasagiline, a potent, second-generation, irreversible, selective monoamine oxidase B inhibitor improves PD symptoms in patients with early PD. Patients with early untreated PD were randomly assigned to once-daily rasagiline 1 mg/day, rasagiline 2 mg/day, or placebo in a 6-month, double-blind trial (n=404).

Test-retest reliability of the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale in patients with early Parkinson's disease: results from a multicenter clinical trial.

Our objective was to assess the test-retest reliability of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). The UPDRS is the most widely used instrument for measuring severity of parkinsonian symptoms in clinical research and in practice. The validity and inter-rater reliability of this scale have been previously studied.