Assessing Anticoagulation Management and Shared Decision-Making Documentation From Providers Participating in the SUPPORT-AF II Study.

Background: A previously tested intervention featured educational outreach with modified academic detailing (AD) to increase anticoagulation use in patients with atrial fibrillation. Currently, this study compares providers receiving and not receiving AD in terms of inclusion of AD educational topics and shared decision-making elements in documentation.

Methods: Physicians reviewed themes discussed with providers during AD and evaluated charts for evidence of shared decision-making.

Improvement in Depression is Associated with Improvement in Cognition in Late-Life Psychotic Depression.

Objective: To characterize cognitive function at baseline and investigate the relationship between change in cognition, depression, and psychosis after treatment among older adults with major depressive disorder with psychotic features.

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of a double-blind, randomized, controlled treatment trial at inpatient and outpatient settings at four academic health centers on "Young Old" (aged 60-71 years, N = 71) and "Older" (aged 72-86 years, N = 71) participants diagnosed with psychotic depression. Olanzapine plus sertraline or olanzapine plus placebo were given until week 12 or termination.

SSRI-antipsychotic combination in psychotic depression: sertraline pharmacokinetics in the presence of olanzapine, a brief report from the STOP-PD study.

Objective: We recently reported an unexpected interaction between olanzapine and sertraline in a population being treated for psychotic depression. Contrary to knowledge of cytochrome p450 interactions sertraline increased apparent clearance of olanzapine by 30%. Here we examined the pharmacokinetics of sertraline in the same population.

Establishing the cut-off score for remission and severity-ranges on the Psychotic Depression Assessment Scale (PDAS).

Background: The Psychotic Depression Assessment Scale (PDAS) is a rating scale dedicated to the measurement of severity in psychotic depression (PD). The aim of this study was to establish the PDAS cut-off for remission of PD as well as PDAS score-ranges for mild, moderate, and severe PD. The secondary aim was to test how remission, as defined by the PDAS, would perform as outcome measure when applied to the data from a large randomized controlled trial (RCT) in PD.

Rating scales measuring the severity of psychotic depression.

Objective: Unipolar psychotic depression (PD) is a severe and debilitating syndrome, which requires intensive monitoring. The objective of this study was to provide an overview of the rating scales used to assess illness severity in PD.

Method: Selective review of publications reporting results on non-self-rated, symptom-based rating scales utilized to measure symptom severity in PD.

The Impact of Sertraline Co-Administration on the Pharmacokinetics of Olanzapine: A Population Pharmacokinetic Analysis of the STOP-PD.

Background And Objective: Clinical evidence and expert opinion support using a combination of an antipsychotic and an antidepressant when treating major depression with psychotic features. We characterized the impact of sertraline co-administration on olanzapine clearance in psychotic depression using population pharmacokinetic methods.

Methods: The Study of Pharmacotherapy for Psychotic Depression (STOP-PD) randomized 259 participants to olanzapine plus placebo or olanzapine plus sertraline.

Diet quality and history of gestational diabetes mellitus among childbearing women, United States, 2007-2010.

Introduction: Women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Diet quality plays an important role in the prevention of type 2 diabetes. We compared diet quality among childbearing women with a history of GDM with the diet quality of childbearing women without a history of GDM.

Clinical and psychometric validation of the psychotic depression assessment scale.

Background: Recent studies have indicated that the 11-item Psychotic Depression Assessment Scale (PDAS), consisting of the 6-item melancholia subscale (HAM-D6) of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and 5 psychosis items from the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), is a valid measure for the severity of psychotic depression. The aim of this study was to subject the PDAS, and its depression (HAM-D6) and psychosis (BPRS5) subscales to further validation.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with psychotic depression at Danish psychiatric hospitals participated in semi-structured interviews.

A prospective, multi-institutional study of pediatric all-terrain vehicle crashes.

Background: Pediatric all-terrain vehicle (ATV) injuries have been increasing annually for more than a decade. The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate crash circumstances and clinical outcomes resulting from pediatric ATV crashes.

Methods: Three pediatric trauma centers prospectively collected data from patients during their hospitalization for injuries sustained in ATV crashes from July 2007 through June 2012.

Measuring treatment response in psychotic depression: the Psychotic Depression Assessment Scale (PDAS) takes both depressive and psychotic symptoms into account.

Background: There is no established psychometric instrument dedicated to the measurement of severity in psychotic depression (PD). The aim of this study was to investigate whether a new composite rating scale, the Psychotic Depression Assessment Scale (PDAS), covering both the psychotic and the depressive domains of PD, could detect differences in effect between two psychopharmacological treatment regimens.

Methods: We reanalyzed the data from the Study of Pharmacotherapy of Psychotic Depression (STOP-PD), which compared the effect of Olanzapine+Sertraline (n=129) versus Olanzapine+Placebo (n=130).

A gender analysis of the study of pharmacotherapy of psychotic depression (STOP-PD): gender and age as predictors of response and treatment-associated changes in body mass index and metabolic measures.

Background: Gender differences exist in psychiatric disorders; however, gender has not been well studied in psychotic depression. This analysis of the largest clinical trial in psychotic depression examined the effects of age and gender on clinical characteristics and predictors of treatment outcome and treatment-associated changes in body mass index (BMI) and metabolic measures.

Method: Secondary analyses were performed on data from 259 subjects with major depressive disorder with psychotic features (DSM-IV-TR) aged 18-93 years in the double-blind randomized controlled trial of olanzapine plus sertraline versus olanzapine plus placebo for psychotic depression (Study of Pharmacotherapy of Psychotic Depression).

Novel measurements of mammary stem cells in human umbilical cord blood as prospective predictors of breast cancer susceptibility in later life.

Background: The size of the breast stem-cell pool could underlie the intrauterine roots of breast cancer. We studied whether breast stem cells exist in umbilical cord blood and if they correlate with hematopoietic stem-cell measurements that have been positively associated with perinatal risk factors for breast cancer.

Subjects And Methods: We isolated mononuclear cells from umbilical cord blood of 170 singleton full-term pregnancies and determined, by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, the presence of genes of putative breast epithelial stem-cell/progenitor markers [including epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), CD49f (α6-integrin), CD117 (c-kit receptor), CD24, and CD29 (β1-integrin)].

New Device for Hand-Assisted Laparoscopic Surgery.

Laparoscopic surgery has undergone a rapid evolution since the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy of Erich Mühe in 1985. Many surgeons felt that further technological success would be related not only to increasing experience and skill of surgeons, but also technological advances which would enable surgeons to perform increasingly more difficult and complex tasks. Progress has been rapid for some, but broad acceptance by surgeons has been slow.

Benefits of chronic plasmapheresis and intravenous heme-albumin in erythropoietic protoporphyria after orthotopic liver transplantation.

Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) is characterized by a deficiency of ferrochelatase the final enzyme of the heme biosynthetic pathway. Patients with EPP may overproduce protoporphyrin IX, chiefly in developing erythrocytes. In some, protoporphyrin accumulates and causes toxicity, particularly to the skin and liver.

New device for hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery.

Laparoscopic surgery has undergone a rapid evolution since the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy of Erich Mühe in 1985. Many surgeons felt that further technological success would be related not only to increasing experience and skill of surgeons, but also technological advances which would enable surgeons to perform increasingly more difficult and complex tasks. Progress has been rapid for some, but broad acceptance by surgeons has been slow.