Palliative Radiotherapy for the Management of Metastatic Cancer: Bone Metastases, Spinal Cord Compression, and Brain Metastases.

Life expectancy and tumor characteristics should be considered when making treatment recommendations for palliative radiotherapy, which can be cost-effective and provide symptom relief.

Direct-acting antiviral agents in patients with hepatitis C cirrhosis.

Patients with cirrhosis who are infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) are the most in need of antiviral treatment. Virologic cure improves fibrosis and quality of life while reducing liver-related morbidity and mortality. In mid-2011, the addition of direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs)-the protease inhibitors boceprevir (Victrelis, Merck) and telaprevir (Incivek, Vertex)-to pegylated interferon α-2a/b and ribavirin revolutionized the treatment of HCV infection by increasing cure rates across all fibrosis scores in patients with genotype 1 HCV infection.

Solutions to emergency department 'boarding' and crowding are underused and may need to be legislated.

The practice of keeping admitted patients on stretchers in hospital emergency department hallways for hours or days, called "boarding," causes emergency department crowding and can be harmful to patients. Boarding increases patients' morbidity, lengths of hospital stay, and mortality. Strategies that optimize bed management reduce boarding by improving the efficiency of hospital patient flow, but these strategies are grossly underused.

The Protective Effect of Adult Mental Health Upon the Utilization of Racial Socialization Parenting Practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of parental mental health and types of racial socialization. The sample consisted of 169 African-American parents and their children (ages 9-11) who participated in a federally funded research project, "Knowledge about the African American Research Experience" (KAARE). Bivariate analyses revealed significant positive relationships between parent mental health status and two forms of racial socialization: spiritual/religious coping, and racial awareness teaching, while multivariate analyses supported the positive association between parental mental health and spiritual/religious coping.

Residents' treatment of clinic patients beyond graduation.

Twenty-one of 24 psychiatrists surveyed report that 51% (n=56) of their clinic patient panel entered their private care after they completed residency training. Patients with a DSM-III personality or depressive disorder were more likely than those with schizophrenia to continue in private treatment (p<.001).