Articles related to CLINICAL RESEARCH

According to the researchers who published their findings in JAMA Network Open, the percentage of chronic pain patients using non-drug therapies without opioids remained relatively stable at 20% from 2011 to 2016, but it then increased quickly, reaching 40% in 2019. Non-opioid therapy is preferred for treating chronic pain, according to CDC guidance. However, neither the use of opioids alone nor in combination with non-drug treatments for chronic pain significantly decreased following the 2016 guidance. In fact, while about 3% to 15% of patients used opioids alone, their use increased slightly between 2016 and 2018 (from about 10% to 15% of patients).

Medical records of more than half a million individuals in the EU, UK, and US were evaluated. Apixaban was the most frequently prescribed direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) for AFib. It was also associated with a lower incidence of GI bleed vs. the other DOACs.

In this meta-analysis including 340 patients across six clinical trials, ECT was more effective than ketamine in treating depression. There were no identified differences between the groups in terms of cognition, memory, or serious adverse events.

Prior research has revealed a potential link between damage to specific parts of the brain and repetitive addictive behaviors. In this report, with findings published in Nature Medicine, the investigators found that lesions that disrupted smoking and alcohol addiction behaviors occurred in many different brain locations and were characterized by a specific pattern of brain connectivity.

The findings point to the possibility of very early detection of dementias, when recruitment into preventive trials, drug trials, and implementation of preventive strategies to slow the disease have the most impact.

The researchers put a theory to the test by administering the compound CBL0137 to melanoma mouse models. This compound causes the same type of highly inflammatory cell death that the influenza virus causes, but it does so directly in cancerous tissue. The resulting antiviral response alerted the immune system. It heated up a “cold” tumor so that, when combined with immunotherapy, the host immune system recognized cancer as something to be destroyed.