Pharmacotherapeutic Strategies to Prevent Relapse in Schizophrenia / 신경정신의학

Successful treatment is very high in patients with first episode schizophrenia (FES). On the other hand, the problem is a frequent relapse often caused by non-compliance. The non-compliance rate in patients with FES is 40–60% within 1 year. The causes of non-compliance are diverse, such as poor insight, drug side effects, attitude of caregiver, social stigma, etc. Clinicians should be able to provide appropriate psychosocial intervention and long acting injectable antipsychotics (LAI) to overcome non-compliance. Recently, there is solid and accumulating evidence demonstrating superiority of LAI over oral medication in terms of reducing relapse or rehospitalization. In particular, a substantial portion (approximately 30–50%) of patients and caregivers prefer LAI to oral medication. Shared decision-making is the process that clinicians and patients/caregiver should go through in order to obtain the full benefits from LAI.

Study on adsorption of ten injectable drugs by eight kinds of disposable filter membranes for infusion apparatus / 中国药学杂志

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the absorbability of 8 kinds of disposable filter membranes for infusion apparatus to 10 injectable drugs, thus to provide information for clinical medication. METHODS: Each drug was separately dissolved in 250 mL 5% dextrose solution. Samples of drug solutions were collected before and after being filtered by the membranes. These samples were analyzed by HPLC-MS/MS methods. RESULTS: The 8 kinds of membranes had different adsorbabilities to the 10 injectable drugs. CN-CA membrane (CN-CA) and CN-CA Enhance membrane (CN-CA-E) adsorbed more drugs than other membranes (P<0.05). The average adsorption of PES membrane, NL-B membrane and ION membrane to the 10 drugs were lower than 1%. PP membrane and NL membrane to the 10 drugs were lower than 1.5%. CONCLUSION: PES membrane, ION membrane and NL-B membrane have lower adsorbabilityies than other membranes, thus may have little influence on medical treatment. They may be suitable for clinical application. Copyright 2012 by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Comparison of risk factors among blood donors, volunteers and replacement individuals, infected or not by hepatitis C virus

Hepatitis C is transmitted primarily parenterally by contaminated blood and is often associated with: intravenous drug abuse, invasive procedures, blood transfusions, acupuncture, tattooing, and alcohol and tobacco use. This study aimed to quantify and evaluate the risk factors among blood donors, volunteer blood donors and replacement individuals, infected or not by the C virus. The main transmission routes of C virus were identified in 55 men and 25 women (GI) monitored by the Ambulatory Unit of the Department of Tropical Diseases, Botucatu Medical School, and in 24 men and 26 women (GII), all active blood donors at the Bauru State Hospital Transfusional Agency. Both groups were similar in: tobacco and alcohol consumption, sexual behavior, tattooing and illicit drug use. The duration of alcohol and tobacco consumption and blood transfusions in GI were longer, whereas the option for steady partners, condom use, disposable materials and piercings were predominant in GII. In conclusion, the risk factors for hepatitis C demonstrate the necessity of health policies that act on the primary and secondary prevention levels (respectively, reduction of infection incidence and hepatopathy risk).

Comparison of risk factors among blood donors, volunteers and replacement individuals, infected or not by hepatitis C virus

Hepatitis C is transmitted primarily parenterally by contaminated blood and is often associated with: intravenous drug abuse, invasive procedures, blood transfusions, acupuncture, tattooing, and alcohol and tobacco use. This study aimed to quantify and evaluate the risk factors among blood donors, volunteer blood donors and replacement individuals, infected or not by the C virus. The main transmission routes of C virus were identified in 55 men and 25 women (GI) monitored by the Ambulatory Unit of the Department of Tropical Diseases, Botucatu Medical School, and 24 men and 26 women (GII), all active blood donors at the Bauru State Hospital Transfusional Agency. Both groups were similar in: tobacco and alcohol consumption, sexual behavior, tattooing and illicit drug use. The duration of alcohol and tobacco consumption and blood transfusions in GI were longer, whereas the option for steady partners, condom use, disposable materials and piercings were predominant in GII. In conclusion, the risk factors for hepatitis C demonstrate the necessity of health policies that act on the primary and secondary prevention levels (respectively, reduction of infection incidence and hepatopathy risk)

A Program for Optimizing Product Combination of Injectable Drugs / 薬剤疫学

Objective : Injectable drugs usually include several products of different dosage and price. It is, therefore, difficult for pharmacists and medical staff to select the optimal combination of the products, which provides product selection and sufficient drug amounts prescribed while minimizing the price. We developed a support program for optimizing by using a processing software, NaU DSP®.<BR>Methods : Our program has a simple function to calculate and find the optimal combinations among the potential alternatives. We applied this program to analyze RANDA®, a cisplatin preparation, which has three products containing 10mg, 25mg and 50mg at a price of ¥4, 555, ¥11, 000 and ¥19, 860, respectively. Seven hundred forty-two prescriptions including RANDA® were investigated.<BR>Results : In seventy-eight prescriptions (11%), there was a reduction in the total price of the product combinations between the selection aided with and without the program.<BR>Conclusion : By using the optimization program, pharmaceutical costs can be curtailed more effectively than by arbitrary selection by medical staff.