Morning Chronotype Decreases the Risk of Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy in Women With Breast Cancer

Background@#The purpose of this longitudinal prospective cohort study was to investigate the role of chronotype in the incidence of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) among women with breast cancer. @*Methods@#We recruited women with breast cancer awaiting adjuvant chemotherapy, including four cycles of docetaxel. Participants reported peripheral neuropathy symptoms of numbness/ tingling at the baseline, and at 4weeks after completion of chemotherapy. Candidate psychiatric factors associated with CIPN were assessed at the baseline, using the Composite Scale of Morningness, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. To examine the association between chronotype and CIPN, we built logistic regression models, adjusting for demographic, clinical, and other psychiatric variables. @*Results@#Among 48 participants, 29 participants developed CIPN. The morning chronotype was inversely associated with CIPN (odds ratio, 0.06; confidence interval, 0.01–0.74; P = 0.028) after adjusting for age, BMI, education, type of operation, alcohol use, smoking, sleep quality, depression, and anxiety. @*Conclusion@#Our results suggest that the morning chronotype is a protective factor against the development of CIPN in patients with breast cancer who were treated with docetaxel.

Multi-site Validation of a SARS-CoV-2 IgG/IgM Rapid Antibody Detection Kit

Deaths from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have exceeded 300,000 persons globally, calling for rapid development of mobile diagnostics that can assay widespread prevalence and infection rates. Data provided in this study supports the utility of a newly-designed lateral flow immunoassay (LFA) for detecting SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies. We employed a clinical cohort of 1,892 SARS-CoV-2 patients and controls, including individuals diagnosed by RT-qPCR at Yale New Haven Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Hefei City (Hefei CDC), Anhui Province (Anhui Province CDC), and Fuyang City (Fuyang CDC). The LFA studied here detects SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies with a specificity of 97.9-100% for IgM, 99.7-100% for IgG, and sensitivities ranging from 94.1-100% for patients >14-days post symptom onset. Sensitivity decreases in patients <14-days post symptom onset, which is likely due to lower IgG/IgM antibody levels in this population. Finally, we developed a visual intensity reporting system that we believe will be suitable for laboratory and point-of-care settings, and will provide granular information about antibody levels. Overall our results support the widespread utility of this and other LFAs in assessing population-level epidemiological statistics.

Hypnosis as an intervention in pain management: A brief review.

While there is a consensus that psychosocial factors play an important role in the experience of pain, clinical interventions for acute and chronic pain remain primarily biomedical. This pattern persists despite a body of recent empirical work supporting the effectiveness of a number of behavioral and relaxation interventions for these problems. One of these interventions is hypnosis. We briefly discuss hypnotic analgesia and describe how hypnosis can be integrated into biomedical treatment for acute and chronic pain. Special attention is given to indications and contraindications, preparation of patients, and technique.