BACKGROUND: Major depression associated with aging in males may improve with anabolic/androgenic steroid therapy. The efficacy and safety of testosterone therapy in the treatment of depression in elderly hypogonadal males is inconclusive. The following study identifies a subgroup of elderly depressed males who may benefit from testosterone therapy. METHOD: Participants included 16 elderly eugonadal males with major depressive disorder (DSM-IV criteria) and a Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) score > 18. Following a single-blind 2-week placebo lead-in, patients were randomly assigned to treatment with either a physiologic dose of testosterone cypionate (TC), 100 mg/week, or supraphysiologic dose of 200 mg/week IM for 6 weeks. Psychometric testing was carried out at entry into the study, at the TC injection baseline, and every 2 weeks thereafter. Tests included an objective measurement, the HAM-D, and the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory. RESULTS: One patient meeting inclusion criteria responded during the placebo lead-in; thus, 15 patients were randomly assigned to treatment (100 mg/week, N = 8; 200 mg/week, N = 7). There was a 42% decrease in the mean HAM-D scores from 20.1 to 11.9 (p <.0001). However, the majority of the change was due to improvement in the 10 late-onset (< or = 45 years old) depression patients, whose mean HAM-D score decreased from 19.8 to 9.3 (53%), versus the 5 early-onset depression patients, whose mean HAM-D score decreased from 20.8 to 17.0 (18%) (p =.0110). The TC dose did not affect the response. Similar HAM-D decreases of 43% and 41% occurred for the respective 100- and 200-mg/week doses. The HAM-D responder analysis found that none of 5 early-onset patients had HAM-D response, whereas 6 (60%) of 10 late-onset patients responded (p =.025). Similarly, none of the early-onset patients experienced a remission whereas 5 (50%) of the late-onset patients were categorized as remitters (p =.053). Correlations between the peak and mean total testosterone concentrations and HAM-D change scores suggested that only minimal TC doses were required to produce an antidepressant effect. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that testosterone therapy would best be limited to men with late-onset depression. The findings suggest that short-term therapy with TC is safe. Long-term treatment safety is unknown. Psychiatrists using testosterone therapy should ascertain that patients have been recently valuated for prostate cancer. If testosterone therapy is initiated, serial serum prostate-specific antigen sampling should be used for monitoring patients' prostate status. 相似文献
Thomas Bodenheimer, MD; Kate Lorig, RN, DrPH; Halsted Holman, MD; Kevin Grumbach, MD
JAMA. 2002;288:2469-2475.
Patients with chronic conditions make day-to-day decisions aboutself-managetheirillnesses. This reality introduces a new chronic disease paradigm:the patient-professional partnership, involving collaborativecare and self-management education. Self-management educationcomplements traditional patient education in supporting patientsto live the best possible quality of life with their chroniccondition. Whereas traditional patient education offers informationand technical skills, self-management education teaches problem-solvingskills. A central concept in self-management is self-efficacyconfidenceto carry out a behavior necessary to reach a desired goal. Self-efficacyis enhanced when patients succeed in solving patient-identifiedproblems. Evidence from controlled clinical trials suggeststhat (1) programs teaching self-management skills are more effectivethan information-only patient education in improving clinicaloutcomes; (2) in some circumstances, self-management educationimproves outcomes and can reduce costs for arthritis and probablyfor adult asthma patients; and (3) in initial studies, a self-managementeducation program bringing together patients with a varietyof chronic conditions may improve outcomes and reduce costs.Self-management education for chronic illness may soon becomean integral part of high-quality primary care.
OBJECTIVE: To explore the survival characteristics of psychogeriatric patients.Participants and settingAn historical cohort of 234 patients consecutively referred to a specialized psychogeriatric service proximal to a general health service in Perth, Western Australia. METHODS: Linked health service data were analysed using relative survival analysis and actuarial methods. RESULTS: Relative survival of the cohort after 40 months was significantly lower than the general population of the same age, sex and calendar period (0.78; 95% CI=0.70-0.86). Male patients experienced twice the mortality rate of female patients after adjustment for age (MRR=2.10; 95% CI=1.37-3.20). Age, dementia, mood disorder and ethnicity had no independent effects on mortality in male patients. Female patients with a diagnosis of dementia experienced twice the mortality of female patients without this diagnosis. The distribution of major underlying causes of death was similar in males and females. CONCLUSIONS: Gender-specific factors appear to affect survival in psychogeriatric patients. Male patients are younger on average, but experience higher mortality than female patients. Ethnic background does not influence mortality in either male or female patients. 相似文献
OBJECTIVES: To examine trends in vasectomy and vasovasostomy, and the surgical complications and factors associated with reversal after vasectomy, and paternity after vasovasostomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Procedure rates were estimated from 1980 to 1996 in the population of Western Australia. Linked hospital morbidity records were used in the follow-up of men after vasectomy to estimate the risks of complications and reversals. Records of vasovasostomies were linked to the paternity field on birth registrations. Independent effects of the study factors were examined using Cox regression. RESULTS: There was little net change in vasectomy rates, whereas vasovasostomy rates increased in men aged 30-49 years. Risks of surgical complications were low and decreased for vasovasostomy. At 12-15 years after vasectomy, the risk of reversal levelled at 2. 4% in the total cohort and at 11.1% in men aged 20-24 years. The risk of vasovasostomy was 69% greater after vasectomy performed in 1994-96 than in 1980-84 (P = 0.011). The factors strongly associated with reversal were age < 30 years and being single, divorced or separated at the time of vasectomy. Paternity was achieved after an estimated 53% of vasovasostomies. Successful reversal was more likely if the man was younger at vasectomy and the time elapsed was comparatively short. Compared with vasovasostomies performed in 1980-84, the success rate of those in 1994-96 was almost four times higher. CONCLUSION: Population rates of vasectomy are stable but the risk of seeking a reversal has increased. Outcomes after vasovasostomy have improved. Care should be taken during the counselling of men before vasectomy, and especially in those aged <30 years. 相似文献
Syphilis rates in the Kimberley region of far-northern Western Australia are among the highest in the nation. In 1986, a formal program of periodic syphilis screening was established. Decreasing syphilis rates since the early 1990s prompted, in 1999, re-evaluation of the value of periodic screening. All confirmed cases of syphilis identified in the Kimberley between January 1996 and early December 1999 as a result of syphilis serology were classified by reason for the test and staged according to disease progression. During the study period, 196 cases of syphilis (117 male, 79 female) were diagnosed; 14 (7.1%) were primary, 32 (16.3%) secondary and 150 (76.5%) latent. The periodic screening program contributed only about 10 per cent of cases, whereas testing as a result of sexually transmitted disease symptoms, sexually transmitted disease contact, institutional screening and other screening contributed the remaining cases. In January 2000, the periodic syphilis-screening program was discontinued. The effect of this policy change will be closely monitored using indicators to ensure that, should the decision not to screen prove to have been misjudged, any increase in syphilis incidence is detected early and managed appropriately. 相似文献
A woman aged 66 was prescribed acetazolamide (Diamox) in the outpatient clinic because of glaucoma. She went into irreversible anaphylactic shock with massive pulmonary oedema, probably due to a cross reaction in sulphonamide allergy. Before prescribing acetazolamide, the physician should inquire about sulphonamide allergy because of the related chemical structure of the substances. Such an allergy should be regarded as a contraindication. 相似文献
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) in adults is proving to be useful. The aim of this study was to determine if ABPM is accurate in the lower blood pressure range encountered in children and, equally important, whether it is acceptable to children. Thirty one children, between the ages of 6 and 18 years, were assessed using an ambulatory blood pressure monitor that uses an auscultatory method. Blood pressure was measured in the contralateral arm with a mercury sphygmomanometer and an oscillometric device at the beginning and end of the study for comparison. Over a blood pressure range of 90-130 mm Hg systolic and 40-80 mm Hg diastolic, a close agreement was found with the sphygmomanometer; the limits of agreement (+/- 2 SD) were 11.6 mm Hg for systolic blood pressure and 13.6 mm Hg for diastolic blood pressure. The bias was less than 1.0 mm Hg. The ambulatory device was worn by all patients for at least 16 hours with an average of 52 recordings per patient. The majority found the device comfortable to wear and were not woken from sleep. 相似文献
The first rotavirus vaccine was licensed in the United States on 31 August 1998 for the prevention of severe rotavirus diarrhea in children. Despite this landmark in new vaccines, many pediatricians and public health professionals in Europe are uncertain of the need for this vaccine for the routine immunization of infants. In Europe, ample evidence suggests that rotavirus is the most common cause of hospitalizations for severe diarrhea among children, but proper studies documenting the disease burden of rotavirus or the cost-effectiveness of a rotavirus immunization program have only been conducted in the United Kingdom following epidemiologic models used in the United States. All children are infected with rotavirus during their first few years of life, 30-50% of diarrheal hospitalizations among children <5 years are due to this agent, and, by the age of 5 years, between 1 in 40 and 1 in 77 children in Europe and the United States may be hospitalized for rotavirus. The first vaccine is a live, oral preparation combining four different serotypes of rotavirus and administered in three doses with other childhood immunizations. The good efficacy against severe rotavirus diarrhea, the low risk of adverse side effects and the positive cost-effectiveness equation have led the two major immunization advisory groups in the U.S. to recommend this vaccine for routine use in American infants. European physicians and policy-makers should re-examine the epidemiology and disease burden of rotavirus diarrhea now that an effective method of prevention is at hand. 相似文献