Mental health impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on mothers.

Background: The perinatal period is a time of increased vulnerability for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs). Emotional trauma is a risk factor for PMAD development and is common among survivors of extreme weather events (EWEs), which are becoming more frequent and intense as the climate crisis progresses. EWE-related stress and anxiety have not been extensively studied in the perinatal population. However, the limited available data suggest a negative impact of EWE exposure on perinatal mental health, warranting further investigation and investment.Objective: To address this knowledge gap, we interviewed new Australian mothers to understand how EWEs affect the mental health of the perinatal population.Method: Australian mothers (18 years of age or older) with a baby under 12 months of age were recruited to participate in a single virtual focus group session (seven group sessions were run in total) and complete an anonymous survey. Participants were asked questions regarding their concerns about extreme weather and its impact, as well as their general maternal functioning. Maternal functioning, depression, and climate distress were measured via the survey.Results: The study sample comprised 31 Australian mothers (Mage = 31.74, SD = 4.86), predominantly located in Queensland. Findings from the focus groups suggested six key themes; however, of focus to this study are three themes related to maternal mental health: health and well-being, helplessness and avoidant coping, and resilience and adaptation. Predominant subthemes focused on trauma resulting from EWE exposure, economic and heat concerns, social isolation, hopelessness about the future, and feelings of resilience.Conclusions: The evidence linking adverse perinatal mental health outcomes with climate change and EWEs highlights the urgent need for interventions in this context to protect perinatal mental health and well-being. By acknowledging the traumatic impact of these experiences on mothers, this study supports advocacy for policies that specifically address this issue.

The extra consideration of navigating climatic events with children represented a complicating factor in addition to the demands of motherhood.Heat presented as a serious concern for participants, often as part of maintaining the balance between protecting their children's health and well-being and preserving their own mental health.Mothers simultaneously were disengaged from climate-related discussion or action and expressed feelings of helplessness in the face of the magnitude of climate change.

Frailty Status as a Novel Risk Stratification Tool in Patients with Acute Pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND: Although frailty is a known predictor of mortality and complications across various disease states, it remains an understudied topic among patients with acute pancreatitis (AP). OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to assess the impact of frailty on outcomes in patients with AP. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Appended data was obtained from the 2016-2017 National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. PARTICIPANTS: 574,895 adult patients with a primary discharge diagnosis of AP. MEASUREMENTS: We performed a nationwide cohort study utilizing International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnostic codes to identify adult patients with AP. The Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS) was used to classify patients as frail or non-frail. The primary outcome was complications related to AP including all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes were length of stay and total hospitalization costs. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to determine the association between frailty and complications. RESULTS: 574,895 patients were represented; 24.7% (141,999) characterized as frail and 75.3% (432,896) as non-frail. 26.7% of frail patients suffered composite complications related to AP versus 13.3% of non-frail patients (P < 0.001). Frail patients had more cardiovascular, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, and infectious adverse events compared to non-frail patients. Frail patients also had higher mortality rates (2.0% vs 0.1% P < 0.001), increased length of stay (6.5 days vs 3.6, P < 0.001) and total hospitalization charges ($60,136 vs $31,095, P < 0.001). On multivariable analysis, positive frailty status was associated with 2.33 times increased odds of having composite complications. CONCLUSIONS: Frailty assessments can be utilized as an adjunct to validated scoring systems to improve risk stratification and clinical management of patients with AP.

Tolerability of solifenacin and oxybutynin immediate release in older (> 65 years) and younger (≤ 65 years) patients with overactive bladder: sub-analysis from a Canadian, randomized, double-blind study.

OBJECTIVE: Overactive bladder (OAB) is a common condition whose prevalence increases with age. Antimuscarinic agents are the pharmacologic treatment of choice, but adverse events such as dry mouth may lead to early discontinuation. The purpose of this analysis was to compare the incidence and severity of dry mouth and other adverse events with solifenacin 5 mg/day and oxybutynin immediate release (IR) 15 mg/day in patients ≤ 65 years and >65 years in the Canadian VECTOR study (VEsicare in Comparison To Oxybutynin for oveRactive bladder patients). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: VECTOR was a randomized, multicentre, prospective, double-blind, double-dummy study in 132 subjects with ≥ 1 urgency episode per 24 h, with or without urgency incontinence, and ≥ 8 micturitions per 24 h for ≥ 3 months. After a 2-week washout, patients received solifenacin 5 mg once daily or oxybutynin IR 5 mg tid for 8 weeks. For the current post-hoc analysis, adverse events were evaluated in subgroups of patients ≤ 65 years and >65 years, using a full logistic regression model, multinomial logit regression model and reduced model. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT00431041. RESULTS: The incidence and severity of dry mouth and other adverse events with solifenacin were similar between younger and older patients. In both age subgroups, solifenacin 5 mg/day was associated with fewer episodes and lower severity of dry mouth, and a lower discontinuation rate, compared with oxybutynin IR 15 mg/day. CONCLUSIONS: Solifenacin 5 mg/day was better tolerated than oxybutynin IR 15 mg/day in younger (≤ 65 years) and older (> 65 years) subgroups. Solifenacin was equally well tolerated in both age subgroups. Limitations of the analysis were that the study was not preplanned to perform post-hoc subgroup analysis, patients knew that dry mouth was a primary outcome, and the study used fixed doses of each drug.

Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 antibody-induced colitis and its management with infliximab.

Anti-CTLA-4 antibodies are human monoclonal antibodies previously studied in the treatment of metastatic melanoma (MM). CTLA-4 is an inhibitory receptor on cytotoxic T cells, blockade of which will activate T cells allowing them to attack malignant cells. Normal host cells may also be affected, and immune-mediated enterocolitis can occur. This is a prospective observational study on the use of corticosteroids and infliximab in the treatment of patients with immune-mediated colitis secondary to anti-CTLA-4 antibody treatment of MM. Five patients presented with colitis after medication administration. Patients were treated with high-dose corticosteroids for 1 week, but diarrhea did not completely abate in any of them. They were then treated successfully with infliximab. One patient had recurrence of symptoms and responded to repeat treatment with infliximab. Patients who develop immune-mediated colitis after administration of anti-CTLA-4 antibodies have previously been reported to respond to corticosteroids, but in our study, all required treatment with infliximab.

Alpha-blocker therapy can be withdrawn in the majority of men following initial combination therapy with the dual 5alpha-reductase inhibitor dutasteride.

OBJECTIVES: The Symptom Management After Reducing Therapy (SMART-1) study examined the combination of the dual action 5alpha-reductase inhibitor (5ARI) dutasteride, and alpha(1)-blocker tamsulosin, followed by withdrawal of tamsulosin in men with symptomatic BPH. METHODS: 327 BPH patients were randomised to 0.5mg dutasteride and 0.4 mg tamsulosin for 36 weeks (DT36) or 0.5 mg dutasteride and 0.4 mg tamsulosin for 24 weeks followed by dutasteride and tamsulosin matched placebo for the remaining 12 weeks (DT24+D12). Patients' assessment of their symptoms, IPSS at weeks 24, 30, and drug safety were evaluated. RESULTS: 77% of DT24+D12 patients felt the same/better at week 30 compared with week 24 (changes in IPSS were consistent with this finding). Of those subjects with an IPSS <20 who changed to dutasteride monotherapy at week 24, 84% switched without a noticeable deterioration in their symptoms. In the 27% of men with severe baseline symptoms (IPSS >or=20) who had withdrawal of tamsulosin therapy at week 24, 42.5% reported a worsening of their symptoms compared with 14% in the DT36 group. The regimens were well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS: Dutasteride can be used in a 24-week combination with tamsulosin, to achieve rapid onset of symptom relief in patients at risk of underlying disease progression. This symptom relief is maintained in the majority of patients after the alpha(1)-blocker is removed from the combination. Patients with severe symptoms may benefit from longer-term combination therapy.

Long-term followup of a randomized trial of 0 versus 3 months of neoadjuvant androgen ablation before radical prostatectomy.

PURPOSE: In 1992 we initiated a national randomized prospective trial of 3 months of cyproterone acetate before radical prostatectomy compared to prostatectomy alone. Initial results indicated a 50% decrease in the rate of positive surgical margins. This decrease did not translate into a difference in prostate specific antigen (PSA) progression at 3 years. This report is on the long-term outcome (median followup 6 years) of this cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective, randomized, open label trial compared 100 mg cyproterone acetate 3 times daily for 3 months before surgery to surgery alone. Randomization occurred between January 1993 and April 1994. Patients were stratified according to clinical stage, baseline serum PSA and Gleason sum. A total of 213 patients were accrued. Biochemical progression was defined as 2 consecutive detectable PSAs (greater than 0.2 ng/ml) at least 4 weeks apart, re-treatment or death from prostate cancer. RESULTS: A total of 34 (33.6%) patients undergoing surgery only and 42 (37.5%) patients given neoadjuvant hormone therapy (NHT) had biochemical recurrence during the median followup of 6 years. Despite the significant pathological down staging in this study, there was no significant difference in number of patients with no evidence of biochemical disease (bNED) survival (p = 0.732). A bNED survival benefit favoring NHT was seen in men with a baseline PSA greater than 20 (p = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: After 6 years of followup there was no overall benefit with 3 months of NHT. Improved bNED survival was seen in the highest risk PSA group (PSA greater than 20). The possibility that high risk patients may benefit from NHT warrants further investigation.