Live two-way video versus face-to-face treatment for depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder: A 24-week randomized controlled trial.

AIM: Live two-way video, easily accessible from home via smartphones and other devices, is becoming a new way of providing psychiatric treatment. However, lack of evidence for real-world clinical setting effectiveness hampers its approval by medical insurance in some countries. Here, we conducted the first large-scale pragmatic, randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of long-term treatment for multiple psychiatric disorders via two-way video using smartphones and other devices, which are currently the primary means of telecommunication. METHODS: This randomized controlled trial compared two-way video versus face-to-face treatment for depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder in the subacute/maintenance phase during a 24-week period. Adult patients with the above-mentioned disorders were allocated to either a two-way video group (≥50% video sessions) or a face-to-face group (100% in-person sessions) and received standard treatment covered by public medical insurance. The primary outcome was the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey Mental Component Summary (SF-36 MCS) score. Secondary outcomes included all-cause discontinuation, working alliance, adverse events, and the severity rating scales for each disorder. RESULTS: A total of 199 patients participated in this study. After 24 weeks of treatment, two-way video treatment was found to be noninferior to face-to-face treatment regarding SF-36 MCS score (48.50 vs 46.68, respectively; p < 0.001). There were no significant differences between the groups regarding most secondary end points, including all-cause discontinuation, treatment efficacy, and satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Two-way video treatment using smartphones and other devices, was noninferior to face-to-face treatment in real-world clinical settings. Modern telemedicine, easily accessible from home, can be used as a form of health care.

Effects of Binding between Ca in Hard Water and Phosphorus in Amylopectin on the Qualities of Boiled Rice and Rice Noodle Prepared by Soaking and Boiling in Hard Water.

Recently, global warming has led to an increase in chalky rice grains. This has consequently resulted in the deterioration in quality of rice products. Although we previously reported that hard water, rich in Ca, is useful for the quality improvement of high-temperature-damaged rice grains, the mechanism was not elucidated sufficiently. Therefore, we used various kinds of rice cultivars, from waxy to high-amylose ones, for soaking and boiling in hard water and compared physical and chemical properties of the products. It was shown that the degree of quality improvement, such as final viscosities in pasting property, and textural properties of boiled rice, was more remarkable for high-amylose rice than low-amylose rice. As we found that the phosphorus contents showed positive correlations with amylose and long chains of amylopectin, we estimate that the effects are mainly due to binding of calcium and phosphorus. Because that high-amylose or long-chain-rich amylopectin rice cultivars showed high calcium contents in rice products, these rice cultivars would be very useful to supply calcium through dietary intake via hard water cooking.

Wheelchair dependence in patients with dementia: Focus on kinematic gait analysis using simple wearable accelerometers and gyroscopes.

Falls, wheelchair dependence, and bedridden status are the results of reduced mobility in the mid-late course of dementia. Kinematic gait analysis for patients with dementia is lacking because practically setting sensors on their bodies is particularly difficult. We analyzed the parameters of kinematic gait analysis that are related to the risks of wheelchair dependence in patients with dementia using wearable accelerometers and gyroscopes for detecting 3-dimensional physical movements. We collected data from 34 patients with dementia regarding demographics, cognitive function, CT scan findings, medications, and gait analysis parameters. The patients were followed up for 6 months. We compared data between dementia patients with and without wheelchair dependence by t-test or Fisher's exact test, multiple comparison, and simple logistic regression analysis for wheelchair dependence by gait analysis parameters. Eleven patients became wheelchair-dependent during the 6 months. The score on the clinical dementia rating scale was significantly higher and the hip extensor angle in walking was significantly lower in patients with dementia with wheelchair dependence than in those without. The severity of dementia and the lower angle of the hip extensor during walking may indicate the necessity of a wheelchair for patients with this disease.