Therapeutic drug monitoring and pharmacogenetics--is this a way towards creative psychopharmacotherapy?

Modern development trends in psychiatry incorporate greater care for patients and above all individualisation of therapeutic approaches. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for phenotyping and genotyping of drug metabolism are possible determinants of improved treatment efficacy, reduced adverse effects of psychotropic drugs, and enhanced treatment compliance. They render possible individual adjustment of psychopharmacological treatment and thus represent a small, but significant piece in the mosaic of creative psychopharmacotherapy.

Attitudes of midwifery students towards teaching breast-self examination.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to asses the attitude of undergraduate midwifery students towards teaching other women in methods of breast self-examination (BSE). PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS.: The study was performed at the beginning and at the end of students' study at the Faculty of Health Sciences in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It was carried out during the academic year 2002/2003 and involved 28 first and 25 third year undergraduate midwifery students. The data were gathered from questionnaires and processed with the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: All study participants were of the opinion that teaching other women in methods of BSE is of great importance for an early detection of breast cancer (BC) and that this task ought to be one of their duties. There were no significant differences between the two groups when the readiness to upgrade their own knowledge of BSE or when the optimism regarding the progress in breast cancer detection and therapy in the future were concerned. CONCLUSIONS: The readiness of midwifery students to pass the knowledge of BSE to other women could help to increase their breast health awareness and thus improve their willingness and ability to detect early changes, associated with BC.

Effects of native human leukocyte interferon-alpha and recombinant human interferon-alpha on P3-X63-Ag8.653 mouse myeloma cell growth.

Multiple myeloma (MM) remains largely incurable, although traditional chemotherapy and new compounds have been shown to produce a clinical response. Clinical studies were performed to determine the effectiveness of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) in MM, which has also recently been shown to function as a survival factor for MM cells. The effects of different doses of native human leukocyte interferon-alpha (nhIFN-alpha), recombinant human interferon-alpha2a (rhIFN-alpha2a) and recombinant human interferon-alpha2b (rhIFN-alpha2b) on in vitro P3-X63-Ag8.653 mouse myeloma cell growth were compared. A statistically significant dose-dependent reduction in cell viability following cell culture with nhIFN-alpha was observed. On the other hand, a statistically significant increase in cell viability was observed following cell culture with rhIFN-alpha2a and rhIFN-alpha2b, but only in relation to the control group and seemingly without dose dependency. These results highlight the importance of the type of human IFN-alpha used in the treatment and study of MM, and suggest that nhIFN-alpha may have a role in future personalized therapy approaches.