Evaluation of satisfaction with over-the-counter weight loss supplements

Majority of studies on satisfaction with medication examine satisfaction with a prescribed pharmaceutical agent, while exploration of satisfaction with over-The-counter drugs is limited. This study aims to examine satisfaction with non-prescribed weight loss supplements and the factors that may affect satisfaction levels, such as overall body satisfaction. The participants in this study consisted of a convenience sample of 119 subjects who have either used weight loss supplement or are still using it at the time of enrollment. Results indicate that perceived effectiveness of weight loss supplement is the ultimate predictor of global satisfaction. Overall assessment of weight loss supplement revealed low satisfaction levels with regard to effectiveness and global satisfaction, while satisfaction with side-effects and convenience were relatively high. Body dissatisfaction was found to be significantly negatively correlated to satisfaction with effectiveness, side-effects and global satisfaction with weight loss supplement. Moreover, subjects with higher body dissatisfaction have a higher expectancy from weight loss supplement

The Importance of Analytical Chemistry in Therapeutic Drug Monitoring for Personalized Medicine

Personalized therapy (PM) has the potential to adapt treatment with the best response and highest safety to provide better patient care. Key data is drug concentration of biological materials such as plasma and serum.Individual drug therapy means, choice of a drug and its dose regime should fit every individual specifically. Thus efficacy of a drug treatment would improve significantly. When developing an analytical method for (Therapeutic drug monitoring) TDM, it is important to choose a clinically relevant calibration range. This quantitation range should be built around the proposed target concentration, covering majority of samples as seen in the clinic (Ciocan-Cartita et al. 2019).Inter-individual variability in Pharmacokinetic variables may affect the blood concentration of drug so TDM approaches could solve the dosing problem.To achieve individual drug therapy with a reasonably predictive outcome, one must further account for different patterns of drug response among geographically and ethnically distinct populations. Keywords: LC-MS/MS, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, Lenalidomide, Anastrozole DOI: 10.7176/CMR/12-7-05 Publication date:September 30th 202

Evaluation of sexual functional status and consistency of scales in patients with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism before and after testosterone replacement therapy: a single-center experience

ABSTRACT Objective: This study aimed to investigate the frequency of sexual dysfunction and the effect of short-term testosterone replacement therapy on sexual functions in congenital hypogonadism patients. Furthermore, we sought to reveal the consistency of the self-report scales used for the diagnosis of sexual dysfunction and the relationship between biochemical parameters. Materials and methods: The study was conducted on 47 young male patients aged above 18 years who were diagnosed with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. Short (IIEF-5) and long (IIEF-15) forms of the International Index of Erectile Function and Arizona Sexual Experiences Scale (ASEX) were applied before treatment under the supervision of a physician. The patients’ blood pressure, height, and weight were measured, and their luteinizing hormone (LH), FSH, and total testosterone levels were recorded. Patients who started their treatments were called for a follow-up checkup after 6 months. Their blood pressure, height, and weight were measured by reapplying the ASEX, IIEF-5, and IIEF-15. In addition, their LH, FSH, and total testosterone levels in the biochemical tests were rerecorded. Results: In this study, the sexual dysfunction status of patients diagnosed with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism before and after treatment was evaluated using the ASEX, IIEF-15, and IIEF-5 scales. A decrease in sexual dysfunction was observed in all three scales after treatment compared with that before treatment. The IIEF-5 and IIEF-15 scales were found to be uncorrelated in terms of the pretreatment values but were correlated in terms of the post-treatment values. Although a correlation was observed between ASEX and IIEF-5 before treatment, no correlation was detected between ASEX and IIEF-15. After the treatment, ASEX was found to be correlated with both IIEF-5 and IIEF-15. The results of the scales indicated the correlation in all categories, except the pretreatment results of the IIEF-15 scale. Conclusion: The results of the current study demonstrated a significant improvement in the sexual function of hypogonadism patients undergoing short-term testosterone therapy. The ASEX, IIEF-5, and IIEF-15 scales used in the diagnosis and follow-up of sexual dysfunction were useful for evaluating sexual functions in hypogonadotropic hypogonadism patients

Pulmonary sarcoidosis associated with psoriasis vulgaris: coincidental occurrence or causal association? Case report

BACKGROUND: Sarcoidosis is rarely associated with a distinct disease. One disease infrequently associated with sarcoidosis is psoriasis. CASE PRESENTATION: This case study describes a 38-year-old male, who presented with chest pain, high-grade fever, arthralgias and a skin rash accompanied by bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy on his chest radiograph. Extensive investigations including fiber-optic bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage and labial and skin biopsies, demonstrated that two distinct clinical entities co-existed in the same patient: pulmonary sarcoidosis and psoriasis vulgaris. Combination therapy for both diseases was applied and the patient was greatly improved. CONCLUSION: This is the first well-documented case of sarcoidosis and psoriasis in the same patient, reported on the basis of safe and widely-used techniques that were not available until fairly recently. These disorders might share common pathogenic mechanisms that could explain their co-existence in the patient

Sleeper Agents: Training Deceptive LLMs that Persist Through Safety Training

Humans are capable of strategically deceptive behavior: behaving helpfully in most situations, but then behaving very differently in order to pursue alternative objectives when given the opportunity. If an AI system learned such a deceptive strategy, could we detect it and remove it using current state-of-the-art safety training techniques? To study this question, we construct proof-of-concept examples of deceptive behavior in large language models (LLMs). For example, we train models that write secure code when the prompt states that the year is 2023, but insert exploitable code when the stated year is 2024. We find that such backdoor behavior can be made persistent, so that it is not removed by standard safety training techniques, including supervised fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, and adversarial training (eliciting unsafe behavior and then training to remove it). The backdoor behavior is most persistent in the largest models and in models trained to produce chain-of-thought reasoning about deceiving the training process, with the persistence remaining even when the chain-of-thought is distilled away. Furthermore, rather than removing backdoors, we find that adversarial training can teach models to better recognize their backdoor triggers, effectively hiding the unsafe behavior. Our results suggest that, once a model exhibits deceptive behavior, standard techniques could fail to remove such deception and create a false impression of safety.Comment: updated to add missing acknowledgement

Suicide risk in schizophrenia: learning from the past to change the future

Suicide is a major cause of death among patients with schizophrenia. Research indicates that at least 5–13% of schizophrenic patients die by suicide, and it is likely that the higher end of range is the most accurate estimate. There is almost total agreement that the schizophrenic patient who is more likely to commit suicide is young, male, white and never married, with good premorbid function, post-psychotic depression and a history of substance abuse and suicide attempts. Hopelessness, social isolation, hospitalization, deteriorating health after a high level of premorbid functioning, recent loss or rejection, limited external support, and family stress or instability are risk factors for suicide in patients with schizophrenia. Suicidal schizophrenics usually fear further mental deterioration, and they experience either excessive treatment dependence or loss of faith in treatment. Awareness of illness has been reported as a major issue among suicidal schizophrenic patients, yet some researchers argue that insight into the illness does not increase suicide risk. Protective factors play also an important role in assessing suicide risk and should also be carefully evaluated. The neurobiological perspective offers a new approach for understanding self-destructive behavior among patients with schizophrenia and may improve the accuracy of screening schizophrenics for suicide. Although, there is general consensus on the risk factors, accurate knowledge as well as early recognition of patients at risk is still lacking in everyday clinical practice. Better knowledge may help clinicians and caretakers to implement preventive measures. This review paper is the results of a joint effort between researchers in the field of suicide in schizophrenia. Each expert provided a brief essay on one specific aspect of the problem. This is the first attempt to present a consensus report as well as the development of a set of guidelines for reducing suicide risk among schizophenia patients

Updated Guidance Regarding The Risk ofAllergic Reactions to COVID-19 Vaccines and Recommended Evaluation and Management: A GRADE Assessment, and International Consensus Approach

This guidance updates 2021 GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) recommendations regarding immediate allergic reactions following coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines and addresses revaccinating individuals with first-dose allergic reactions and allergy testing to determine revaccination outcomes. Recent meta-analyses assessed the incidence of severe allergic reactions to initial COVID-19 vaccination, risk of mRNA-COVID-19 revaccination after an initial reaction, and diagnostic accuracy of COVID-19 vaccine and vaccine excipient testing in predicting reactions. GRADE methods informed rating the certainty of evidence and strength of recommendations. A modified Delphi panel consisting of experts in allergy, anaphylaxis, vaccinology, infectious diseases, emergency medicine, and primary care from Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States formed the recommendations. We recommend vaccination for persons without COVID-19 vaccine excipient allergy and revaccination after a prior immediate allergic reaction. We suggest against \u3e 15-minute postvaccination observation. We recommend against mRNA vaccine or excipient skin testing to predict outcomes. We suggest revaccination of persons with an immediate allergic reaction to the mRNA vaccine or excipients be performed by a person with vaccine allergy expertise in a properly equipped setting. We suggest against premedication, split-dosing, or special precautions because of a comorbid allergic history

Neutrinos

229 pages229 pages229 pagesThe Proceedings of the 2011 workshop on Fundamental Physics at the Intensity Frontier. Science opportunities at the intensity frontier are identified and described in the areas of heavy quarks, charged leptons, neutrinos, proton decay, new light weakly-coupled particles, and nucleons, nuclei, and atoms

Biomarkers of the involvement of mast cells, basophils and eosinophils in asthma and allergic diseases

Biomarkers of disease activity have come into wide use in the study of mechanisms of human disease and in clinical medicine to both diagnose and predict disease course; as well as to monitor response to therapeutic intervention. Here we review biomarkers of the involvement of mast cells, basophils, and eosinophils in human allergic inflammation. Included are surface markers of cell activation as well as specific products of these inflammatory cells that implicate specific cell types in the inflammatory process and are of possible value in clinical research as well as within decisions made in the practice of allergy-immunology