Which antidepressants have demonstrated superior efficacy? A review of the evidence

A review of published evidence of superior efficacy of a particular antidepressant in major depressive disorder may assist clinicians in making considered treatment choices. To identify such candidates, an international group of experts met to assess published evidence (identified through searches in Medline and Embase databases and discussions with experts in the field) from randomized, controlled trials and meta-analyses comparing two antidepressants under conditions of fair comparison. Criteria were defined to judge the strength of evidence. Two pivotal studies in moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder that demonstrate superiority on the primary efficacy measure, or alternatively one pivotal study supported by consistent results from meta-analyses, was considered to constitute evidence for definite superiority. Three antidepressants met these criteria: clomipramine, venlafaxine, and escitalopram. Three antidepressants were found to have probable superiority: milnacipran, duloxetine, and mirtazapine. Only escitalopram was found to have definite superiority in the treatment of severe depression; probable superiority was identified for venlafaxine and possible superiority for milnacipran and clomipramine. This review of published data found evidence that only a very few antidepressants are shown to be more effective than other

Interface Depinning in the Absence of External Driving Force

We study the pinning-depinning phase transition of interfaces in the quenched Kardar-Parisi-Zhang model as the external driving force $F$ goes towards zero. For a fixed value of the driving force we induce depinning by increasing the nonlinear term coefficient $\lambda$, which is related to lateral growth, up to a critical threshold. We focus on the case in which there is no external force applied (F=0) and find that, contrary to a simple scaling prediction, there is a finite value of $\lambda$ that makes the interface to become depinned. The critical exponents at the transition are consistent with directed percolation depinning. Our results are relevant for paper wetting experiments, in which an interface gets moving with no external driving force.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures included, uses epsf. Submitted to PR

Quantum Correlated Interstitials and the Hall Resistivity of the Magnetically Induced Wigner Crystal

We study a trial wavefunction for an interstitial in a Wigner crystal. We find that the electron correlations, ignored in a conventional Hartree-Fock treatment, dramatically lower the interstitial energy, especially at fillings close to an incompressible liquid state. The correlation between the interstitial electron and the lattice electrons at $\nu <1/m$ is introduced by constructing a trial wave- function which bears a Jastrow factor of a Laughlin state at $\nu=1/m$. For fillings close to but just below $\nu=1/m$, we find that a perfect Wigner crystal becomes unstable against formation of such interstitials. It is argued that conduction due to correlated interstitials in the presence of weak disorder leads to the {\it classical} Hall resistivity, as seen experimentally.Comment: 10 pages, RevTe

Statistics of extremal intensities for Gaussian interfaces

The extremal Fourier intensities are studied for stationary Edwards-Wilkinson-type, Gaussian, interfaces with power-law dispersion. We calculate the probability distribution of the maximal intensity and find that, generically, it does not coincide with the distribution of the integrated power spectrum (i.e. roughness of the surface), nor does it obey any of the known extreme statistics limit distributions. The Fisher-Tippett-Gumbel limit distribution is, however, recovered in three cases: (i) in the non-dispersive (white noise) limit, (ii) for high dimensions, and (iii) when only short-wavelength modes are kept. In the last two cases the limit distribution emerges in novel scenarios.Comment: 15 pages, including 7 ps figure

Hamiltonian Theory of the Composite Fermion Wigner Crystal

Experimental results indicating the existence of the high magnetic field Wigner Crystal have been available for a number of years. While variational wavefunctions have demonstrated the instability of the Laughlin liquid to a Wigner Crystal at sufficiently small filling, calculations of the excitation gaps have been hampered by the strong correlations. Recently a new Hamiltonian formulation of the fractional quantum Hall problem has been developed. In this work we extend the Hamiltonian approach to include states of nonuniform density, and use it to compute the excitation gaps of the Wigner Crystal states. We find that the Wigner Crystal states near $\nu=1/5$ are quantitatively well described as crystals of Composite Fermions with four vortices attached. Predictions for gaps and the shear modulus of the crystal are presented, and found to be in reasonable agreement with experiments.Comment: 41 page, 6 figures, 3 table

A multi-center diabetes eye screening study in community settings: Study design and methodology

Purpose: Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 20-74 years within the United States. The Innovative Network for Sight Research group (INSIGHT) designed the Diabetic Eye Screening Study (DESS) to examine the feasibility and short-term effectiveness of non-mydriatic diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening for adults with diabetes in community-based settings.Methods: Study enrollment began in December 2011 at four sites: an internal medicine clinic at a county hospital in Birmingham, Alabama; a Federally-qualified community healthcare center in Miami-Dade County, Florida; a university-affiliated outpatient pharmacy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and a medical home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. People 18 years or older with previously diagnosed diabetes were offered free DR screening using non-mydriatic retinal photography that was preceded by a brief questionnaire addressing demographic information and previous eye care use. Visual acuity was also measured for each eye. Images were evaluated at a telemedicine reading center by trained evaluators using the National Health System DR grading classification. Participants and their physicians were sent screening report results and telephoned for a follow-up survey 3 months post-screening to determine whether participants had sought follow-up comprehensive eye care and their experiences with the screening process.Results: Target enrollment at each site was a minimum of 500 persons. Three of the four sites met this enrollment goal.Conclusion: The INSIGHT/DESS is intended to establish the feasibility and short-term effectiveness of DR screening using non-mydriatic retinal photography in persons with diabetes who seek services in community-based clinic and pharmacy settings

Evaluation of a Web-Based Training in Smoking Cessation Counseling Targeting U.S. Eye-Care Professionals

Background. Smoking causes blindness-related diseases. Eye-care providers are uniquely positioned to help their patients quit smoking. Aims. Using a pre-/postevaluation design, this study evaluated a web-based training in smoking cessation counseling targeting eye-care providers. Method. The training was developed based on the 3A1R protocol: “Ask about smoking, Advise to quit, Assess willingness to quit, and Refer to tobacco quitlines,” and made available in the form of a web-based video presentation. Providers (n = 654) at four academic centers were invited to participate. Participants completed pretraining, posttraining, and 3-month follow-up surveys. Main outcomes were self-reported improvement in their motivation, confidence, and counseling practices at 3-month follow-up. Generalized linear mixed models for two time-points (pretraining and 3-month) were conducted for these outcomes. Results. A total of 113 providers (54.0% males) participated in the study (17.7% response rate). At the 3-month evaluation, 9.8% of participants reported improvement in their motivation. With respect to the 3A1R, 8% reported improvement in their confidence for Ask, 15.5% for Advise, 28.6% for Assess, and 37.8% for Refer. Similarly, 25.5% reported improvement in their practices for Ask, 25.5% for Advise, 37.2% for Assess, and 39.4% for Refer to tobacco quitlines (p <.001 for all except for Refer confidence p =.05). Discussion. Although participation rate was low, the program effectively improved providers’ smoking cessation counseling practices. Conclusions. Including training in smoking cessation counseling in ophthalmology curriculums, and integrating the 3A1R protocol into the electronic medical records systems in eye-care settings, might promote smoking cessation practices in these settings

Diabetes eye screening in urban settings serving minority populations: Detection of diabetic retinopathy and other ocular findings using telemedicine

IMPORTANCE The use of a nonmydriatic camera for retinal imaging combined with the remote evaluation of images at a telemedicine reading center has been advanced as a strategy for diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening, particularly among patients with diabetes mellitus from ethnic/racial minority populations with low utilization of eye care. OBJECTIVE To examine the rate and types of DR identified through a telemedicine screening program using a nonmydriatic camera, as well as the rate of other ocular findings. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A cross-sectional study (Innovative Network for Sight [INSIGHT]) was conducted at 4 urban clinic or pharmacy settings in the United States serving predominantly ethnic/racial minority and uninsured persons with diabetes. Participants included persons aged 18 years or older who had type 1 or 2 diabetes mellitus and presented to the community-based settings. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The percentage of DR detection, including type of DR, and the percentage of detection of other ocular findings. RESULTS A total of 1894 persons participated in the INSIGHT screening program across sites, with 21.7%having DR in at least 1 eye. The most common type of DR was background DR, which was present in 94.1%of all participants with DR. Almost half (44.2%) of the sample screened had ocular findings other than DR; 30.7%of the other ocular findings were cataract. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In a DR telemedicine screening program in urban clinic or pharmacy settings in the United States serving predominantly ethnic/racial minority populations, DR was identified on screening in approximately 1 in 5 persons with diabetes. The vast majority of DR was background, indicating high public health potential for intervention in the earliest phases of DR when treatment can prevent vision loss. Other ocular conditions were detected at a high rate, a collateral benefit of DR screening programs that may be underappreciated

Measurement of the branching fraction for Υ(1S)→τ+τ−\Upsilon (1S) \to \tau^+ \tau^-

We have studied the leptonic decay of the $\Upsilon (1S)$ resonance into tau pairs using the CLEO II detector. A clean sample of tau pair events is identified via events containing two charged particles where exactly one of the particles is an identified electron. We find $B(\Upsilon(1S) \to \tau^+ \tau^-) = (2.61~\pm~0.12~{+0.09\atop{-0.13}})$. The result is consistent with expectations from lepton universality.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, two Postscript figures available upon request, CLNS 94/1297, CLEO 94-20 (submitted to Physics Letters B

Production and Decay of D_1(2420)^0 and D_2^*(2460)^0

We have investigated $D^{+}\pi^{-}$ and $D^{*+}\pi^{-}$ final states and observed the two established $L=1$ charmed mesons, the $D_1(2420)^0$ with mass $2421^{+1+2}_{-2-2}$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and width $20^{+6+3}_{-5-3}$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and the $D_2^*(2460)^0$ with mass $2465 \pm 3 \pm 3$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and width $28^{+8+6}_{-7-6}$ MeV/c$^{2}$. Properties of these final states, including their decay angular distributions and spin-parity assignments, have been studied. We identify these two mesons as the $j_{light}=3/2$ doublet predicted by HQET. We also obtain constraints on {\footnotesize $\Gamma_S/(\Gamma_S + \Gamma_D)$} as a function of the cosine of the relative phase of the two amplitudes in the $D_1(2420)^0$ decay.Comment: 15 pages in REVTEX format. hardcopies with figures can be obtained by sending mail to: [email protected]