Potentially inappropriate medication use among institutionalized elderly individuals in southeastern Brazil

In recent decades, the elderly population in Brazil has grown rapidly, as has concern for the health of this population. Institutionalization in nursing homes has appeared as an alternative form of health care for frail elderly that live alone. The present study evaluated the pharmacotherapy and inappropriate drug prescriptions for institutionalized elderly patients living in long-term institutions in southeastern Brazil. This research was conducted at five institutions with a total sample of 151 individuals aged at least 60 years. Databases were used to identify drug interactions, defined daily dose and inappropriate prescriptions. The prevalence of drug intake among the elderly was 95.36%, and there were an average of 3.31 ± 1.80 drug prescriptions per individual. Based on Beers criteria, the prevalence of inappropriate prescriptions was 25.83%. In addition, 70.2% of prescriptions were prescribed at a higher dosage than the defined daily dose (ATC/WHO). Potential drug interactions were identified for 54.11% of prescriptions; 81.42% of these were of moderate severity. The main inappropriate drugs were prescribed for cardiovascular and nervous system problems. Institutionalized elderly individuals presented a high consumption and misuse of medications, requiring professional intervention to monitor prescriptions and improve the quality of service for this population

Reproducibility in the absence of selective reporting : An illustration from large-scale brain asymmetry research

Altres ajuts: Max Planck Society (Germany).The problem of poor reproducibility of scientific findings has received much attention over recent years, in a variety of fields including psychology and neuroscience. The problem has been partly attributed to publication bias and unwanted practices such as p-hacking. Low statistical power in individual studies is also understood to be an important factor. In a recent multisite collaborative study, we mapped brain anatomical left-right asymmetries for regional measures of surface area and cortical thickness, in 99 MRI datasets from around the world, for a total of over 17,000 participants. In the present study, we revisited these hemispheric effects from the perspective of reproducibility. Within each dataset, we considered that an effect had been reproduced when it matched the meta-analytic effect from the 98 other datasets, in terms of effect direction and significance threshold. In this sense, the results within each dataset were viewed as coming from separate studies in an "ideal publishing environment," that is, free from selective reporting and p hacking. We found an average reproducibility rate of 63.2% (SD = 22.9%, min = 22.2%, max = 97.0%). As expected, reproducibility was higher for larger effects and in larger datasets. Reproducibility was not obviously related to the age of participants, scanner field strength, FreeSurfer software version, cortical regional measurement reliability, or regional size. These findings constitute an empirical illustration of reproducibility in the absence of publication bias or p hacking, when assessing realistic biological effects in heterogeneous neuroscience data, and given typically-used sample sizes

Sex-dependent role of CD300f immune receptor in generalized anxiety disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) presents a high prevalence in the population, leading to distress and disability. Immune system alterations have been associated with anxiety-related behaviors in rodents and GAD patients. CD300f immune receptors are highly expressed in microglia and participate not only in the modulation of immune responses but also in pruning and reshaping synapses. It was recently demonstrated that CD300f might be influential in the pathogenesis of depression in a sex-dependent manner. Here, we evaluated the role of CD300f immune receptor in anxiety, using CD300f knockout mice (CD300f−/−) and patients with GAD. We observed that male CD300f−/− mice had numerous behavioral changes associated with a low-anxiety phenotype, including increased open field central locomotion and rearing behaviors, more exploration in the open arms of the elevated plus-maze test, and decreased latency to eat in the novelty suppressed feeding test. In a cross-sectional population-based study, including 1111 subjects, we evaluated a common single-nucleotide polymorphism rs2034310 (C/T) in the cytoplasmatic tail of CD300f gene in individuals with GAD. Notably, we observed that the T allele of the rs2034310 polymorphism conferred protection against GAD in men, even after adjusting for confounding variables. Overall, our data demonstrate that CD300f immune receptors are involved in the modulation of pathological anxiety behaviors in a sex-dependent manner. The biological basis of these sex differences is still poorly understood, but it may provide significant clues regarding the neuropathophysiological mechanisms of GAD and can pave the way for future specific pharmacological interventions

Gender differences of cannabis smoking on serum leptin levels: population-based study

Objective: To evaluate the serum leptin levels in cannabis smokers. Methods: This was a cross-sectional population-based study of participants between the ages of 18 and 35 years. The data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire covering sociodemographic data and the use of psychoactive substances. Leptin levels were measured using a commercial ELISA kit. Results: Of the 911 participants, 6.7% were identified as cannabis smokers and had significantly lower leptin levels (p = 0.008). When stratified by gender, there was a significant decrease in leptin levels among male smokers (p = 0.039). Conclusion: Cannabis smoking was linked to leptin levels in men, suggesting that the response to biological signals may be different between men and women

Gender differences of cannabis smoking on serum leptin levels: population-based study

Objective: To evaluate the serum leptin levels in cannabis smokers. Methods: This was a cross-sectional population-based study of participants between the ages of 18 and 35 years. The data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire covering sociodemographic data and the use of psychoactive substances. Leptin levels were measured using a commercial ELISA kit. Results: Of the 911 participants, 6.7% were identified as cannabis smokers and had significantly lower leptin levels (p = 0.008). When stratified by gender, there was a significant decrease in leptin levels among male smokers (p = 0.039). Conclusion: Cannabis smoking was linked to leptin levels in men, suggesting that the response to biological signals may be different between men and women

Atmosfera modificada e 1-metilciclopropeno na conservação pós-colheita de kiwis cv. Bruno Modified atmosphere and 1-methylciclopropene on postharvest conservation of kiwis cv. Bruno

Neste trabalho avaliou-se, em kiwis da cv Bruno, a ação do 1-Metilciclopropeno (1-MCP), na concentração de 625 ppb, associado ou não à atmosfera modificada gerada com o emprego de embalagem de polietileno de baixa densidade (PEBD), de 22µm. Os tratamentos testados foram: T1, controle (sem embalagem e 1-MCP); T2, sem embalagem com 1-MCP; T3, com embalagem de PEBD sem 1-MCP; T4, embalagem de PEBD mais o 1-MCP, sendo após armazenados em câmara fria a - 0,5 ± 0,5 ºC e 95 ± 5% de umidade relativa (U.R.). As avaliações foram realizadas após o pré-resfriamento, aos 45 dias, 45 + 5 dias (22 ± 3ºC e 75 ± 5% de U.R.), 90 dias e 90 + 5 dias (22 ± 3ºC e 75 ± 5% de U.R.). As variáveis analisadas foram: firmeza de polpa (FP), sólidos totais (ST), acidez titulável (AT), concentração de etileno e de CO2 e análise sensorial (somente ao final do experimento). A maior firmeza de polpa e acidez titulável, o menor conteúdo de sólidos totais, as menores concentrações de etileno e CO2 e a melhor aceitabilidade pelos julgadores foi obtida com os frutos acondicionadas em PEBD de 22 µm e tratadas com 1-MCP.<br>In this work was evaluated, for kiwis cv. Bruno, the Methylcyclopropene action (1-MCP), in concentration of 625 ppb, associated or not with modified atmosphere (MA) using low density polyethylene bags (LDPE) of 22µm. The following treatments were tested: T1: control (no bags and 1-MCP); T2 no bags with 1-MCP; T3 LDPE bags no 1-MCP; T4 LDPE bags and 1-MCP, then they were stored in cold chamber at - 0,5 ± 0,5 ºC and 95 ± 5% of RH for 45 or 90 days. The fruits were evaluated after pre-cooling, 45 days, 45 + 5 days (22 ± 3ºC and 75 ± 5% of RH.), 90 days and 90 + 5 days (22 ± 3ºC and 75 ± 5% of RH.). The parameters analyzed were: pulp firmness (PF), total solids (TS), titritable acidity (TA), ethylene and CO2 concentration, and sensorial analyzes (only in the end of the experiment). The largest pulp firmness and titritable acidity, the smaller content of total soluble, the smaller concentration of ethylene and CO2 and the better acceptability for the taste panel was obtained with the fruits stored in LDPE of 22 µm and treated with 1-MCP