Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Influence of parental and family adjustment on the later psychological adjustment of children treated for cancer

ObjectiveTo examine the relationship between parental adjustment and family adjustment during the period after the children's diagnosis of cancer and the psychological adjustment of children 2 years after their diagnosis.MethodThe study used a prospective design. Children aged 2 to 5 years with cancer and their parents and families (n = 38) were assessed immediately after the children's diagnosis and again 2 years after the diagnosis. Path analysis was used to investigate the relationship between parental and family adjustment during the period after diagnosis and the psychological adjustment of the children 2 years after their diagnosis.ResultsMaternal adjustment during the period after the children's cancer was diagnosed had a significant relationship with the children's psychological adjustment 2 years after diagnosis. In contrast, the adjustment of fathers and family adjustment appeared to have a more limited impact on the later psychological adjustment of the children.ConclusionThe level of distress experienced by mothers after the children's diagnosis may have an important influence on the later psychological adjustment of the children. It is possible that this is due to the impact of maternal distress on the capacity of mothers to care for their children during the children's treatment for cancer

Embodied Learning

Social and cultural anthropology have historically relegated questions about human biology, physiology, bodily practice, and embodied learning to physical anthropology and the natural sciences. Mauss’s essay on techniques of the body, however, presents a notable early exception that, along with challenges in philosophy to the mind-body dichotomy during the first half of the twentieth century, gradually generated dedicated interest in the “whole person” acting, interacting, and learning in everyday contexts. Growing curiosity in embodied learning has been motivated by a number of factors including renewed appreciation for Marxist materialism in the 1970s; feminist and gender studies concerns with the body; phenomenology of the senses; research on apprenticeship, work, dance, and sport; and the efflorescence of the cognitive and brain sciences and the insights they offer into the nature of being human