Development and characterization of ternary solid dispersion systems of olmesartan medoxomil

The ternary solid dispersion systems of poorly water soluble olmesartan medoxomil (OLM) were prepared by conventional kneading method in order to improve its physicochemical performance. A 32 full factorial design approach was employed to optimize influence of concentration of polyvinylpyrrolidone K30 (PVP) and poloxamer 407 (PLX) on physicochemical characteristics of these dispersions. All formulations were characterized by XRPD, DSC and dissolution studies. Physical studies revealed complete loss of crystallinity and formation of uniform molecular dispersion of OLM in its ternary systems. All dispersion systems showed significant improvement in dissolution profile in comparison to pure drug alone (p 2 : 68.43 ± 2.8 %) of OLM suggesting optimum ratio of carrier system. The kinetic study of dissolution displayed to follow the Korsmeyer-Peppas model (r2 = 0.9835).Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

EMERGING TRENDS IN PATIENT COUNSELLING: CURRENT SCENARIO

Objective: To evaluate the impact of patient counselling in terms of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) outcomes among retail and hospital pharmacist in Satara and Sanagli district.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on knowledge, attitudes and practices of patient counselling adopted by retail and hospital pharmacists from different areas of Satara and Sangali district. A specially designed questionnaire was used for data collection. Total 190 respondents were analyzed for the study.Results: The highlighting result of the survey based project revealed that almost all retail as well as hospital pharmacists were practicing patient counselling without any charges and there is necessity of separate patient counselling cabinet. Pharmacist was lacking in adopting modern techniques, aids for counselling and 20% only attended patient counselling course (PCC) by Maharashtra State Pharmacy Council (MSPC).Conclusion: KAP study revealed the positive attitude, knowledge and existence of patient counselling practices but not done in an appropriate manner. Step should be taken by authorities, pharmacist and the patient to make counselling more effective.Â

The effectiveness of a low-intensity problem-solving intervention for common adolescent mental health problems in New Delhi, India: protocol for a school-based, individually randomized controlled trial with an embedded stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled recruitment trial

Background Conduct, anxiety and depressive disorders account for over 75% of the adolescent mental health burden globally. The current protocol will test a low-intensity problem-solving intervention for school-going adolescents with common mental health problems in India. The protocol also tests the effects of a classroom-based sensitization intervention on the demand for counselling services in an embedded recruitment trial. Methods We will conduct a two-arm individually randomized controlled trial in six Government-run secondary schools in New Delhi. The targeted sample is 240 adolescents in grades 9-12 with persistent, elevated mental health symptoms and associated impact. Participants will receive either a brief problem-solving intervention delivered over 3 weeks by lay counsellors (intervention), or enhanced usual care comprised of problem-solving booklets (control). Self-reported adolescent mental health symptoms and idiographic problems will be assessed at 6 weeks (co-primary outcomes) and again at 12 weeks post-randomization. In addition, adolescent-reported impact of mental health difficulties, perceived stress, mental wellbeing and clinical remission, as well as parent-reported adolescent mental health symptoms and impact scores, will be assessed at 6 and 12 weeks post-randomization. We will also complete a parallel process evaluation, including estimations of the costs of delivering the interventions. An embedded recruitment trial will apply a stepped-wedge, cluster (class)-randomized controlled design in 70 classes across the six schools. This will evaluate the added impact of a classroom-based sensitization intervention over school-level recruitment sensitization activities on the primary outcome of referral rate into the host trial (i.e. the proportion of adolescents referred as a function of the total sampling frame in each condition of the embedded recruitment trial). Other outcomes will be the proportion of referrals eligible to participate in the host trial, proportion of self-generated referrals, and severity and pattern of symptoms among referred adolescents in each condition. Power calculations were undertaken separately for each trial. A detailed statistical analysis plan will be developed separately for each trial prior to unblinding. Discussion Both trials were initiated on 20 August 2018. A single research protocol for both trials offers a resource-efficient methodology for testing the effectiveness of linked procedures to enhance uptake and outcomes of a school-based psychological intervention for common adolescent mental health problems

Applying Network Analysis to Understand Depression and Substance Use in Indian Adolescents

Abstract Introduction: Network analysis has been used to better understand relationships between depressive symptoms. Existing work has rarely examined networks of adolescents or individuals in non-western countries. Methods: We used data from 13,035 adolescents (52.5% male; Mage = 13.8) from Bihar, a low-resource state in India. Depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and substance use was measured using a questionnaire adapted from the World Health Organization. We modeled a network of depressive symptoms and a network examining connections between depressive symptoms and substance use. Results: The most commonly reported depressive symptoms were sleep problems and poor appetite. In the depression network, feeling like a failure and sad mood were the most central symptoms, and somatic symptoms clustered together. To our surprise, depressive symptoms were only weakly associated with substance use. Limitations: Our study uses cross-sectional data, which are not sufficient to draw causal inferences about the relationships between symptoms. Additionally, we used an exploratory data-driven approach, and we did not pose a priori hypotheses about the relationships between symptoms. Discussion: Our findings suggest that feelings like a failure and sad mood are highly central symptoms in Indian adolescents; future research may examine if these symptoms are strong targets for intervention. Sad mood has commonly been identified as a central symptom of depression in western samples, while feeling like a failure has not. We offer avenues for future research, illustrating how network analysis may enhance our ability to understand, prevent, and treat psychopathology in LMICs

Improving the scalability of psychological treatments in developing countries: an evaluation of peer-led therapy quality assessment in Goa, India.

Psychological treatments delivered by lay therapists, with little or no previous mental health training, have been shown to be effective in treating a range of mental health problems. In low resource settings, the dearth of available experts to assess therapy quality potentially leads to a bottleneck in scaling up lay therapist delivered psychological treatments. Peer-led supervision and the assessment of therapy quality may be one solution to address this barrier. The purpose of this study was two-fold: 1) to assess lay therapist quality ratings compared to expert supervisors in a multisite study where lay therapists delivered two locally developed, psychological treatments for harmful and dependent drinking and severe depression; 2) assess the acceptability and feasibility of peer-led supervision compared to expert-led supervision. We developed two scales, one for each treatment, to compare lay therapist and expert ratings on audio-taped treatment sessions (n = 189). Our findings confirmed our primary hypothesis of increased levels of agreement between peer and expert ratings over three consecutive time periods as demonstrated by a decrease in the differences in mean therapy quality rating scores. This study highlights that lay therapists can be trained to effectively assess each other's therapy sessions as well as experts, and that peer-led supervision is acceptable for lay therapists, thus, enhancing the scalability of psychological treatments in low-resource settings

TNFA and IL10 Polymorphisms and IL-6 and IL-10 Levels Influence Disease Severity in Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 Virus Infected Patients

Cytokines are key modulators of immune response, and dysregulated production of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines contributes to the pathogenesis of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection. Cytokine production is impacted by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the genes coding for them. In the present study, SNPs in the IL6, TNFA, IFNG, IL17A, IL10, and TGFB were investigated for their association with disease severity and fatality in influenza A(H1N1)pdm09-affected patients with mild disease (n = 293) and severe disease (n = 86). Among those with severe disease, 41 patients had fatal outcomes. In a subset of the patients, levels of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF, IFN-γ, and IL-17 were assayed in the plasma for their association with severe disease. The frequency of TNFA rs1800629 G/A allele was significantly higher in severe cases and survived severe cases group compared to that of those with mild infection (OR with 95% for mild vs. severe cases 2.95 (1.52–5.73); mild vs. survived severe cases 4.02 (1.84–8.82)). IL10 rs1800896-rs1800872 G-C haplotype was significantly lower (OR with 95% 0.34 (0.12–0.95)), while IL10 rs1800896-rs1800872 G-A haplotype was significantly higher (OR with 95% 12.11 (2.23–76.96)) in fatal cases group compared to that of the mild group. IL-6 and IL-10 levels were significantly higher in fatal cases compared to that of survived severe cases. IL-6 levels had greater discriminatory power than IL-10 to predict progression to fatal outcome in influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus-infected patients. To conclude, the present study reports the association of TNFA and IL10 SNPs with severe disease in Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus-infected subjects. Furthermore, IL-6 levels can be a potential biomarker for predicting fatal outcomes in Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infected subjects

Proceedings of National Conference on Relevance of Engineering and Science for Environment and Society

This conference proceedings contains articles on the various research ideas of the academic community and practitioners presented at the National Conference on Relevance of Engineering and Science for Environment and Society (R{ES}2 2021). R{ES}2 2021 was organized by Shri Pandurang Pratishthan’s, Karmayogi Engineering College, Shelve, Pandharpur, India on July 25th, 2021. Conference Title: National Conference on Relevance of Engineering and Science for Environment and SocietyConference Acronym: R{ES}2 2021Conference Date: 25 July 2021Conference Location: Online (Virtual Mode)Conference Organizers: Shri Pandurang Pratishthan’s, Karmayogi Engineering College, Shelve, Pandharpur, India

Abstracts of National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020

This book presents the abstracts of the papers presented to the Online National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020 (RDMPMC-2020) held on 26th and 27th August 2020 organized by the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Science in Association with the Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India. Conference Title: National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020Conference Acronym: RDMPMC-2020Conference Date: 26–27 August 2020Conference Location: Online (Virtual Mode)Conference Organizer: Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology JamshedpurCo-organizer: Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, IndiaConference Sponsor: TEQIP-