Pharmacological prevention of postictal agitation after electroconvulsive therapy—A systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundPostictal agitation (PIA) after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a serious clinical problem estimated to occur in 7–36% of patients and recur in 19–54% of patients. PIA has the potential to cause dangerous situations for the patient and staff members aside from the financial impact. To date, it is unclear which pharmacological interventions should be used in the management of PIA. This study aimed to systematically review the (preventative) pharmacological treatment options for PIA after ECT.MethodA systematic search was done in PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science from inception until 10 November 2022. We included randomized trials with any pharmacological intervention or comparison and a predefined outcome measure on PIA. Studies that solely included patients with neurodegenerative disorders or stroke were excluded. Data quality was assessed with the RoB2 and GRADE. Meta-analysis was performed if possible. This study was registered on PROSPERO under CRD42021262323.ResultsWe screened 2,204 articles and included 14 studies. Dexmedetomidine was investigated in 10 studies. Alfentanil, lignocaine, esmolol, midazolam, propofol, ketamine, haloperidol, and diazepam were each studied in only one study. Meta-analysis revealed an OR of 0.45 (0.32–0.63), a moderate effect size, in favor of dexmedetomidine than placebo to prevent PIA with very low heterogeneity (I2 = 0%). The certainty of the evidence was moderate. The other interventions studied were all found to have low certainty of evidence.ConclusionFor clinical practice, we believe that our results indicate that dexmedetomidine should be considered for the prevention of PIA in patients that have previously experienced PIA

Spin relaxation in (110) and (001) InAs/GaSb superlattices

We report an enhancement of the electron spin relaxation time (T1) in a (110) InAs/GaSb superlattice by more than an order of magnitude (25 times) relative to the corresponding (001) structure. The spin dynamics were measured using polarization sensitive pump probe techniques and a mid-infrared, subpicosecond PPLN OPO. Longer T1 times in (110) superlattices are attributed to the suppression of the native interface asymmetry and bulk inversion asymmetry contributions to the precessional D'yakonov Perel spin relaxation process. Calculations using a nonperturbative 14-band nanostructure model give good agreement with experiment and indicate that possible structural inversion asymmetry contributions to T1 associated with compositional mixing at the superlattice interfaces may limit the observed spin lifetime in (110) superlattices. Our findings have implications for potential spintronics applications using InAs/GaSb heterostructures.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Is Inequality Growing as American Workers Fall Behind?

A popular and highly politicized theme today is that US workers are falling behind as their real wages fall and income gets redistributed to the rich. This article looks at some reasons that income inequality could rise, and then explores whether, in fact, workers are losing out. It looks at the suggestion that workers are falling behind relative to the wealthy, and at evidence on whether workers real wages have been falling, or perhaps only manufacturing wages. It also examines whether there is a growing “wealth gap” and whether it is due to falling labor compensation relative to wealth. Finally it examines the hypothesis that relatively inexperienced or unskilled workers are falling behind by fixing a skill level and seeing how real wages are changing over the recent past. The evidence here provides a perspective on why some analysts might believe that there is rising inequality or an emerging wealth gap, or that workers are falling behind, but generally it is not favorable to these pessimistic views of how well workers are doing. While inequality may have risen in recent decades, and there are strong reasons to think that the evidence for this is weak, there is also a strong reason to think that it would be a normal function of an aging population and nothing more. Short of population control or unexplainable and unfair redistribution from the old to the young, there may be nothing that can or should be done to reverse the rise in inequality. Finally the paper argues that there is a wealth gap, but it is due to falling real interest rates and a decline and not due to declining compensation, either absolutely or relative to overall income

Comparison of Tobacco Control Scenarios: Quantifying Estimates of Long-Term Health Impact Using the DYNAMO-HIA Modeling Tool

There are several types of tobacco control interventions/policies which can change future smoking exposure. The most basic intervention types are 1) smoking cessation interventions 2) preventing smoking initiation and 3) implementation of a nationwide policy affecting quitters and starters simultaneously. The possibility for dynamic quantification of such different interventions is key for comparing the timing and size of their effects

Quasiparticle dynamics and gap structure in Hg1223 investigated with femtosecond spectroscopy

Measurements of the temperature dependence of the quasiparticle (QP) dynamics in Hg1223 with femtosecond time-resolved optical spectroscopy are reported. From the temperature dependence of the amplitude of the photoinduced reflection, the existence of two gaps is deduced, one temperature dependent Dc that closes at Tc, and another temperature independent ''pseudogap'' Dp. The zero-temperature magnitudes of the two gaps are Dc/kTc = 6 +/- 0.5 and Dp/kTc = 6.4 +/- 0.5 respectively. The quasiparticle lifetime is found to exhibit a divergence as T -> Tc from below, which is attributed to the existence of a superconducting gap which closes at Tc. Above Tc the relaxation time is longer than expected for metallic relaxation, which is attributed to the presence of the ''pseudogap''. The QP relaxation time is found to increase significantly at low temperatures. This behavior is explained assuming that at low temperatures the relaxation of photoexcited quasiparticles is governed by a bi-particle recombination process.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

CNV-association meta-analysis in 191,161 European adults reveals new loci associated with anthropometric traits

Funding Information: This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource. This research has been conducted using the Danish National Biobank resource. The authors are grateful to the Raine Study participants and their families, and to the Raine Study research staff for cohort co-ordination and data collection. QIMR is grateful to the twins and their families for their generous participation in these studies. We would like to thank staff at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research: Anjali Henders, Dixie Statham, Lisa Bowdler, Ann Eldridge, and Marlene Grace for sample collection, processing and genotyping, Scott Gordon, Brian McEvoy, Belinda Cornes and Beben Benyamin for data QC and preparation, and David Smyth and Harry Beeby for IT support. HBCS Acknowledgements: We thank all study participants as well as everybody involved in the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study. Helsinki Birth Cohort Study has been supported by grants from the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Diabetes Research Society, Folkhälsan Research Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Finska Läkaresällskapet, Juho Vainio Foundation, Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, University of Helsinki, Ministry of Education, Ahokas Foundation, Emil Aaltonen Foundation. Finrisk study is grateful for the THL DNA laboratory for its skillful work to produce the DNA samples used in this study and thanks the Sanger Institute and FIMM genotyping facilities for genotyping the samples. We thank the MOLGENIS team and Genomics Coordination Center of the University Medical Center Groningen for software development and data management, in particular Marieke Bijlsma and Edith Adriaanse. This work was supported by the Leenards Foundation (to Z.K.), the Swiss National Science Foundation (31003A_169929 to Z.K., Sinergia grant CRSII33-133044 to AR), Simons Foundation (SFARI274424 to AR) and SystemsX.ch (51RTP0_151019 to Z.K.). A.R.W., H.Y. and T.M.F. are supported by the European Research Council grant: 323195:SZ-245. M.A.T., M.N.W. and An.M. are supported by the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Award (WT097835MF). For full funding information of all participating cohorts see Supplementary Note 2. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 The Author(s).There are few examples of robust associations between rare copy number variants (CNVs) and complex continuous human traits. Here we present a large-scale CNV association meta-analysis on anthropometric traits in up to 191,161 adult samples from 26 cohorts. The study reveals five CNV associations at 1q21.1, 3q29, 7q11.23, 11p14.2, and 18q21.32 and confirms two known loci at 16p11.2 and 22q11.21, implicating at least one anthropometric trait. The discovered CNVs are recurrent and rare (0.01-0.2%), with large effects on height (> 2.4 cm), weight ( 5 kg), and body mass index (BMI) (> 3.5 kg/m(2)). Burden analysis shows a 0.41 cm decrease in height, a 0.003 increase in waist-to-hip ratio and increase in BMI by 0.14 kg/m2 for each Mb of total deletion burden (P = 2.5 x 10(-10), 6.0 x 10(-5), and 2.9 x 10(-3)). Our study provides evidence that the same genes (e.g., MC4R, FIBIN, and FMO5) harbor both common and rare variants affecting body size and that anthropometric traits share genetic loci with developmental and psychiatric disorders.Peer reviewe