Most Viewed Articles

Loneliness was a major concern of people during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Now, that the pandemic is mainly gone, it is still a global issue. This commentary reviews the impact on that loneliness has on our cognitive, behavioral and affective functioning. These effects are described, along with the stigma that often accompanies loneliness and which makes it hard for people to acknowledge and admit that they are lonely, and seek help from healthcare professionals. This commentary, aside from describing the various negative implications of loneliness, highlights the need for society to address the issue. While it cannot be eliminated, the population can be taught how to recognize it, and how to offer assistance to those who struggle with it.

Patients were left in soiled sheets or sitting on commodes for hours. Some patients needing pain relief got it late or not at all.’ These were a sample of the findings in the Francis Report which revealed severe failings in patient care in the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. Recommendations in the Francis Report included the need to recruit compassionate staff and having compassion training for clinicians [1].

Introduction: Recent research has explored the role that personality traits play in health and weight determination. This study extends current research by evaluating the extent to which behavior mediates the impact of neuroticism and body weight using polygenic risk as a measure of neurotic tendency. Methods: Structural equation modelling disaggregates the effect of neurotic tendency on BMI into direct and indirect effects. Indirect effects-those transmitted through mediating health behaviors—allow for the simultaneous comparison of multiple behavioral mediators— exercise frequency, smoking intensity, sleep sufficiency and screen time. Results: While health-related behavior-screen time, sleep, smoking and exercise-directly influence BMI, neurotic tendency showed no direct effect. The strong association between neurotic tendency and behavior, however, indicated that polygenic risk of neuroticism indirectly influenced BMI through two health related behaviors-screen time and smoking. Therefore, the relationship between neurotic disposition and BMI is transmitted through behavioral pathways rather than directly. Conclusion: This research offers novel insight into the relationship between personality and health outcomes. If behavior manifests through personality disposition, then understanding the relationship between personality, behavior and BMI will help guide weight management interventions to focus on strategies to help manage responses to stress to elicit desired weight outcomes.

The Ontario government has been battling with the issue of extensive wait times in hospitals for several years. Although there are many complex reasons that stem off of the issues of wait times, such as available in patient beds and bed blockers (patients who stay in the hospitals for long periods of time after sustaining a massive injury), the primary cause is concentrated as a system wide problem in access to care [1]. Through numerous reforming and restructuring plans, the Ontario government devised a Wait Time Strategy plan to monitor, manage and improve access to health care services including surgeries and time spent in the ER. The strategy was also devised to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare provision. The information derived from the results of the Ontario Wait Time Strategy (OWTS) was to be made public to citizens and providers to ensure that everyone is well aware of the results. Yet, it is quite difficult to implement such a strategy if the leadership challenges within the hospital are not addressed [2].

Depression: According Pubmed Health: Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person’s thoughts, behavior, feelings and sense of well-being (moderate or severe). Can we consider some depression status due to high amount of some stressant stimulus? Or continuous stress in a limited (or long) period? How can react mindset and brain in management an high amount of negative stressing thinking? Observing some relevant literature also mindset kinetics must be considered to better classify this kind of disorder under a specific endogenous –exogenous biochemical-toxicological aspect. Concept like Kinetics, reaction velocity limits, saturation of the systems, residual buffer properties are currently used in biochemistry and related discipline. This concepts can be applied also in some depression condition to better explain some phenomena?

Understanding the obesity-related genes may provide future therapeutic strategies to modulate disease progression. UCP2 separates oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) from ATP production in the inner mitochondria. Figure 1 shows the differences among UCP1, 2, 3. The main role of UCP2 is controlling the metabolism of energy in the cells [1-3]. Besides that, the expression of UCP2 is associated with chronic inflammation due to reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this regard, in injured cells and tissues, ROS could be decreased by reducing the proton motor force by the anti-inflammatory effect of UCP2 [4].

Thymoglobulin is a rabbit-derived anti-thymocyte antibody directed at T-cells and commonly used for induction immunosuppression therapy in solid organ transplantation, especially in immunologically high risk kidney transplant recipients. Despite its frequent use and efficacy, the heterologous makeup of thymoglobulin can induce the immune system resulting in serum sickness which typically presents with rash, fever, fatigue, and poly-arthralgia in the weeks following drug exposure. ATGAM is another anti-thymocyte antibody, targeting the same epitopes, but differs from thymoglobulin by the animal in which the preparations are generated (equine vs. rabbit). Herein, we present a case of a patient with a known history of thymoglobulin-induced serum sickness, who presented with evidence of acute cellular and vascular rejection at their 12-month post-operative visit. Given their immunologically high risk status, they were successfully treated with ATGAM with improvement in their rejection and kidney function. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first case report of successful administration of ATGAM in a patient with a documented history of thymoglobulin induced serum sickness, demonstrating a possible treatment option for acute rejection in patients with reactions to thymoglobulin. 

According to a 2022 systematic review on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in general hospitals, it was estimated that approximately one-third of medical inpatients present with a coinciding psychiatric condition. However, other studies have reported that a low rate of patients actually obtain an inpatient psychiatric consult; and even fewer patients receive a consultation when it would not be traditionally indicated. Therefore, we have seen an emergence of the use of Proactive Consultation-Liaison (C-L) Psychiatry across many hospital settings. This model of care utilizes systematic screening for active mental health concerns, proactive interventions tailored to individual patients, team-based delivery, and care integration with primary services to provide psychiatric consultation earlier. This study conducted a focused PubMed search to review the research to date on proactive C-L psychiatry and its impact on hospital length of stay (LOS) in patients over 18 years old. Results show a consequential reduction in average hospital LOS when proactive C-L psychiatry services are used compared to reactive, on-request consultation services. A shortened LOS is seen with this practice when there is a quicker time for consultation or referral. Thus, there is evidence of proactive C-L psychiatry’s success in decreasing average hospital LOS and improving patient care. Additional studies are necessary to determine its significance, as little research to date has been completed on the topic. It is recommended to expand the scope of investigation to different patient populations, including but not limited to pediatrics and patients without an underlying mental health illness.

Vaginal bleeding during pregnancy can often be frightening for women. However, such bleeding does not always indicate a serious problem. This type of bleeding occurs routinely, especially in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. A significant proportion of women who experience bleeding during pregnancy go on to give birth to healthy babies. Despite this, women who frequently experience bleeding problems at different stages of pregnancy may need to take this situation seriously. A critical approach is important both from the gynecologist and from the pregnant woman.

Chemotherapy is one of the main treatment options for cancer. However, chemotherapeutic agents usually suffer from poor pharmaceutical properties that restrict their use. Targeted therapy drugs have been developed to specifically target changes in cancer cells that help these cells to grow. Such drugs often work when standard chemotherapeutic drugs do not, they often have less severe side effects and they are most often used for advanced cancers. The objective of this article is to give an overview about the 16 FDA-approved targeted therapy drugs to treat non-small cell lung cancer.