The Cochrane Library newsletter, 2005, issue 2
... is useful in less severe Alzheimer's disease. The reviewers also looked to see if memantine could help people with vascular dementia. Although it seemed to help reduce cognitive deterioration, the effect was not big enough to be apparent to the doctors treating the patients, and was possibly more short-lived ...Hospitalized babies with severe breathing problems may benefit from lying on their stomachs
...ons could relieve breathing problems, the Cochrane reviewers found. In healthy children without severe breathing problems, back sleeping remains the recommended position. According to Dr. Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, "Placing infants on their backs...Combination chemotherapy shows small survival benefit in advanced stomach cancer
...nt therapy in terms of over overall survival," the reviewers conclude. For those whom the three-drug therapy is recommended, the review found that large single doses of 5-FU were more likely to cause death than gradual intravenous administration. Combination chemotherapy is used on a variety of cancers, from l...Electroshock therapy speeds improvement in schizophrenia patients
...one results strongly favor the medication group," reviewers found. They also found "very limited data" suggesting that people treated with ECT are less likely to relapse. Further, one trial indicated that the combination of ECT and antipsychotics offered significant advantages that were maintained beyond the...Substituting nurses for doctors results in high quality care, few savings
...urgent attention. In the first two categories, the reviewers found no appreciable differences between doctors and nurses in health outcomes, process of care, resource utilization or cost. Among urgent-care patients, health outcomes were similar for nurses and doctors. Moreover, nurses tended to provide longer ...No wisdom in routinely pulling wisdom teeth, study says
...espite of a thorough review of the literature, the reviewers found no data to support this treatment approach. Mettes and his colleagues could not locate any reliable studies of routine wisdom tooth removal in adults. They found two studies of the practice in adolescents, yet together these included just over ...St. John's Wort only minimally effective in relieving major depression, review confirms
...ch at Technical University in Munich, Germany. The reviewers caution that "uncontrolled use of [St. John's Wort] is problematic because serious interactions can occur" with a number of frequently used antidepressants and that physicians should regularly ask their patients about their use of St. John's Wort. Th...Asthma drug fluticasone works as well as other drugs at half the dose
...ush or sore throat, however. Although the Cochrane reviewers did not do a cost comparison of the drugs, Univers...early worthwhile from a clinical perspective," the reviewers write....UK College of Public Health earns national accreditation
...f-study document and host a team of qualified peer reviewers who validate the self-study during an on-site visit to the campus. While on site, the team interviewed university officials, administrators, faculty, staff, students, alumni, community leaders and other important constituents, inspected facilities a...Surgery is favored treatment for severe hemorrhoids
...ay from work than patients subject to surgery, the reviewers say the escalating cost of repeated RBL procedures...," Thornton says. "I'll bet," he adds, that if the reviewers "were taking care of hemorrhoids of their own, they would opt for rubber band ligation because there...Calcium may prevent polyps, but effect on cancer still not known, study finds
...nd the length of time they could be watched -- the reviewers looked instead at prevention of polyps, which occur frequently in the population, as a potential predictor of later cancer. Previous experiments in animals and surveys of people who had high calcium diets have indicated a possible protective effect. ...Secretin should not be used to treat autism, researchers say
...ed or administered as a treatment for autism," the reviewers conclude. There were no serious side effects repor...n or a saline placebo intravenously. The Cochrane reviewers found no evidence that secretin improved the core features of autism, such as problems with social i...Patient reminders boost immunization rates
...t-paced lives most of us lead," she says. When the reviewers pooled the results from the reminder and recall systems studied, they found that those patients who were reminded were 70 percent more likely to have been immunized. The review appears in the July issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The ...Fun foods and exercise may reduce childhood obesity
... studies, most of which lasted a year or less, the reviewers note promising trends. "If those children could sustain the changes in food and physical activity then that would make a [weight] difference in the long term," says lead author Carolyn Summerbell, a professor of human nutrition at the University of T...Dual therapy works best for controlling asthma
...clinical decisions," Greenstone says. The Cochrane reviewers say their work may help physicians decide when or if to prescribe LABA medications to asthma patients already taking inhaled steroids. "My sense is that there is a tendency to initiate combination therapy with inhaled corticosteroids and LABAs," rat...No single strategy effective to control antibiotic prescribing in hospitals
... infectious-disease specialist for some drugs. The reviewers looked at how the interventions affected three dif...spital stays, readmission and mortality rates. The reviewers also analyzed microbiological outcomes to determine whether an intervention affected the incidence o...Researchers question persistent cough treatments for kids
...ignificantly reduced cough among the patients, the reviewers found. The findings suggest that trial doses of asthma medications are not always appropriate for children with persistent cough, according to Tomerak and colleagues. The review could "save these children from the use of unnecessary medications and t...Annual Bibliography of Significant Advances in Dietary Supplement Research 2004
...iewed journals. An international team of 49 expert reviewers in the fields of nutrition, botanical sciences, and public health reviewed and ranked the articles and the top 25 were selected for the Bibliography. This year's issue was released at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association in S...Little evidence behind bronchodilator therapy for cystic fibrosis
...so tested for in people with cystic fibrosis. The reviewers found the following: Albuterol and terbutaline ... on lung function in the trials under review. The reviewers found no published trials that included inhaler-delivered fenoterol, formoterol or tiotropium and wr......d those who did not take either class of drug. The reviewers looked at 16 high-quality studies that included 62,197 people who had been examined for melanomas. Statins and fibrates are the most popular drugs prescribed to lower cholesterol. Brand names for these drugs include Mevacor, Lipitor, Zocor, Abitrate ...