RESUMEN
The emergence of COVID-19 in the United States resulted in a series of federal and state-level lock-downs and COVID-19 related health mandates to manage the spread of the virus. These policies may negatively impact the mental health state of the population. This study focused on the trends in mental health indicators following the COVID-19 pandemic amongst four United States geographical regions, and political party preferences. Indicators of interest included feeling anxious, feeling depressed, and worried about finances. Survey data from Delphi Group in Carnegie Mellon University were analyzed using clustering algorithms and dynamic connectome obtained from sliding window analysis. United States maps were generated to observe spatial trends and identify communities with similar mental health and COVID-19 trends. Between March 3rd, 2021 and January 10th, 2022, states in the south geographic region showed similar trends for reported values of feeling anxious and worried about finances. There were no identifiable communities resembling geographical regions or political party affiliation for the feeling depressed indicator. We observed a high degree of correlation among southern states as well as within republican states, where the highest correlation values from the dynamic connectome analysis for feeling anxious and feeling depressed variables seemingly overlapped with an increase in COVID-19 related cases, deaths, hospitalizations, and rapid spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant.
RESUMEN
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the world at large with over 500 million cases and over 6 million deaths reported thus far. Of those, over 85 million cases and 1 million deaths have occurred in the United States of America. The mental health of the general population has been impacted by several aspects of the pandemic including lockdowns, media sensationalism, social isolation, and spread of the disease. In this paper, we examine the effect that social isolation and COVID-19 infection and related death had on the prevalence of anxiety and depression in the general population of the USA in a state-by-state multiple time-series analysis. Vector Error Correction Models are estimated and we subsequently evaluated the coefficients of the estimated models and calculated their impulse response functions for further interpretation. We found that variables related to COVID-19 overall led to increase in both anxiety and depression across the studied period, while variables related to social isolation had a varied effect depending on the state being considered.
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In parallel with vaccination, oral antiviral agents are highly anticipated to act as countermeasures for the treatment of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Oral antiviral medication demands not only high antiviral activity but also target specificity, favorable oral bioavailability, and high metabolic stability. Although a large number of compounds have been identified as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro, few have proven to be effective in vivo. Here, we show that oral administration of S-217622, a novel inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro, also known as 3C-like protease), decreases viral load and ameliorates the disease severity in SARS-CoV-2-infected hamsters. S-217622 inhibited viral proliferation at low nanomolar to sub-micromolar concentrations in cells. Oral administration of S-217622 demonstrated eminent pharmacokinetic properties and accelerated recovery from acute SARS-CoV-2 infection in hamster recipients. Moreover, S-217622 exerted antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs), including the highly pathogenic Delta variant and the recently emerged Omicron variant. Overall, our study provides evidence that S-217622, an antiviral agent that is under evaluation in a phase II/III clinical trial, possesses remarkable antiviral potency and efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 and is a prospective oral therapeutic option for COVID-19.
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<b>Introduction</b>: CPT-11 induced diarrhea reduces patient compliance, lowers quality of life, and can be potentially life threatening. Loperamide is effective in the majority of cases of CPT-11-induced diarrhea. However, the case of advanced gastrointestinal cancer where oral administration is difficult. We adapted octreotide for use in a case of CPT-11-induced diarrhea where oral administration was difficult due to digestive tract stenosis. <b>Case Report</b>: A 61-year old man was diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer. He was treated with CPT-11 100mg/m² weekly for three weeks followed by a 1-week rest. CPT-11-induced diarrhea developed after 10 days of treatment. At the same time, his digestive tract stenosis worsened, making Loperamide unusable. We administered octreotide 200μg continuous intravenous drip infusion. One day after octreotide administration, the number of diarrhea has decreased from 20 times to four times. <b>Conclusions</b>: Octreotide is one of the effective treatments for CPT-11-induced diarrhea. Palliat Care Res 2010; 5(2): 338-341
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During and after the LI4 and LI10 Acupuncture, the volume elastic modulus Ev in the basal phalanx of finger arteries were measured. Ev values were noninvasively obtained using a new type of plethysmograph called the “electric impedance-cuff” which can detect indirect arterial pressure and volume change in the artery. After 15 minutes of rest, 2 minutes acupuncture on LI4 and LI10 were carried out in 16 healthy subjects, respectively. Volume elastic modulus showed a significant decrease (p<0.01) during and after the LI10 Acupuncture. Its decrease were maintained at least 20 minutes after the withdrawal of the needle. While the Ev values did not show the typical change during and after the LI4 acupuncture. These date suggest that the elasticity of the peripheral wall was lagely affected by the LI10 acupuncture, and the effect was caused not only by peripheral reflex but by other factors.
RESUMEN
During and after the “Toshi” which is the acupuncture of the carotid sinus, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were measured in the basal pharanx of finger arteries by means of indirect sphygmomanometer called the “volume compensation method”. After 15 minutes resting, 2 minutes acupuncture on both sides of the carotid sinus was carried out in 16 hypertensive subjects. Finger arterial pressure showed a significant decrease by about 14mmHg (mean) in systolic pressure and by 9mmHg (mean) in diastolic pressure during and after the acupuncture (p<0.05). The decrease in blood pressure showed a maximum at 15-20 minutes after the withdrawal of needles. Pulse pressure and heart rate did not show a significant change. These results were almost similar to those obtained in normotensive subjects. These data suggests that hypertensive subjects are also responsible to “Toshi” and that this effect may not be caused by the cardiac inhibition refrex but the change in vascular tonus.