Permanent and Transient Congenital Hypothyroidism in Fayoum, Egypt: A Descriptive Retrospective Study.

Permanent and transient congenital hypothyroidism in fayoum, egypt: a descriptive retrospective study.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(6): e68048
Bekhit OE, Yousef RM

Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is one of the most common preventable causes of mental retardation. One important challenge in understanding the epidemiology of CH is that some newborns will have transient CH, a temporary depression of thyroid hormone concentrations that can last from several days to several months. Studies from other countries have reported that 10 to 15% of children treated for CH ultimately prove not to need treatment past 3 years of age to maintain normal hormone concentrations, and thus have transient hypothyroidism. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of permanent and transient congenital hypothyroidism in Fayoum, Egypt.Cases detected by Fayoum neonatal screening program (NSP) between January 2003 and December 2011, and followed up at health insurance center were included. Permanent or transient CH was determined using results of thyroid function tests.Of the 248 patients diagnosed primarily with CH by NSP; 204 (82.3%) patients were diagnosed to have permanent CH (prevalence 1/3587 live birth), and 44 (17.7%) patients were diagnosed to have transient CH (prevalence 1/16667 live birth). Initial TSH levels were higher in permanent CH cases than transient cases (p<0.004). Female to male ratio was 0.8 and 0.7 in permanent and transient CH respectively. 161 (65%) patients had thyroid dysgenesis (107 ectopic thyroid gland, 28 athyreosis and 26 thyroid hypoplasia). 87 (35%) patients had intact gland in thyroid scan and were considered to have dyshormonogenesis. Of these 87 patients 44 proved to have transient CH and 43 had permanent CH.The preliminary data from our study revealed that the incidences of CH as well as the permanent form were similar to worldwide reports. Although the high incidence of transient CH in our study could be explained by iodine deficiency further studies are needed to confirm the etiology and plan the treatment strategies. HubMed – depression

The Day-to-Day Acute Effect of Wake Therapy in Patients with Major Depression Using the HAM-D6 as Primary Outcome Measure: Results from a Randomised Controlled Trial.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(6): e67264
Martiny K, Refsgaard E, Lund V, Lunde M, Sørensen L, Thougaard B, Lindberg L, Bech P

This paper reports day-to-day data for from a one-week intervention phase, part of a 9-weeks randomised parallel study with patient having major depression (data from weekly visits have been reported). Wake therapy (sleep deprivation) has an established antidepressant effect with onset of action within hours. Deterioration on the following night’s sleep is, however, common, and we used daily light therapy and sleep time stabilisation as a preventive measure. In particular, we evaluated the day-to-day acute effect of and tolerance to sleep deprivation and examined predictors of response.Patients were assessed at psychiatric inpatient wards. In the wake group (n?=?36), patients did three wake therapies in combination with light therapy each morning together with sleep time stabilisation. In the exercise group (n?=?38), patients did daily exercise. Hamilton subscale scores were primary outcome (not blinded), secondary outcome was self-assessment data from the Preskorn scale and sleep.Patients in the wake therapy group had an immediate, large, stable, and statistically significant better antidepressant effect than patients in the exercise group with response rates at day5 of 75.0%/25.1% and remission rates of 58.6%/6.0%, respectively. The response and remission rates were diminished at day8 with response rates of 41.9%/10.1% and remission rates of 19.4%/4.7%, respectively. Patients and ward personnel found the method applicable with few side effects. Positive diurnal variation (mood better in the evening) predicted a larger response to wake therapy. In the wake group napping on days after intervention predicted greater deterioration on day8.The intervention induced an acute antidepressant response without relapse between wake nights but with a diminishing effect after intervention. Development is still needed to secure maintenance of response. Avoiding napping in the days after wake therapy is important.Clinical trials.gov NCT00149110. HubMed – depression

Association of Psychotherapy with Disability Benefit Claim Closure among Patients Disabled Due to Depression.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(6): e67162
Ebrahim S, Guyatt GH, Walter SD, Heels-Ansdell D, Bellman M, Hanna SE, Patelis-Siotis I, Busse JW

Depression is the most frequent reason for receiving disability benefits in North America, and treatment with psychotherapy is often funded by private insurers. No studies have explored the association between the provision of psychotherapy for depression and time to claim closure.Using administrative data from a Canadian disability insurer, we evaluated the association between the provision of psychotherapy and short-term disability (STD) and long-term disability (LTD) claim closure by performing Cox proportional hazards regression.We analyzed 10,508 STD and 10,338 LTD claims for depression. In our adjusted analyses, receipt of psychotherapy was associated with longer time to STD closure (HR [99% CI]?=?0.81 [0.68 to 0.97]) and faster LTD claim closure (1.42 [1.33 to 1.52]). In both STD and LTD, older age (0.90 [0.88 to 0.92] and 0.83 [0.80 to 0.85]), per decade), a primary diagnosis of recurrent depression versus non-recurrent major depression (0.78 [0.69 to 0.87] and 0.80 [0.72 to 0.89]), a psychological secondary diagnosis (0.90 [0.84 to 0.97] and 0.66 [0.61 to 0.71]), or a non-psychological secondary diagnosis (0.81 [0.73 to 0.90] and 0.77 [0.71 to 0.83]) versus no secondary diagnosis, and an administrative services only policy ([0.94 [0.88 to 1.00] and 0.87 [0.75 to 0.996]) or refund policy (0.86 [0.80 to 0.92] and 0.73 [0.68 to 0.78]) compared to non-refund policy claims were independently associated with longer time to STD claim closure.We found, paradoxically, that receipt of psychotherapy was independently associated with longer time to STD claim closure and faster LTD claim closure in patients with depression. We also found multiple factors that were predictive of time to both STD and LTD claim closure. Our study has limitations, and well-designed prospective studies are needed to establish the effect of psychotherapy on disabling depression. HubMed – depression