Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Efficacy of combined naikan and morita therapies on psychological distress and posttraumatic growth in Chinese patients with advanced cancer: A randomized controlled trial.
Advanced cancer (AC) patients experience serious physical and psychological problems with the disease progression. When approaching the end of life, these patients have to cope with not only the bodily illness, but also the spiritual crisis. Conventional psychological treatments reduce distress to a certain extent, but for patients with AC, especially when they face progressive illness and are approaching death, their psychological problems are complex, and no simple solutions are in sight. Therefore, we designed this study to evaluate the efficacy of the combined Naikan therapy (NT) and Morita therapy (MT) on psychological distress and posttraumatic growth in patients with AC. ⋯ The results proved that the combined Naikan and Morita therapies decreased the psychological distress and improved the posttraumatic growth of the patients with AC.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Efficacy and safety of the recombinant human growth hormone in short children born small for gestational age: A randomized, multicentre, comparative phase III trial.
Growth hormone (GH) treatment is known to be effective in increasing stature in children with a short stature born small for gestational age (SGA). This multicentre, randomized, open-label, comparative, phase III study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Growtropin-II (recombinant human GH) and to demonstrate that the growth-promoting effect of Growtropin-II is not inferior to that of Genotropin in children with SGA (NCT ID: NCT02770157). ⋯ This study demonstrates that the change in aHV from the baseline till 52 weeks with Growtropin-II treatment is non-inferior to that with Genotropin treatment in children with short stature born SGA. Growtropin-II is well-tolerated, and its safety profile is comparable with that of Genotropin over a 1-year course of treatment.
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Meta Analysis
Use of traditional Chinese medicine as an adjunctive treatment for COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
This review aims to evaluate the supportive effects of frequently used traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). ⋯ The integration of TCM with Western medicine has significantly improved the treatment for COVID-19 patients compared to Western medicine treatment alone. Combined therapy using TCM and Western medicine revealed the potential adjunctive role of TCM in treating COVID-19. However, high-quality clinical studies are still required to further evaluate the efficacy and safety of TCM in the treatment of COVID-19.
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The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread wildly across the world. In March of 2020, almost all kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) schools were closed in the United States in an urgent attempt to curb the pandemic in the absence of effective therapeutics or vaccination. Thirteen months since then, schools remain partially closed. Accumulated evidence suggests that children and adolescents are not the primary facilitators of transmission, limiting the restrictive effects of school closures on disease transmission. The negative effects of school closures on K-12 students need to be systematically reviewed. ⋯ School closures were over-weighted against the mitigation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission. A safe reopening of all K-12 schools in the United States should be of top priority.
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Meta Analysis
Relationship between statins and the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A PRISMA-compliant meta-analysis.
Previous studies on overlapping surveillance databases have suggested that statin use was associated with the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-like syndrome. However, the association between statin use and ALS incidence has not been clearly elucidated. To further explore this issue, we performed a systemic review and meta-analysis of all available clinical studies on the association between statin use and ALS incidence. ⋯ No definite association was found between statin use and the development of ALS. Further large-scale prospective randomized control studies are necessary to draw definite conclusions.