Cochrane Db Syst Rev
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Sep 2013
Review Meta AnalysisMedia-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy and behavioural therapy (self-help) for anxiety disorders in adults.
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problems. They are chronic and unremitting. Effective treatments are available, but access to services is limited. Media-delivered behavioural and cognitive behavioural interventions (self-help) aim to deliver treatment with less input from professionals compared with traditional therapies. ⋯ Self-help may be useful for people who are not able or are not willing to use other services for people with anxiety disorders; for people who can access it, face-to-face cognitive behavioural therapy is probably clinically superior. Economic analyses were beyond the scope of this review.Important heterogeneity was noted across trials. Recent interventions for specific problems that incorporate clinician support may be more effective than transdiagnostic interventions (i.e. interventions for multiple disorders) provided with no guidance, but these issues are confounded in the available trials.Although many small trials have been conducted, the generalisability of their findings is limited. Most interventions tested are not available to consumers. Self-help has been recommended as the first step in the treatment of some anxiety disorders, but the short-term and long-term effectiveness of media-delivered interventions has not been established. Large, pragmatic trials are needed to evaluate and to maximise the benefits of self-help interventions.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Sep 2013
Review Meta AnalysisAntibiotics for treating chronic osteomyelitis in adults.
Chronic osteomyelitis is generally treated with antibiotics and surgical debridement but can persist intermittently for years with frequent therapeutic failure or relapse. Despite advances in both antibiotic and surgical treatment, the long-term recurrence rate remains around 20%. This is an update of a Cochrane review first published in 2009. ⋯ Limited and low quality evidence suggests that the route of antibiotic administration (oral versus parenteral) does not affect the rate of disease remission if the bacteria are susceptible to the antibiotic used. However, this and the lack of statistically significant differences in adverse effects need confirmation. No or insufficient evidence exists for other aspects of antibiotic therapy for chronic osteomyelitis.The majority of the included trials were conducted over 20 years ago and currently we are faced with a far higher prevalence of bacteria that are resistant to many of the available antibiotics used for healthcare. This continuously evolving bacterial resistance represents another challenge in the choice of antibiotics for treating chronic osteomyelitis.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Sep 2013
ReviewInterventions for managing relapse of the lower front teeth after orthodontic treatment.
Orthodontic relapse can be defined as the tendency for teeth to return to their pre-treatment position, and this occurs especially in lower front teeth (lower canines and lower incisors). Retention, to maintain the position of corrected teeth, has become one of the most important phases of orthodontic treatment. However, 10 years after the completion of orthodontic treatment, only 30% to 50% of orthodontic patients effectively retain the satisfactory alignment initially obtained. After 20 years, satisfactory alignment reduces to 10%. When relapse occurs, simple effective strategies are required to effectively manage the problem. The periodontal, physiological or psychological conditions may be different from those before orthodontic treatment, so re-treatment methods may also need to be different. ⋯ This review has revealed that there was no evidence from RCTs to show that one intervention was superior to another to manage the relapse of the alignment of lower front teeth using any method or index, aesthetic assessment by participants and practitioners, treatment time, patient's discomfort, quality of life, cost-benefit considerations, stability of the correction, and side effects including pain, gingivitis, enamel decalcification and root resorption. There is an urgent need for RCTs in this area to identify the most effective and safe method for managing the relapse of alignment of the lower front teeth.
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Surgical wounds that become infected are often debrided because clinicians believe that removal of this necrotic or infected tissue will expedite wound healing. There are numerous methods available but no consensus on which one is most effective for surgical wounds. ⋯ There is a lack of large, high-quality published RCTs evaluating debridement per se, or comparing different methods of debridement for surgical wounds, to guide clinical decision-making.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Sep 2013
Review Meta AnalysisD-Penicillamine for preventing retinopathy of prematurity in preterm infants.
The rate of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in moderately premature infants has decreased dramatically with improved care in the neonatal intensive care unit. A low rate of this disorder was unexpectedly observed among infants treated with intravenous D-penicillamine to prevent hyperbilirubinaemia. This observation led to the investigation of its use, both enterally as well as intravenously, to prevent ROP. ⋯ Administration of prophylactic D-penicillamine in preterm infants does not prevent acute or severe ROP, death or neurodevelopmental delay. D-penicillamine cannot be recommended for the prevention of ROP based on the available evidence.