Risk factors and pharmacotherapy for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in paclitaxel-treated female cancer survivors: A retrospective study in Japan

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a dose-limiting adverse reaction in cancer patients treated with several cytotoxic anticancer agents including paclitaxel. Duloxetine, an antidepressant known as a serotonin-noradrenalin reuptake inhibitor, is the only agent that has moderate evidence for the use to treat painful CIPN. The present retrospective cohort study aimed to analyze risk factors for paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy (PIPN), and investigate ongoing prescription drug use for PIPN in Japan. Female breast and gynecologic cancer patients who underwent paclitaxel-based chemotherapy at a single center in Japan between January 2016 and December 2019 were enrolled in this study. Patients’ information obtained from electronic medical records were statistically analyzed to test possible risk factors on PIPN diagnosis. Patients’ age, total paclitaxel dose, the history of female hormone-related diseases, hypertension and body mass index (BMI), but not additional platinum agents, were significantly associated with increased PIPN diagnosis. Drugs prescribed for PIPN included duloxetine, pregabalin, mecobalamin and Goshajinkigan, a polyherbal medicine, regardless of poor evidence for their effectiveness against CIPN, and were greatly different between breast and gynecologic cancer patients diagnosed with PIPN at the departments of Surgery and Gynecology, respectively. Thus, older age, greater total paclitaxel dose, the history of estrogen-related diseases, hypertension and BMI are considered risk factors for PIPN in paclitaxel-based chemotherapy of female cancer patients. It appears an urgent need to establish a guideline of evidence-based pharmacotherapy for PIPN.

Comparison of non -Prescribed use of Tranquilizer with Stimulants Drugs among Medical Students

Objective: The goal of this study to look at the patterns of drug use among medical students. Methodology: All medical students enrolled in the Bakhtawer Amin Medical & Dental College Multan, from first to fifth year were included in this study. The sample size was calculated using a single population proportion formula. The sample consisted of 200 students drawn from various batches and chosen using a stratified random selection procedure Results: The total study participants were 200 medical students of different years in which 139(70%) were males and 61(30%) were females. The participants having age range 18-25 years and maximum number of students were fall in age group 21-25 [117(58.5%)]. The results of the study showed that 76% used tranquilizer and 68% of the students used Stimulants without prescription as p-value 0.004 showing statistical significant difference in the use of both types of drugs. Student used tranquilizer and stimulants once a month as 32% vs 37% with significant p-value 0.034. Conclusion: The fourth-year students had the highest rate of drug usage. During the evaluation, the majority of students were drug users; there was no sign of physical dependency. The topic of non-prescribed drug usage among medical students is examined in this study. More research is needed to investigate national trends of drug addiction among medical students, as well as to find and reinforce protective variables. Supporting children with a non-prescription usage necessitates the development of strategies. Keywords:Nonmedical prescription drug use; Nonmedical prescription stimulant use; Nonmedical prescription tranquilizer use; Trends.

Feigning Symptoms to Obtain Prescription Stimulants: A Vignette-Based Study on Its Conditions

This vignette-based study examined the willingness to feign symptoms to obtain a prescription following an analysis on who might use prescription stimulants to enhance performance ( N = 3,468). It experimentally manipulated three factors: the social disapproval of prescription stimulant use for enhancement purposes, the physicians’ diagnostic efforts, and the medical condition (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy); respondent characteristics of self-control, personal morality, and self-efficacy were also measured. Our results showed that social disapproval of prescription drug use, a personal morality that disapproves of drug use, high self-control, and high self-efficacy were negatively associated with the willingness to use. Willingness increased especially in situations of social approval when there was a stronger personal approval of drug use, or surprisingly when physicians’ diagnostic efforts were higher. The feigning willingness was lower in situations of social disapproval and when personal morality disapproved of feigning. Thus, personal and situational characteristics are relevant to understand both behaviors.

Large-scale social media language analysis reveals emotions and behaviours associated with nonmedical prescription drug use

Nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMPDU) is a global health concern. The extent of, behaviors and emotions associated with, and reasons for NMPDU are not well-captured through traditional instruments such as surveys, prescribing databases and insurance claims. Therefore, this study analyses ∼130 million public posts from 87,718 Twitter users in terms of expressed emotions, sentiments, concerns, and potential reasons for NMPDU via natural language processing. Our results show that users in the NMPDU group express more negative emotions and less positive emotions, more concerns about family, the past and body, and less concerns related to work, leisure, home, money, religion, health and achievement, compared to a control group (i.e., users who never reported NMPDU). NMPDU posts tend to be highly polarized, indicating potential emotional triggers. Gender-specific analysis shows that female users in the NMPDU group express more content related to positive emotions, anticipation, sadness, joy, concerns about family, friends, home, health and the past, and less about anger, compared to males. The findings of the study can enrich our understanding of NMPDU.

Prescription drug misuse during pandemic

Prescription drug misuse is when someone takes a medication inappropriately. The prescription drug misuse is not an uncommon issue but the use of prescription drugs has significantly increased during the covid 19 pandemic. The major factors that has contributed to the increased dependence to prescription drug use during the pandemic is the increased paranoia about the virus and the drug dependency of the substance abusers. The context of the study is the increased use of prescription drugs among young adults and case reports of violence attributed by drug use. The main aim of the study is to identify the trend of prescription drug use among young adults and the factors that contribute to the misuse. The study primarily focused on young adults and recorded the responses using the questionnaire. The methodology for the proposed study was through online interaction with the participants in the form of survey through google forms. The data collection method included literature review of published articles pertaining to the topic, newspaper articles and websites. The data collection was primarily through google forms and participants response are analyzed for arriving into conclusion. Further-more data from published article, journals, data published in websites like the National Health Portal, National Institute of Health (NIH)- National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), World Health Organization (WHO). Both primary and secondary data is used for data collection. An age group between 20-30 was collected. This age group was selected due to the possibility that most utilization of prescription drugs would be contributed by these groups. Mostly randomized sampling was carried out due to the limitation of collecting data one to one considering the pandemic situations. After analyzing the results, it is inferred that there is a significant increase in use of prescription drugs during the pandemic time and the study also found a trend of alarming concern of buying prescription drug without it being prescribed by the medical practitioner which hence is a serious case of social concern.