Eustachian tube dysfunction is prevalent in both paediatric and adult populations. Current clinical guidelines recommend observation over topical intranasal corticosteroids for Eustachian tube dysfunction management, which remains controversial. This study aimed to systematically review randomised, controlled trials assessing topical intranasal corticosteroid efficacy in Eustachian tube dysfunction, and analyse effect through tympanometric normalisation.

PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases were searched. All randomised, controlled trials assessing intranasal corticosteroids in adult or paediatric Eustachian tube dysfunction patients were included. A meta-analysis of proportions was used to evaluate tympanogram normalisation.

Of 330 results, eight randomised, controlled trials met inclusion criteria and underwent qualitative data synthesis and risk-of-bias analysis. Meta-analysis of tympanometry data from four eligible trials (n = 512 ears) revealed no significant difference in tympanometric normalisation between intranasal corticosteroids and control (odds ratio 1.21, 95% confidence interval 0.65–2.24).

Study results do not strongly support intranasal corticosteroids for Eustachian tube dysfunction. Data were limited, emphasising the need for larger, higher quality, randomised, controlled trials.

In the United States, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have Good Samaritan Laws (GSLs). Designed to encourage bystanders to aid at the scene of an emergency, GSLs generally limit the risk of civil tort liability if the care is rendered in good faith. Nation-wide, a leading cause of preventable death is uncontrolled external hemorrhage. Public bleeding control initiatives aim to train the public to recognize life-threatening external bleeding, perform life-sustaining interventions (including direct pressure, tourniquet application, and wound packing), and to promote access to bleeding control equipment to ensure a rapid response from bystanders.

This study sought to identify the GSLs in each state and the District of Columbia to identify what type of responder is covered by the law (eg, all laypersons, only trained individuals, or only licensed health care providers) and if bleeding control is explicitly included or excluded in their Good Samaritan coverage.

Good Samaritan Laws providing civil liability qualified immunity were identified in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. One state, Oklahoma, specifically includes bleeding control in its GSLs. Six states – Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, and Missouri – have laws that define those covered under Good Samaritan immunity, generally limiting protection to individuals trained in a standard first aid or resuscitation course or health care clinicians. No state explicitly excludes bleeding control from their GSLs, and one state expressly includes it.

Nation-wide across the United States, most states have broad bystander coverage within GSLs for emergency medical conditions of all types, including bleeding emergencies, and no state explicitly excludes bleeding control interventions. Some states restrict coverage to those health care personnel or bystanders who have completed a specific training program. Opportunity exists for additional research into those states whose GSLs may not be inclusive of bleeding control interventions.

Social support may protect against Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), potentially through emotional or instrumental support elements. Black and Hispanic/Latinx older adults bear a disproportionate burden of ADRD. However, independent effects of emotional and instrumental support on cognition, a primary indicator of ADRD risk, are largely understudied in these groups. Guided by the differential vulnerability hypothesis – the theoretical framework which posits that systemic racism disadvantages Black and Hispanic/Latinx individuals’ health – we hypothesize that emotional and instrumental support may be particularly important to protect against worse cognition for Black and Hispanic/Latinx older adults, who often have fewer resources due to these inequalities (e.g., wealth, educational opportunities) to otherwise maintain health. Using the NIH Toolbox Emotion Module measures of emotional (e.g., the extent to which individuals can rely on others in challenging times) and instrumental support (e.g., the extent to which individuals can rely on others for assistance in daily activities), we aimed to identify positive social support factors (i.e., emotional and instrumental support) that may protect against ADRD risk (i.e., longitudinal executive function and memory performance) among Black and Hispanic/Latinx older adults.

Participants were 362 Black and 265 Hispanic/Latinx adults aged 65-89 (63% female, average age=75) from the Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experiences (KHANDLE) Study who completed baseline and up to two additional waves of assessments (every 1.5 years), including questionnaires, neuropsychological evaluations, and the NIH toolbox. Predictors included baseline covariates (i.e., age, language of test administration, gender, education, income, self-rated health) and NIH toolbox emotional and instrumental support variables. Outcomes were baseline and longitudinal memory (visual and verbal episodic memory) and executive functioning (verbal fluency and working memory) composites from the Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales (SENAS). Latent growth curve models were conducted separately in Black and Hispanic/Latinx participants to estimate effects of emotional and instrumental support on baseline cognition and subsequent change in each domain.

Black participants reported greater emotional support. There were no group differences in levels of instrumental support. Greater instrumental support was associated with better initial memory (standardized β= .194, 95%CI: [.063, .325]) among Black participants but not among Hispanic/Latinx participants. In Hispanic/Latinx participants, greater emotional support was associated with better initial executive functioning (standardized β= .215, 95%CI: [.079, .350]. Emotional support was not associated with either cognitive domain in Black participants. There were no associations between emotional or instrumental support on cognitive change in either group.

Results point to differences between Black and Hispanic/Latinx older adults in the impact of specific aspects of social support on different cognitive domains. Positive associations between instrumental support and baseline memory in Black participants and between emotional support and executive functioning in Hispanic/Latinx participants suggest unique cognitive consequences of social support across groups. Differences in the role of specific types of social supports may be useful in identifying intervention targets specifically for Black and Hispanic/Latinx older adults, who are disproportionately affected by ADRD. Future research will examine these constructs using multiple group models to test these associations more rigorously.

In the early phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, United States Emergency Medical Services (EMS) experienced a decrease in calls, and at the same time, an increase in out-of-hospital deaths. This finding led to a concern for the implications of potential delays in care for the obstetric population.

This study examines the impact of the pandemic on prehospital care amongst pregnant women.

A retrospective observational study was conducted comparing obstetric-related EMS activations in Maryland (USA) during the pandemic (March 10-July 20, 2020) to a pre-pandemic period (March 10-July 20, 2019). Comparative analysis was used to analyze the difference in frequency and acuity of calls between the two periods.

There were fewer obstetric-related EMS encounters during the pandemic compared to the year prior (daily average during the pandemic 12.5 [SD = 3.8] versus 14.6 [SD = 4.1] pre-pandemic; P <.001), although the percent of total female encounters remained unchanged (1.6% in 2020 versus 1.5% in 2019; P = .091). Key indicators of maternal status were not significantly different between the two periods. African-American women represented a disproportionately high percentage of obstetric-related activations (36.2% in 2019 and 34.8% in 2020).

In this state-wide analysis of EMS calls in Maryland early in the pandemic, no significant differences existed in the utilization of EMS by pregnant women. Prehospital EMS activations amongst pregnant women in Maryland only decreased slightly without an increase in acuity. Of note, over-representation by African-American women compared to population statistics raises concern for broader systemic differences in access to obstetric care.

Previous research on the depression scale of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) has found that different latent factor models have maximized empirical measures of goodness-of-fit. The clinical relevance of these differences is unclear. We aimed to investigate whether depression screening accuracy may be improved by employing latent factor model-based scoring rather than sum scores.

We used an individual participant data meta-analysis (IPDMA) database compiled to assess the screening accuracy of the PHQ-9. We included studies that used the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID) as a reference standard and split those into calibration and validation datasets. In the calibration dataset, we estimated unidimensional, two-dimensional (separating cognitive/affective and somatic symptoms of depression), and bi-factor models, and the respective cut-offs to maximize combined sensitivity and specificity. In the validation dataset, we assessed the differences in (combined) sensitivity and specificity between the latent variable approaches and the optimal sum score (⩾10), using bootstrapping to estimate 95% confidence intervals for the differences.

The calibration dataset included 24 studies (4378 participants, 652 major depression cases); the validation dataset 17 studies (4252 participants, 568 cases). In the validation dataset, optimal cut-offs of the unidimensional, two-dimensional, and bi-factor models had higher sensitivity (by 0.036, 0.050, 0.049 points, respectively) but lower specificity (0.017, 0.026, 0.019, respectively) compared to the sum score cut-off of ⩾10.

In a comprehensive dataset of diagnostic studies, scoring using complex latent variable models do not improve screening accuracy of the PHQ-9 meaningfully as compared to the simple sum score approach.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a familial psychiatric disorder associated with frontotemporal and subcortical brain abnormalities. It is unclear whether such abnormalities are present in relatives without BD, and little is known about structural brain trajectories in those at risk.

Neuroimaging was conducted at baseline and at 2-year follow-up interval in 90 high-risk individuals with a first-degree BD relative (HR), and 56 participants with no family history of mental illness who could have non-BD diagnoses. All 146 subjects were aged 12–30 years at baseline. We examined longitudinal change in gray and white matter volume, cortical thickness, and surface area in the frontotemporal cortex and subcortical regions.

Compared to controls, HR participants showed accelerated cortical thinning and volume reduction in right lateralised frontal regions, including the inferior frontal gyrus, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, frontal pole and rostral middle frontal gyrus. Independent of time, the HR group had greater cortical thickness in the left caudal anterior cingulate cortex, larger volume in the right medial orbitofrontal cortex and greater area of right accumbens, compared to controls. This pattern was evident even in those without the new onset of psychopathology during the inter-scan interval.

This study suggests that differences previously observed in BD are developing prior to the onset of the disorder. The pattern of pathological acceleration of cortical thinning is likely consistent with a disturbance of molecular mechanisms responsible for normal cortical thinning. We also demonstrate that neuroanatomical differences in HR individuals may be progressive in some regions and stable in others.

Évaluer l’efficience du palmitate de palipéridone (PP) par rapport aux antipsychotiques les plus communément utilisés en France.

Un modèle médico-économique a été développé afin de simuler la progression d’une cohorte de patients atteints de schizophrénie à travers quatre états de santé (« Stable-traité », « Stable-non-traité », « En-rechute », « Décédé »). PP a été comparé à rispéridone injectable à libération prolongée (ILP), aripiprazole ILP, olanzapine ILP, halopéridol décanoate et olanzapine orale (OO). Les coûts, les années de vie pondérées par la qualité de vie (« Quality-adjusted-life-year » ; QALY) et le nombre de rechutes ont été estimés sur cinq ans selon une perspective tous payeurs. Supposés stabilisés suite à une décompensation clinique, les patients initiaient un antipsychotique et passaient en phase de prévention de la rechute en cas de succès après trois mois. Ils/elles pouvaient arrêter leur traitement après une rechute, un manque de tolérance ou par choix, et passer sur la ligne de traitement suivante jusqu’à la troisième ligne (c.-à.-d. clozapine). Afin de prendre en compte l’observance, les probabilités de rechute en phase de prévention ont été calculées à partir de taux d’hospitalisation sur des données françaises en vie réelle. Les données de tolérance et d’utilité ont été dérivées d’études internationales, et les coûts de sources françaises. La robustesse des résultats a été testée via des analyses de sensibilité.

À 5 ans, PP est le moins coûteux des ILP et est associé à un surcoût de 249 € par rapport à OO. Rispéridone ILP et PP sont associés aux plus grands nombres de QALY. PP domine tous les autres ILP en termes de rechute évitée hormis olanzapine ILP.

PP est le moins coûteux des antipsychotiques ILP en France. OO est l’antipsychotique le moins coûteux, mais est associée à un nombre plus faible de QALY gagnées et de rechutes évitées comparé aux antipsychotiques ILP.

La lutte contre les violences faites aux femmes demeure encore aujourd’hui un enjeu sociétal majeur. À l’occasion de la Journée internationale de lutte contre les violences faites aux femmes le 25 novembre 2013, une enquête sur le regard des professionnels de santé face aux violences faites aux femmes a été organisée en collaboration entre le CHU de Martinique, l’association « Union des Femmes de la Martinique », l’Inserm U669 IPOM, l’association AFORPOM et la Délégation Régionale aux Droits des Femmes et à l’Égalité.

L’enquête a été réalisée le 19 novembre 2013 sur le site du CHU de Martinique par des enquêteurs (étudiants) et via l’intranet du CHU de Martinique.

Parmi les professionnels, 95,7 % ont accepté de répondre au questionnaire anonyme qui leurs a été proposés (72 % de femme et 28 % d’hommes). Cinq cent sept questionnaires ont été documentés. Le test du Chi2 et le test exact de Fischer ont été utilisés : à la question « Abordez-vous le sujet de façon systématique ? », Il n’y a pas de différence significative : entre les hommes et les femmes ou si la personne est concernée dans sa vie personnelle. On observe une différence significative pour ce qui concerne le secteur d’activité (les sages-femmes, kiné, psychologue et assistante sociale) posent plus souvent cette question par rapport aux autres professionnels (médecin, étudiants, infirmier[ère]s, aides-soignants) (p < 0,0001). Les personnes sensibilisées dans leur vie professionnelle posent la question de façon plus systématique (p = 0,0018).

Mieux former les professionnels est un atout pour mieux prendre en charge les femmes victimes de violences, 85 % pensent qu’une formation est nécessaire pour aborder ces questions et 82 % souhaitent une formation (95 % pour les aides-soignantes, 90 % pour les infirmier[ère]s et les étudiants, 83 % pour les internes contre 60 % pour les médecins).

La problématique du suicide est une question complexe aux Antilles car les derniers chiffres de prévalence de la mortalité par suicide indiquent une sous suicidalité dans cette région du monde. Il n’existe actuellement aucun chiffre sur la prévalence des tentatives de suicide (TS) et peu d’étude descriptive de cette population.

L’étude POSTA vise à établir un état des lieux de la population des sujets pris en charge au CHU de Martinique pour TS ou pour idéations suicidaires avec antécédent de TS.

Soixante-six patients ont été inclus en septembre/octobre 2013 (80 % pour TS et 20 % pour idéations suicidaires). On observe : 68,1 % de femmes, la population suicidante est plutôt jeune, avec une surreprésentation des personnes célibataires et divorcées, inactifs ou au chômage et plutôt avec un bon niveau scolaire comparativement à la population martiniquaise. La majorité n’est pas en contact avec le système de soin primaire de façon régulière. Trente-huit pour cent rapporte une addiction aux substances dont un quart sont pris en charge (37,7 % déclarent avoir consommé une substance au moment de l’acte). Deux tiers ont déjà été en contact avec le système de santé mentale. Deux tiers rapporte des évènements de vie à potentiel traumatique (30 % rapportent une agression sexuelle). La moitié a déjà réalisé une TS par le passé et 85 % des passages à l’acte sont réalisés de manière impulsive. Les premiers résultats montrent que les sujets consultants pour idéations suicidaires avec antécédents de TS sont majoritairement des hommes avec un score élevé à l’Hospital Anxiete Depression Scale (HADS), ce résultat est intéressant car cette population est à haut risque de suicide réussi.

Cette étude permettra de faire un état des lieux descriptifs de cette population avant la mise en place d’une étude modifiant la prise en charge de ces patients.