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Biomedical subjects

C Blanchard

Publications and source records attributed to C Blanchard.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

The effects of carbocisplatin and radiation on skin flap survival.

Carbocisplatin is used as an inductive chemotherapeutic agent prior to irradiation in the treatment of head and neck cancers. Controversy exists whether carbocisplatin sensitizes normal epithelial tissues, including skin, to radiation. The combined effect of radiation and carbocisplatin on the survival of skin flaps was studied in an experimental model using dorsal flaps in Sprague-Dawley rats. Skin flaps were created 6 weeks after exposure to irradiation and carbocisplatin. Flap survival was assessed 7, 14, and 21 days after the flaps were initially created. Exposure of the flaps to irradiation alone, carbocisplatin alone, combined irradiation and carbocisplatin, or combined irradiation and fractionated carbocisplatin did not result in any significant decrease in flap survival when compared with untreated animals.

Animals

Chief complaint of fatigue: a prospective study.

The Dartmouth COOP Project, a primary care research network, conducted a prospective study of patients presenting to 28 primary care practices with a chief complaint of fatigue. Data were gathered on fatigue status, associated systems, health status, and origin of fatigue. Fatigue patients were demographically similar to nonfatigue patients but had significantly worse physical and mental health at study intake. Sixty-three percent of physicians and 52% of patients rated fatigue origin as primarily physical (gamma = 0.48, P less than .05), but in 41% of cases, physicians indicated there was substantial interaction between physical and psychological factors. Only two factors--depression and anxiety--separated fatigue of physical origin from fatigue of psychological origin. Clinicians must thoughtfully evaluate fatigue's often multiple causes and communicate their understanding of those causes to the patient to gain support for a reasonable treatment regimen.

Adult

Dothiepin hydrochloride: treatment efficacy and safety.

Dothiepin, a thio analogue of amitriptyline, has been used extensively in Europe during the past 15 years. It is a safe and effective agent for the treatment of major depressive disorder. Although the onset of action is comparable to that of other tricyclic antidepressants, dothiepin may cause fewer intolerable side effects and have less cardiotoxicity than these other compounds. In addition, dothiepin reduces the anxiety associated with some major depressive episodes. These features suggest that dothiepin may be particularly helpful for treating anxious depressed patients and patients who have underlying cardiac disease or who are elderly.

Adult

[Computer program for the processing of data collected during therapeutic trials in psychiatry].

A computer program is described which has been developed over several years and allows for the easy processing of psychiatric data gathered in clinical trials. It provides user-defined parametrization of a computer-aided data entry system, the use of the program created to input data to the computer and the data processing of the data collected either through modifications of the file created or by statistical analysis, the procedures of which have been simplified to enable its performance even by lay people.

Clinical Trials as Topic

[Factorial structure of the Hamilton depression scale. I].

A development version (N I M H 67) of the Hamilton depression rating scale with 26 items was scored on 125 depressed inpatients recently hospitalized for a major non schizophrenic depressive illness. The data were obtained before any antidepressant treatment or after an adequate wash out period. A principal component factorial analysis with Varimax rotation was used. Computer simulations showed that only 2 factors were really outside the non significant range. A criterion is defined to allow the choice of an optimal saturation threshold for inclusion of an item in a factor. It assigns 25 of the 26 items of the scale to one of 2 independent factors: depression and anxiety-somatization.

Adolescent

[Factorial analysis of the Hamilton depression scale, II].

A factorial analysis (principal components with Varimax rotation) was performed on 85 ratings of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale obtained in 1979-1980 on inpatients with a major depressive illness. Using a replicable statistical technique, 4 factors were obtained. These factors do not overlap with those obtain on a similar sample with a similar technique nor with those obtained by other authors. It thus appears that there is no such thing as a factorial structure of this scale.

Depressive Disorder

Effectiveness of physician antismoking advice.

The Dartmouth Primary Care Cooperative Information (COOP) Project conducted a controlled trial on the impact of antismoking advice from office-based physicians. Eighteen primary care medical practices were randomly assigned to be intervention or customary care practices. Medical personnel assigned to the intervention practices were to systematically identify cigarette smokers (among patients aged 35 to 59 years making an office visit), advise them to quit smoking, and provide educational materials. A random sample of 258 smokers was identified and followed-up four months later. Intervention-group smokers were more likely to report being advised to quit smoking (77 percent versus 47 percent) and to attempt quitting (39 percent versus 31 percent), but had success rates similar to those of the other group (6 percent versus 7 percent). We conclude that the medical office is an excellent place to identify large numbers of smokers and initiate attempts at quitting, but find that simple antismoking information and advice are not enough to improve cessation rates.

Adult