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L Richmond

Publications and source records attributed to L Richmond.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Serving street-dwelling individuals with psychiatric disabilities: outcomes of a psychiatric rehabilitation clinical trial.

OBJECTIVES: This study tested a psychiatric rehabilitation approach for organizing and delivering services to street-dwelling persons with severe mental illness. METHODS: Street-dwelling persons with severe mental illness were randomly assigned to the experimental program (called Choices) or to standard treatment in New York City. We assessed study participants at baseline and at 6-month intervals over 24 months, using measures of service use, quality of life, health, mental health, and social psychological status. The average deviation from baseline summary statistic was employed to assess change. RESULTS: Compared with persons in standard treatment (n = 77), members of the experimental group (n = 91) were more likely to attend a day program (53% vs 27%), had less difficulty in meeting their basic needs, spent less time on the streets (55% vs 28% reduction), and spent more time in community housing (21% vs 9% increase). They showed greater improvement in life satisfaction and experienced a greater reduction in psychiatric symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: With an appropriate service model, it is possible to engage disaffiliated populations, expand their use of human services, and improve their housing conditions, quality of life, and mental health status.

Adult↗

CD34 positive PBPC expanded ex vivo may not provide durable engraftment following myeloablative chemoradiotherapy regimens.

We have previously demonstrated that CD34+ cells, selected from peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC), can be expanded in ex vivo culture and can be infused in tandem with unmanipulated PBPC with little or no toxicity. In this study, four patients (two non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), two multiple myeloma (MM)) received myeloablative conditioning prior to stem cell rescue using ex vivo expanded cells alone. The two patients with NHL received cyclophosphamide and total body irradiation (CY/TBI) and the two patients with MM, busulphan and melphalan (Bu/M). One case received an inadequate CFU-GM dose, despite expansion, and in one case the expanded cells were contaminated. No definitive conclusions may therefore be drawn concerning engraftment in these two cases. However, the other two cases received high doses of committed progenitors. Following infusion of the expanded material, all four patients failed to show sustained neutrophil engraftment and none showed evidence of platelet engraftment. Back-up, unmanipulated PBPC were therefore infused on days 14, 34, 32 and 28 and subsequently all four cases achieved satisfactory engraftment of both neutrophils and platelets. In conclusion, we feel that, CD34+ cells, expanded ex vivo using the conditions described in this report, may not provide durable engraftment following fully myeloablative conditioning.

Adult↗

Efficacy of oral irinotecan against neuroblastoma xenografts.

The efficacy of the topoisomerase I inhibitor, 7-ethyl-10-(4-[1-piperidino]-1-piperidino)-carbonyloxy-camptotheci n (irinotecan, CPT-11), administered by oral gavage has been examined against a panel of six independently derived neuroblastoma xenografts. Irinotecan was administered either daily for 5 days on 12 consecutive weeks ¿(d x 5)12¿ or for 5 days on two consecutive weeks repeated every 21 days for 4 cycles ¿[(d x 5)2]4¿. Given on the (d x 5)12 schedule the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was 50 mg/kg. For intermittent scheduling ¿[(d x 5)2]4¿, the MTD was 75 mg/kg, resulting in the same total dose being administered (3 g/kg) over the period of treatment. At the MTD for the 12 consecutive week schedule there were two of 42 toxicity related deaths, whereas intermittent scheduling at the MTD resulted in none of 42 deaths. The intermittent schedule ¿[(d x 5)2]4¿ was less toxic than therapy given (d x 5)12, as at the end of treatment mice weighed 92 +/- 4% (SD; n = 6 experiments) and 81 +/- 4% (SD; n = 6 experiments) of their body weight at the start of therapy, respectively. The latter schedule was associated with loose feces starting around week 8 of therapy, broken teeth and a high incidence of swelling of the orbital conjunctiva that developed late in the course of therapy. Given (d x 5)12, irinotecan caused complete regressions of all six neuroblastoma xenograft lines. Because mice tolerate significantly greater systemic exposure to SN-38 lactone than do patients (as determined by plasma AUC at the respective MTD), we evaluated the intermittent schedule of administration, reducing the dose/administration to determine the lowest dose levels that produced objective regressions of these neuroblastoma xenografts and determined the daily systemic exposure associated with these dose levels. In four lines examined objective responses were obtained at dose levels of 12.5 or 6.25 mg/kg. The daily plasma AUC exposures associated with minimum dose achieving response in NB1691 (12.5 mg/kg), NB1643 (6.25 mg/kg) and NBEB (12.5 mg/kg) for irinotecan lactone were 219, 152 and 653 ng-h/ml, respectively; and for SN-38 lactone were 704, 418 and 987 ng-h/ml, respectively. These results indicate that childhood neuroblastoma xenografts are highly sensitive to irinotecan given by oral administration and therapeutic activity is similar to i.v. irinotecan administered on similar schedules.

Administration, Oral↗

CD34-positive cells isolated from cryopreserved peripheral-blood progenitor cells can be expanded ex vivo and used for transplantation with little or no toxicity.

PURPOSE: The objectives of this phase I study were to assess the feasibility of using cryopreserved peripheral-blood progenitor cells (PBPC) for large-scale CD34 selection and subsequent expansion, and the safety of their use for reinfusion following chemoradiotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: For 10 patients with nonmyeloid malignancy, an aliquot from a PBPC harvest was recovered from liquid nitrogen, and CD34 selected using the Isolex system (Baxter Healthcare, Newbury, United Kingdom) and expanded for 8 days ex vivo in a medium free of animal proteins but supplemented with autologous serum, stemcell factor (SCF), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), IL-3, IL-6, and erythropoietin. RESULTS: The mean increase for cell number was 21-fold, for colony-forming units-granulocyte/macrophage (CFU-GM) 139-fold, and for burst-forming units-erythroid (BFU-E) 114-fold. The expanded cells were reinfused in tandem with unmanipulated material (> or = 25 x 10(4) CFU-GM/kg). The patients did not experience any adverse effects immediately on cell infusion or within 48 hours. The 10 index patients were compared with 10 historical controls for parameters of myelosuppressive morbidity. In this small study, there were no differences in either neutrophil or platelet recovery between the patients who received expanded cells and historical controls. CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate that CD34 cells can successfully be selected from cryopreserved material, expanded ex vivo on a large scale, and safely reinfused following myeloablative conditioning regimens.

Adolescent↗

Pregnancy behind bars.

Since the 1960s, the cycle of violence and drug use has mounted and an increasing number of people are being incarcerated. Coincident with this phenomena, we have experienced rising rates of morbidity and mortality among the incarcerated, many of whom suffer from infectious diseases. In fact, the spread of diseases like tuberculosis has been facilitated by the congregate nature of the penal system. As the number of people behind bars has risen, we have seen a disproportionate increase in the number of women incarcerated, most of whom are in their childbearing years. The number of pregnant women in jails and prisons has, in turn, been escalating. Certain prenatal interventions are described and evaluated in the literature, which we review in this article. Experience with the prenatal program in the New York City jail system is described. In general, the authors' position is that as society chooses a social policy of incarceration to address the problems of violence and drug use, there is solid public health reason to design and implement comprehensive prenatal programs in correctional facilities with connections to community-based health services.

Female↗