JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Effect of Fluoxetine on Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviors in Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Selective serotonin receptor inhibitors are prescribed to reduce the severity of core behaviors of autism spectrum disorders, but their efficacy remains uncertain. ⋯ In this preliminary study of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders, treatment with fluoxetine compared with placebo resulted in significantly lower scores for obsessive-compulsive behaviors at 16 weeks. Interpretation is limited by the high dropout rate, null findings of prespecified analyses that accounted for potentially confounding factors and baseline imbalances, and CIs for the treatment effect that included the minimal clinically important difference.
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Worldwide, 47 million people live with dementia and, by 2050, the number is expected to increase to 131 million. ⋯ Alzheimer disease currently affects 5.8 million persons in the United States and is a common cause of dementia, which is usually accompanied by other neuropathology, often cerebrovascular disease such as brain infarcts. Causes of dementia can be diagnosed by medical history, cognitive and physical examination, laboratory testing, and brain imaging. Management should include both nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic approaches, although efficacy of available treatments remains limited.