The Journal of family practice
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Management includes ruling out alternate diagnoses, identifying occult/overt organ involvement, determining treatment, and recognizing worrisome features.
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MAYBE, but it's too soon to tell. There is limited evidence that ketamine by itself is effective in the very short term. Single-dose intravenous (IV) ketamine is more likely than placebo (odds ratio = 11-13) to produce improvement (> 50%) in standardized depression scores in 1 to 3 days, lasting up to a week. ⋯ Augmentation of oral antidepressants (duloxetine, escitalopram, sertraline, venlafaxine) with intranasal esketamine spray improves response and remission rates at 4 weeks (16% for both outcomes) in patients with predominantly treatment-resistant major depression (SOR: A, meta-analysis of RCTs). Ketamine therapy is associated with confusion, emotional blunting, headache, dizziness, and blurred vision (SOR: A, metaanalyses). Nasal esketamine spray produces the adverse effects of dizziness, vertigo, and blurred vision severe enough to cause discontinuation in 4% of patients; it also can produce transient elevation of blood pressure (SOR: A, meta-analyses).
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Our initiation of a reverse-integration practice model revealed numerous advantages and rewards, as well as many challenges, for which we found solutions.
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► Cough ► Increasing shortness of breath ► Pleuritic chest pain.
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Avoid error by ordering the appropriate test at a risk-based frequency. Be alert to sources of false-positives and adulteration. Be careful not to overreact to unexpected results.