Annales pharmaceutiques françaises
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Acute head injury is a common reason for seeking care in an emergency department and in France accounts for more than 500 consultations daily. In most cases, though the trauma is minor/moderate, a computed tomography scan is necessary to establish the diagnosis and avoid medical and/or social sequelae. This examination is however expensive and not always readily available in the emergency setting. ⋯ Due to specificity of its cellular expression, S100B protein is a useful biological marker of acute neurological disorders, such as ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, and traumatic brain injury. This brief review exposes the contribution of S100B measurement in biological fluids to the diagnosis, the follow-up, and the prognosis of acute minor/moderate head injury. In addition, we describe the French STIC-S100 study, a cohort study designed to determine the negative prognostic value of early determination of plasma S100B levels for the diagnosis of minor/moderate head injury and its medical/social consequences.
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Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta-9-THC) is the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis. Smoking is currently most common use of cannabis. The present review focuses on the pharmacokinetics of THC. ⋯ The elimination of THC and its many metabolites, mainly THC-COOH, occurs via the feces and urine for several weeks. Thus, to confirm abstinence, urine THC-COOH analysis would be a useful tool. A positive result could be checked by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry THC blood analysis, indicative of a recent cannabis exposure.
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Cannabis is the most consumed illicit drug. For a number of years it was thought to be not very toxic, although this idea has no scientific backup. The object of much controversy, it is a public health problem for the most vulnerable populations, adolescents, subjects with evolutive psychopathologies and certain highly cognitive situations: driving a car, the professional environment and students. ⋯ The complications are basically anxious and psychotic. It is the object of a number of debates associated with schizophrenic disorders, where it seems to be a risk factor where there is a large consumption before the age of fourteen. Like all psychoactive substances, it is an aggravating factor in all evolutive psychopathologies.
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This paper is a review of the use of drugs in sleep and wakefulness disorders. Insomnia is more often a symptom than an autonomic disorder. ⋯ Stimulant drugs are prescribed in attention disorders; methylphenidate is the more frequently used. Narcolepsy, which is characterized by daytime sleepiness and irresistible episodes of sleep, is treated by an alpha1 noradrenergic stimulant modafinil which has no amphetaminic properties.
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Oseltamivir and zanamivir are highly potent inhibitors of influenza A and B neuraminidase and operate by inhibiting viral replication, and more specifically, the release and the movement of the virus through mucus. Neuraminidase inhibitors reduce the severity and duration of symptoms, and prevent clinical influenza as post-exposure and seasonal prophylaxis. ⋯ Although the effectiveness of oseltamivir and zanamivir for the therapy of clinical H5N1 influenza is questionable, simulation models suggest that a combination of targeted antiviral prophylaxis and quarantine might be able to contain an emerging influenza strain at the source. As a consequence, after an initial lack of commercial success probably related to the mild intensity of seasonal influenza during the last winters, neuraminidase inhibitors are now stockpiled by many countries to prepare for an outbreak.