LECTURES
REVIEWS
ORIGINAL INVESTIGATIONS
Objective: to obtain additional Russian data on the efficacy of Depakine Chronosphere as first-line monotherapy in the treatment of epilepsy in children without epileptic encephalopathy.
Subjects and methods. This was a short-term open-label, prospective observational study performed in the real treatment setting. The observation of patients lasted at least 2 months. The study included 297 patients aged 2 months to 17 years with varying epilepsy other than epileptic encephalopathies. The patients received Depakine Chronosphere in an average daily dose of 26.9±8.2 mg/kg. The efficacy of the drug was objectively evaluated from the change in the number of attacks; in addition, a physician and a patient or his/her parents made a subjective assessment of therapeutic effectiveness. The safety of therapy was judged from the reports made by the patients ' parents on adverse events recorded during the observation period.
Results. More than 90% responded to Depakine Chronosphere well (epileptic seizures ceased or reduced in number). Epileptic seizures completely disappeared in 48.8% of the patients. The drug proved to be effective in different (both partial and generalized) forms of epilepsy. Depakine Chronosphere was well tolerated in this study. No adverse events were seen in 7.41% of the patients and permitted the drug to be discontinued in as low as 0.34%. The physicians and the patients' parents unanimously evaluated therapeutic efficiency as very good and good in more than 90% of cases.
Objective: to study personality characteristics, behavioral style, and modes of relations with their people in patients with somatized disorder.
Subjects and methods. Eighty-six patients diagnosed as having somatized disorder were examined using Leary's interpersonal diagnosis system.
Results. The author revealed the following personality characteristics and behavioral styles: a depressed need for authoritarianism, dominance, autonomy, aggressiveness, a display of qualities, such as superfriendliness, benevolence, submissiveness, dependency, and suspiciousness. These characteristics give an insight into the development of somatization in patients with somatized disorder.
Objective: to study baseline autonomic tone and autonomic responsiveness in patients with neuroreflectory syncopal states (NSS) during a passive orthotest in orthostatic and clinostatic phases.
Subjects and methods. A study group comprised 40 patients with NSS, a comparative group included 57 patients with panic attacks (PA); a control group consisted of 22 subjects without the above conditions. Cardiac rhythm variability was estimated applying a Neuron-spectrum device.
Results. During the orthotest, the patients with NSS showed inadequate activity of the sympathetic nervous system as compared with the patients with PA and the control group. At the same time, the clinostatic test revealed that the indicators restored to the normal values in patients with NSS, unlike in those with PA.
PHARMACOTHERAPY
The paper gives the characteristics and causes of pain syndromes and an algorithm for the treatment of chronic pain. It is stated that treating patients with chronic neocancer pain requires that its clinical features be kept in mind; moreover, treatment should be itself safe and effective. Drugs must be used for a long period, by strictly following the schedule in individual doses.
ISSN 2310-1342 (Online)