OBJECTIVES To provide an accurate estimation of the magnitude of effect of lithium in short-term efficacy studies conducted in patients with moderate to severe manic episode. METHODS All placebo-controlled randomized studies submitted to the Medicines Evaluation Board (MEB) in which lithium was used as the third study arm were selected for the meta-analysis. The studies were part of registrat...

BACKGROUND Reporting numbers needed to treat (NNT) improves interpretability of trial results. It is unusual that continuous outcomes are converted to numbers of individual responders to treatment (i.e., those who reach a particular threshold of change); and deteriorations prevented are only rarely considered. We consider how numbers needed to treat can be derived from continuous outcomes; illu...

May a doctor treat a patient, despite that patient's refusal, when in his professional opinion treatment is necessary? This is the dilemma which must from time to time confront most physicians. An examination of the validity of such a refusal is provided by the present authors who use the case history of a patient refusing treatment, for cancer as well as for a fractured hip, to evaluate the gr...

objective: an abrupt refusal by the infant to breastfeed is often called “nursing strike”. in fact a common reason for cessation of nursing is infant’s refusal to breast feed. this problem can often be overcome. this paper has aimed to identify the causes of “breast feeding refusal” or “nursing strike” in 6 month old infants visiting the east tehran health center for their scheduled vaccination...

The authors conducted a study on children undergoing treatment at major school refusal treatment centers in Hiroshima Prefecture. On the whole, school refusal in the prefecture was found to peak between 13 and 14 years of age. By age group, the main reason for school refusal in elementary school group was parent-child relationship with separation anxiety. Given additional problems such as negle...

abstract background: better control of blood sugar and reduction of diabetes complications through insulin therapy could convince people to choose this method. however, patients might refuse insulin therapy due to its painful injection, limitations in daily activities, and hypoglycemia. thus, insulin therapy could have both positive and negative effects on patients’ quality of life (qol). there...