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The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic impact on people with Multiple Sclerosis (pwMS) continues to worry. selleck inhibitor The disease modifying therapies in pwMS can add a more severe risk of infection when compared to the general population. Alemtuzumab is an anti-CD52 monoclonal antibody and it is one of the most immunosuppressive drugs used in Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

We present a case of Covid-19 infection that occurred in a 24-year-old woman with MS and treated with alemtuzumab. The infection occurred 4 months after administration of the first course of alemtuzumab and had a benign course with subsequent development of antibodies. Furthermore, we present a brief review of the literature on similar published cases.

We reviewed 17 articles concerning COVID-19 infection in MS patients in treatment with Alemtuzumab. In our case and all screened cases no severe course of disease was noted and no fatality was observed. Systematic compilation of this observation comforts clinicians about the course of Covid-19 infection despite alemtuial-risk profile of alemtuzumab in pandemic era.

The relationship of multiple sclerosis (MS) with lung cancer is under debate. Conventional observational studies have reported conflicting findings, but such studies are susceptible to confounding and reverse causation. With a Mendelian Randomization approach, we were able to evaluate the causality between MS and lung cancer.

According to published genome-wide association studies (GWASs), we obtained 35 MS-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms, which were used as instrumental variables in our study. Summary data of individual-level genetic information were obtained from the International Lung Cancer Consortium (ILCCO), with a total of 15,861 controls and 11,348 cases; the latter is composed of patients with lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell lung cancer. The inverse variance-weighted method was applied to estimate the causation between MS and lung cancer. To further evaluate the pleiotropy, the MR-Egger and Weighted median methods were implemented.

The results of MR analysis suggested a causal effect of MS on lung cancer incidence, with evidence of an increased risk for overall lung cancer [odds ratio (OR) 1.0648; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0163-1.1156; p=0.0082]. However, subgroup analyses showed no significant causal relationships between MS and lung adenocarcinoma (OR=1.0716; 95% CI 0.9840-1.1671, p=0.1119) and squamous cell lung cancer (OR=1.0284; 95% CI 0.9575-1.1045, p=0.4424). In addition, no pleiotropy was found in our study.

Our study indicated that MS is a causal risk factor in the development of lung cancer. Further work is needed to elucidate the potential mechanisms.

Our study indicated that MS is a causal risk factor in the development of lung cancer. Further work is needed to elucidate the potential mechanisms.This study aimed to refine and validate the Benzodiazepine Hypnotics Withdrawal Symptom Scale (BHWSS). The 12-item prototype version of the BHWSS was administered to a sample of 346 patients with chronic insomnia (161 males and 185 females, mean age 52.8 ± 16.6 years) who had been taking hypnotics (benzodiazepines [BZDs] or BZD receptor agonists) for at least 3 months. The item information curve indicated that two of the 12 BHWSS items should be excluded. As a result of analyzing the 10-item version of the BHWSS (revised-BHWSS), the contribution rate in the case of the factor 1 was 0.49, Cronbach's α was 0.90, and the reliability coefficient ω was 0.91. An analysis of the item information curve for the revised-BHWSS indicated that the information amount per item increased from 3.90 for the original 12-item BHWSS to 4.37 for the 10-item revised-BHWSS. The receiver operating characteristic curve indicated that 6.5 points on the revised-BHWSS was the most appropriate cutoff for estimating moderate or severe withdrawal symptoms using the Benzodiazepine Dependence Self-Report Questionnaire as a reference. These results suggest that the 10-item revised-BHWSS has sufficient reliability and validity for evaluating the severity of withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing BZDs.Despite generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) being one of the most prevalent comorbidities in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), few studies have researched its impact on the OCD phenotype. The present study investigated how the sociodemographic and clinical profile of people with OCD with comorbid GAD differs from people with OCD without comorbid GAD. We hypothesised that the phenotype of the comorbid group would be closely related to GAD, in that it would more likely be female, have an earlier age at onset of OCD, and show an increased severity of fear-related OCD symptoms (aggressive, sexual/religious, and contamination dimensions), more avoidant behaviours, greater suicidality, more severe anxiety symptoms, and increased rates of comorbid anxiety and mood disorders. The study included 867 participants with OCD, with GAD being comorbid in 33.56%. Mann-Whitney U tests, chi-square tests with continuity correction, and logistic regressions were performed. Results showed that comorbid GAD was uniquely associated with an increased number of avoidant behaviours, greater anxiety severity, panic disorder without agoraphobia, social phobia, specific phobia, and type II bipolar disorder. These results illustrate the clinical severity associated with this comorbidity and highlight markers that can aid diagnosis of GAD in OCD. Future studies should investigate whether this comorbidity has an impact on the treatment of OCD.Previous studies have shown that berberine can improve metabolic disturbances in non-psychiatric patients, but no clinical research has been conducted in schizophrenia. This study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Eligible patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were randomized to receive placebo or berberine (900mg/day) as an adjunctive treatment for eight weeks. Peripheral glycolipid metabolism parameters were measured at baseline, week 4, and week 8. Sixty-five patients were included, and forty-nine patients completed the 8-week trial. Berberine led to significant declines in total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting serum insulin, and insulin resistance(all p less then 0.05) compared with placebo. Baseline body mass index and serum prolactin concentration could predict the effect of berberine on insulin resistance. Berberine adjunctive treatment may reduce the risk of glycolipid metabolic disturbances in patients with schizophrenia.