Lowering sodium levels to moderate (2,300 mg/day) seems to result in improved health outcomes, but the evidence is insufficient to assess the benefits and harms of further lowering levels.
Communication between patients and physicians regarding activities that may be beneficial to maintaining cognitive functioning during aging may be lacking.
Blood lead levels (BLLs) of 5 µg/dL or greater correlate with reduced reading readiness at entry to kindergarten.
Social and population variations in mental diagnosis are not accounted for in the newly revised fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
Nearly one in eight adults 60 years and older reports increased confusion or memory loss in the previous year.
Although several reliable and valid pain assessment tools for cognitively intact and impaired geriatric patients are currently available, clinical evidence emphasized by Keela Herr, PhD, RN, FAAN, AGSF, co-director of the John A. Hartford Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence at the University of Iowa College of Nursing, suggests those scales are not consistently administered throughout practice settings.
A literature review of randomized controlled trials and open-label studies of six months or longer duration finds good evidence that opioid therapy improves pain scores, with weaker evidence for its long-term effect on functional status.
Though the total National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget has stayed flat over the past several years, chronic pain research has enjoyed an expanded slice of the federal funding pie, as dollars committed to that portion of science grew from $279 million in 2008 to $396 million in 2012.
The TIRF REMS Access program is designed to streamline the prescribing process and ensure appropriate patients are safely provided with TIRF products, but it may be preventing patients from accessing needed medications.
Results from a small study indicate patients with difficult-to-treat diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) may benefit from therapy with tanezumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against nerve growth factor.
