Clozapine and infection risk: new evidence from Hong Kong’s 20-year cohort study

Someone coughing and holding there hand up to ward off people

Clozapine is described as the gold standard treatment for schizophrenia but a new cohort study suggests it is associated with an increased risk of infections, particularly in older patients, further solidifying the case for holistic care.

[read the full story...]

Putting oil on the fire: Do people with high inflammation react differently to immune stress?

feat

Inflammation is a key factor in depression for many people. This new RCT used an experimental immune challenge to explore how individuals with high inflammation respond differently—shedding light on a distinct biological subtype of depression.

[read the full story...]

Antibiotics for dental infections – Short or long duration courses?

Many drugs are licensed for use in Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), but it is unclear what works best.

This review comparing short (3–5 days) or longer courses (≥7 days) of antibiotics for the treatment of dental infections in general practice only included one small RCTs. No differences were seen between short an dlong courses but the findings should be interpreted cautiously becaise of the limited data available.

[read the full story...]

Metronidazole for treatment of non-periodontal dental infections

shutterstock_32144176

This review of whether metronidazole used as monotherapy or in addition to a β-lactam antibiotic offers any additional benefit over β-lactam monotherapy in non- periodontal dental infections includes 3 RCTs. The findings suggest that metronidazole does not provide superior clinical results compared to β-lactam antibiotics for the treatment of non-periodontal dental infections. However the evidence is limited and of low quality.

[read the full story...]

Surgical masks versus N95 respirators

A_surgical_mask_(2017)

This review of the effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks for prevention of influenza included 6 RCTs involving 9171 participants. THe findings suggest that use of N95 respirators compared with surgical masks was not associated with a lower risk of laboratory-confirmed influenza.

[read the full story...]

Caries management in children. The FiCTION trial

caries upper arch

The FiCTION trail compared 3 caries management strategies for dentinal caries in primary teeth finding no evidence of a difference between the approaches. This emphasises the importance of primary prevention of caries to avoid dental caries althogther.

[read the full story...]

Molar incisor hypomineralisation: systemic associations

HSPM  Molar-Incisor hypomineralisation

This review of the systemic exposures associated with with molar incisor hypomineralisation (MIH) included 29 observational studies. VEry low quality evidence suggests that maternal illness, psychological stress, caesarean delivery, delivery complications, respiratory diseases, fever and childhood illnesses may be associated with MIH.

[read the full story...]

Mandibular angle fractures: 1 or 2 miniplates?

shutterstock_128576303

This review of the use of 1 or 2 miniplates for the treatment of mandibular angle fractures included 13 studies 3 of which were RCTs. The findings suggest fewer complications with single miniplate fixation.

[read the full story...]

Orthognathic surgery: antibiotic prophylaxis reduced surgical site infection

shutterstock_70250746

This new Cochrane review identified 11 RCTs and suggests that for those undergoing orthognathic surgery, long term antibiotic prophylaxis decreased the risk of surgical site infection compared with short-term regimens.

[read the full story...]