| 1. |
- Engel, Jörgen, 1942, et al.
(författare)
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Role of Appetite-Regulating Peptides in the Pathophysiology of Addiction: Implications for Pharmacotherapy
- 2014
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Ingår i: Cns Drugs. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1172-7047 .- 1179-1934. ; 28:10, s. 875-886
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Food intake and appetite are regulated by various circulating hormones including ghrelin and glucagonlike-peptide 1 (GLP-1). Ghrelin, mainly released from the stomach, increases food intake, induces appetite, enhances adiposity as well as releases growth hormone. Hypothalamic "ghrelin receptors'' (GHS-R1A) have a critical role in food intake regulation, but GHS-R1A are also expressed in reward related areas. GLP-1 is produced in the intestinal mucosa as well as in the hindbrain in response to nutrient ingestion. This gut-brain hormone reduces food intake as well as regulates glucose homeostasis, foremost via GLP-1 receptors in hypothalamus and brain stem. However, GLP-1 receptors are expressed in areas intimately associated with reward regulation. Given that regulation of food and drug intake share common neurobiological substrates, the possibility that ghrelin and GLP-1 play an important role in reward regulation should be considered. Indeed, this leading article describes that the orexigenic peptide ghrelin activates the cholinergic-dopaminergic reward link, an important part of the reward systems in the brain associated with reinforcement and thereby increases the incentive salience for motivated behaviors via this system. We also review the role of ghrelin signaling for reward induced by alcohol and addictive drugs from a preclinical, clinical and human genetic perspective. In addition, the recent findings showing that GLP-1 controls reward induced by alcohol, amphetamine, cocaine and nicotine in rodents are over-viewed herein. Finally, the role of several other appetite regulatory hormones for reward and addiction is briefly discussed. Collectively, these data suggest that ghrelin and GLP-1 receptors may be novel targets for development of pharmacological treatments of alcohol and drug dependence.
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| 2. |
- Egstrup, Kenneth, et al.
(författare)
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QT Response after a Test Dose and during Maintenance Therapy with AZD1305 in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.
- 2011
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Ingår i: American journal of cardiovascular drugs : drugs, devices, and other interventions. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1179-187X. ; 11:3, s. 199-208
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background and Objective: AZD1305 is an investigational antiarrhythmic agent that prolongs refractoriness through combined potassium and sodium channel inhibition. This study aimed to explore the utility of a test dose in predicting QT interval corrected according to Fridericia's formula (QTcF) during subsequent maintenance treatment with AZD1305. Methods: This was a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial carried out at multiple hospital cardiac facilities in Denmark, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, and Sweden. Patients with documented atrial fibrillation (AF) but currently in stable sinus rhythm for ≥2 hours and ≤90 days were eligible for inclusion. Patients were randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive AZD1305 extended-release or matching placebo tablets as follows: group A - test dose 250mg, evening dose 125mg on day 1, maintenance dose 125mg twice daily; group B - test dose 500mg, placebo evening dose, maintenance dose 125mg twice daily; placebo group - placebo test and maintenance dose. Maintenance dosing was for 9 days. QTcF >550ms at any time during the in-patient phase or >500ms after discharge (day 4) were predefined study drug discontinuation criteria. The main outcome measure was the relationship between QTcF following the test dose and during maintenance treatment. Results: Sixty-five patients were randomized (n=21, 22, and 22 in group A, group B, and the placebo group, respectively). AZD1305 dose-dependently increased QTcF. There was a positive, linear correlation between the change in QTcF during the first 6 hours after the test dose and during the maintenance phase. Three patients, all from group B, discontinued treatment on day 1 due to QTcF >550ms. All other patients completed the study without events related to QT prolongation. There was a trend for reduced AF recurrence with AZD1305 compared with placebo. Conclusion: In this exploratory study a test dose predicted the QT response during maintenance treatment with AZD1305 and may thus be employed in further studies. [ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00643448].
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| 3. |
- Walfridsson, Håkan, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of AZD0837, a novel direct thrombin inhibitor, on the electrophysiological properties of the human heart: a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study.
- 2010
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Ingår i: Clinical drug investigation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1173-2563 .- 1179-1918. ; 30:7, s. 461-71
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: AZD0837 is an investigational oral anticoagulant that is bioconverted to its active form, AR-H067637, a selective direct thrombin inhibitor. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the present study were to investigate if there are any clinically relevant adverse effects of intravenous AZD0837 on cardiac conduction, refractoriness and repolarization, and to study its safety and tolerability. METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study (study code D1250C00026), invasive electrophysiological measurements were performed twice in 30 subjects with a history of, or ongoing, atrial flutter, starting 30 minutes after successful ablation of atrial flutter and then 60 minutes after start of an intravenous infusion of AZD0837. Pre-study warfarin therapy was not an exclusion criterion. The stimulation protocol was performed mainly at 500 and 400 ms drive cycle length. A 12-lead ECG was also recorded before and during AZD0837 infusion. Plasma concentrations of AZD0837 and its metabolites were obtained at predefined timepoints. RESULTS: Measurements were made at baseline and during stable plasma concentrations of the prodrug AZD0837 (mean +/- standard deviation 7.96 +/- 2.38 micromol/L, approximate target of 10 micromol/L), the intermediate metabolite AR-H69927 (1.26 +/- 0.39 micromol/L, target 1-2 micromol/L) and the active direct thrombin inhibitor AR-H067637 (0.35 +/- 0.14 micromol/L, target 0.5-1.0 micromol/L). There were no clinically relevant effects on cardiac conduction (QRS duration, PR interval, His bundle electrogram, Wenckebach point), refractoriness (atrial, atrioventricular and ventricular effective refractory periods) or repolarization (QT, QT interval corrected for heart rate using Fridericia's formula, QRS onset to the top of the T wave [QT(top)], QRS onset to the end of the T wave [QT(end)] or QT(top) - QT(end)). CONCLUSIONS: AZD0837 was well tolerated, and had no clinically relevant effects on cardiac electrophysiology of the target population, either in subjects previously treated with warfarin or in those without previous treatment.
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| 4. |
- Aagaard, Lise, et al.
(författare)
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Global Patterns of Adverse Drug Reactions Over a Decade Analyses of Spontaneous Reports to VigiBase (TM)
- 2012
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Ingår i: Drug Safety. - : Adis. - 0114-5916 .- 1179-1942. ; 35:12, s. 1171-1182
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Although systems to collect information about suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) were established in many countries and by the WHO in the 1960s, few studies have examined reported ADRs related to national income. Objective: The aim of the study was to characterize ADRs reported to the WHO-ADR database, VigiBase (TM), and to relate data to national income. Methods: We analysed ADR reports submitted to VigiBase (TM) from 2000 to 2009 with respect to reporting rate, age and sex of patient, type, seriousness and medications. Reports were also analysed with respect to national income level, classified in accordance with the World Bank definition: low, lower-middle, upper-middle and high. Results: We analysed 1 359 067 ADR reports including 3 013 074 ADRs. Overall, 16% of reports were serious and 60% were reported for females. High-income countries had the highest ADR reporting rates (range 3-613 reports/million inhabitants/year) and low-income countries the lowest (range 0-21). Distribution of ADRs across income groups with respect to age group, seriousness and sex was non-significant. Overall, the majority of ADRs were reported for nervous system medications, followed by cardiovascular medicines. Low-income countries reported relatively more ADRs for antiinfectives for systemic use than high-income countries, and high-income countries reported more ADRs for antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents than lower-income groups. Conclusion: This study showed that high-income countries had the highest ADR reporting rates and low-income countries the lowest, with large variations across countries in each group. Significant differences in ADR reporting rates were only found for ADRs of the type skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders and for the therapeutic groups antiinfectives for systemic use and antineoplastic and immunomodulation agents. To strengthen ADR reporting rates, especially in low-income countries, more research is needed about the impact of organizational structures and economic resources of national pharmacovigilance centres and ADR reporting practices on the large variations in ADR reporting rates within income groups.
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| 5. |
- Aakjær, Mia, et al.
(författare)
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Surveillance of Antidepressant Safety (SADS) : Active Signal Detection of Serious Medical Events Following SSRI and SNRI Initiation Using Big Healthcare Data
- 2021
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Ingår i: Drug Safety. - : Springer. - 0114-5916 .- 1179-1942. ; 44, s. 1215-1230
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction The current process for generating evidence in pharmacovigilance has several limitations, which often lead to delays in the evaluation of drug-associated risks.Objectives In this study, we proposed and tested a near real-time epidemiological surveillance system using sequential, cumulative analyses focusing on the detection and preliminary risk quantification of potential safety signals following initiation of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs).Methods We emulated an active surveillance system in an historical setting by conducting repeated annual cohort studies using nationwide Danish healthcare data (1996–2016). Outcomes were selected from the European Medicines Agency's Designated Medical Event list, summaries of product characteristics, and the literature. We followed patients for a maximum of 6 months from treatment initiation to the event of interest or censoring. We performed Cox regression analyses adjusted for standard sets of covariates. Potential safety signals were visualized using heat maps and cumulative hazard ratio (HR) plots over time.Results In the total study population, 969,667 new users were included and followed for 461,506 person-years. We detected potential safety signals with incidence rates as low as 0.9 per 10,000 person-years. Having eight different exposure drugs and 51 medical events, we identified 31 unique combinations of potential safety signals with a positive association to the event of interest in the exposed group. We proposed that these signals were designated for further evaluation once they appeared in a prospective setting. In total, 21 (67.7%) of these were not present in the current summaries of product characteristics.Conclusion The study demonstrated the feasibility of performing epidemiological surveillance using sequential, cumulative analyses. Larger populations are needed to evaluate rare events and infrequently used antidepressants.
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| 6. |
- Alfredsson, Joakim, et al.
(författare)
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Risks and Benefits of Triple Oral Anti-Thrombotic Therapies After Acute Coronary Syndromes and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention
- 2015
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Ingår i: Drug Safety. - : Adis / Springer Verlag (Germany). - 0114-5916 .- 1179-1942. ; 38:5, s. 481-491
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The key pathophysiological process underlying symptomatic coronary artery disease, including acute coronary syndromes (ACS), is usually a rupture or an erosion of an atherosclerotic plaque, followed by platelet activation and subsequent thrombus formation. Early clinical trials showed benefit with long-term aspirin treatment, and later-based on large clinical trials-dual anti-platelet therapy (DAPT), initially with clopidogrel, and more recently with prasugrel or ticagrelor, has become the established treatment in the post-ACS setting and after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Treatment with DAPT is recommended for both ST-elevation myocardial infarction and non-ST-elevation ACS, as well as after PCI with stenting, in American and European clinical guidelines. Notwithstanding the benefits observed with DAPT, including third-generation P2Y(12) receptor inhibitors plus aspirin, ACS patients remain at high risk for a recurrent cardiovascular event, suggesting that other treatment strategies, including the addition of a third oral anti-platelet agent or a novel oral anticoagulant (NOAC) to standard DAPT regimens, may provide additional benefit for post-ACS patients and for patients undergoing PCI. Adding a third anti-thrombotic agent to DAPT after an ACS event or a PCI procedure has been shown to have modest benefit in terms of ischemic event reduction, but has consistently been associated with increased bleeding complications. Therefore, the quest to optimize anti-thrombotic therapies post-ACS and post-PCI continues unabated but is tempered by the historical experiences to date that indicate that careful patient and dose selection will be critical features of future randomized trials.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Benkirane, Raja, et al.
(författare)
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Assessment of a New Instrument for Detecting Preventable Adverse Drug Reactions.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Drug safety. - : Adis / Springer Verlag (Germany). - 0114-5916 .- 1179-1942. ; 38:4, s. 383-393
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Pharmacovigilance centres (PVCs) in the World Health Organization (WHO) Programme for International Drug Monitoring have demonstrated their ability to detect preventable adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in their databases. In this field, there is no gold-standard method for detecting medication errors and evaluating ADR preventability. Therefore, we developed, from existing tools, a preventability assessment method: the 'P Method' (PM).OBJECTIVE: To present the PM and to evaluate its inter-rater reliability.METHODS: The PM includes 20 explicit criteria for assessing ADR preventability. This approach is based on identification of any potentially preventable risk factor that increases the likelihood of ADR occurrence. The outcome of the preventability assessment results in one of three possible scores: 'preventable', 'non-preventable' or 'not assessable'. The PM was tested in a multicentre study involving nine national PVCs. Two experienced reviewers at each participating PVC independently analysed the preventability of 183 ADRs, applying the PM.RESULTS: The overall agreement between all reviewers for assessment of ADR preventability was 'fair', with a kappa value of 0.27 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.21-0.40]. The level of agreement between reviewer pairs ranged from 'slight', with a kappa value of 0.12 (95 % CI -0.03 to 0.27), to 'substantial', with a kappa value of 0.69 (95 % CI 0.48-0.89).CONCLUSION: The analysis of the agreements and disagreements between reviewers highlighted where improvements might be made. Given that no standard assessment tool exists in the WHO Programme, the transparency of the assessment process in this method provides a substantial basis for further development and for support in signalling possible preventability.
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| 9. |
- Bergvall, Tomas, et al.
(författare)
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vigiGrade : A Tool to Identify Well-Documented Individual Case Reports and Highlight Systematic Data Quality Issues
- 2014
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Ingår i: Drug Safety. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0114-5916 .- 1179-1942. ; 37:1, s. 65-77
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Individual case safety reports of suspected harm from medicines are fundamental to post-marketing surveillance. Their value is directly proportional to the amount of clinically relevant information they include. To improve the quality of the data, communication between stakeholders is essential and can be facilitated by a simple score and visualisation of the results. The objective of this study was to propose a measure of completeness and identify predictors of well-documented reports, globally. The Uppsala Monitoring Centre has developed the vigiGrade completeness score to measure the amount of clinically relevant information in structured format, without reflecting whether the information establishes causality between the drug and adverse event. The vigiGrade completeness score (C) starts at 1 for reports with information on time-to-onset, age, sex, indication, outcome, report type, dose, country, primary reporter and comments. For each missing dimension, a penalty is detracted which varies with clinical relevance. We classified reports with C > 0.8 as well-documented and identified all such reports in the WHO global individual case safety report database, VigiBase, from 2007 to January 2012. We utilised odds ratios with statistical shrinkage to identify subgroups with unexpectedly high proportions of well-documented reports. Altogether, 430,000 (13 %) of the studied reports achieved C > 0.8 in VigiBase. For VigiBase as a whole, the median completeness was 0.41 with an interquartile range of 0.26-0.63. Two out of three well-documented reports come from Europe, and two out of three from physicians. Among the countries with more than 1,000 reports in total, the highest rate of well-documented reports is 65 % in Italy. Tunisia, Spain, Portugal, Croatia and Denmark each have rates above 50 %, and another 20 countries have rates above 30 %. On the whole, 24 % of the reports from physicians are well-documented compared with only 4 % for consumers/non-health professionals. Notably, Denmark and Norway have more than 50 % well-documented reports from consumers/non-health professionals and higher rates than for physicians. The rate of well-documented reports for the E2B format is 11 % compared with 22 % for the older INTDIS (International Drug Information System) format. However, for E2B reports entered via the WHO programme's e-reporting system VigiFlow, the rate is 29 %. Overall, only one report in eight provides the desired level of information, but much higher proportions are observed for individual countries. Physicians and e-reporting tools also generate greater proportions of well-documented reports overall. Reports from consumers/non-health professionals in specific regions have excellent quality, which illustrates their potential for the future. vigiGrade has already provided valuable information by highlighting data quality issues both in Italy and the USA.
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| 10. |
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