User login
Many sources of PTSD are cause for concern
A few weeks ago, right after 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, Americans were really on edge. Many people I know became hypervigilant while going about activities previously thought of as routine, such as waiting for a subway or going to a grocery store.
On top of that, we are still facing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite vaccines and therapeutics, the United States is still losing more than 300 people each day to the virus. Many people who have tested positive have continued to experience debilitating long-haul symptoms many months after testing negative, and I believe not knowing what your future life will bring from this terrible illness could lead some to posttraumatic stress disorder.
In addition to constant updates about COVID, we are getting almost daily reports about monkeypox. In New York state, medical professionals and institutions receive regular, almost weekly, information about the spread of influenza. But where are the reports and treatment approaches for PTSD, which would not only increase awareness but also lead to more care?
Some might believe that I am obsessed with PTSD, since I’ve written a great deal on the subject, particularly “underdiagnosed” PTSD. The key question I have is:
We know the signs and symptoms of PTSD. They include flashbacks, intrusive recollections, physical distress related to stimuli related to the trauma, insomnia, social isolation, avoidance of certain situations, negative thinking, and hyperarousal – coupled with anxiety and depression. PTSD can be a great masquerader. It can be triggered by many events, large and small, and all too often will masquerade as general anxiety or existential despair and depression. Too often, PTSD is undiagnosed or unrecognized completely. PTSD is also a costly disease that is an enormous economic burden on the U.S. economy.
As clinicians, we must be aware of the more subtle events that may trigger PTSD. We must think beyond ICD codes and DSM criteria and realize that each individual processes an event or a series of events differently. For example, seriously ill people in ICUs or undergoing critical care have been known to experience PTSD well beyond their physical recovery (J Crit Care. 2017 Dec. doi: 10.1016/j.jcrc.2017.06.014). Years after the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center disaster, many are still suffering from PTSD symptoms (Biol Psychiatry. 2020 May 1. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.02.817).
Again, in some cases, not knowing what the future may bring regarding life itself can lead to PTSD. I have treated patients who have lost jobs and experienced devastating social and financial losses, which were perceived as a separation from “life as they know it.” These can be precursors to PTSD for some who are sensitive to the disorder.
Intergenerational trauma is also a real phenomenon to which we must be attuned. I have treated two adult children of Holocaust survivors, both born in America well after World War II, who developed PTSD after hearing family recollections over and over about the brutality suffered by relatives, combined with watching films about people sent to concentration camps. Both of those patients self-diagnosed their symptoms as depression. Research shows that Holocaust traumatization can affect three generations (J Anxiety Disord. 2021 Jun. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102401).
In light of the high incidence of traumatic events affecting millions directly, more codified treatment approaches are needed that can be used both for individuals and for those in group settings.
To date, the best treatment rests with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and guided imagery coupled with relaxation techniques and the various types of in vivo exposure therapy, which I prefer to in vitro or flooding care. In terms of medication management, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved only two antidepressant medications for PTSD, sertraline (Zoloft) and paroxetine (Paxil), although other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been used off- label, and prazosin, a hypertensive medication, has been used off-label for PTSD-related insomnia and nightmares (Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2012 Mar 22. doi: 10.4088/PCC.11r01222). Thus, the limited number of choices for medication management means more research is needed so that more medications are developed that are more precisely directed at PTSD treatment.
Implications for society at large
In a recent article published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (2022 Apr 25. doi: 10.4088/JCP.21m14116), authors Lori L. Davis and colleagues point out that the economic burden of PTSD goes beyond health care costs and rivals the costs of other mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety. In the process, Dr. Davis and colleagues note, unemployment caused by job loss, disability, homelessness, substance use, disordered care, as well as premature mortality, all contribute to this severe burden, going beyond PTSD itself.
This study shows that the annual economic burden of PTSD is $232 billion. Most of that burden is attributed to the civilian population, which they suggest to be $189.5 billion, or 82%.
After reading that article, it became clear to me that my “obsession” with PTSD is not really an obsession at all. Rather, it is a true concern that, against the backdrop of long COVID, gun violence, political and economic turmoil, and other factors, it is important that clinicians understand how to recognize and treat PTSD. The stakes have never been higher.
Dr. London is a practicing psychiatrist and has been a newspaper columnist for 35 years, specializing in and writing about short-term therapy, including cognitive-behavioral therapy and guided imagery. He is author of “Find Freedom Fast” (New York: Kettlehole Publishing, 2019). He has no conflicts of interest.
A few weeks ago, right after 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, Americans were really on edge. Many people I know became hypervigilant while going about activities previously thought of as routine, such as waiting for a subway or going to a grocery store.
On top of that, we are still facing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite vaccines and therapeutics, the United States is still losing more than 300 people each day to the virus. Many people who have tested positive have continued to experience debilitating long-haul symptoms many months after testing negative, and I believe not knowing what your future life will bring from this terrible illness could lead some to posttraumatic stress disorder.
In addition to constant updates about COVID, we are getting almost daily reports about monkeypox. In New York state, medical professionals and institutions receive regular, almost weekly, information about the spread of influenza. But where are the reports and treatment approaches for PTSD, which would not only increase awareness but also lead to more care?
Some might believe that I am obsessed with PTSD, since I’ve written a great deal on the subject, particularly “underdiagnosed” PTSD. The key question I have is:
We know the signs and symptoms of PTSD. They include flashbacks, intrusive recollections, physical distress related to stimuli related to the trauma, insomnia, social isolation, avoidance of certain situations, negative thinking, and hyperarousal – coupled with anxiety and depression. PTSD can be a great masquerader. It can be triggered by many events, large and small, and all too often will masquerade as general anxiety or existential despair and depression. Too often, PTSD is undiagnosed or unrecognized completely. PTSD is also a costly disease that is an enormous economic burden on the U.S. economy.
As clinicians, we must be aware of the more subtle events that may trigger PTSD. We must think beyond ICD codes and DSM criteria and realize that each individual processes an event or a series of events differently. For example, seriously ill people in ICUs or undergoing critical care have been known to experience PTSD well beyond their physical recovery (J Crit Care. 2017 Dec. doi: 10.1016/j.jcrc.2017.06.014). Years after the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center disaster, many are still suffering from PTSD symptoms (Biol Psychiatry. 2020 May 1. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.02.817).
Again, in some cases, not knowing what the future may bring regarding life itself can lead to PTSD. I have treated patients who have lost jobs and experienced devastating social and financial losses, which were perceived as a separation from “life as they know it.” These can be precursors to PTSD for some who are sensitive to the disorder.
Intergenerational trauma is also a real phenomenon to which we must be attuned. I have treated two adult children of Holocaust survivors, both born in America well after World War II, who developed PTSD after hearing family recollections over and over about the brutality suffered by relatives, combined with watching films about people sent to concentration camps. Both of those patients self-diagnosed their symptoms as depression. Research shows that Holocaust traumatization can affect three generations (J Anxiety Disord. 2021 Jun. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102401).
In light of the high incidence of traumatic events affecting millions directly, more codified treatment approaches are needed that can be used both for individuals and for those in group settings.
To date, the best treatment rests with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and guided imagery coupled with relaxation techniques and the various types of in vivo exposure therapy, which I prefer to in vitro or flooding care. In terms of medication management, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved only two antidepressant medications for PTSD, sertraline (Zoloft) and paroxetine (Paxil), although other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been used off- label, and prazosin, a hypertensive medication, has been used off-label for PTSD-related insomnia and nightmares (Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2012 Mar 22. doi: 10.4088/PCC.11r01222). Thus, the limited number of choices for medication management means more research is needed so that more medications are developed that are more precisely directed at PTSD treatment.
Implications for society at large
In a recent article published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (2022 Apr 25. doi: 10.4088/JCP.21m14116), authors Lori L. Davis and colleagues point out that the economic burden of PTSD goes beyond health care costs and rivals the costs of other mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety. In the process, Dr. Davis and colleagues note, unemployment caused by job loss, disability, homelessness, substance use, disordered care, as well as premature mortality, all contribute to this severe burden, going beyond PTSD itself.
This study shows that the annual economic burden of PTSD is $232 billion. Most of that burden is attributed to the civilian population, which they suggest to be $189.5 billion, or 82%.
After reading that article, it became clear to me that my “obsession” with PTSD is not really an obsession at all. Rather, it is a true concern that, against the backdrop of long COVID, gun violence, political and economic turmoil, and other factors, it is important that clinicians understand how to recognize and treat PTSD. The stakes have never been higher.
Dr. London is a practicing psychiatrist and has been a newspaper columnist for 35 years, specializing in and writing about short-term therapy, including cognitive-behavioral therapy and guided imagery. He is author of “Find Freedom Fast” (New York: Kettlehole Publishing, 2019). He has no conflicts of interest.
A few weeks ago, right after 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, Americans were really on edge. Many people I know became hypervigilant while going about activities previously thought of as routine, such as waiting for a subway or going to a grocery store.
On top of that, we are still facing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite vaccines and therapeutics, the United States is still losing more than 300 people each day to the virus. Many people who have tested positive have continued to experience debilitating long-haul symptoms many months after testing negative, and I believe not knowing what your future life will bring from this terrible illness could lead some to posttraumatic stress disorder.
In addition to constant updates about COVID, we are getting almost daily reports about monkeypox. In New York state, medical professionals and institutions receive regular, almost weekly, information about the spread of influenza. But where are the reports and treatment approaches for PTSD, which would not only increase awareness but also lead to more care?
Some might believe that I am obsessed with PTSD, since I’ve written a great deal on the subject, particularly “underdiagnosed” PTSD. The key question I have is:
We know the signs and symptoms of PTSD. They include flashbacks, intrusive recollections, physical distress related to stimuli related to the trauma, insomnia, social isolation, avoidance of certain situations, negative thinking, and hyperarousal – coupled with anxiety and depression. PTSD can be a great masquerader. It can be triggered by many events, large and small, and all too often will masquerade as general anxiety or existential despair and depression. Too often, PTSD is undiagnosed or unrecognized completely. PTSD is also a costly disease that is an enormous economic burden on the U.S. economy.
As clinicians, we must be aware of the more subtle events that may trigger PTSD. We must think beyond ICD codes and DSM criteria and realize that each individual processes an event or a series of events differently. For example, seriously ill people in ICUs or undergoing critical care have been known to experience PTSD well beyond their physical recovery (J Crit Care. 2017 Dec. doi: 10.1016/j.jcrc.2017.06.014). Years after the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center disaster, many are still suffering from PTSD symptoms (Biol Psychiatry. 2020 May 1. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.02.817).
Again, in some cases, not knowing what the future may bring regarding life itself can lead to PTSD. I have treated patients who have lost jobs and experienced devastating social and financial losses, which were perceived as a separation from “life as they know it.” These can be precursors to PTSD for some who are sensitive to the disorder.
Intergenerational trauma is also a real phenomenon to which we must be attuned. I have treated two adult children of Holocaust survivors, both born in America well after World War II, who developed PTSD after hearing family recollections over and over about the brutality suffered by relatives, combined with watching films about people sent to concentration camps. Both of those patients self-diagnosed their symptoms as depression. Research shows that Holocaust traumatization can affect three generations (J Anxiety Disord. 2021 Jun. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102401).
In light of the high incidence of traumatic events affecting millions directly, more codified treatment approaches are needed that can be used both for individuals and for those in group settings.
To date, the best treatment rests with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and guided imagery coupled with relaxation techniques and the various types of in vivo exposure therapy, which I prefer to in vitro or flooding care. In terms of medication management, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved only two antidepressant medications for PTSD, sertraline (Zoloft) and paroxetine (Paxil), although other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been used off- label, and prazosin, a hypertensive medication, has been used off-label for PTSD-related insomnia and nightmares (Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2012 Mar 22. doi: 10.4088/PCC.11r01222). Thus, the limited number of choices for medication management means more research is needed so that more medications are developed that are more precisely directed at PTSD treatment.
Implications for society at large
In a recent article published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (2022 Apr 25. doi: 10.4088/JCP.21m14116), authors Lori L. Davis and colleagues point out that the economic burden of PTSD goes beyond health care costs and rivals the costs of other mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety. In the process, Dr. Davis and colleagues note, unemployment caused by job loss, disability, homelessness, substance use, disordered care, as well as premature mortality, all contribute to this severe burden, going beyond PTSD itself.
This study shows that the annual economic burden of PTSD is $232 billion. Most of that burden is attributed to the civilian population, which they suggest to be $189.5 billion, or 82%.
After reading that article, it became clear to me that my “obsession” with PTSD is not really an obsession at all. Rather, it is a true concern that, against the backdrop of long COVID, gun violence, political and economic turmoil, and other factors, it is important that clinicians understand how to recognize and treat PTSD. The stakes have never been higher.
Dr. London is a practicing psychiatrist and has been a newspaper columnist for 35 years, specializing in and writing about short-term therapy, including cognitive-behavioral therapy and guided imagery. He is author of “Find Freedom Fast” (New York: Kettlehole Publishing, 2019). He has no conflicts of interest.
Eczema causes substantial burden for many infants and preschoolers
INDIANAPOLIS – . Those are key findings from a large international web-based survey that was presented during a poster session at the annual meeting of the Society for Pediatric Dermatology.
“Improved knowledge of the AD-related burden may help reinforce the medical need in the pediatric population and contribute to better and earlier adequate management of the disease,” authors led by Stephan Weidinger , MD, PhD, vice head of the department of dermatology at University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany, wrote in the abstract.
For the study, Dr. Weidinger and colleagues evaluated 1,486 infants and preschoolers with AD aged 6 months to under 6 years, who participated in the Epidemiology of Children with Atopic Dermatitis Reporting on their Experience (EPI-CARE), an international, cross-sectional, web-based survey of children and adolescents. The study population resided in 18 countries from five regions of the world, including North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East/Eurasia, and East Asia. Parents or guardians answered all questions for infants/preschoolers younger than 4 years of age, while preschoolers aged 4 to younger than 6 years were asked to answer questions related to the impact of AD on their health-related quality of life.
AD severity was assessed using Patient Global Assessment (PtGA), where parents or guardians described their child’s eczema severity over the last week as mild, moderate, or severe. The researchers stratified outcomes by geographic region and AD severity, which included the following atopic comorbidities: worst itch, worst skin pain, and overall sleep disturbance in the past 24 hours as measured by the 0-10 numeric rating scale, where higher scores indicate worse severity; eczema-related hospitalization in the past 12 months; and frequency and average duration of flares over the past month.
The mean age of the study participants was 3 years and 61.6% had mild disease. The most common atopic comorbidities were hay fever, asthma, and seasonal allergies, and the incidence of atopic comorbidities increased with increasing AD severity. One or more atopic comorbidities was reported in 88.3% of patients with mild AD, compared with 92.1% of those with moderate disease and 95.8% of those with severe disease. In addition, infants and preschoolers with moderate or severe AD had worse itch, skin pain, and sleep disturbances over the past 24 hours, compared with those who had mild AD.
More than half of infants and preschoolers with severe AD (54.1%) were reported to have been hospitalized in the past 12 months (this ranged from 30.2% to 71.3% across regions), as did 35% of patients with moderate AD and 32.1% of those with mild AD. In addition, 50.6% of infants and preschoolers with severe AD had more than two flares in the past month, compared with 18.1% of those with moderate AD and 6.3% of those with mild disease.
In other findings, 50.7% of infants and preschoolers with severe AD had flares than lasted an average of 2 or more weeks, compared with 20.8% of those with moderate disease and 10% of those with mild disease. Also, 78.3% of preschoolers aged 4 to less than 6 years had missed one or more days of school in the previous 4 weeks: a mean of 5.1 days among those with mild AD, a mean of 7.3 days among those with moderate AD, and a mean of 12.1 days among those with severe disease.
Raj J. Chovatiya MD, PhD, of the department of dermatology at Northwestern University, Chicago, who was asked to comment on the study, said that infants and preschoolers remain an understudied group despite the high prevalence of AD in this age range. “The results of this study demonstrate a substantial burden of disease in this population, particularly among those with more severe disease,” said Dr. Chovatiya, who also directs the university’s Center for Eczema and Itch. “This includes longer and more frequent AD flares as well as high rates of inpatient hospitalization. These findings suggest that additional research is needed to better characterize disease burden and optimize outcomes for young children with AD.”
The study was funded by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi. Dr. Weidinger and other coauthors reported having received institutional research grants and consulting fees from many pharmaceutical companies that manufacture drugs used for the treatment of psoriasis and eczema.
Dr. Chovatiya disclosed that he has served as an advisory board member, consultant, speaker, and/or investigator for AbbVie, Arcutis, Arena, Beiersdorf, Bristol Myers Squibb, Dermavant, Eli Lilly, EPI Health, Incyte, L’Oréal, the National Eczema Association, Pfizer, Regeneron, Sanofi, and UCB.
INDIANAPOLIS – . Those are key findings from a large international web-based survey that was presented during a poster session at the annual meeting of the Society for Pediatric Dermatology.
“Improved knowledge of the AD-related burden may help reinforce the medical need in the pediatric population and contribute to better and earlier adequate management of the disease,” authors led by Stephan Weidinger , MD, PhD, vice head of the department of dermatology at University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany, wrote in the abstract.
For the study, Dr. Weidinger and colleagues evaluated 1,486 infants and preschoolers with AD aged 6 months to under 6 years, who participated in the Epidemiology of Children with Atopic Dermatitis Reporting on their Experience (EPI-CARE), an international, cross-sectional, web-based survey of children and adolescents. The study population resided in 18 countries from five regions of the world, including North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East/Eurasia, and East Asia. Parents or guardians answered all questions for infants/preschoolers younger than 4 years of age, while preschoolers aged 4 to younger than 6 years were asked to answer questions related to the impact of AD on their health-related quality of life.
AD severity was assessed using Patient Global Assessment (PtGA), where parents or guardians described their child’s eczema severity over the last week as mild, moderate, or severe. The researchers stratified outcomes by geographic region and AD severity, which included the following atopic comorbidities: worst itch, worst skin pain, and overall sleep disturbance in the past 24 hours as measured by the 0-10 numeric rating scale, where higher scores indicate worse severity; eczema-related hospitalization in the past 12 months; and frequency and average duration of flares over the past month.
The mean age of the study participants was 3 years and 61.6% had mild disease. The most common atopic comorbidities were hay fever, asthma, and seasonal allergies, and the incidence of atopic comorbidities increased with increasing AD severity. One or more atopic comorbidities was reported in 88.3% of patients with mild AD, compared with 92.1% of those with moderate disease and 95.8% of those with severe disease. In addition, infants and preschoolers with moderate or severe AD had worse itch, skin pain, and sleep disturbances over the past 24 hours, compared with those who had mild AD.
More than half of infants and preschoolers with severe AD (54.1%) were reported to have been hospitalized in the past 12 months (this ranged from 30.2% to 71.3% across regions), as did 35% of patients with moderate AD and 32.1% of those with mild AD. In addition, 50.6% of infants and preschoolers with severe AD had more than two flares in the past month, compared with 18.1% of those with moderate AD and 6.3% of those with mild disease.
In other findings, 50.7% of infants and preschoolers with severe AD had flares than lasted an average of 2 or more weeks, compared with 20.8% of those with moderate disease and 10% of those with mild disease. Also, 78.3% of preschoolers aged 4 to less than 6 years had missed one or more days of school in the previous 4 weeks: a mean of 5.1 days among those with mild AD, a mean of 7.3 days among those with moderate AD, and a mean of 12.1 days among those with severe disease.
Raj J. Chovatiya MD, PhD, of the department of dermatology at Northwestern University, Chicago, who was asked to comment on the study, said that infants and preschoolers remain an understudied group despite the high prevalence of AD in this age range. “The results of this study demonstrate a substantial burden of disease in this population, particularly among those with more severe disease,” said Dr. Chovatiya, who also directs the university’s Center for Eczema and Itch. “This includes longer and more frequent AD flares as well as high rates of inpatient hospitalization. These findings suggest that additional research is needed to better characterize disease burden and optimize outcomes for young children with AD.”
The study was funded by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi. Dr. Weidinger and other coauthors reported having received institutional research grants and consulting fees from many pharmaceutical companies that manufacture drugs used for the treatment of psoriasis and eczema.
Dr. Chovatiya disclosed that he has served as an advisory board member, consultant, speaker, and/or investigator for AbbVie, Arcutis, Arena, Beiersdorf, Bristol Myers Squibb, Dermavant, Eli Lilly, EPI Health, Incyte, L’Oréal, the National Eczema Association, Pfizer, Regeneron, Sanofi, and UCB.
INDIANAPOLIS – . Those are key findings from a large international web-based survey that was presented during a poster session at the annual meeting of the Society for Pediatric Dermatology.
“Improved knowledge of the AD-related burden may help reinforce the medical need in the pediatric population and contribute to better and earlier adequate management of the disease,” authors led by Stephan Weidinger , MD, PhD, vice head of the department of dermatology at University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany, wrote in the abstract.
For the study, Dr. Weidinger and colleagues evaluated 1,486 infants and preschoolers with AD aged 6 months to under 6 years, who participated in the Epidemiology of Children with Atopic Dermatitis Reporting on their Experience (EPI-CARE), an international, cross-sectional, web-based survey of children and adolescents. The study population resided in 18 countries from five regions of the world, including North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East/Eurasia, and East Asia. Parents or guardians answered all questions for infants/preschoolers younger than 4 years of age, while preschoolers aged 4 to younger than 6 years were asked to answer questions related to the impact of AD on their health-related quality of life.
AD severity was assessed using Patient Global Assessment (PtGA), where parents or guardians described their child’s eczema severity over the last week as mild, moderate, or severe. The researchers stratified outcomes by geographic region and AD severity, which included the following atopic comorbidities: worst itch, worst skin pain, and overall sleep disturbance in the past 24 hours as measured by the 0-10 numeric rating scale, where higher scores indicate worse severity; eczema-related hospitalization in the past 12 months; and frequency and average duration of flares over the past month.
The mean age of the study participants was 3 years and 61.6% had mild disease. The most common atopic comorbidities were hay fever, asthma, and seasonal allergies, and the incidence of atopic comorbidities increased with increasing AD severity. One or more atopic comorbidities was reported in 88.3% of patients with mild AD, compared with 92.1% of those with moderate disease and 95.8% of those with severe disease. In addition, infants and preschoolers with moderate or severe AD had worse itch, skin pain, and sleep disturbances over the past 24 hours, compared with those who had mild AD.
More than half of infants and preschoolers with severe AD (54.1%) were reported to have been hospitalized in the past 12 months (this ranged from 30.2% to 71.3% across regions), as did 35% of patients with moderate AD and 32.1% of those with mild AD. In addition, 50.6% of infants and preschoolers with severe AD had more than two flares in the past month, compared with 18.1% of those with moderate AD and 6.3% of those with mild disease.
In other findings, 50.7% of infants and preschoolers with severe AD had flares than lasted an average of 2 or more weeks, compared with 20.8% of those with moderate disease and 10% of those with mild disease. Also, 78.3% of preschoolers aged 4 to less than 6 years had missed one or more days of school in the previous 4 weeks: a mean of 5.1 days among those with mild AD, a mean of 7.3 days among those with moderate AD, and a mean of 12.1 days among those with severe disease.
Raj J. Chovatiya MD, PhD, of the department of dermatology at Northwestern University, Chicago, who was asked to comment on the study, said that infants and preschoolers remain an understudied group despite the high prevalence of AD in this age range. “The results of this study demonstrate a substantial burden of disease in this population, particularly among those with more severe disease,” said Dr. Chovatiya, who also directs the university’s Center for Eczema and Itch. “This includes longer and more frequent AD flares as well as high rates of inpatient hospitalization. These findings suggest that additional research is needed to better characterize disease burden and optimize outcomes for young children with AD.”
The study was funded by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi. Dr. Weidinger and other coauthors reported having received institutional research grants and consulting fees from many pharmaceutical companies that manufacture drugs used for the treatment of psoriasis and eczema.
Dr. Chovatiya disclosed that he has served as an advisory board member, consultant, speaker, and/or investigator for AbbVie, Arcutis, Arena, Beiersdorf, Bristol Myers Squibb, Dermavant, Eli Lilly, EPI Health, Incyte, L’Oréal, the National Eczema Association, Pfizer, Regeneron, Sanofi, and UCB.
AT SPD 2022
Gender surgeons on TikTok, Instagram: Appropriate or not?
A woman wearing purple surgical scrubs stares into a camera, looking frustrated, but doesn’t speak. Superimposed over her head is the text “just realized I only get to Yeet 4 Teets next week,” and a crying emoji. Rain appears to drip down over her while “Stan” by Eminem plays in the background.
That October 2020 TikTok by Sidhbh Gallagher, MD, a Miami-based plastic surgeon known as @gendersurgeon, had almost 10,000 likes and was tagged #topsurgery, #masculoplasty, #ftm, and #transman, among other hashtags.
“What health check do I have to get in preparation for teetus deletus?” is the question in another Dr. Gallagher TikTok. Dr. Gallagher is a prolific user of social media with over 268K TikTok followers and over 44K Instagram followers. Another Dr. Gallagher TikTok account, @thevagicianmd, has some 7K followers.
Another cosmetic surgeon, Tony Mangubat, MD, known as @Tikdoctony to his more than 200K followers, uses similar hashtags – like #teetusdeleetus – in his TikToks.
Clearly not medical terms, hashtags like #yeettheteet and #teetusdeletus are often used by the transgender community. The posts by Dr. Gallagher and Dr. Mangubat are part of an ever-growing wave of social media activity by medical professionals.
Plastic surgeons have never been shy about advertising their work – and many have taken to social media to do so, including showing before and after photos. A 2020 study published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that the majority of such surgeons, especially those in private practice, use social media.
especially to a younger-skewing audience.
Because of the limits on pornography and nudity of social media platforms, most social media posts by gender surgeons are about female-to-male (FTM) mastectomies, the fastest-growing transgender procedure.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) started separately tracking gender-affirmation procedures in 2015. That year, members reported doing 1,360 FTM procedures.
In 2020, the ASPS further separated procedures into additional categories. That year – when many surgeries were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic – FTM mastectomies grew by 15%, with 8,548 procedures performed, a far greater number than for any other transgender surgery, and a sixfold increase in the number of procedures done in 2015.
‘Gimmicky,’ but building community
Surgeons interviewed for this article said they use social media primarily to connect with patients and to educate in a light-hearted way.
While Dr. Gallagher acknowledges that using #teetusdeletus is “kind of gimmicky,” she said she doesn’t view it as unprofessional because she is “using the words of the community I serve.” Many of her patients have seen a medical professional “who just didn’t understand what it is to have gender dysphoria, didn’t understand what it is to be trans, so going from that experience to somebody who uses the same language as the community uses can be quite a comfortable experience,” she said in an interview.
Dr. Mangubat, a Seattle-area plastic surgeon who has been doing mastectomies for trans male patients since 1988, said he tailors his TikToks to that group. He likes TikTok – which he started using in early 2021 – because it has rules against bullying, swearing, and pornography, he told this news organization.
“It’s really not ... advertising ... it’s a community-building platform,” said Dr. Mangubat. “If you build community, people will trust you, and if you provide good accurate information, then people will be safer,” he said.
But, “I’m not telling them to come to me,” he stressed.
He always appears in scrubs and doesn’t do music, doesn’t dance, and doesn’t post before and after photos, but he still gets thousands – or sometimes hundreds of thousands – of likes.
His mission, he said, is to answer the community’s questions. “We’re reaching patients that have had their top surgery, that are going to have their top surgery, that are looking for how to get top surgery, that are just starting on testosterone, that haven’t started on testosterone – it’s the whole spectrum of patients,” said Dr. Mangubat.
Risks downplayed?
Other surgeons have expressed concern about ethical boundaries and the tendency of social media posts to downplay risks of what are life-changing procedures.
A 2020 study of YouTube videos on top surgery, for instance, concluded that “there were no unbiased videos by board-certified plastic surgeons explaining the risks, benefits, treatment options, and alternatives to surgery.”
Alison Clayton, MBBS, an Australian psychiatrist, said that social media posts can create false expectations because they emphasize style over substance, omit risks, and can create an unwarranted sense of trust in the doctor that can spill over into the physician-patient relationship.
Dr. Clayton also believes that “the gender-affirming surgical procedures being offered to these youth have a scant empirical evidence base for benefits to psychological health and well-being.”
It is known that a number of those who transition, using either opposite sex hormones and/or surgical procedures, later have regret and “detransition,” but statistics are lacking. It is also a controversial area, with many detransitioners saying they didn’t get appropriate care and weren’t properly assessed before being given hormones or heading to surgery.
Most of the gender surgeons interviewed for this article said they see almost “zero” regret if proper mental health evaluations are performed before surgery, and they added, the procedures can relieve dysphoria.
Nevertheless, posts should not be “all fun and games,” said Josef Hadeed, MD, chair of the ASPS Patient Safety Committee and Public Education Committee and a member of its Social Media Subcommittee.
“When someone makes a decision to undergo a surgical procedure, they should be very aware there are some risks and potentially serious risks involved,” he told this news organization.
The ASPS “wants members to use social media in a judicious manner” in a way that educates the public and encourages patients to learn about a procedure and to consult with board-certified plastic surgeons, said Dr. Hadeed.
The Beverly Hills, Calif.–based surgeon does gender-affirmation procedures himself and uses Instagram, on which he has 53.4K followers, to educate patients and highlight his work using before and after photos.
“I like to think I do it in a very tasteful way,” Dr. Hadeed said. “It’s not in a way that’s sort of suggestive to patients, including minors, that this is something they need to get done, because if they are thinking about getting it done there is a lengthy process that they have to go through before they even set foot in our office.”
And he said “it may be inappropriate” to use certain hashtags or terminology, “even if it does ‘speak’ to the patients. Professionally, plastic surgeons should maintain a higher standard and maintain that even with their social media.”
Marci Bowers, MD, a gynecologic surgeon who performs gender-affirming procedures, and who is transgender herself, agreed.
“Some of the posts out there seem sensational, distasteful, and risk compromising patient confidentiality,” Dr. Bowers said in an interview.
“Much of this seemed to cross the line of good taste and appropriateness,” added Dr. Bowers, who is the incoming president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). “Creating an idealized video without addressing risk is inappropriate and misleading,” she stressed.
“These surgeons would perhaps better serve their clients by focusing on and improving their clinical care,” she added.
Dr. Bowers said that although WPATH has not addressed social media use in the past, its ethics committee will be taking on the topic this year.
Social media posts about gender-affirming procedures “don’t usually talk about the barriers, they don’t talk about bad outcomes, they tend to just focus on success stories,” said Gwendolyn P. Quinn, MD, a bioethicist, and Livia S. Wan, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
But she also sees some positives. The posts can help normalize gender-affirming surgery, and post-procedure photos might “help people realize that they can’t just have everything exactly the way they want it to be,” said Dr. Quinn.
Does social media influence or educate?
Studies have documented the power of social media to influence desire and decisionmaking, especially when it comes to cosmetic surgery.
“The use of social media creates a vague area between patient confidentiality and entertainment,” writes Nisha Gupta and colleagues of the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in a review published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal.
While social media use is on the rise by plastic surgeons and has the potential to educate, it has also “compromised the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship,” they add.
Surgeons can use tools to place themselves higher in searches, and patients might assume that those who have hundreds of thousands of followers “are the most qualified or trusted, although this is not always the case,” they note.
Markus Rach, PhD, a researcher with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, analyzed the impact of TikTok’s plastic surgery content on how adolescents perceived themselves and how it influenced their decision to have a procedure.
Most TikTok users are under age 24, and #plasticsurgery has a huge viewership with some 3.8 billion views at the time of publication, said Dr. Rach. He found that influencers tended to make adolescents feel bad and want surgery but that plastic surgeons had a moderating effect on both negative feelings and the intent to get surgery.
Dr. Bowers said that, despite her concerns, she does not “believe social media influences like TikTok and Facebook create artificial demand.”
However, Dr. Mangubat said social media can make plastic surgery seem enticing. “It can happen, and it does happen,” he said, but he added that’s true for any cosmetic procedure, not just gender-affirming surgery.
The pitfall with social media is that “patients are being sold a vision of themselves that may or may not be possible,” he observed.
Dr. Quinn worries less about people being talked into a procedure and more about those who don’t want surgery.
“There are people who identify as transgender but do not feel the need to change any parts of their body,” she said. “And that should be okay.”
Concerns about minors
New guidance from WPATH, their Standards of Care (SOC) 8 – the first update in 10 years – are due to be published this month. As reported by this news organization, and as stated in the draft of the SOC 8 published for comment in December 2021, the organization has recommended lowering the age for “top” surgery from 18 to 15 years.
Dr. Clayton has concerns about young people with gender dysphoria, who she says are “often vulnerable youth, many of whom have comorbid psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.”
“This may contribute to a greater vulnerability of this population to undue influence,” added Dr. Clayton.
Sean Devitt, MD, and Jeffrey M. Kenkel, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, expressed concern that social media posts by plastic surgeons could be especially dangerous for young people.
“Given that the prefrontal cortex, which is largely responsible for impulse control, is not fully developed until the age of 25, is it ethical to allow younger patients to make life-lasting decisions under the guise of education?” they ask in a commentary on the review by Ms. Gupta and colleagues about plastic surgeons’ use of social media. The review did not focus on gender-affirmation procedures.
Many surgeons – but not all – steer clear of genital (“bottom”) surgeries in minors. However, bilateral mastectomies are being performed in those as young as age 13 based on surgeons’ risk-benefit calculus for the patient.
A study, published in May in the Annals of Plastic Surgery, showed there was a 13-fold increase in the number of bilateral mastectomies performed on under-18s between January 2013 and the end of July 2020. Of the 209 minors (age 12-17) who had the surgery, two (0.95%) expressed regret by the time of follow-up, at 3 and 7 years post-operatively, but neither had reversal surgery.
A small 2018 study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, among trans males who had top surgery found high rates of satisfaction, though one of the 68 patients reported experiencing regret “sometimes.” The mean age of patients in the surgical group was 19 years and the youngest patient was 14.
“Most of us who practice heavily in this field will make exceptions, not for genital surgery but typically for top surgery,” said Dr. Gallagher, who added that she operates on one minor [under 18] a month, while doing some 400-500 gender-affirmative surgeries a year. For some patients, “doing nothing isn’t necessarily a no-harm option,” said Dr. Gallagher.
“Arbitrarily picking the age of 18 and sentencing that patient to another year of dysphoria” might not be the best risk-benefit calculus, she said.
Dr. Mangubat agrees, especially if, for example, a trans man develops double D breasts by age 14. “You’ve sentenced them to 4 years of misery” before they can get insurance coverage, he said. His youngest top surgery patient was age 15. He said the person’s family, mental health professional, and primary care physician were all in favor of the procedure.
Dr. Mangubat also noted that some insurers, such as Kaiser Permanente, now cover bilateral mastectomy starting at age 16.
Dr. Quinn, the bioethicist, said not every minor or young adult is equipped to make the best long-term decisions.
She works with younger patients who have cancer, for example, and said her suggestions that they consider fertility preservation are often met with protestations “that they will never have children.”
The same issue arises with transgender patients. They may not want to think about having children or issues such as breast feeding while in their teens or early 20s. “But you know from your experience that they may feel differently in 10 years, but they’re just not in the mind frame to think about it,” said Dr. Quinn.
Some young people may accurately never want children, said Dr. Quinn, “but there is a lack of maturity shown when a person just shuts down a conversation and won’t even listen to infertility threats and potential preservation options.”
Concerns about regret?
Dr. Gallagher said she follows the WPATH standards, which require mental health evaluations, and as a result, “the risk of regret is incredibly low.”
However, one of Dr. Gallagher’s patients who detransitioned, Grace, who goes by @HormoneHangover on social media, said she has taken umbrage at some of the Miami surgeon’s TikToks, including one, “Why might some patients feel sad after surgery ... despite wanting it for so long??”
“This is actually not uncommon with ANY kind of surgery, but it’s temporary!” said the TikTok text. Dr. Gallagher is wearing a red dress and heels and flips her hair while the text scrolls above her.
But to Grace, the TikTok “really bothered me, because sometimes there is regret, and I think that sort of advertising paints a falsely rosy picture,” she said in an interview.
And it is emblematic of what she feels was Dr. Gallagher’s “breezy” approach to explaining the procedure to her. “The surgery itself was a shocking experience for me,” she said. “The physical experience was very jarring. It was very disturbing in a way I hadn’t anticipated or understood in advance,” said Grace.
Dr. Mangubat, who does 100 bilateral mastectomies in trans patients a year, said he goes to great lengths to ensure his patients are good candidates. Everyone – even those who self-pay – must have counseling, and if the individual seems to be considering the surgery because it’s “trendy,” he steers clear.
“If they’re not serious about it, I don’t want to operate on them,” said Dr. Mangubat. “There have been maybe two patients who have come back” to detransition, he said.
Dr. Hadeed also said he has not seen regret. He attributes this to his vetting process, which includes investigating the background of the mental health professionals who write support letters.
“We’ve turned away a lot of patients from our office either because of inadequate letters or because the person writing the letter just doesn’t really have any proper credentials,” he said.
Is social media use by plastic surgeons the new normal?
With so many plastic surgeons – including those who perform transgender procedures – using social media, it may increasingly be just part of doing business.
“Undoubtedly gender surgery teams will have a greater presence on social media in the future,” write Alireza Hamidian Jahromi, MD, and a colleague of the plastic surgery department at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, in a letter published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Kyle R. Latack, MD, and colleagues at the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan, have studied the use of social media by the transgender community and write that they believe “there should be an increased effort to develop high-quality and unbiased resources for patient education that can be made [available] on social media.”
Dr. Gallagher said TikTok helped her erase fear. “A bilateral mastectomy is a scary surgery for an 18-year-old or a 20-year-old,” she said, “but they have to do it for their well-being.”
“That is a criticism I’ve heard – that I seek to minimize it or that I’m flippant about it,” said Dr. Gallagher.
For “top surgery the risk profile is pretty low,” she said, “so what I try to do is educate people that it’s maybe not as scary a procedure as they think.”
Dr. Mangubat, however, is concerned about some of what he sees, especially the explosion of surgeons offering gender-affirming procedures. “Now everybody wants a piece of it,” he said.
“Let’s face it, it’s money now. You get paid for doing this surgery. Hospitals get paid a lot of money for their operating rooms for doing the surgery,” said Dr. Mangubat. “There are some surgeons who believe the transgender community is just another market.”
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
A woman wearing purple surgical scrubs stares into a camera, looking frustrated, but doesn’t speak. Superimposed over her head is the text “just realized I only get to Yeet 4 Teets next week,” and a crying emoji. Rain appears to drip down over her while “Stan” by Eminem plays in the background.
That October 2020 TikTok by Sidhbh Gallagher, MD, a Miami-based plastic surgeon known as @gendersurgeon, had almost 10,000 likes and was tagged #topsurgery, #masculoplasty, #ftm, and #transman, among other hashtags.
“What health check do I have to get in preparation for teetus deletus?” is the question in another Dr. Gallagher TikTok. Dr. Gallagher is a prolific user of social media with over 268K TikTok followers and over 44K Instagram followers. Another Dr. Gallagher TikTok account, @thevagicianmd, has some 7K followers.
Another cosmetic surgeon, Tony Mangubat, MD, known as @Tikdoctony to his more than 200K followers, uses similar hashtags – like #teetusdeleetus – in his TikToks.
Clearly not medical terms, hashtags like #yeettheteet and #teetusdeletus are often used by the transgender community. The posts by Dr. Gallagher and Dr. Mangubat are part of an ever-growing wave of social media activity by medical professionals.
Plastic surgeons have never been shy about advertising their work – and many have taken to social media to do so, including showing before and after photos. A 2020 study published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that the majority of such surgeons, especially those in private practice, use social media.
especially to a younger-skewing audience.
Because of the limits on pornography and nudity of social media platforms, most social media posts by gender surgeons are about female-to-male (FTM) mastectomies, the fastest-growing transgender procedure.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) started separately tracking gender-affirmation procedures in 2015. That year, members reported doing 1,360 FTM procedures.
In 2020, the ASPS further separated procedures into additional categories. That year – when many surgeries were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic – FTM mastectomies grew by 15%, with 8,548 procedures performed, a far greater number than for any other transgender surgery, and a sixfold increase in the number of procedures done in 2015.
‘Gimmicky,’ but building community
Surgeons interviewed for this article said they use social media primarily to connect with patients and to educate in a light-hearted way.
While Dr. Gallagher acknowledges that using #teetusdeletus is “kind of gimmicky,” she said she doesn’t view it as unprofessional because she is “using the words of the community I serve.” Many of her patients have seen a medical professional “who just didn’t understand what it is to have gender dysphoria, didn’t understand what it is to be trans, so going from that experience to somebody who uses the same language as the community uses can be quite a comfortable experience,” she said in an interview.
Dr. Mangubat, a Seattle-area plastic surgeon who has been doing mastectomies for trans male patients since 1988, said he tailors his TikToks to that group. He likes TikTok – which he started using in early 2021 – because it has rules against bullying, swearing, and pornography, he told this news organization.
“It’s really not ... advertising ... it’s a community-building platform,” said Dr. Mangubat. “If you build community, people will trust you, and if you provide good accurate information, then people will be safer,” he said.
But, “I’m not telling them to come to me,” he stressed.
He always appears in scrubs and doesn’t do music, doesn’t dance, and doesn’t post before and after photos, but he still gets thousands – or sometimes hundreds of thousands – of likes.
His mission, he said, is to answer the community’s questions. “We’re reaching patients that have had their top surgery, that are going to have their top surgery, that are looking for how to get top surgery, that are just starting on testosterone, that haven’t started on testosterone – it’s the whole spectrum of patients,” said Dr. Mangubat.
Risks downplayed?
Other surgeons have expressed concern about ethical boundaries and the tendency of social media posts to downplay risks of what are life-changing procedures.
A 2020 study of YouTube videos on top surgery, for instance, concluded that “there were no unbiased videos by board-certified plastic surgeons explaining the risks, benefits, treatment options, and alternatives to surgery.”
Alison Clayton, MBBS, an Australian psychiatrist, said that social media posts can create false expectations because they emphasize style over substance, omit risks, and can create an unwarranted sense of trust in the doctor that can spill over into the physician-patient relationship.
Dr. Clayton also believes that “the gender-affirming surgical procedures being offered to these youth have a scant empirical evidence base for benefits to psychological health and well-being.”
It is known that a number of those who transition, using either opposite sex hormones and/or surgical procedures, later have regret and “detransition,” but statistics are lacking. It is also a controversial area, with many detransitioners saying they didn’t get appropriate care and weren’t properly assessed before being given hormones or heading to surgery.
Most of the gender surgeons interviewed for this article said they see almost “zero” regret if proper mental health evaluations are performed before surgery, and they added, the procedures can relieve dysphoria.
Nevertheless, posts should not be “all fun and games,” said Josef Hadeed, MD, chair of the ASPS Patient Safety Committee and Public Education Committee and a member of its Social Media Subcommittee.
“When someone makes a decision to undergo a surgical procedure, they should be very aware there are some risks and potentially serious risks involved,” he told this news organization.
The ASPS “wants members to use social media in a judicious manner” in a way that educates the public and encourages patients to learn about a procedure and to consult with board-certified plastic surgeons, said Dr. Hadeed.
The Beverly Hills, Calif.–based surgeon does gender-affirmation procedures himself and uses Instagram, on which he has 53.4K followers, to educate patients and highlight his work using before and after photos.
“I like to think I do it in a very tasteful way,” Dr. Hadeed said. “It’s not in a way that’s sort of suggestive to patients, including minors, that this is something they need to get done, because if they are thinking about getting it done there is a lengthy process that they have to go through before they even set foot in our office.”
And he said “it may be inappropriate” to use certain hashtags or terminology, “even if it does ‘speak’ to the patients. Professionally, plastic surgeons should maintain a higher standard and maintain that even with their social media.”
Marci Bowers, MD, a gynecologic surgeon who performs gender-affirming procedures, and who is transgender herself, agreed.
“Some of the posts out there seem sensational, distasteful, and risk compromising patient confidentiality,” Dr. Bowers said in an interview.
“Much of this seemed to cross the line of good taste and appropriateness,” added Dr. Bowers, who is the incoming president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). “Creating an idealized video without addressing risk is inappropriate and misleading,” she stressed.
“These surgeons would perhaps better serve their clients by focusing on and improving their clinical care,” she added.
Dr. Bowers said that although WPATH has not addressed social media use in the past, its ethics committee will be taking on the topic this year.
Social media posts about gender-affirming procedures “don’t usually talk about the barriers, they don’t talk about bad outcomes, they tend to just focus on success stories,” said Gwendolyn P. Quinn, MD, a bioethicist, and Livia S. Wan, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
But she also sees some positives. The posts can help normalize gender-affirming surgery, and post-procedure photos might “help people realize that they can’t just have everything exactly the way they want it to be,” said Dr. Quinn.
Does social media influence or educate?
Studies have documented the power of social media to influence desire and decisionmaking, especially when it comes to cosmetic surgery.
“The use of social media creates a vague area between patient confidentiality and entertainment,” writes Nisha Gupta and colleagues of the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in a review published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal.
While social media use is on the rise by plastic surgeons and has the potential to educate, it has also “compromised the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship,” they add.
Surgeons can use tools to place themselves higher in searches, and patients might assume that those who have hundreds of thousands of followers “are the most qualified or trusted, although this is not always the case,” they note.
Markus Rach, PhD, a researcher with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, analyzed the impact of TikTok’s plastic surgery content on how adolescents perceived themselves and how it influenced their decision to have a procedure.
Most TikTok users are under age 24, and #plasticsurgery has a huge viewership with some 3.8 billion views at the time of publication, said Dr. Rach. He found that influencers tended to make adolescents feel bad and want surgery but that plastic surgeons had a moderating effect on both negative feelings and the intent to get surgery.
Dr. Bowers said that, despite her concerns, she does not “believe social media influences like TikTok and Facebook create artificial demand.”
However, Dr. Mangubat said social media can make plastic surgery seem enticing. “It can happen, and it does happen,” he said, but he added that’s true for any cosmetic procedure, not just gender-affirming surgery.
The pitfall with social media is that “patients are being sold a vision of themselves that may or may not be possible,” he observed.
Dr. Quinn worries less about people being talked into a procedure and more about those who don’t want surgery.
“There are people who identify as transgender but do not feel the need to change any parts of their body,” she said. “And that should be okay.”
Concerns about minors
New guidance from WPATH, their Standards of Care (SOC) 8 – the first update in 10 years – are due to be published this month. As reported by this news organization, and as stated in the draft of the SOC 8 published for comment in December 2021, the organization has recommended lowering the age for “top” surgery from 18 to 15 years.
Dr. Clayton has concerns about young people with gender dysphoria, who she says are “often vulnerable youth, many of whom have comorbid psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.”
“This may contribute to a greater vulnerability of this population to undue influence,” added Dr. Clayton.
Sean Devitt, MD, and Jeffrey M. Kenkel, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, expressed concern that social media posts by plastic surgeons could be especially dangerous for young people.
“Given that the prefrontal cortex, which is largely responsible for impulse control, is not fully developed until the age of 25, is it ethical to allow younger patients to make life-lasting decisions under the guise of education?” they ask in a commentary on the review by Ms. Gupta and colleagues about plastic surgeons’ use of social media. The review did not focus on gender-affirmation procedures.
Many surgeons – but not all – steer clear of genital (“bottom”) surgeries in minors. However, bilateral mastectomies are being performed in those as young as age 13 based on surgeons’ risk-benefit calculus for the patient.
A study, published in May in the Annals of Plastic Surgery, showed there was a 13-fold increase in the number of bilateral mastectomies performed on under-18s between January 2013 and the end of July 2020. Of the 209 minors (age 12-17) who had the surgery, two (0.95%) expressed regret by the time of follow-up, at 3 and 7 years post-operatively, but neither had reversal surgery.
A small 2018 study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, among trans males who had top surgery found high rates of satisfaction, though one of the 68 patients reported experiencing regret “sometimes.” The mean age of patients in the surgical group was 19 years and the youngest patient was 14.
“Most of us who practice heavily in this field will make exceptions, not for genital surgery but typically for top surgery,” said Dr. Gallagher, who added that she operates on one minor [under 18] a month, while doing some 400-500 gender-affirmative surgeries a year. For some patients, “doing nothing isn’t necessarily a no-harm option,” said Dr. Gallagher.
“Arbitrarily picking the age of 18 and sentencing that patient to another year of dysphoria” might not be the best risk-benefit calculus, she said.
Dr. Mangubat agrees, especially if, for example, a trans man develops double D breasts by age 14. “You’ve sentenced them to 4 years of misery” before they can get insurance coverage, he said. His youngest top surgery patient was age 15. He said the person’s family, mental health professional, and primary care physician were all in favor of the procedure.
Dr. Mangubat also noted that some insurers, such as Kaiser Permanente, now cover bilateral mastectomy starting at age 16.
Dr. Quinn, the bioethicist, said not every minor or young adult is equipped to make the best long-term decisions.
She works with younger patients who have cancer, for example, and said her suggestions that they consider fertility preservation are often met with protestations “that they will never have children.”
The same issue arises with transgender patients. They may not want to think about having children or issues such as breast feeding while in their teens or early 20s. “But you know from your experience that they may feel differently in 10 years, but they’re just not in the mind frame to think about it,” said Dr. Quinn.
Some young people may accurately never want children, said Dr. Quinn, “but there is a lack of maturity shown when a person just shuts down a conversation and won’t even listen to infertility threats and potential preservation options.”
Concerns about regret?
Dr. Gallagher said she follows the WPATH standards, which require mental health evaluations, and as a result, “the risk of regret is incredibly low.”
However, one of Dr. Gallagher’s patients who detransitioned, Grace, who goes by @HormoneHangover on social media, said she has taken umbrage at some of the Miami surgeon’s TikToks, including one, “Why might some patients feel sad after surgery ... despite wanting it for so long??”
“This is actually not uncommon with ANY kind of surgery, but it’s temporary!” said the TikTok text. Dr. Gallagher is wearing a red dress and heels and flips her hair while the text scrolls above her.
But to Grace, the TikTok “really bothered me, because sometimes there is regret, and I think that sort of advertising paints a falsely rosy picture,” she said in an interview.
And it is emblematic of what she feels was Dr. Gallagher’s “breezy” approach to explaining the procedure to her. “The surgery itself was a shocking experience for me,” she said. “The physical experience was very jarring. It was very disturbing in a way I hadn’t anticipated or understood in advance,” said Grace.
Dr. Mangubat, who does 100 bilateral mastectomies in trans patients a year, said he goes to great lengths to ensure his patients are good candidates. Everyone – even those who self-pay – must have counseling, and if the individual seems to be considering the surgery because it’s “trendy,” he steers clear.
“If they’re not serious about it, I don’t want to operate on them,” said Dr. Mangubat. “There have been maybe two patients who have come back” to detransition, he said.
Dr. Hadeed also said he has not seen regret. He attributes this to his vetting process, which includes investigating the background of the mental health professionals who write support letters.
“We’ve turned away a lot of patients from our office either because of inadequate letters or because the person writing the letter just doesn’t really have any proper credentials,” he said.
Is social media use by plastic surgeons the new normal?
With so many plastic surgeons – including those who perform transgender procedures – using social media, it may increasingly be just part of doing business.
“Undoubtedly gender surgery teams will have a greater presence on social media in the future,” write Alireza Hamidian Jahromi, MD, and a colleague of the plastic surgery department at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, in a letter published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Kyle R. Latack, MD, and colleagues at the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan, have studied the use of social media by the transgender community and write that they believe “there should be an increased effort to develop high-quality and unbiased resources for patient education that can be made [available] on social media.”
Dr. Gallagher said TikTok helped her erase fear. “A bilateral mastectomy is a scary surgery for an 18-year-old or a 20-year-old,” she said, “but they have to do it for their well-being.”
“That is a criticism I’ve heard – that I seek to minimize it or that I’m flippant about it,” said Dr. Gallagher.
For “top surgery the risk profile is pretty low,” she said, “so what I try to do is educate people that it’s maybe not as scary a procedure as they think.”
Dr. Mangubat, however, is concerned about some of what he sees, especially the explosion of surgeons offering gender-affirming procedures. “Now everybody wants a piece of it,” he said.
“Let’s face it, it’s money now. You get paid for doing this surgery. Hospitals get paid a lot of money for their operating rooms for doing the surgery,” said Dr. Mangubat. “There are some surgeons who believe the transgender community is just another market.”
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
A woman wearing purple surgical scrubs stares into a camera, looking frustrated, but doesn’t speak. Superimposed over her head is the text “just realized I only get to Yeet 4 Teets next week,” and a crying emoji. Rain appears to drip down over her while “Stan” by Eminem plays in the background.
That October 2020 TikTok by Sidhbh Gallagher, MD, a Miami-based plastic surgeon known as @gendersurgeon, had almost 10,000 likes and was tagged #topsurgery, #masculoplasty, #ftm, and #transman, among other hashtags.
“What health check do I have to get in preparation for teetus deletus?” is the question in another Dr. Gallagher TikTok. Dr. Gallagher is a prolific user of social media with over 268K TikTok followers and over 44K Instagram followers. Another Dr. Gallagher TikTok account, @thevagicianmd, has some 7K followers.
Another cosmetic surgeon, Tony Mangubat, MD, known as @Tikdoctony to his more than 200K followers, uses similar hashtags – like #teetusdeleetus – in his TikToks.
Clearly not medical terms, hashtags like #yeettheteet and #teetusdeletus are often used by the transgender community. The posts by Dr. Gallagher and Dr. Mangubat are part of an ever-growing wave of social media activity by medical professionals.
Plastic surgeons have never been shy about advertising their work – and many have taken to social media to do so, including showing before and after photos. A 2020 study published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that the majority of such surgeons, especially those in private practice, use social media.
especially to a younger-skewing audience.
Because of the limits on pornography and nudity of social media platforms, most social media posts by gender surgeons are about female-to-male (FTM) mastectomies, the fastest-growing transgender procedure.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) started separately tracking gender-affirmation procedures in 2015. That year, members reported doing 1,360 FTM procedures.
In 2020, the ASPS further separated procedures into additional categories. That year – when many surgeries were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic – FTM mastectomies grew by 15%, with 8,548 procedures performed, a far greater number than for any other transgender surgery, and a sixfold increase in the number of procedures done in 2015.
‘Gimmicky,’ but building community
Surgeons interviewed for this article said they use social media primarily to connect with patients and to educate in a light-hearted way.
While Dr. Gallagher acknowledges that using #teetusdeletus is “kind of gimmicky,” she said she doesn’t view it as unprofessional because she is “using the words of the community I serve.” Many of her patients have seen a medical professional “who just didn’t understand what it is to have gender dysphoria, didn’t understand what it is to be trans, so going from that experience to somebody who uses the same language as the community uses can be quite a comfortable experience,” she said in an interview.
Dr. Mangubat, a Seattle-area plastic surgeon who has been doing mastectomies for trans male patients since 1988, said he tailors his TikToks to that group. He likes TikTok – which he started using in early 2021 – because it has rules against bullying, swearing, and pornography, he told this news organization.
“It’s really not ... advertising ... it’s a community-building platform,” said Dr. Mangubat. “If you build community, people will trust you, and if you provide good accurate information, then people will be safer,” he said.
But, “I’m not telling them to come to me,” he stressed.
He always appears in scrubs and doesn’t do music, doesn’t dance, and doesn’t post before and after photos, but he still gets thousands – or sometimes hundreds of thousands – of likes.
His mission, he said, is to answer the community’s questions. “We’re reaching patients that have had their top surgery, that are going to have their top surgery, that are looking for how to get top surgery, that are just starting on testosterone, that haven’t started on testosterone – it’s the whole spectrum of patients,” said Dr. Mangubat.
Risks downplayed?
Other surgeons have expressed concern about ethical boundaries and the tendency of social media posts to downplay risks of what are life-changing procedures.
A 2020 study of YouTube videos on top surgery, for instance, concluded that “there were no unbiased videos by board-certified plastic surgeons explaining the risks, benefits, treatment options, and alternatives to surgery.”
Alison Clayton, MBBS, an Australian psychiatrist, said that social media posts can create false expectations because they emphasize style over substance, omit risks, and can create an unwarranted sense of trust in the doctor that can spill over into the physician-patient relationship.
Dr. Clayton also believes that “the gender-affirming surgical procedures being offered to these youth have a scant empirical evidence base for benefits to psychological health and well-being.”
It is known that a number of those who transition, using either opposite sex hormones and/or surgical procedures, later have regret and “detransition,” but statistics are lacking. It is also a controversial area, with many detransitioners saying they didn’t get appropriate care and weren’t properly assessed before being given hormones or heading to surgery.
Most of the gender surgeons interviewed for this article said they see almost “zero” regret if proper mental health evaluations are performed before surgery, and they added, the procedures can relieve dysphoria.
Nevertheless, posts should not be “all fun and games,” said Josef Hadeed, MD, chair of the ASPS Patient Safety Committee and Public Education Committee and a member of its Social Media Subcommittee.
“When someone makes a decision to undergo a surgical procedure, they should be very aware there are some risks and potentially serious risks involved,” he told this news organization.
The ASPS “wants members to use social media in a judicious manner” in a way that educates the public and encourages patients to learn about a procedure and to consult with board-certified plastic surgeons, said Dr. Hadeed.
The Beverly Hills, Calif.–based surgeon does gender-affirmation procedures himself and uses Instagram, on which he has 53.4K followers, to educate patients and highlight his work using before and after photos.
“I like to think I do it in a very tasteful way,” Dr. Hadeed said. “It’s not in a way that’s sort of suggestive to patients, including minors, that this is something they need to get done, because if they are thinking about getting it done there is a lengthy process that they have to go through before they even set foot in our office.”
And he said “it may be inappropriate” to use certain hashtags or terminology, “even if it does ‘speak’ to the patients. Professionally, plastic surgeons should maintain a higher standard and maintain that even with their social media.”
Marci Bowers, MD, a gynecologic surgeon who performs gender-affirming procedures, and who is transgender herself, agreed.
“Some of the posts out there seem sensational, distasteful, and risk compromising patient confidentiality,” Dr. Bowers said in an interview.
“Much of this seemed to cross the line of good taste and appropriateness,” added Dr. Bowers, who is the incoming president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). “Creating an idealized video without addressing risk is inappropriate and misleading,” she stressed.
“These surgeons would perhaps better serve their clients by focusing on and improving their clinical care,” she added.
Dr. Bowers said that although WPATH has not addressed social media use in the past, its ethics committee will be taking on the topic this year.
Social media posts about gender-affirming procedures “don’t usually talk about the barriers, they don’t talk about bad outcomes, they tend to just focus on success stories,” said Gwendolyn P. Quinn, MD, a bioethicist, and Livia S. Wan, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
But she also sees some positives. The posts can help normalize gender-affirming surgery, and post-procedure photos might “help people realize that they can’t just have everything exactly the way they want it to be,” said Dr. Quinn.
Does social media influence or educate?
Studies have documented the power of social media to influence desire and decisionmaking, especially when it comes to cosmetic surgery.
“The use of social media creates a vague area between patient confidentiality and entertainment,” writes Nisha Gupta and colleagues of the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in a review published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal.
While social media use is on the rise by plastic surgeons and has the potential to educate, it has also “compromised the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship,” they add.
Surgeons can use tools to place themselves higher in searches, and patients might assume that those who have hundreds of thousands of followers “are the most qualified or trusted, although this is not always the case,” they note.
Markus Rach, PhD, a researcher with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, analyzed the impact of TikTok’s plastic surgery content on how adolescents perceived themselves and how it influenced their decision to have a procedure.
Most TikTok users are under age 24, and #plasticsurgery has a huge viewership with some 3.8 billion views at the time of publication, said Dr. Rach. He found that influencers tended to make adolescents feel bad and want surgery but that plastic surgeons had a moderating effect on both negative feelings and the intent to get surgery.
Dr. Bowers said that, despite her concerns, she does not “believe social media influences like TikTok and Facebook create artificial demand.”
However, Dr. Mangubat said social media can make plastic surgery seem enticing. “It can happen, and it does happen,” he said, but he added that’s true for any cosmetic procedure, not just gender-affirming surgery.
The pitfall with social media is that “patients are being sold a vision of themselves that may or may not be possible,” he observed.
Dr. Quinn worries less about people being talked into a procedure and more about those who don’t want surgery.
“There are people who identify as transgender but do not feel the need to change any parts of their body,” she said. “And that should be okay.”
Concerns about minors
New guidance from WPATH, their Standards of Care (SOC) 8 – the first update in 10 years – are due to be published this month. As reported by this news organization, and as stated in the draft of the SOC 8 published for comment in December 2021, the organization has recommended lowering the age for “top” surgery from 18 to 15 years.
Dr. Clayton has concerns about young people with gender dysphoria, who she says are “often vulnerable youth, many of whom have comorbid psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.”
“This may contribute to a greater vulnerability of this population to undue influence,” added Dr. Clayton.
Sean Devitt, MD, and Jeffrey M. Kenkel, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, expressed concern that social media posts by plastic surgeons could be especially dangerous for young people.
“Given that the prefrontal cortex, which is largely responsible for impulse control, is not fully developed until the age of 25, is it ethical to allow younger patients to make life-lasting decisions under the guise of education?” they ask in a commentary on the review by Ms. Gupta and colleagues about plastic surgeons’ use of social media. The review did not focus on gender-affirmation procedures.
Many surgeons – but not all – steer clear of genital (“bottom”) surgeries in minors. However, bilateral mastectomies are being performed in those as young as age 13 based on surgeons’ risk-benefit calculus for the patient.
A study, published in May in the Annals of Plastic Surgery, showed there was a 13-fold increase in the number of bilateral mastectomies performed on under-18s between January 2013 and the end of July 2020. Of the 209 minors (age 12-17) who had the surgery, two (0.95%) expressed regret by the time of follow-up, at 3 and 7 years post-operatively, but neither had reversal surgery.
A small 2018 study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, among trans males who had top surgery found high rates of satisfaction, though one of the 68 patients reported experiencing regret “sometimes.” The mean age of patients in the surgical group was 19 years and the youngest patient was 14.
“Most of us who practice heavily in this field will make exceptions, not for genital surgery but typically for top surgery,” said Dr. Gallagher, who added that she operates on one minor [under 18] a month, while doing some 400-500 gender-affirmative surgeries a year. For some patients, “doing nothing isn’t necessarily a no-harm option,” said Dr. Gallagher.
“Arbitrarily picking the age of 18 and sentencing that patient to another year of dysphoria” might not be the best risk-benefit calculus, she said.
Dr. Mangubat agrees, especially if, for example, a trans man develops double D breasts by age 14. “You’ve sentenced them to 4 years of misery” before they can get insurance coverage, he said. His youngest top surgery patient was age 15. He said the person’s family, mental health professional, and primary care physician were all in favor of the procedure.
Dr. Mangubat also noted that some insurers, such as Kaiser Permanente, now cover bilateral mastectomy starting at age 16.
Dr. Quinn, the bioethicist, said not every minor or young adult is equipped to make the best long-term decisions.
She works with younger patients who have cancer, for example, and said her suggestions that they consider fertility preservation are often met with protestations “that they will never have children.”
The same issue arises with transgender patients. They may not want to think about having children or issues such as breast feeding while in their teens or early 20s. “But you know from your experience that they may feel differently in 10 years, but they’re just not in the mind frame to think about it,” said Dr. Quinn.
Some young people may accurately never want children, said Dr. Quinn, “but there is a lack of maturity shown when a person just shuts down a conversation and won’t even listen to infertility threats and potential preservation options.”
Concerns about regret?
Dr. Gallagher said she follows the WPATH standards, which require mental health evaluations, and as a result, “the risk of regret is incredibly low.”
However, one of Dr. Gallagher’s patients who detransitioned, Grace, who goes by @HormoneHangover on social media, said she has taken umbrage at some of the Miami surgeon’s TikToks, including one, “Why might some patients feel sad after surgery ... despite wanting it for so long??”
“This is actually not uncommon with ANY kind of surgery, but it’s temporary!” said the TikTok text. Dr. Gallagher is wearing a red dress and heels and flips her hair while the text scrolls above her.
But to Grace, the TikTok “really bothered me, because sometimes there is regret, and I think that sort of advertising paints a falsely rosy picture,” she said in an interview.
And it is emblematic of what she feels was Dr. Gallagher’s “breezy” approach to explaining the procedure to her. “The surgery itself was a shocking experience for me,” she said. “The physical experience was very jarring. It was very disturbing in a way I hadn’t anticipated or understood in advance,” said Grace.
Dr. Mangubat, who does 100 bilateral mastectomies in trans patients a year, said he goes to great lengths to ensure his patients are good candidates. Everyone – even those who self-pay – must have counseling, and if the individual seems to be considering the surgery because it’s “trendy,” he steers clear.
“If they’re not serious about it, I don’t want to operate on them,” said Dr. Mangubat. “There have been maybe two patients who have come back” to detransition, he said.
Dr. Hadeed also said he has not seen regret. He attributes this to his vetting process, which includes investigating the background of the mental health professionals who write support letters.
“We’ve turned away a lot of patients from our office either because of inadequate letters or because the person writing the letter just doesn’t really have any proper credentials,” he said.
Is social media use by plastic surgeons the new normal?
With so many plastic surgeons – including those who perform transgender procedures – using social media, it may increasingly be just part of doing business.
“Undoubtedly gender surgery teams will have a greater presence on social media in the future,” write Alireza Hamidian Jahromi, MD, and a colleague of the plastic surgery department at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, in a letter published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Kyle R. Latack, MD, and colleagues at the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan, have studied the use of social media by the transgender community and write that they believe “there should be an increased effort to develop high-quality and unbiased resources for patient education that can be made [available] on social media.”
Dr. Gallagher said TikTok helped her erase fear. “A bilateral mastectomy is a scary surgery for an 18-year-old or a 20-year-old,” she said, “but they have to do it for their well-being.”
“That is a criticism I’ve heard – that I seek to minimize it or that I’m flippant about it,” said Dr. Gallagher.
For “top surgery the risk profile is pretty low,” she said, “so what I try to do is educate people that it’s maybe not as scary a procedure as they think.”
Dr. Mangubat, however, is concerned about some of what he sees, especially the explosion of surgeons offering gender-affirming procedures. “Now everybody wants a piece of it,” he said.
“Let’s face it, it’s money now. You get paid for doing this surgery. Hospitals get paid a lot of money for their operating rooms for doing the surgery,” said Dr. Mangubat. “There are some surgeons who believe the transgender community is just another market.”
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
European survey finds wide variations in the use of phototherapy for atopic eczema
GLASGOW, Scotland – , which points to the need for management guidelines.
Over 140 phototherapy practitioners from 27 European countries responded to the survey. Of the practitioners surveyed, 96% used narrow-band ultraviolet B (NB-UVB), and about 50% prescribed psoralen and ultraviolet A (PUVA) for adults. Fewer than 10% did so for children.
There was considerable variation in prescribing practices, “especially when it comes to dosing and treatment duration,” said study presenter Mia Steyn, MD, dermatology registrar, St. John’s Institute of Dermatology, Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospital, London.
These results, she said, demonstrate that “an optimal treatment modality either is not known or agreed upon” and that studies are required to determine treatment efficacy, cost, and safety “in a range of skin types.”
Dr. Steyn said that what is needed first is a set of consensus treatment guidelines, “hopefully leading to a randomized controlled trial” that would compare the various treatment options.
The research was presented at the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) 2022 Annual Meeting on July 7.
Session co-chair Adam Fityan, MD, a consultant dermatologist at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, U.K., commented that the study was “fascinating” and “really helpful.”
Dr. Fityan, who was not involved with the survey, told this news organization that, “clearly, what we’ve seen is that there is a huge variation in the way everyone uses the different modalities of phototherapy.”
“Having that sort of knowledge will hopefully help us to think a bit more clearly about the regimens and protocols that we use and to maybe find the evidence that everyone needs to have the most effective protocol.”
The data from the study are also useful on an individual level, Dr. Fityan continued, as “you have no idea what anyone is doing” and whether “you are an outlier.”
Dr. Steyn said that phototherapy is commonly used for the treatment of atopic eczema, but the evidence for its efficacy, its impact on quality on life, its cost-effectiveness, and short- and long-term safety is “weak,” particularly in relation to real-life use.
Electronic survey
In lieu of a well-designed randomized controlled trial to answer these questions, the researchers set up a task force to assess how phototherapy is currently being used to treat atopic eczema across the United Kingdom and Europe so as to guide further research.
An electronic survey was devised, and 144 members of phototherapy groups from 27 European countries submitted their responses during 2020. Most responses came from the Netherlands (20), Italy (16), the United Kingdom (14), France (11), and Germany (10).
The results showed that NB-UVB was the most widely used modality of phototherapy, chosen by 96% of respondents. In addition, 17% of respondents said they also prescribed home-based NB-UVB, which was available in eight of the 27 countries.
When asked how they used NB-UVB, the majority (68%) of respondents said they had an age cutoff for use in children, which was set at an average age of 9 years and older, although the range was age 2 years to 16 years.
NBUVB was used as a second-line therapy instead of systemic treatments in up to 93% of adults and in 69% of children. It was used concomitantly with systemic treatment in up to 58% of adults and 11% of children, according to the survey responses.
For about 70% of respondents, the use of NB-UVB was determined by assessing the Fitzpatrick skin type, although almost 40% relied on clinical experience.
Frequency of treatment
NB-UVB was prescribed three times a week by 59% of respondents; 31% of respondents prescribed it twice a week; 7%, five times per week; and 2%, four times a week. The typical number of treatments was 21-30 for 53% of respondents, 0-20 treatments for 24%, and 31-40 treatments for 20%.
The dose was typically increased in 10% increments, although there were wide variations in how the treatment was stepped up. Dose was increased after each treatment by almost 50% of respondents, after every two treatments by almost 25%, and after every three treatments by approximately 15%.
For the majority (53%) of respondents, response to NBUVB was assessed after 7-15 treatments, while 43% waited until after 16-30 treatments. Success was defined as a 75% reduction in eczema from baseline by 56% of respondents, while 54% looked to patient satisfaction, and 47% relied on quality of life to determine success of treatment.
Maintenance NB-UVB was never used by 54% of respondents, but 44% said they used it occasionally, and 83% said they did not follow a weaning schedule at the end of treatment.
The most commonly reported adverse effects of NB-UVB were significant erythema, hyperpigmentation, and eczema flare, while the most commonly cited absolute contraindications included a history of melanoma, a history of squamous cell carcinoma, the use of photosensitizing medications, and claustrophobia.
Use of PUVA, UVA1
The next most commonly used phototherapy for atopic eczema was PUVA. Although it was available to 83% of respondents, only 52% of respondents had personally prescribed the treatment for adults, and only 7% prescribed it for children.
Of the respondents, 71% said they would switch from NB-UVB to PUVA if desired treatment outcomes were not achieved with the former, and 44% said they would “sometimes consider” PUVA as second-line therapy instead of systemic treatments. Only 13% said they would use it concomitantly with systemic treatment.
Ultraviolet A1 (UVA1) phototherapy was not widely available, with 66% of respondents declaring that they did not have access to this option and just 29% saying they prescribed it.
But when it was used, UVA1 was cited as being used often in adults by 24% of respondents, while 33% used it was used sometimes, and 43% said it was used rarely. It was used for children by 26% of respondents. In addition, 29% said they favored using UVA1 for chronic atopic eczema, and 33% favored using it for acute eczema while 38% had no preference over whether to use it for chronic versus acute atopic eczema.
Similarly to NB-UVB, there were wide variations in the use of PUVA and UVA1 by respondents in terms of dosing schedules, duration of treatment, and how response to treatment was measured.
No funding for the study has been reported. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
GLASGOW, Scotland – , which points to the need for management guidelines.
Over 140 phototherapy practitioners from 27 European countries responded to the survey. Of the practitioners surveyed, 96% used narrow-band ultraviolet B (NB-UVB), and about 50% prescribed psoralen and ultraviolet A (PUVA) for adults. Fewer than 10% did so for children.
There was considerable variation in prescribing practices, “especially when it comes to dosing and treatment duration,” said study presenter Mia Steyn, MD, dermatology registrar, St. John’s Institute of Dermatology, Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospital, London.
These results, she said, demonstrate that “an optimal treatment modality either is not known or agreed upon” and that studies are required to determine treatment efficacy, cost, and safety “in a range of skin types.”
Dr. Steyn said that what is needed first is a set of consensus treatment guidelines, “hopefully leading to a randomized controlled trial” that would compare the various treatment options.
The research was presented at the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) 2022 Annual Meeting on July 7.
Session co-chair Adam Fityan, MD, a consultant dermatologist at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, U.K., commented that the study was “fascinating” and “really helpful.”
Dr. Fityan, who was not involved with the survey, told this news organization that, “clearly, what we’ve seen is that there is a huge variation in the way everyone uses the different modalities of phototherapy.”
“Having that sort of knowledge will hopefully help us to think a bit more clearly about the regimens and protocols that we use and to maybe find the evidence that everyone needs to have the most effective protocol.”
The data from the study are also useful on an individual level, Dr. Fityan continued, as “you have no idea what anyone is doing” and whether “you are an outlier.”
Dr. Steyn said that phototherapy is commonly used for the treatment of atopic eczema, but the evidence for its efficacy, its impact on quality on life, its cost-effectiveness, and short- and long-term safety is “weak,” particularly in relation to real-life use.
Electronic survey
In lieu of a well-designed randomized controlled trial to answer these questions, the researchers set up a task force to assess how phototherapy is currently being used to treat atopic eczema across the United Kingdom and Europe so as to guide further research.
An electronic survey was devised, and 144 members of phototherapy groups from 27 European countries submitted their responses during 2020. Most responses came from the Netherlands (20), Italy (16), the United Kingdom (14), France (11), and Germany (10).
The results showed that NB-UVB was the most widely used modality of phototherapy, chosen by 96% of respondents. In addition, 17% of respondents said they also prescribed home-based NB-UVB, which was available in eight of the 27 countries.
When asked how they used NB-UVB, the majority (68%) of respondents said they had an age cutoff for use in children, which was set at an average age of 9 years and older, although the range was age 2 years to 16 years.
NBUVB was used as a second-line therapy instead of systemic treatments in up to 93% of adults and in 69% of children. It was used concomitantly with systemic treatment in up to 58% of adults and 11% of children, according to the survey responses.
For about 70% of respondents, the use of NB-UVB was determined by assessing the Fitzpatrick skin type, although almost 40% relied on clinical experience.
Frequency of treatment
NB-UVB was prescribed three times a week by 59% of respondents; 31% of respondents prescribed it twice a week; 7%, five times per week; and 2%, four times a week. The typical number of treatments was 21-30 for 53% of respondents, 0-20 treatments for 24%, and 31-40 treatments for 20%.
The dose was typically increased in 10% increments, although there were wide variations in how the treatment was stepped up. Dose was increased after each treatment by almost 50% of respondents, after every two treatments by almost 25%, and after every three treatments by approximately 15%.
For the majority (53%) of respondents, response to NBUVB was assessed after 7-15 treatments, while 43% waited until after 16-30 treatments. Success was defined as a 75% reduction in eczema from baseline by 56% of respondents, while 54% looked to patient satisfaction, and 47% relied on quality of life to determine success of treatment.
Maintenance NB-UVB was never used by 54% of respondents, but 44% said they used it occasionally, and 83% said they did not follow a weaning schedule at the end of treatment.
The most commonly reported adverse effects of NB-UVB were significant erythema, hyperpigmentation, and eczema flare, while the most commonly cited absolute contraindications included a history of melanoma, a history of squamous cell carcinoma, the use of photosensitizing medications, and claustrophobia.
Use of PUVA, UVA1
The next most commonly used phototherapy for atopic eczema was PUVA. Although it was available to 83% of respondents, only 52% of respondents had personally prescribed the treatment for adults, and only 7% prescribed it for children.
Of the respondents, 71% said they would switch from NB-UVB to PUVA if desired treatment outcomes were not achieved with the former, and 44% said they would “sometimes consider” PUVA as second-line therapy instead of systemic treatments. Only 13% said they would use it concomitantly with systemic treatment.
Ultraviolet A1 (UVA1) phototherapy was not widely available, with 66% of respondents declaring that they did not have access to this option and just 29% saying they prescribed it.
But when it was used, UVA1 was cited as being used often in adults by 24% of respondents, while 33% used it was used sometimes, and 43% said it was used rarely. It was used for children by 26% of respondents. In addition, 29% said they favored using UVA1 for chronic atopic eczema, and 33% favored using it for acute eczema while 38% had no preference over whether to use it for chronic versus acute atopic eczema.
Similarly to NB-UVB, there were wide variations in the use of PUVA and UVA1 by respondents in terms of dosing schedules, duration of treatment, and how response to treatment was measured.
No funding for the study has been reported. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
GLASGOW, Scotland – , which points to the need for management guidelines.
Over 140 phototherapy practitioners from 27 European countries responded to the survey. Of the practitioners surveyed, 96% used narrow-band ultraviolet B (NB-UVB), and about 50% prescribed psoralen and ultraviolet A (PUVA) for adults. Fewer than 10% did so for children.
There was considerable variation in prescribing practices, “especially when it comes to dosing and treatment duration,” said study presenter Mia Steyn, MD, dermatology registrar, St. John’s Institute of Dermatology, Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospital, London.
These results, she said, demonstrate that “an optimal treatment modality either is not known or agreed upon” and that studies are required to determine treatment efficacy, cost, and safety “in a range of skin types.”
Dr. Steyn said that what is needed first is a set of consensus treatment guidelines, “hopefully leading to a randomized controlled trial” that would compare the various treatment options.
The research was presented at the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) 2022 Annual Meeting on July 7.
Session co-chair Adam Fityan, MD, a consultant dermatologist at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, U.K., commented that the study was “fascinating” and “really helpful.”
Dr. Fityan, who was not involved with the survey, told this news organization that, “clearly, what we’ve seen is that there is a huge variation in the way everyone uses the different modalities of phototherapy.”
“Having that sort of knowledge will hopefully help us to think a bit more clearly about the regimens and protocols that we use and to maybe find the evidence that everyone needs to have the most effective protocol.”
The data from the study are also useful on an individual level, Dr. Fityan continued, as “you have no idea what anyone is doing” and whether “you are an outlier.”
Dr. Steyn said that phototherapy is commonly used for the treatment of atopic eczema, but the evidence for its efficacy, its impact on quality on life, its cost-effectiveness, and short- and long-term safety is “weak,” particularly in relation to real-life use.
Electronic survey
In lieu of a well-designed randomized controlled trial to answer these questions, the researchers set up a task force to assess how phototherapy is currently being used to treat atopic eczema across the United Kingdom and Europe so as to guide further research.
An electronic survey was devised, and 144 members of phototherapy groups from 27 European countries submitted their responses during 2020. Most responses came from the Netherlands (20), Italy (16), the United Kingdom (14), France (11), and Germany (10).
The results showed that NB-UVB was the most widely used modality of phototherapy, chosen by 96% of respondents. In addition, 17% of respondents said they also prescribed home-based NB-UVB, which was available in eight of the 27 countries.
When asked how they used NB-UVB, the majority (68%) of respondents said they had an age cutoff for use in children, which was set at an average age of 9 years and older, although the range was age 2 years to 16 years.
NBUVB was used as a second-line therapy instead of systemic treatments in up to 93% of adults and in 69% of children. It was used concomitantly with systemic treatment in up to 58% of adults and 11% of children, according to the survey responses.
For about 70% of respondents, the use of NB-UVB was determined by assessing the Fitzpatrick skin type, although almost 40% relied on clinical experience.
Frequency of treatment
NB-UVB was prescribed three times a week by 59% of respondents; 31% of respondents prescribed it twice a week; 7%, five times per week; and 2%, four times a week. The typical number of treatments was 21-30 for 53% of respondents, 0-20 treatments for 24%, and 31-40 treatments for 20%.
The dose was typically increased in 10% increments, although there were wide variations in how the treatment was stepped up. Dose was increased after each treatment by almost 50% of respondents, after every two treatments by almost 25%, and after every three treatments by approximately 15%.
For the majority (53%) of respondents, response to NBUVB was assessed after 7-15 treatments, while 43% waited until after 16-30 treatments. Success was defined as a 75% reduction in eczema from baseline by 56% of respondents, while 54% looked to patient satisfaction, and 47% relied on quality of life to determine success of treatment.
Maintenance NB-UVB was never used by 54% of respondents, but 44% said they used it occasionally, and 83% said they did not follow a weaning schedule at the end of treatment.
The most commonly reported adverse effects of NB-UVB were significant erythema, hyperpigmentation, and eczema flare, while the most commonly cited absolute contraindications included a history of melanoma, a history of squamous cell carcinoma, the use of photosensitizing medications, and claustrophobia.
Use of PUVA, UVA1
The next most commonly used phototherapy for atopic eczema was PUVA. Although it was available to 83% of respondents, only 52% of respondents had personally prescribed the treatment for adults, and only 7% prescribed it for children.
Of the respondents, 71% said they would switch from NB-UVB to PUVA if desired treatment outcomes were not achieved with the former, and 44% said they would “sometimes consider” PUVA as second-line therapy instead of systemic treatments. Only 13% said they would use it concomitantly with systemic treatment.
Ultraviolet A1 (UVA1) phototherapy was not widely available, with 66% of respondents declaring that they did not have access to this option and just 29% saying they prescribed it.
But when it was used, UVA1 was cited as being used often in adults by 24% of respondents, while 33% used it was used sometimes, and 43% said it was used rarely. It was used for children by 26% of respondents. In addition, 29% said they favored using UVA1 for chronic atopic eczema, and 33% favored using it for acute eczema while 38% had no preference over whether to use it for chronic versus acute atopic eczema.
Similarly to NB-UVB, there were wide variations in the use of PUVA and UVA1 by respondents in terms of dosing schedules, duration of treatment, and how response to treatment was measured.
No funding for the study has been reported. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Depression screens do not reduce suicidal acts in teens: Study
Screening adolescents for signs of depression does not reduce their emergency department visits, hospitalizations, or treatment for suicidal behaviors, according to research published in Preventive Medicine. Adolescents who underwent a depression screening were just as likely to need these services as those who did not.
In 2016, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that adolescents aged 12-18 years be screened for major depressive disorder, provided that effective treatment options and follow-up strategies are in place.
“The main goal of depression screening is really to reduce adverse psychiatric outcomes. But I think a collateral hope is that, in reducing these adverse psychiatric outcomes, you would also reduce avoidable health services use,” such as ED visits or hospitalizations, said Kira Riehm, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in epidemiology at Columbia University, New York, who led the research. Dr. Riehm designed the new study, which was part of her doctoral work at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, to test this premise.
Dr. Riehm and colleagues compared 14,433 adolescents aged 12-18 years who were screened for depression at least once during a wellness visit from 2014 to 2017 to 43,299 adolescents who were not screened for depression during such visits. Depression screenings were interspersed among a total of 281,463 adolescent wellness visits from 2014 to 2017, which represented 5% of all visits.
The researchers used diagnostic codes from a database of insurance claims to determine who had undergone depression screening. They then compared use of ED services, inpatient hospitalizations, and the number of treatments for suicidal behaviors between the two groups for the 2 years following the wellness visit.
The average age of the adolescents who underwent screening was 13-14 years, as was the average age of adolescents who were not screened. Both groups were evenly matched with respect to being male or female.
The researchers estimated that a high majority of adolescents in the sample were White (83%). Black persons represented 7% of the sample; Hispanic/Latino, 5%; and Asian, 3%. Insurance claims don’t always include racial and ethnicity data, Dr. Riehm said, so her group statistically imputed these proportions. The claims data also do not include details about which type of screening tool was used or the results of the screening, such as whether a teen exhibited mild or severe depression.
Adolescents in both groups were just as likely to go to the ED for any reason, be admitted to the hospital for any reason, or undergo treatment for suicidal behaviors. The researchers observed a slight association between being screened for depression and going to the ED specifically for a mental health reason (relative risk, 1.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.33). The sex of the adolescents had no bearing on whether they used these services.
“I think people think of [depression screening] as one event. But in reality, screening is a series of different events that all have to be happening in order for a screening program to work,” Dr. Riehm told this news organization.
These events could include ensuring that adolescents who exhibit signs of depression receive a proper assessment, receive medications if needed, and have access to psychotherapists who can help them. Without these supports in place, she said, a one-off depression screening may have limited benefit.
“There’s a lot of places where people could drop out of that care continuum,” Dr. Riehm said.
“One-time screening may not be enough,” said Trân Đoàn, PhD, MPH, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Pittsburgh department of pediatrics.
Dr. Đoàn, who was not involved in the research, noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends annual screening of all adolescents for depressive symptoms. Given that only 5% of the visits in this sample included any kind of depression screening, Dr. Đoàn said, some pediatric practices may not have felt they had the resources to adequately address positive screenings for depression.
Both Dr. Riehm and Dr. Đoàn are focusing on the link between depression screening and health outcomes. In her own doctoral work at the University of Michigan, Dr. Đoàn modeled the effects of universal annual depression screening in primary care settings on the health status of people aged 12-22 years. She is currently preparing this work for publication.
“I did find that, over the long term, there is improvement in health outcomes if we were to screen on an annual basis,” provided improved screening is coupled with comprehensive treatment plans, Dr. Đoàn said. The model’s health outcomes measures included an increase in life expectancy as well as a greater proportion of depression-free days among adolescents who receive appropriate treatment.
Dr. Riehm and Dr. Đoàn disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Screening adolescents for signs of depression does not reduce their emergency department visits, hospitalizations, or treatment for suicidal behaviors, according to research published in Preventive Medicine. Adolescents who underwent a depression screening were just as likely to need these services as those who did not.
In 2016, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that adolescents aged 12-18 years be screened for major depressive disorder, provided that effective treatment options and follow-up strategies are in place.
“The main goal of depression screening is really to reduce adverse psychiatric outcomes. But I think a collateral hope is that, in reducing these adverse psychiatric outcomes, you would also reduce avoidable health services use,” such as ED visits or hospitalizations, said Kira Riehm, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in epidemiology at Columbia University, New York, who led the research. Dr. Riehm designed the new study, which was part of her doctoral work at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, to test this premise.
Dr. Riehm and colleagues compared 14,433 adolescents aged 12-18 years who were screened for depression at least once during a wellness visit from 2014 to 2017 to 43,299 adolescents who were not screened for depression during such visits. Depression screenings were interspersed among a total of 281,463 adolescent wellness visits from 2014 to 2017, which represented 5% of all visits.
The researchers used diagnostic codes from a database of insurance claims to determine who had undergone depression screening. They then compared use of ED services, inpatient hospitalizations, and the number of treatments for suicidal behaviors between the two groups for the 2 years following the wellness visit.
The average age of the adolescents who underwent screening was 13-14 years, as was the average age of adolescents who were not screened. Both groups were evenly matched with respect to being male or female.
The researchers estimated that a high majority of adolescents in the sample were White (83%). Black persons represented 7% of the sample; Hispanic/Latino, 5%; and Asian, 3%. Insurance claims don’t always include racial and ethnicity data, Dr. Riehm said, so her group statistically imputed these proportions. The claims data also do not include details about which type of screening tool was used or the results of the screening, such as whether a teen exhibited mild or severe depression.
Adolescents in both groups were just as likely to go to the ED for any reason, be admitted to the hospital for any reason, or undergo treatment for suicidal behaviors. The researchers observed a slight association between being screened for depression and going to the ED specifically for a mental health reason (relative risk, 1.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.33). The sex of the adolescents had no bearing on whether they used these services.
“I think people think of [depression screening] as one event. But in reality, screening is a series of different events that all have to be happening in order for a screening program to work,” Dr. Riehm told this news organization.
These events could include ensuring that adolescents who exhibit signs of depression receive a proper assessment, receive medications if needed, and have access to psychotherapists who can help them. Without these supports in place, she said, a one-off depression screening may have limited benefit.
“There’s a lot of places where people could drop out of that care continuum,” Dr. Riehm said.
“One-time screening may not be enough,” said Trân Đoàn, PhD, MPH, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Pittsburgh department of pediatrics.
Dr. Đoàn, who was not involved in the research, noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends annual screening of all adolescents for depressive symptoms. Given that only 5% of the visits in this sample included any kind of depression screening, Dr. Đoàn said, some pediatric practices may not have felt they had the resources to adequately address positive screenings for depression.
Both Dr. Riehm and Dr. Đoàn are focusing on the link between depression screening and health outcomes. In her own doctoral work at the University of Michigan, Dr. Đoàn modeled the effects of universal annual depression screening in primary care settings on the health status of people aged 12-22 years. She is currently preparing this work for publication.
“I did find that, over the long term, there is improvement in health outcomes if we were to screen on an annual basis,” provided improved screening is coupled with comprehensive treatment plans, Dr. Đoàn said. The model’s health outcomes measures included an increase in life expectancy as well as a greater proportion of depression-free days among adolescents who receive appropriate treatment.
Dr. Riehm and Dr. Đoàn disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Screening adolescents for signs of depression does not reduce their emergency department visits, hospitalizations, or treatment for suicidal behaviors, according to research published in Preventive Medicine. Adolescents who underwent a depression screening were just as likely to need these services as those who did not.
In 2016, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that adolescents aged 12-18 years be screened for major depressive disorder, provided that effective treatment options and follow-up strategies are in place.
“The main goal of depression screening is really to reduce adverse psychiatric outcomes. But I think a collateral hope is that, in reducing these adverse psychiatric outcomes, you would also reduce avoidable health services use,” such as ED visits or hospitalizations, said Kira Riehm, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in epidemiology at Columbia University, New York, who led the research. Dr. Riehm designed the new study, which was part of her doctoral work at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, to test this premise.
Dr. Riehm and colleagues compared 14,433 adolescents aged 12-18 years who were screened for depression at least once during a wellness visit from 2014 to 2017 to 43,299 adolescents who were not screened for depression during such visits. Depression screenings were interspersed among a total of 281,463 adolescent wellness visits from 2014 to 2017, which represented 5% of all visits.
The researchers used diagnostic codes from a database of insurance claims to determine who had undergone depression screening. They then compared use of ED services, inpatient hospitalizations, and the number of treatments for suicidal behaviors between the two groups for the 2 years following the wellness visit.
The average age of the adolescents who underwent screening was 13-14 years, as was the average age of adolescents who were not screened. Both groups were evenly matched with respect to being male or female.
The researchers estimated that a high majority of adolescents in the sample were White (83%). Black persons represented 7% of the sample; Hispanic/Latino, 5%; and Asian, 3%. Insurance claims don’t always include racial and ethnicity data, Dr. Riehm said, so her group statistically imputed these proportions. The claims data also do not include details about which type of screening tool was used or the results of the screening, such as whether a teen exhibited mild or severe depression.
Adolescents in both groups were just as likely to go to the ED for any reason, be admitted to the hospital for any reason, or undergo treatment for suicidal behaviors. The researchers observed a slight association between being screened for depression and going to the ED specifically for a mental health reason (relative risk, 1.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.33). The sex of the adolescents had no bearing on whether they used these services.
“I think people think of [depression screening] as one event. But in reality, screening is a series of different events that all have to be happening in order for a screening program to work,” Dr. Riehm told this news organization.
These events could include ensuring that adolescents who exhibit signs of depression receive a proper assessment, receive medications if needed, and have access to psychotherapists who can help them. Without these supports in place, she said, a one-off depression screening may have limited benefit.
“There’s a lot of places where people could drop out of that care continuum,” Dr. Riehm said.
“One-time screening may not be enough,” said Trân Đoàn, PhD, MPH, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Pittsburgh department of pediatrics.
Dr. Đoàn, who was not involved in the research, noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends annual screening of all adolescents for depressive symptoms. Given that only 5% of the visits in this sample included any kind of depression screening, Dr. Đoàn said, some pediatric practices may not have felt they had the resources to adequately address positive screenings for depression.
Both Dr. Riehm and Dr. Đoàn are focusing on the link between depression screening and health outcomes. In her own doctoral work at the University of Michigan, Dr. Đoàn modeled the effects of universal annual depression screening in primary care settings on the health status of people aged 12-22 years. She is currently preparing this work for publication.
“I did find that, over the long term, there is improvement in health outcomes if we were to screen on an annual basis,” provided improved screening is coupled with comprehensive treatment plans, Dr. Đoàn said. The model’s health outcomes measures included an increase in life expectancy as well as a greater proportion of depression-free days among adolescents who receive appropriate treatment.
Dr. Riehm and Dr. Đoàn disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
FROM PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
PCOS ups risk of heart complications during delivery period
Pregnant women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) appear to be at significantly increased risk of experiencing cardiac complications while hospitalized during and after delivery.
An estimated 5 million women of childbearing age in the United States have PCOS, a hormone disorder linked to infertility. PCOS is also known to contribute to the development of cardiometabolic abnormalities like high cholesterol and high blood pressure, which are associated with acute cardiovascular complications during delivery.
But a study, published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that even after accounting for pre-eclampsia, age, comorbidities, and race, PCOS was linked to a 76% increased risk for heart failure, a 79% higher risk of a weakened heart, and an 82% increased risk of having blood clots in the hours and days around giving birth in hospital settings, compared with women without PCOS.
“Perhaps women need a closer follow-up during their pregnancy,” said Erin Michos, MD, MHS, associate director of preventive cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, and a co-author of the study. “They’re counseled about the difficulties of getting pregnant, but what about when they get pregnant?”
Hospitalizations of women with PCOS were also associated with longer stays (3 vs. 2 days) and higher costs ($4,901 vs. $3616; P < .01), compared with women without PCOS.
Over the 17-year analysis period, the number of women with PCOS rose from 569 per 100,000 deliveries to 15,349 per 100,000 deliveries. The researchers attributed the increase in part to greater awareness and diagnosis of the disorder. Dr. Michos and her colleagues used the National Inpatient Sample, managed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to pull claims data for women who gave birth in hospitals between 2002 and 2019.
Solutions?
Dr. Michos said there may be more prevention work from og.gyns. to both educate patients about their heart risks during the delivery process and also to refer them to relevant cardiac specialists.
“These women may seek out a gynecologist because of the symptoms, perhaps irregular menses, but along with that should come counseling of the long-term cardiovascular complication,” Dr. Michos said. “And after a pregnancy there should be a good handoff to a primary care provider, so they get a cardiovascular assessment.”
Lifestyle management before, during, and after pregnancy can help prevent the onset of the long-term consequences of cardiac complications during delivery, according to Valerie Baker, MD, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Hopkins Medicine, and her colleagues in a viewpoint published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
“Once women with PCOS are identified by screening to be at higher risk for [cardiovascular disease], the foundational approach should be lifestyle management followed by statin therapy,” Dr. Baker’s group wrote. “These interventions should include dietary management and physical activity, especially for those who are prediabetic.”
The current study came on the heels of a June 14 meta-analysis by Dr. Michos’ group that found that women with PCOS may be twice as likely as those without PCOS to have coronary artery calcification, a precursor to atherosclerosis and a sign of the early onset of cardiovascular disease.
“We shouldn’t assume that all women of reproductive age are low risk,” Dr. Michos said. “This is the window of time that we can reshape the trajectory early in life.”
The study was supported by the Amato Fund for Women’s Cardiovascular Health research at Johns Hopkins University and through grant support from the American Heart Association (940166). Dr. Michos reported advisory board participation for AstraZeneca, Amarin, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Esperion, and Pfizer. Study coauthor Michael Honigberg, MD, reported consulting fees from CRISPR Therapeutics, unrelated to the present work. The remaining authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Pregnant women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) appear to be at significantly increased risk of experiencing cardiac complications while hospitalized during and after delivery.
An estimated 5 million women of childbearing age in the United States have PCOS, a hormone disorder linked to infertility. PCOS is also known to contribute to the development of cardiometabolic abnormalities like high cholesterol and high blood pressure, which are associated with acute cardiovascular complications during delivery.
But a study, published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that even after accounting for pre-eclampsia, age, comorbidities, and race, PCOS was linked to a 76% increased risk for heart failure, a 79% higher risk of a weakened heart, and an 82% increased risk of having blood clots in the hours and days around giving birth in hospital settings, compared with women without PCOS.
“Perhaps women need a closer follow-up during their pregnancy,” said Erin Michos, MD, MHS, associate director of preventive cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, and a co-author of the study. “They’re counseled about the difficulties of getting pregnant, but what about when they get pregnant?”
Hospitalizations of women with PCOS were also associated with longer stays (3 vs. 2 days) and higher costs ($4,901 vs. $3616; P < .01), compared with women without PCOS.
Over the 17-year analysis period, the number of women with PCOS rose from 569 per 100,000 deliveries to 15,349 per 100,000 deliveries. The researchers attributed the increase in part to greater awareness and diagnosis of the disorder. Dr. Michos and her colleagues used the National Inpatient Sample, managed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to pull claims data for women who gave birth in hospitals between 2002 and 2019.
Solutions?
Dr. Michos said there may be more prevention work from og.gyns. to both educate patients about their heart risks during the delivery process and also to refer them to relevant cardiac specialists.
“These women may seek out a gynecologist because of the symptoms, perhaps irregular menses, but along with that should come counseling of the long-term cardiovascular complication,” Dr. Michos said. “And after a pregnancy there should be a good handoff to a primary care provider, so they get a cardiovascular assessment.”
Lifestyle management before, during, and after pregnancy can help prevent the onset of the long-term consequences of cardiac complications during delivery, according to Valerie Baker, MD, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Hopkins Medicine, and her colleagues in a viewpoint published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
“Once women with PCOS are identified by screening to be at higher risk for [cardiovascular disease], the foundational approach should be lifestyle management followed by statin therapy,” Dr. Baker’s group wrote. “These interventions should include dietary management and physical activity, especially for those who are prediabetic.”
The current study came on the heels of a June 14 meta-analysis by Dr. Michos’ group that found that women with PCOS may be twice as likely as those without PCOS to have coronary artery calcification, a precursor to atherosclerosis and a sign of the early onset of cardiovascular disease.
“We shouldn’t assume that all women of reproductive age are low risk,” Dr. Michos said. “This is the window of time that we can reshape the trajectory early in life.”
The study was supported by the Amato Fund for Women’s Cardiovascular Health research at Johns Hopkins University and through grant support from the American Heart Association (940166). Dr. Michos reported advisory board participation for AstraZeneca, Amarin, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Esperion, and Pfizer. Study coauthor Michael Honigberg, MD, reported consulting fees from CRISPR Therapeutics, unrelated to the present work. The remaining authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Pregnant women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) appear to be at significantly increased risk of experiencing cardiac complications while hospitalized during and after delivery.
An estimated 5 million women of childbearing age in the United States have PCOS, a hormone disorder linked to infertility. PCOS is also known to contribute to the development of cardiometabolic abnormalities like high cholesterol and high blood pressure, which are associated with acute cardiovascular complications during delivery.
But a study, published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that even after accounting for pre-eclampsia, age, comorbidities, and race, PCOS was linked to a 76% increased risk for heart failure, a 79% higher risk of a weakened heart, and an 82% increased risk of having blood clots in the hours and days around giving birth in hospital settings, compared with women without PCOS.
“Perhaps women need a closer follow-up during their pregnancy,” said Erin Michos, MD, MHS, associate director of preventive cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, and a co-author of the study. “They’re counseled about the difficulties of getting pregnant, but what about when they get pregnant?”
Hospitalizations of women with PCOS were also associated with longer stays (3 vs. 2 days) and higher costs ($4,901 vs. $3616; P < .01), compared with women without PCOS.
Over the 17-year analysis period, the number of women with PCOS rose from 569 per 100,000 deliveries to 15,349 per 100,000 deliveries. The researchers attributed the increase in part to greater awareness and diagnosis of the disorder. Dr. Michos and her colleagues used the National Inpatient Sample, managed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to pull claims data for women who gave birth in hospitals between 2002 and 2019.
Solutions?
Dr. Michos said there may be more prevention work from og.gyns. to both educate patients about their heart risks during the delivery process and also to refer them to relevant cardiac specialists.
“These women may seek out a gynecologist because of the symptoms, perhaps irregular menses, but along with that should come counseling of the long-term cardiovascular complication,” Dr. Michos said. “And after a pregnancy there should be a good handoff to a primary care provider, so they get a cardiovascular assessment.”
Lifestyle management before, during, and after pregnancy can help prevent the onset of the long-term consequences of cardiac complications during delivery, according to Valerie Baker, MD, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Hopkins Medicine, and her colleagues in a viewpoint published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
“Once women with PCOS are identified by screening to be at higher risk for [cardiovascular disease], the foundational approach should be lifestyle management followed by statin therapy,” Dr. Baker’s group wrote. “These interventions should include dietary management and physical activity, especially for those who are prediabetic.”
The current study came on the heels of a June 14 meta-analysis by Dr. Michos’ group that found that women with PCOS may be twice as likely as those without PCOS to have coronary artery calcification, a precursor to atherosclerosis and a sign of the early onset of cardiovascular disease.
“We shouldn’t assume that all women of reproductive age are low risk,” Dr. Michos said. “This is the window of time that we can reshape the trajectory early in life.”
The study was supported by the Amato Fund for Women’s Cardiovascular Health research at Johns Hopkins University and through grant support from the American Heart Association (940166). Dr. Michos reported advisory board participation for AstraZeneca, Amarin, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Esperion, and Pfizer. Study coauthor Michael Honigberg, MD, reported consulting fees from CRISPR Therapeutics, unrelated to the present work. The remaining authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Biologics reduce exacerbations in severe asthma
, based on data from more than 2,000 individuals.
The development of biologics to target specific inflammatory pathways “has transformed the management of uncontrolled SA,” but data on the real-world use of biologics in severe asthma patients treated by subspecialists are limited, wrote Reynold A. Panettieri, Jr., MD, of Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, and colleagues.
In a study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the researchers reviewed data from CHRONICLE, an ongoing, prospective, real-world noninterventional study of adults aged 18 years and older with severe asthma in the United States.
The study population included 2,847 patients enrolled in the CHRONICLE study between February 2018 and February 2021; 68.8% were women, 74.6% were White. The patients ranged in age from 18 to 89 years, with a mean age of 54.2 years.
Biologic use was defined as patients who started or had ongoing use of biologics between 12 months before enrollment and the patient’s most recent data collection. Switches were defined as stopping one biologic and starting another within 6 months; stops were defined as discontinuing a biologic without switching to another within 6 months. A total of 66% of the patients were using biologics at the time of study enrollment. The most common biologic was omalizumab (47%), followed by benralizumab (27%), mepolizumab (26%), and dupilumab (18%).
Overall, 89% of the patients had ongoing biologic use, 16% had biologic switches, and 13% had stops.
Patients who started biologics or switched biologics had significant reductions in asthma exacerbations at 6 months, compared with nonbiologic users of 58% (1.80 vs. 0.76 per patient-year) and 49% (1.47 vs. 0.75 per patient-year), respectively (P < .001 for both). Asthma exacerbations declined by 70% among biologics users for whom data were available for 12 months before and 12 months after starting biologics.
Exacerbations decreased at 6 months after biologic initiation across all subgroups of patients, notably patients with pre-biologic FEV1 < 80% and patients with FEV1 ≥ 80% (66% and 53%, respectively); never smokers and current/former smokers (63% and 50%, respectively); and patients with COPD and without COPD (58% and 52%, respectively).
The researchers also found a greater reduction in exacerbations among patients who switched from anti-IgE therapy to anti–IL-5/IL-5R/IL-4R therapy, compared with those who switched among anti–IL-5/IL-5R/IL-4R therapies (58% vs. 46%).
Patients who stopped or switched biologics appeared to have more severe or treatment-refractory disease than those with ongoing biologic use, the researchers noted. The most common reason for stopping or switching was worsening symptoms.
The study findings were limited by several factors, including the focus only on adults in the United States with subspecialist-treated SA, which may limit generalizability to children or other populations, the researchers noted. Other limitations included the variation in clinical decisions and insurance coverage and the inability to conduct longitudinal assessments, they said.
The results demonstrate that starting or switching biologics was consistently associated with fewer exacerbations in severe asthma. However, more research is needed to determine why some patients were not receiving biologics because they were not considered clinically eligible by their subspecialist health care providers, the researchers concluded.
The current study and the CHRONICLE study were supported by AstraZeneca. Lead author Dr. Panettieri disclosed serving on the advisory boards for and receiving grant support from AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Genentech, Regeneron, and Novartis.
, based on data from more than 2,000 individuals.
The development of biologics to target specific inflammatory pathways “has transformed the management of uncontrolled SA,” but data on the real-world use of biologics in severe asthma patients treated by subspecialists are limited, wrote Reynold A. Panettieri, Jr., MD, of Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, and colleagues.
In a study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the researchers reviewed data from CHRONICLE, an ongoing, prospective, real-world noninterventional study of adults aged 18 years and older with severe asthma in the United States.
The study population included 2,847 patients enrolled in the CHRONICLE study between February 2018 and February 2021; 68.8% were women, 74.6% were White. The patients ranged in age from 18 to 89 years, with a mean age of 54.2 years.
Biologic use was defined as patients who started or had ongoing use of biologics between 12 months before enrollment and the patient’s most recent data collection. Switches were defined as stopping one biologic and starting another within 6 months; stops were defined as discontinuing a biologic without switching to another within 6 months. A total of 66% of the patients were using biologics at the time of study enrollment. The most common biologic was omalizumab (47%), followed by benralizumab (27%), mepolizumab (26%), and dupilumab (18%).
Overall, 89% of the patients had ongoing biologic use, 16% had biologic switches, and 13% had stops.
Patients who started biologics or switched biologics had significant reductions in asthma exacerbations at 6 months, compared with nonbiologic users of 58% (1.80 vs. 0.76 per patient-year) and 49% (1.47 vs. 0.75 per patient-year), respectively (P < .001 for both). Asthma exacerbations declined by 70% among biologics users for whom data were available for 12 months before and 12 months after starting biologics.
Exacerbations decreased at 6 months after biologic initiation across all subgroups of patients, notably patients with pre-biologic FEV1 < 80% and patients with FEV1 ≥ 80% (66% and 53%, respectively); never smokers and current/former smokers (63% and 50%, respectively); and patients with COPD and without COPD (58% and 52%, respectively).
The researchers also found a greater reduction in exacerbations among patients who switched from anti-IgE therapy to anti–IL-5/IL-5R/IL-4R therapy, compared with those who switched among anti–IL-5/IL-5R/IL-4R therapies (58% vs. 46%).
Patients who stopped or switched biologics appeared to have more severe or treatment-refractory disease than those with ongoing biologic use, the researchers noted. The most common reason for stopping or switching was worsening symptoms.
The study findings were limited by several factors, including the focus only on adults in the United States with subspecialist-treated SA, which may limit generalizability to children or other populations, the researchers noted. Other limitations included the variation in clinical decisions and insurance coverage and the inability to conduct longitudinal assessments, they said.
The results demonstrate that starting or switching biologics was consistently associated with fewer exacerbations in severe asthma. However, more research is needed to determine why some patients were not receiving biologics because they were not considered clinically eligible by their subspecialist health care providers, the researchers concluded.
The current study and the CHRONICLE study were supported by AstraZeneca. Lead author Dr. Panettieri disclosed serving on the advisory boards for and receiving grant support from AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Genentech, Regeneron, and Novartis.
, based on data from more than 2,000 individuals.
The development of biologics to target specific inflammatory pathways “has transformed the management of uncontrolled SA,” but data on the real-world use of biologics in severe asthma patients treated by subspecialists are limited, wrote Reynold A. Panettieri, Jr., MD, of Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, and colleagues.
In a study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the researchers reviewed data from CHRONICLE, an ongoing, prospective, real-world noninterventional study of adults aged 18 years and older with severe asthma in the United States.
The study population included 2,847 patients enrolled in the CHRONICLE study between February 2018 and February 2021; 68.8% were women, 74.6% were White. The patients ranged in age from 18 to 89 years, with a mean age of 54.2 years.
Biologic use was defined as patients who started or had ongoing use of biologics between 12 months before enrollment and the patient’s most recent data collection. Switches were defined as stopping one biologic and starting another within 6 months; stops were defined as discontinuing a biologic without switching to another within 6 months. A total of 66% of the patients were using biologics at the time of study enrollment. The most common biologic was omalizumab (47%), followed by benralizumab (27%), mepolizumab (26%), and dupilumab (18%).
Overall, 89% of the patients had ongoing biologic use, 16% had biologic switches, and 13% had stops.
Patients who started biologics or switched biologics had significant reductions in asthma exacerbations at 6 months, compared with nonbiologic users of 58% (1.80 vs. 0.76 per patient-year) and 49% (1.47 vs. 0.75 per patient-year), respectively (P < .001 for both). Asthma exacerbations declined by 70% among biologics users for whom data were available for 12 months before and 12 months after starting biologics.
Exacerbations decreased at 6 months after biologic initiation across all subgroups of patients, notably patients with pre-biologic FEV1 < 80% and patients with FEV1 ≥ 80% (66% and 53%, respectively); never smokers and current/former smokers (63% and 50%, respectively); and patients with COPD and without COPD (58% and 52%, respectively).
The researchers also found a greater reduction in exacerbations among patients who switched from anti-IgE therapy to anti–IL-5/IL-5R/IL-4R therapy, compared with those who switched among anti–IL-5/IL-5R/IL-4R therapies (58% vs. 46%).
Patients who stopped or switched biologics appeared to have more severe or treatment-refractory disease than those with ongoing biologic use, the researchers noted. The most common reason for stopping or switching was worsening symptoms.
The study findings were limited by several factors, including the focus only on adults in the United States with subspecialist-treated SA, which may limit generalizability to children or other populations, the researchers noted. Other limitations included the variation in clinical decisions and insurance coverage and the inability to conduct longitudinal assessments, they said.
The results demonstrate that starting or switching biologics was consistently associated with fewer exacerbations in severe asthma. However, more research is needed to determine why some patients were not receiving biologics because they were not considered clinically eligible by their subspecialist health care providers, the researchers concluded.
The current study and the CHRONICLE study were supported by AstraZeneca. Lead author Dr. Panettieri disclosed serving on the advisory boards for and receiving grant support from AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Genentech, Regeneron, and Novartis.
FROM THE ANNALS OF ALLERGY, ASTHMA & IMMUNOLOGY
Adding salt to food linked to higher risk of premature death
in a new study.
In the study of more than 500,000 people, compared with those who never or rarely added salt, those who always added salt to their food had a 28% increased risk of dying prematurely (defined as death before the age of 75 years).
Results also showed that adding salt to food was linked to a lower life expectancy. At the age of 50 years, life expectancy was reduced by 1.5 years in women and by 2.28 years in men who always added salt to their food, compared with those who never or rarely did.
However, these increased risks appeared to be attenuated with increasing intakes of high-potassium foods (vegetables and fruits).
The study was published online in the European Heart Journal.
“As far as we are aware, this is the first study to analyze adding salt to meals as a unique measurement for dietary sodium intake. Such a measure is less likely affected by other dietary components, especially potassium intake,” senior author Lu Qi, MD, Tulane University, New Orleans, told this news organization.
“Our study provides supportive evidence from a novel perspective to show the adverse effects of high sodium intake on human health, which is still a controversial topic. Our findings support the advice that reduction of salt intake by reducing the salt added to meals may benefit health and improve life expectancy. Our results also suggest that high intakes of fruits and vegetables are beneficial regarding lowering the adverse effects of salt,” he added.
Link between dietary salt and health is subject of longstanding debate
The researchers explained that the relationship between dietary salt intake and health remains a subject of longstanding debate, with previous studies on the association between sodium intake and mortality having shown conflicting results.
They attributed the inconsistent results to the low accuracy of sodium measurement, noting that sodium intake varies widely from day to day, but the majority of previous studies have largely relied on a single day’s urine collection or dietary survey for estimating the sodium intake, which is inadequate to assess an individual’s usual consumption levels.
They also pointed out that it is difficult to separate the contributions of intakes of sodium and potassium to health based on current methods for measuring dietary sodium and potassium, and this may confound the association between sodium intake and health outcomes.
They noted that the hypothesis that a high-potassium intake may attenuate the adverse association of high-sodium intake with health outcomes has been proposed for many years, but studies assessing the interaction between sodium intake and potassium intake on the risk of mortality are scarce.
Adding salt to food at the table is a common eating behavior directly related to an individual’s long-term preference for salty tasting foods and habitual salt intake, the authors said, adding that commonly used table salt contains 97%-99% sodium chloride, minimizing the potential confounding effects of other dietary factors including potassium. “Therefore, adding salt to foods provides a unique assessment to evaluate the association between habitual sodium intake and mortality.”
UK Biobank study
For the current study Dr. Qi and colleagues analyzed data from 501,379 people taking part in the UK Biobank study. When joining the study between 2006 and 2010, the participants were asked whether they added salt to their foods never/rarely, sometimes, usually or always. Participants were then followed for a median of 9 years.
After adjustment for sex, age, race, smoking, moderate drinking, body mass index, physical activity, Townsend deprivation index, high cholesterol, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, results showed an increasing risk of all-cause premature mortality rose with increasing frequency of adding salt to foods.
The adjusted hazard ratios, compared with those who never or rarely added salt, were 1.02 (95% CI, 0.99-1.06) for those who added salt sometimes, 1.07 (95% CI, 1.02-1.11) for those who usually added salt, and 1.28 (95% CI, 1.20-1.35) for those who always added salt.
The researchers also estimated the lower survival time caused by the high frequency of adding salt to foods. At age 50, women who always added salt to foods had an average 1.50 fewer years of life expectancy, and men who always added salt had an average 2.28 fewer years of life expectancy, as compared with their counterparts who never/rarely added salt to foods.
For cause-specific premature mortality, results showed that higher frequency of adding salt to foods was significantly associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality and cancer mortality, but not for dementia mortality or respiratory mortality. For the subtypes of cardiovascular mortality, adding salt to foods was significantly associated with higher risk of stroke mortality but not coronary heart disease mortality.
Other analyses suggested that the association of adding salt to foods with an increased risk of premature mortality appeared to be attenuated with increasing intake of food high in potassium (fruits and vegetables).
The authors point out that the amounts of discretionary sodium intake (the salt used at the table or in home cooking) have been largely overlooked in previous studies, even though adding salt to foods accounts for a considerable proportion of total sodium intake (6%-20%) in Western diets.
“Our findings also support the notion that even a modest reduction in sodium intake is likely to result in substantial health benefits, especially when it is achieved in the general population,” they conclude.
Conflicting information from different studies
But the current findings seem to directly contradict those from another recent study by Messerli and colleagues showing higher sodium intake correlates with improved life expectancy.
Addressing these contradictory results, Dr. Qi commented: “The study of Messerli et al. is based on an ecological design, in which the analysis is performed on country average sodium intake, rather than at the individual level. This type of ecological study has several major limitations, such as the lack of individuals’ sodium intake, uncontrolled confounding, and the cross-sectional nature. Typically, ecological studies are not considered useful for testing hypothesis in epidemiological studies.”
Dr. Qi noted that, in contrast, his current study analyzes individuals’ exposure, and has a prospective design. “Our findings are supported by previous large-scale observational studies and clinical trials which show the high intake of sodium may adversely affect chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension.” =
Lead author of the ecological study, Franz Messerli, MD, Bern (Switzerland) University Hospital, however, was not convinced by the findings from Dr. Qi’s study.
“The difference in 24-hour sodium intake between those who never/rarely added salt and those who always did is a minuscule 0.17 g. It is highly unlikely that such negligible quantity has any impact on blood pressure, not to mention cardiovascular mortality or life expectancy,” he commented in an interview.
He also pointed out that, in Dr. Qi’s study, people who added salt more frequently also consumed more red meat and processed meat, as well as less fish and less fruit and vegetables. “I would suggest that the bad habit of adding salt at the table is simply a powerful marker for an unhealthy diet.”
“There is no question that an excessive salt intake is harmful in hypertensive patients and increases the risk of stroke. But 0.17 g is not going to make any difference,” Dr. Messerli added.
What is the optimum level?
In an editorial accompanying the study by Dr. Qi and colleagues in the European Heart Journal, Annika Rosengren, MD, PhD, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden, noted that guidelines recommend a salt intake below 5 g, or about a teaspoon, per day. But few individuals meet this recommendation.
Because several recent studies show a U- or J-shaped association between salt and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, reducing salt intake across the whole population may not be universally beneficial, Dr. Rosengren said.
“So far, what the collective evidence about salt seems to indicate is that healthy people consuming what constitutes normal levels of ordinary salt need not worry too much about their salt intake,” she wrote.
Instead, she advised a diet rich in fruit and vegetables should be a priority to counterbalance potentially harmful effects of salt, and for many other reasons.
And she added that people at high risk, such as those with hypertension who have a high salt intake, are probably well advised to cut down, and not adding extra salt to already prepared foods is one way of achieving this. However, at the individual level, the optimal salt consumption range, or the “sweet spot” remains to be determined.
“Not adding extra salt to food is unlikely to be harmful and could contribute to strategies to lower population blood pressure levels,” Dr. Rosengren concluded.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
in a new study.
In the study of more than 500,000 people, compared with those who never or rarely added salt, those who always added salt to their food had a 28% increased risk of dying prematurely (defined as death before the age of 75 years).
Results also showed that adding salt to food was linked to a lower life expectancy. At the age of 50 years, life expectancy was reduced by 1.5 years in women and by 2.28 years in men who always added salt to their food, compared with those who never or rarely did.
However, these increased risks appeared to be attenuated with increasing intakes of high-potassium foods (vegetables and fruits).
The study was published online in the European Heart Journal.
“As far as we are aware, this is the first study to analyze adding salt to meals as a unique measurement for dietary sodium intake. Such a measure is less likely affected by other dietary components, especially potassium intake,” senior author Lu Qi, MD, Tulane University, New Orleans, told this news organization.
“Our study provides supportive evidence from a novel perspective to show the adverse effects of high sodium intake on human health, which is still a controversial topic. Our findings support the advice that reduction of salt intake by reducing the salt added to meals may benefit health and improve life expectancy. Our results also suggest that high intakes of fruits and vegetables are beneficial regarding lowering the adverse effects of salt,” he added.
Link between dietary salt and health is subject of longstanding debate
The researchers explained that the relationship between dietary salt intake and health remains a subject of longstanding debate, with previous studies on the association between sodium intake and mortality having shown conflicting results.
They attributed the inconsistent results to the low accuracy of sodium measurement, noting that sodium intake varies widely from day to day, but the majority of previous studies have largely relied on a single day’s urine collection or dietary survey for estimating the sodium intake, which is inadequate to assess an individual’s usual consumption levels.
They also pointed out that it is difficult to separate the contributions of intakes of sodium and potassium to health based on current methods for measuring dietary sodium and potassium, and this may confound the association between sodium intake and health outcomes.
They noted that the hypothesis that a high-potassium intake may attenuate the adverse association of high-sodium intake with health outcomes has been proposed for many years, but studies assessing the interaction between sodium intake and potassium intake on the risk of mortality are scarce.
Adding salt to food at the table is a common eating behavior directly related to an individual’s long-term preference for salty tasting foods and habitual salt intake, the authors said, adding that commonly used table salt contains 97%-99% sodium chloride, minimizing the potential confounding effects of other dietary factors including potassium. “Therefore, adding salt to foods provides a unique assessment to evaluate the association between habitual sodium intake and mortality.”
UK Biobank study
For the current study Dr. Qi and colleagues analyzed data from 501,379 people taking part in the UK Biobank study. When joining the study between 2006 and 2010, the participants were asked whether they added salt to their foods never/rarely, sometimes, usually or always. Participants were then followed for a median of 9 years.
After adjustment for sex, age, race, smoking, moderate drinking, body mass index, physical activity, Townsend deprivation index, high cholesterol, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, results showed an increasing risk of all-cause premature mortality rose with increasing frequency of adding salt to foods.
The adjusted hazard ratios, compared with those who never or rarely added salt, were 1.02 (95% CI, 0.99-1.06) for those who added salt sometimes, 1.07 (95% CI, 1.02-1.11) for those who usually added salt, and 1.28 (95% CI, 1.20-1.35) for those who always added salt.
The researchers also estimated the lower survival time caused by the high frequency of adding salt to foods. At age 50, women who always added salt to foods had an average 1.50 fewer years of life expectancy, and men who always added salt had an average 2.28 fewer years of life expectancy, as compared with their counterparts who never/rarely added salt to foods.
For cause-specific premature mortality, results showed that higher frequency of adding salt to foods was significantly associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality and cancer mortality, but not for dementia mortality or respiratory mortality. For the subtypes of cardiovascular mortality, adding salt to foods was significantly associated with higher risk of stroke mortality but not coronary heart disease mortality.
Other analyses suggested that the association of adding salt to foods with an increased risk of premature mortality appeared to be attenuated with increasing intake of food high in potassium (fruits and vegetables).
The authors point out that the amounts of discretionary sodium intake (the salt used at the table or in home cooking) have been largely overlooked in previous studies, even though adding salt to foods accounts for a considerable proportion of total sodium intake (6%-20%) in Western diets.
“Our findings also support the notion that even a modest reduction in sodium intake is likely to result in substantial health benefits, especially when it is achieved in the general population,” they conclude.
Conflicting information from different studies
But the current findings seem to directly contradict those from another recent study by Messerli and colleagues showing higher sodium intake correlates with improved life expectancy.
Addressing these contradictory results, Dr. Qi commented: “The study of Messerli et al. is based on an ecological design, in which the analysis is performed on country average sodium intake, rather than at the individual level. This type of ecological study has several major limitations, such as the lack of individuals’ sodium intake, uncontrolled confounding, and the cross-sectional nature. Typically, ecological studies are not considered useful for testing hypothesis in epidemiological studies.”
Dr. Qi noted that, in contrast, his current study analyzes individuals’ exposure, and has a prospective design. “Our findings are supported by previous large-scale observational studies and clinical trials which show the high intake of sodium may adversely affect chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension.” =
Lead author of the ecological study, Franz Messerli, MD, Bern (Switzerland) University Hospital, however, was not convinced by the findings from Dr. Qi’s study.
“The difference in 24-hour sodium intake between those who never/rarely added salt and those who always did is a minuscule 0.17 g. It is highly unlikely that such negligible quantity has any impact on blood pressure, not to mention cardiovascular mortality or life expectancy,” he commented in an interview.
He also pointed out that, in Dr. Qi’s study, people who added salt more frequently also consumed more red meat and processed meat, as well as less fish and less fruit and vegetables. “I would suggest that the bad habit of adding salt at the table is simply a powerful marker for an unhealthy diet.”
“There is no question that an excessive salt intake is harmful in hypertensive patients and increases the risk of stroke. But 0.17 g is not going to make any difference,” Dr. Messerli added.
What is the optimum level?
In an editorial accompanying the study by Dr. Qi and colleagues in the European Heart Journal, Annika Rosengren, MD, PhD, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden, noted that guidelines recommend a salt intake below 5 g, or about a teaspoon, per day. But few individuals meet this recommendation.
Because several recent studies show a U- or J-shaped association between salt and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, reducing salt intake across the whole population may not be universally beneficial, Dr. Rosengren said.
“So far, what the collective evidence about salt seems to indicate is that healthy people consuming what constitutes normal levels of ordinary salt need not worry too much about their salt intake,” she wrote.
Instead, she advised a diet rich in fruit and vegetables should be a priority to counterbalance potentially harmful effects of salt, and for many other reasons.
And she added that people at high risk, such as those with hypertension who have a high salt intake, are probably well advised to cut down, and not adding extra salt to already prepared foods is one way of achieving this. However, at the individual level, the optimal salt consumption range, or the “sweet spot” remains to be determined.
“Not adding extra salt to food is unlikely to be harmful and could contribute to strategies to lower population blood pressure levels,” Dr. Rosengren concluded.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
in a new study.
In the study of more than 500,000 people, compared with those who never or rarely added salt, those who always added salt to their food had a 28% increased risk of dying prematurely (defined as death before the age of 75 years).
Results also showed that adding salt to food was linked to a lower life expectancy. At the age of 50 years, life expectancy was reduced by 1.5 years in women and by 2.28 years in men who always added salt to their food, compared with those who never or rarely did.
However, these increased risks appeared to be attenuated with increasing intakes of high-potassium foods (vegetables and fruits).
The study was published online in the European Heart Journal.
“As far as we are aware, this is the first study to analyze adding salt to meals as a unique measurement for dietary sodium intake. Such a measure is less likely affected by other dietary components, especially potassium intake,” senior author Lu Qi, MD, Tulane University, New Orleans, told this news organization.
“Our study provides supportive evidence from a novel perspective to show the adverse effects of high sodium intake on human health, which is still a controversial topic. Our findings support the advice that reduction of salt intake by reducing the salt added to meals may benefit health and improve life expectancy. Our results also suggest that high intakes of fruits and vegetables are beneficial regarding lowering the adverse effects of salt,” he added.
Link between dietary salt and health is subject of longstanding debate
The researchers explained that the relationship between dietary salt intake and health remains a subject of longstanding debate, with previous studies on the association between sodium intake and mortality having shown conflicting results.
They attributed the inconsistent results to the low accuracy of sodium measurement, noting that sodium intake varies widely from day to day, but the majority of previous studies have largely relied on a single day’s urine collection or dietary survey for estimating the sodium intake, which is inadequate to assess an individual’s usual consumption levels.
They also pointed out that it is difficult to separate the contributions of intakes of sodium and potassium to health based on current methods for measuring dietary sodium and potassium, and this may confound the association between sodium intake and health outcomes.
They noted that the hypothesis that a high-potassium intake may attenuate the adverse association of high-sodium intake with health outcomes has been proposed for many years, but studies assessing the interaction between sodium intake and potassium intake on the risk of mortality are scarce.
Adding salt to food at the table is a common eating behavior directly related to an individual’s long-term preference for salty tasting foods and habitual salt intake, the authors said, adding that commonly used table salt contains 97%-99% sodium chloride, minimizing the potential confounding effects of other dietary factors including potassium. “Therefore, adding salt to foods provides a unique assessment to evaluate the association between habitual sodium intake and mortality.”
UK Biobank study
For the current study Dr. Qi and colleagues analyzed data from 501,379 people taking part in the UK Biobank study. When joining the study between 2006 and 2010, the participants were asked whether they added salt to their foods never/rarely, sometimes, usually or always. Participants were then followed for a median of 9 years.
After adjustment for sex, age, race, smoking, moderate drinking, body mass index, physical activity, Townsend deprivation index, high cholesterol, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, results showed an increasing risk of all-cause premature mortality rose with increasing frequency of adding salt to foods.
The adjusted hazard ratios, compared with those who never or rarely added salt, were 1.02 (95% CI, 0.99-1.06) for those who added salt sometimes, 1.07 (95% CI, 1.02-1.11) for those who usually added salt, and 1.28 (95% CI, 1.20-1.35) for those who always added salt.
The researchers also estimated the lower survival time caused by the high frequency of adding salt to foods. At age 50, women who always added salt to foods had an average 1.50 fewer years of life expectancy, and men who always added salt had an average 2.28 fewer years of life expectancy, as compared with their counterparts who never/rarely added salt to foods.
For cause-specific premature mortality, results showed that higher frequency of adding salt to foods was significantly associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality and cancer mortality, but not for dementia mortality or respiratory mortality. For the subtypes of cardiovascular mortality, adding salt to foods was significantly associated with higher risk of stroke mortality but not coronary heart disease mortality.
Other analyses suggested that the association of adding salt to foods with an increased risk of premature mortality appeared to be attenuated with increasing intake of food high in potassium (fruits and vegetables).
The authors point out that the amounts of discretionary sodium intake (the salt used at the table or in home cooking) have been largely overlooked in previous studies, even though adding salt to foods accounts for a considerable proportion of total sodium intake (6%-20%) in Western diets.
“Our findings also support the notion that even a modest reduction in sodium intake is likely to result in substantial health benefits, especially when it is achieved in the general population,” they conclude.
Conflicting information from different studies
But the current findings seem to directly contradict those from another recent study by Messerli and colleagues showing higher sodium intake correlates with improved life expectancy.
Addressing these contradictory results, Dr. Qi commented: “The study of Messerli et al. is based on an ecological design, in which the analysis is performed on country average sodium intake, rather than at the individual level. This type of ecological study has several major limitations, such as the lack of individuals’ sodium intake, uncontrolled confounding, and the cross-sectional nature. Typically, ecological studies are not considered useful for testing hypothesis in epidemiological studies.”
Dr. Qi noted that, in contrast, his current study analyzes individuals’ exposure, and has a prospective design. “Our findings are supported by previous large-scale observational studies and clinical trials which show the high intake of sodium may adversely affect chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension.” =
Lead author of the ecological study, Franz Messerli, MD, Bern (Switzerland) University Hospital, however, was not convinced by the findings from Dr. Qi’s study.
“The difference in 24-hour sodium intake between those who never/rarely added salt and those who always did is a minuscule 0.17 g. It is highly unlikely that such negligible quantity has any impact on blood pressure, not to mention cardiovascular mortality or life expectancy,” he commented in an interview.
He also pointed out that, in Dr. Qi’s study, people who added salt more frequently also consumed more red meat and processed meat, as well as less fish and less fruit and vegetables. “I would suggest that the bad habit of adding salt at the table is simply a powerful marker for an unhealthy diet.”
“There is no question that an excessive salt intake is harmful in hypertensive patients and increases the risk of stroke. But 0.17 g is not going to make any difference,” Dr. Messerli added.
What is the optimum level?
In an editorial accompanying the study by Dr. Qi and colleagues in the European Heart Journal, Annika Rosengren, MD, PhD, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden, noted that guidelines recommend a salt intake below 5 g, or about a teaspoon, per day. But few individuals meet this recommendation.
Because several recent studies show a U- or J-shaped association between salt and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, reducing salt intake across the whole population may not be universally beneficial, Dr. Rosengren said.
“So far, what the collective evidence about salt seems to indicate is that healthy people consuming what constitutes normal levels of ordinary salt need not worry too much about their salt intake,” she wrote.
Instead, she advised a diet rich in fruit and vegetables should be a priority to counterbalance potentially harmful effects of salt, and for many other reasons.
And she added that people at high risk, such as those with hypertension who have a high salt intake, are probably well advised to cut down, and not adding extra salt to already prepared foods is one way of achieving this. However, at the individual level, the optimal salt consumption range, or the “sweet spot” remains to be determined.
“Not adding extra salt to food is unlikely to be harmful and could contribute to strategies to lower population blood pressure levels,” Dr. Rosengren concluded.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
FROM THE EUROPEAN HEART JOURNAL
Zoster vaccination does not appear to increase flare risk in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory disease
, according to research published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
The authors of the study noted that individuals with IMIDs are at increased risk for herpes zoster and related complications, including postherpetic neuralgia, and that vaccination has been recommended for certain groups of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis, by the American College of Rheumatology and other professional organizations for individuals aged 50 and older.
The study investigators used medical claims from IBM MarketScan, which provided data on patients aged 50-64 years, and data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Medicare on patients aged 65 and older.
They defined presumed flares in three ways: hospitalization/emergency department visits for IMIDs, steroid treatment with a short-acting oral glucocorticoid, or treatment with a parenteral glucocorticoid injection. The investigators conducted a self-controlled case series (SCCS) analysis to examine any temporal link between the RZV and disease flares.
Among enrollees with IMIDs, 14.8% of the 55,654 patients in the MarketScan database and 43.2% of the 160,545 patients in the Medicare database received at least one dose of RZV during 2018-2019. The two-dose series completion within 6 months was 76.6% in the MarketScan group (age range, 50-64 years) and 85.4% among Medicare enrollees (age range, 65 years and older). In the SCCS analysis, 10% and 13% of patients developed flares in the control group as compared to 9%, and 11%-12% in the risk window following one or two doses of RZV among MarketScan and Medicare enrollees, respectively.
Based on these findings, the investigators concluded there was no statistically significant increase in flares subsequent to RZV administration for any IMID in either patients aged 50-64 years or patients aged 65 years and older following the first dose or second dose.
Nilanjana Bose, MD, a rheumatologist with Lonestar Rheumatology, Houston, Texas, who was not involved with the study, said that the research addresses a topic where there is uneasiness, namely vaccination in patients with IMIDs.
“Anytime you are vaccinating a patient with an autoimmune disease, especially one on a biologic, you always worry about the risk of flares,” said Dr. Bose. “Any time you tamper with the immune system, there is a risk of flares.”
The study serves as a clarification for the primary care setting, said Dr. Bose. “A lot of the time, the shingles vaccine is administered not by rheumatology but by primary care or through the pharmacy,” she said. “This study puts them [primary care physicians] at ease.”
Findings from the study reflect that most RZV vaccinations were administered in pharmacies.
One of the weaknesses of the study is that the investigators did not include patients younger than 50 years old, said Dr. Bose. “It would have been nice if they could have looked at younger patients,” she said. “We try to vaccinate all our [immunocompromised] adult patients, even the younger ones, because they are also at risk for shingles.”
Given that there are increasing options of medical therapies in rheumatology that are immunomodulatory, the subject of vaccination for patients is often one of discussion, added Dr. Bose.
Arthur Kavanaugh, MD, professor of medicine, University of California San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, Calif., and director of the Center for Innovative Therapy in the UCSD Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology, told this news organization that a strength of the study is its large numbers of patients but noted the shortcoming of using claims data. “Claims data has inherent limitations, such as the lack of detailed granular data on the patients,” wrote Dr. Kavanaugh, who was not involved with the study. He described this investigation as “really about the first evidence that I am aware of addressing this issue.”
No funding source was listed. One author disclosed having received research grants and consulting fees received from Pfizer and GSK for unrelated work; the other authors had no disclosures. Dr. Bose and Dr. Kavanaugh had no relevant disclosures.
, according to research published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
The authors of the study noted that individuals with IMIDs are at increased risk for herpes zoster and related complications, including postherpetic neuralgia, and that vaccination has been recommended for certain groups of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis, by the American College of Rheumatology and other professional organizations for individuals aged 50 and older.
The study investigators used medical claims from IBM MarketScan, which provided data on patients aged 50-64 years, and data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Medicare on patients aged 65 and older.
They defined presumed flares in three ways: hospitalization/emergency department visits for IMIDs, steroid treatment with a short-acting oral glucocorticoid, or treatment with a parenteral glucocorticoid injection. The investigators conducted a self-controlled case series (SCCS) analysis to examine any temporal link between the RZV and disease flares.
Among enrollees with IMIDs, 14.8% of the 55,654 patients in the MarketScan database and 43.2% of the 160,545 patients in the Medicare database received at least one dose of RZV during 2018-2019. The two-dose series completion within 6 months was 76.6% in the MarketScan group (age range, 50-64 years) and 85.4% among Medicare enrollees (age range, 65 years and older). In the SCCS analysis, 10% and 13% of patients developed flares in the control group as compared to 9%, and 11%-12% in the risk window following one or two doses of RZV among MarketScan and Medicare enrollees, respectively.
Based on these findings, the investigators concluded there was no statistically significant increase in flares subsequent to RZV administration for any IMID in either patients aged 50-64 years or patients aged 65 years and older following the first dose or second dose.
Nilanjana Bose, MD, a rheumatologist with Lonestar Rheumatology, Houston, Texas, who was not involved with the study, said that the research addresses a topic where there is uneasiness, namely vaccination in patients with IMIDs.
“Anytime you are vaccinating a patient with an autoimmune disease, especially one on a biologic, you always worry about the risk of flares,” said Dr. Bose. “Any time you tamper with the immune system, there is a risk of flares.”
The study serves as a clarification for the primary care setting, said Dr. Bose. “A lot of the time, the shingles vaccine is administered not by rheumatology but by primary care or through the pharmacy,” she said. “This study puts them [primary care physicians] at ease.”
Findings from the study reflect that most RZV vaccinations were administered in pharmacies.
One of the weaknesses of the study is that the investigators did not include patients younger than 50 years old, said Dr. Bose. “It would have been nice if they could have looked at younger patients,” she said. “We try to vaccinate all our [immunocompromised] adult patients, even the younger ones, because they are also at risk for shingles.”
Given that there are increasing options of medical therapies in rheumatology that are immunomodulatory, the subject of vaccination for patients is often one of discussion, added Dr. Bose.
Arthur Kavanaugh, MD, professor of medicine, University of California San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, Calif., and director of the Center for Innovative Therapy in the UCSD Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology, told this news organization that a strength of the study is its large numbers of patients but noted the shortcoming of using claims data. “Claims data has inherent limitations, such as the lack of detailed granular data on the patients,” wrote Dr. Kavanaugh, who was not involved with the study. He described this investigation as “really about the first evidence that I am aware of addressing this issue.”
No funding source was listed. One author disclosed having received research grants and consulting fees received from Pfizer and GSK for unrelated work; the other authors had no disclosures. Dr. Bose and Dr. Kavanaugh had no relevant disclosures.
, according to research published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
The authors of the study noted that individuals with IMIDs are at increased risk for herpes zoster and related complications, including postherpetic neuralgia, and that vaccination has been recommended for certain groups of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis, by the American College of Rheumatology and other professional organizations for individuals aged 50 and older.
The study investigators used medical claims from IBM MarketScan, which provided data on patients aged 50-64 years, and data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Medicare on patients aged 65 and older.
They defined presumed flares in three ways: hospitalization/emergency department visits for IMIDs, steroid treatment with a short-acting oral glucocorticoid, or treatment with a parenteral glucocorticoid injection. The investigators conducted a self-controlled case series (SCCS) analysis to examine any temporal link between the RZV and disease flares.
Among enrollees with IMIDs, 14.8% of the 55,654 patients in the MarketScan database and 43.2% of the 160,545 patients in the Medicare database received at least one dose of RZV during 2018-2019. The two-dose series completion within 6 months was 76.6% in the MarketScan group (age range, 50-64 years) and 85.4% among Medicare enrollees (age range, 65 years and older). In the SCCS analysis, 10% and 13% of patients developed flares in the control group as compared to 9%, and 11%-12% in the risk window following one or two doses of RZV among MarketScan and Medicare enrollees, respectively.
Based on these findings, the investigators concluded there was no statistically significant increase in flares subsequent to RZV administration for any IMID in either patients aged 50-64 years or patients aged 65 years and older following the first dose or second dose.
Nilanjana Bose, MD, a rheumatologist with Lonestar Rheumatology, Houston, Texas, who was not involved with the study, said that the research addresses a topic where there is uneasiness, namely vaccination in patients with IMIDs.
“Anytime you are vaccinating a patient with an autoimmune disease, especially one on a biologic, you always worry about the risk of flares,” said Dr. Bose. “Any time you tamper with the immune system, there is a risk of flares.”
The study serves as a clarification for the primary care setting, said Dr. Bose. “A lot of the time, the shingles vaccine is administered not by rheumatology but by primary care or through the pharmacy,” she said. “This study puts them [primary care physicians] at ease.”
Findings from the study reflect that most RZV vaccinations were administered in pharmacies.
One of the weaknesses of the study is that the investigators did not include patients younger than 50 years old, said Dr. Bose. “It would have been nice if they could have looked at younger patients,” she said. “We try to vaccinate all our [immunocompromised] adult patients, even the younger ones, because they are also at risk for shingles.”
Given that there are increasing options of medical therapies in rheumatology that are immunomodulatory, the subject of vaccination for patients is often one of discussion, added Dr. Bose.
Arthur Kavanaugh, MD, professor of medicine, University of California San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, Calif., and director of the Center for Innovative Therapy in the UCSD Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology, told this news organization that a strength of the study is its large numbers of patients but noted the shortcoming of using claims data. “Claims data has inherent limitations, such as the lack of detailed granular data on the patients,” wrote Dr. Kavanaugh, who was not involved with the study. He described this investigation as “really about the first evidence that I am aware of addressing this issue.”
No funding source was listed. One author disclosed having received research grants and consulting fees received from Pfizer and GSK for unrelated work; the other authors had no disclosures. Dr. Bose and Dr. Kavanaugh had no relevant disclosures.
Sleep-deprived physicians less empathetic to patient pain?
new research suggests.
In the first of two studies, resident physicians were presented with two hypothetical scenarios involving a patient who complains of pain. They were asked about their likelihood of prescribing pain medication. The test was given to one group of residents who were just starting their day and to another group who were at the end of their night shift after being on call for 26 hours.
Results showed that the night shift residents were less likely than their daytime counterparts to say they would prescribe pain medication to the patients.
In further analysis of discharge notes from more than 13,000 electronic records of patients presenting with pain complaints at hospitals in Israel and the United States, the likelihood of an analgesic being prescribed during the night shift was 11% lower in Israel and 9% lower in the United States, compared with the day shift.
“Pain management is a major challenge, and a doctor’s perception of a patient’s subjective pain is susceptible to bias,” coinvestigator David Gozal, MD, the Marie M. and Harry L. Smith Endowed Chair of Child Health, University of Missouri–Columbia, said in a press release.
“This study demonstrated that night shift work is an important and previously unrecognized source of bias in pain management, likely stemming from impaired perception of pain,” Dr. Gozal added.
The findings were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
‘Directional’ differences
Senior investigator Alex Gileles-Hillel, MD, senior pediatric pulmonologist and sleep researcher at Hadassah University Medical Center, Jerusalem, said in an interview that physicians must make “complex assessments of patients’ subjective pain experience” – and the “subjective nature of pain management decisions can give rise to various biases.”
Dr. Gileles-Hillel has previously researched the cognitive toll of night shift work on physicians.
“It’s pretty established, for example, not to drive when sleep deprived because cognition is impaired,” he said. The current study explored whether sleep deprivation could affect areas other than cognition, including emotions and empathy.
The researchers used “two complementary approaches.” First, they administered tests to measure empathy and pain management decisions in 67 resident physicians at Hadassah Medical Centers either following a 26-hour night shift that began at 8:00 a.m. the day before (n = 36) or immediately before starting the workday (n = 31).
There were no significant differences in demographic, sleep, or burnout measures between the two groups, except that night shift physicians had slept less than those in the daytime group (2.93 vs. 5.96 hours).
Participants completed two tasks. In the empathy-for-pain task, they rated their emotional reactions to pictures of individuals in pain. In the empathy accuracy task, they were asked to assess the feelings of videotaped individuals telling emotional stories.
They were then presented with two clinical scenarios: a female patient with a headache and a male patient with a backache. Following that, they were asked to assess the magnitude of the patients’ pain and how likely they would be to prescribe pain medication.
In the empathy-for-pain task, physicians’ empathy scores were significantly lower in the night shift group than in the day group (difference, –0.83; 95% CI, –1.55 to –0.10; P = .026). There were no significant differences between the groups in the empathy accuracy task.
In both scenarios, physicians in the night shift group assessed the patient’s pain as weaker in comparison with physicians in the day group. There was a statistically significant difference in the headache scenario but not the backache scenario.
In the headache scenario, the propensity of the physicians to prescribe analgesics was “directionally lower” but did not reach statistical significance. In the backache scenario, there was no significant difference between the groups’ prescribing propensities.
In both scenarios, pain assessment was positively correlated with the propensity to prescribe analgesics.
Despite the lack of statistical significance, the findings “documented a negative effect of night shift work on physician empathy for pain and a positive association between physician assessment of patient pain and the propensity to prescribe analgesics,” the investigators wrote.
Need for naps?
The researchers then analyzed analgesic prescription patterns drawn from three datasets of discharge notes of patients presenting to the emergency department with pain complaints (n = 13,482) at two branches of Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center and the University of Missouri Health Center.
The researchers collected data, including discharge time, medications patients were prescribed upon discharge, and patients’ subjective pain rating on a scale of 0-10 on a visual analogue scale (VAS).
Although patients’ VAS scores did not differ with respect to time or shift, patients were discharged with significantly less prescribed analgesics during the night shift in comparison with the day shift.
No similar differences in prescriptions between night shifts and day shifts were found for nonanalgesic medications, such as for diabetes or blood pressure. This suggests “the effect was specific to pain,” Dr. Gileles-Hillel said.
The pattern remained significant after controlling for potential confounders, including patient and physician variables and emergency department characteristics.
In addition, patients seen during night shifts received fewer analgesics, particularly opioids, than recommended by the World Health Organization for pain management.
“The first study enabled us to measure empathy for pain directly and examine our hypothesis in a controlled environment, while the second enabled us to test the implications by examining real-life pain management decisions,” Dr. Gileles-Hillel said.
“Physicians need to be aware of this,” he noted. “I try to be aware when I’m taking calls [at night] that I’m less empathetic to others and I might be more brief or angry with others.”
On a “house management level, perhaps institutions should try to schedule naps either before or during overnight call. A nap might give a boost and reboot not only to cognitive but also to emotional resources,” Dr. Gileles-Hillel added.
Compromised safety
In a comment, Eti Ben Simon, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Human Sleep Science, University of California, Berkeley, called the study “an important contribution to a growing list of studies that reveal how long night shifts reduce overall safety” for both patients and clinicians.
“It’s time to abandon the notion that the human brain can function as normal after being deprived of sleep for 24 hours,” said Dr. Ben Simon, who was not involved with the research.
“This is especially true in medicine, where we trust others to take care of us and feel our pain. These functions are simply not possible without adequate sleep,” she added.
Also commenting, Kannan Ramar, MD, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, suggested that being cognizant of these findings “may help providers to mitigate this bias” of underprescribing pain medications when treating their patients.
Dr. Ramar, who is also a critical care specialist, pulmonologist, and sleep medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., was not involved with the research.
He noted that “further studies that systematically evaluate this further in a prospective and blinded way will be important.”
The research was supported in part by grants from the Israel Science Foundation, Joy Ventures, the Recanati Fund at the Jerusalem School of Business at the Hebrew University, and a fellowship from the Azrieli Foundation and received grant support to various investigators from the NIH, the Leda J. Sears Foundation, and the University of Missouri. The investigators, Ramar, and Ben Simon have reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
new research suggests.
In the first of two studies, resident physicians were presented with two hypothetical scenarios involving a patient who complains of pain. They were asked about their likelihood of prescribing pain medication. The test was given to one group of residents who were just starting their day and to another group who were at the end of their night shift after being on call for 26 hours.
Results showed that the night shift residents were less likely than their daytime counterparts to say they would prescribe pain medication to the patients.
In further analysis of discharge notes from more than 13,000 electronic records of patients presenting with pain complaints at hospitals in Israel and the United States, the likelihood of an analgesic being prescribed during the night shift was 11% lower in Israel and 9% lower in the United States, compared with the day shift.
“Pain management is a major challenge, and a doctor’s perception of a patient’s subjective pain is susceptible to bias,” coinvestigator David Gozal, MD, the Marie M. and Harry L. Smith Endowed Chair of Child Health, University of Missouri–Columbia, said in a press release.
“This study demonstrated that night shift work is an important and previously unrecognized source of bias in pain management, likely stemming from impaired perception of pain,” Dr. Gozal added.
The findings were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
‘Directional’ differences
Senior investigator Alex Gileles-Hillel, MD, senior pediatric pulmonologist and sleep researcher at Hadassah University Medical Center, Jerusalem, said in an interview that physicians must make “complex assessments of patients’ subjective pain experience” – and the “subjective nature of pain management decisions can give rise to various biases.”
Dr. Gileles-Hillel has previously researched the cognitive toll of night shift work on physicians.
“It’s pretty established, for example, not to drive when sleep deprived because cognition is impaired,” he said. The current study explored whether sleep deprivation could affect areas other than cognition, including emotions and empathy.
The researchers used “two complementary approaches.” First, they administered tests to measure empathy and pain management decisions in 67 resident physicians at Hadassah Medical Centers either following a 26-hour night shift that began at 8:00 a.m. the day before (n = 36) or immediately before starting the workday (n = 31).
There were no significant differences in demographic, sleep, or burnout measures between the two groups, except that night shift physicians had slept less than those in the daytime group (2.93 vs. 5.96 hours).
Participants completed two tasks. In the empathy-for-pain task, they rated their emotional reactions to pictures of individuals in pain. In the empathy accuracy task, they were asked to assess the feelings of videotaped individuals telling emotional stories.
They were then presented with two clinical scenarios: a female patient with a headache and a male patient with a backache. Following that, they were asked to assess the magnitude of the patients’ pain and how likely they would be to prescribe pain medication.
In the empathy-for-pain task, physicians’ empathy scores were significantly lower in the night shift group than in the day group (difference, –0.83; 95% CI, –1.55 to –0.10; P = .026). There were no significant differences between the groups in the empathy accuracy task.
In both scenarios, physicians in the night shift group assessed the patient’s pain as weaker in comparison with physicians in the day group. There was a statistically significant difference in the headache scenario but not the backache scenario.
In the headache scenario, the propensity of the physicians to prescribe analgesics was “directionally lower” but did not reach statistical significance. In the backache scenario, there was no significant difference between the groups’ prescribing propensities.
In both scenarios, pain assessment was positively correlated with the propensity to prescribe analgesics.
Despite the lack of statistical significance, the findings “documented a negative effect of night shift work on physician empathy for pain and a positive association between physician assessment of patient pain and the propensity to prescribe analgesics,” the investigators wrote.
Need for naps?
The researchers then analyzed analgesic prescription patterns drawn from three datasets of discharge notes of patients presenting to the emergency department with pain complaints (n = 13,482) at two branches of Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center and the University of Missouri Health Center.
The researchers collected data, including discharge time, medications patients were prescribed upon discharge, and patients’ subjective pain rating on a scale of 0-10 on a visual analogue scale (VAS).
Although patients’ VAS scores did not differ with respect to time or shift, patients were discharged with significantly less prescribed analgesics during the night shift in comparison with the day shift.
No similar differences in prescriptions between night shifts and day shifts were found for nonanalgesic medications, such as for diabetes or blood pressure. This suggests “the effect was specific to pain,” Dr. Gileles-Hillel said.
The pattern remained significant after controlling for potential confounders, including patient and physician variables and emergency department characteristics.
In addition, patients seen during night shifts received fewer analgesics, particularly opioids, than recommended by the World Health Organization for pain management.
“The first study enabled us to measure empathy for pain directly and examine our hypothesis in a controlled environment, while the second enabled us to test the implications by examining real-life pain management decisions,” Dr. Gileles-Hillel said.
“Physicians need to be aware of this,” he noted. “I try to be aware when I’m taking calls [at night] that I’m less empathetic to others and I might be more brief or angry with others.”
On a “house management level, perhaps institutions should try to schedule naps either before or during overnight call. A nap might give a boost and reboot not only to cognitive but also to emotional resources,” Dr. Gileles-Hillel added.
Compromised safety
In a comment, Eti Ben Simon, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Human Sleep Science, University of California, Berkeley, called the study “an important contribution to a growing list of studies that reveal how long night shifts reduce overall safety” for both patients and clinicians.
“It’s time to abandon the notion that the human brain can function as normal after being deprived of sleep for 24 hours,” said Dr. Ben Simon, who was not involved with the research.
“This is especially true in medicine, where we trust others to take care of us and feel our pain. These functions are simply not possible without adequate sleep,” she added.
Also commenting, Kannan Ramar, MD, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, suggested that being cognizant of these findings “may help providers to mitigate this bias” of underprescribing pain medications when treating their patients.
Dr. Ramar, who is also a critical care specialist, pulmonologist, and sleep medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., was not involved with the research.
He noted that “further studies that systematically evaluate this further in a prospective and blinded way will be important.”
The research was supported in part by grants from the Israel Science Foundation, Joy Ventures, the Recanati Fund at the Jerusalem School of Business at the Hebrew University, and a fellowship from the Azrieli Foundation and received grant support to various investigators from the NIH, the Leda J. Sears Foundation, and the University of Missouri. The investigators, Ramar, and Ben Simon have reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
new research suggests.
In the first of two studies, resident physicians were presented with two hypothetical scenarios involving a patient who complains of pain. They were asked about their likelihood of prescribing pain medication. The test was given to one group of residents who were just starting their day and to another group who were at the end of their night shift after being on call for 26 hours.
Results showed that the night shift residents were less likely than their daytime counterparts to say they would prescribe pain medication to the patients.
In further analysis of discharge notes from more than 13,000 electronic records of patients presenting with pain complaints at hospitals in Israel and the United States, the likelihood of an analgesic being prescribed during the night shift was 11% lower in Israel and 9% lower in the United States, compared with the day shift.
“Pain management is a major challenge, and a doctor’s perception of a patient’s subjective pain is susceptible to bias,” coinvestigator David Gozal, MD, the Marie M. and Harry L. Smith Endowed Chair of Child Health, University of Missouri–Columbia, said in a press release.
“This study demonstrated that night shift work is an important and previously unrecognized source of bias in pain management, likely stemming from impaired perception of pain,” Dr. Gozal added.
The findings were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
‘Directional’ differences
Senior investigator Alex Gileles-Hillel, MD, senior pediatric pulmonologist and sleep researcher at Hadassah University Medical Center, Jerusalem, said in an interview that physicians must make “complex assessments of patients’ subjective pain experience” – and the “subjective nature of pain management decisions can give rise to various biases.”
Dr. Gileles-Hillel has previously researched the cognitive toll of night shift work on physicians.
“It’s pretty established, for example, not to drive when sleep deprived because cognition is impaired,” he said. The current study explored whether sleep deprivation could affect areas other than cognition, including emotions and empathy.
The researchers used “two complementary approaches.” First, they administered tests to measure empathy and pain management decisions in 67 resident physicians at Hadassah Medical Centers either following a 26-hour night shift that began at 8:00 a.m. the day before (n = 36) or immediately before starting the workday (n = 31).
There were no significant differences in demographic, sleep, or burnout measures between the two groups, except that night shift physicians had slept less than those in the daytime group (2.93 vs. 5.96 hours).
Participants completed two tasks. In the empathy-for-pain task, they rated their emotional reactions to pictures of individuals in pain. In the empathy accuracy task, they were asked to assess the feelings of videotaped individuals telling emotional stories.
They were then presented with two clinical scenarios: a female patient with a headache and a male patient with a backache. Following that, they were asked to assess the magnitude of the patients’ pain and how likely they would be to prescribe pain medication.
In the empathy-for-pain task, physicians’ empathy scores were significantly lower in the night shift group than in the day group (difference, –0.83; 95% CI, –1.55 to –0.10; P = .026). There were no significant differences between the groups in the empathy accuracy task.
In both scenarios, physicians in the night shift group assessed the patient’s pain as weaker in comparison with physicians in the day group. There was a statistically significant difference in the headache scenario but not the backache scenario.
In the headache scenario, the propensity of the physicians to prescribe analgesics was “directionally lower” but did not reach statistical significance. In the backache scenario, there was no significant difference between the groups’ prescribing propensities.
In both scenarios, pain assessment was positively correlated with the propensity to prescribe analgesics.
Despite the lack of statistical significance, the findings “documented a negative effect of night shift work on physician empathy for pain and a positive association between physician assessment of patient pain and the propensity to prescribe analgesics,” the investigators wrote.
Need for naps?
The researchers then analyzed analgesic prescription patterns drawn from three datasets of discharge notes of patients presenting to the emergency department with pain complaints (n = 13,482) at two branches of Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center and the University of Missouri Health Center.
The researchers collected data, including discharge time, medications patients were prescribed upon discharge, and patients’ subjective pain rating on a scale of 0-10 on a visual analogue scale (VAS).
Although patients’ VAS scores did not differ with respect to time or shift, patients were discharged with significantly less prescribed analgesics during the night shift in comparison with the day shift.
No similar differences in prescriptions between night shifts and day shifts were found for nonanalgesic medications, such as for diabetes or blood pressure. This suggests “the effect was specific to pain,” Dr. Gileles-Hillel said.
The pattern remained significant after controlling for potential confounders, including patient and physician variables and emergency department characteristics.
In addition, patients seen during night shifts received fewer analgesics, particularly opioids, than recommended by the World Health Organization for pain management.
“The first study enabled us to measure empathy for pain directly and examine our hypothesis in a controlled environment, while the second enabled us to test the implications by examining real-life pain management decisions,” Dr. Gileles-Hillel said.
“Physicians need to be aware of this,” he noted. “I try to be aware when I’m taking calls [at night] that I’m less empathetic to others and I might be more brief or angry with others.”
On a “house management level, perhaps institutions should try to schedule naps either before or during overnight call. A nap might give a boost and reboot not only to cognitive but also to emotional resources,” Dr. Gileles-Hillel added.
Compromised safety
In a comment, Eti Ben Simon, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Human Sleep Science, University of California, Berkeley, called the study “an important contribution to a growing list of studies that reveal how long night shifts reduce overall safety” for both patients and clinicians.
“It’s time to abandon the notion that the human brain can function as normal after being deprived of sleep for 24 hours,” said Dr. Ben Simon, who was not involved with the research.
“This is especially true in medicine, where we trust others to take care of us and feel our pain. These functions are simply not possible without adequate sleep,” she added.
Also commenting, Kannan Ramar, MD, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, suggested that being cognizant of these findings “may help providers to mitigate this bias” of underprescribing pain medications when treating their patients.
Dr. Ramar, who is also a critical care specialist, pulmonologist, and sleep medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., was not involved with the research.
He noted that “further studies that systematically evaluate this further in a prospective and blinded way will be important.”
The research was supported in part by grants from the Israel Science Foundation, Joy Ventures, the Recanati Fund at the Jerusalem School of Business at the Hebrew University, and a fellowship from the Azrieli Foundation and received grant support to various investigators from the NIH, the Leda J. Sears Foundation, and the University of Missouri. The investigators, Ramar, and Ben Simon have reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES