New USPSTF draft recommendations for skin cancer screening

Citing lack of evidence, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has recommended against screening, defined as visual examination, for skin cancer in asymptomatic adolescents and adults in new draft recommendations posted on its website. This recommendation exempts individuals with a family history of skin cancer or those with signs or symptoms, such as irregular moles. The draft statement is open for public comment up to November 21, 2022…(Source: USPSTF, Oct. 25, 2022).

ECT superior to ketamine for major depressive episode

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was superior to IV ketamine in alleviating severity of depression in patients in the midst of an acute major depressive episode in a systematic review and meta-analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry. Both treatments had “unique adverse effect profiles”. The risk of muscle pain and headache was less with ketamine, while ECT was associated with lower risk of blurred vision, vertigo, diplopia/nystagmus and transient dissociative/depersonalization symptoms… (Source: JAMA Psychiatry, Oct. 19, 2022).

Sleeping for ≤5 hours predisposes middle-aged and older adults to chronic illnesses

A PLoS Medicine study showed that sleeping for less than 5 hours increased the risk of multiple chronic diseases (such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, COPD, CKD, depression) by 30% in persons aged 50 years; the risk increased to 32% among persons aged 60 years and to 40% among those aged 70 years compared to those who slept for a minimum of 7 hours…(Source: Medscape, Oct. 21, 2022).

Renaming diabetes insipidus

Diabetes insipidus may soon be known by a different name. A Working Group with representatives from various renowned endocrinology associations has proposed renaming to “arginine vasopressin deficiency (AVP-D)” for central etiologies and “arginine vasopressin resistance (AVP-R)” for nephrogenic etiologies. The new names more aptly reflect the underlying pathophysiology and avoid confusion with diabetes mellitus. The Working Group further recommends retaining the old names in brackets for some time – AVP-D (cranial diabetes insipidus)and AVP-R (nephrogenic diabetes insipidus)… (Source: European Journal of Endocrinology, Oct. 14, 2022).

High risk of sight-threatening parasitic infection with reusable contact lenses

Wearing reusable soft contact lenses causes nearly 4-fold increase in the risk of acanthamoeba keratitis compared to daily disposable lenses. Acanthamoeba keratitis is a rare parasitic infection, which may lead to blindness. In the study published in the journal Ophthalmology, individuals who wore the lenses while taking a shower increased the risk of the infection by 3.3 times, while sleeping with the lenses increased the risk by 3.9 times…(Medscape, Sept. 26, 2022).