Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

K Heithoff

Publications and source records attributed to K Heithoff.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Loratadine versus cetirizine: assessment of somnolence and motivation during the workday.

OBJECTIVE: This parallel-group, double-blind study compared the somnolence and motivation profiles of 2 second-generation antihistamines, loratadine and cetirizine, in patients with allergic rhinitis. BACKGROUND: Second-generation antihistamines were developed to provide symptomatic relief from allergic disorders without the unwanted side effects of first-generation antihistamines, including somnolence. Recent research has indicated that not all second-generation antihistamines are comparable with respect to somnolence and other cognitive processes. METHODS: Patients aged > or = 12 years and actively exhibiting symptoms of allergic rhinitis were randomized to 2 treatment groups to receive 10 mg loratadine or 10 mg cetirizine daily at 8:00 AM for 1 week. After patients took the medication, their somnolence and degree of motivation to perform activities were recorded in an electronic diary using a visual analog scale 4 times during the workday (8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, noon, and 3:00 PM). RESULTS: Sixty patients (31 men, 29 women) were randomized to treatment. Somnolence scores were similar for both groups at baseline and at the time of dosing (8:00 AM). However, there was a statistically significant difference in somnolence scores between the loratadine and cetirizine groups at 10:00 AM (P = 0.008), noon (P = 0.001), and 3:00 PM (P < 0.001), with the cetirizine group showing a greater degree of somnolence. The scores on motivation to perform activities were similar for both groups at the baseline and 8:00-AM measurements. In parallel with the somnolence scores, there were statistically significant differences in motivation scores between the loratadine and cetirizine groups at 10:00 AM (P = 0.014), noon (P = 0.001), and 3:00 PM (P < 0.001), indicating that patients taking loratadine were relatively more motivated during the workday. CONCLUSION: The results of this study demonstrate that in patients aged > or = 12 years who had allergic rhinitis, cetirizine use promoted somnolence and decreased motivation to perform activities during the workday compared with loratadine.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Identifying patterns of disruptive behavior in long-term care residents.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency, timing, and pattern of 45 operationalized disruptive behaviors (DB) in older people in long-term care units. DESIGN: Nursing staff collected prospective descriptive data over 21 consecutive shifts for each patient to document prevalence, frequency, and co-occurrences of DBs. SETTING: All of the eight long-term care units and one acute/admission unit of a large Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC). Each 40-bed unit had patients with varying levels of cognitive impairment and skilled nursing needs. PARTICIPANTS: The sample consisted of 240 hospitalized VA patients with a mean age of 72.8 (SD = 8.6) years and mean length of stay of 4.02 (SD = 8.6) years. Residents had dementia, a psychiatric diagnosis, or mixed dementia and psychiatric diagnoses. MEASUREMENTS: The Disruptive Behavior Scale (DBS), an instrument designed for collecting patient-level data on 45 separate DBs. RESULTS: In a 24-hour period, the average frequency was 3.6 DBs per subject. We found that 41.2% of DB occurred during the day shift, 39.2% during the evening shift, and 19.6% during the night shift. In 32% of observed occurrences, only one DB occurred within the hour. In the remaining 68% of observations, two or more DBs occurred within the same hour. We found two behaviors, Does Not Follow Directions and Excessive Motor Activity, to occur with multiple behaviors in multiple categories. Several characteristic patterns were noted; e.g., physically aggressive behaviors rarely co-occurred with verbal DBs. Physically nonaggressive behaviors seemed to occur most frequently with other physically nonaggressive behaviors and, to a lesser extent, with verbal DBs. CONCLUSIONS: These findings lend support to the existence of patterns of DBs in long-term care patients, a useful step toward targeting interventions early in the behavioral sequence.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

Does the ECA underestimate the prevalence of late-life depression?

OBJECTIVE: This research addresses the most frequently cited methodological criticism of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) surveys--which might lead to significantly lower estimates of true prevalence rates for late-life depression--the inability of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) to distinguish between somatic symptoms of depression that result from physical causes and those that result from psychiatric causes. DESIGN: The data for this study come from the ECA Wave Two surveys sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health. In this analysis, symptoms of depression the respondent always attributed to physical causes are recoded to be equivalent to those having a psychiatric cause. The third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III) scoring algorithm for depression (i.e., dysphoria plus four of the eight Criterion B symptoms) was then applied to the recorded data set. RESULTS: Recording somatic symptoms of depression, originally attributed to physical or medical explanations, to psychiatric symptoms does not result in a disproportionate rise in diagnosable depression in the older age groups. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis provides additional support for the ECA survey's prevalence estimate of late-life depression. This research failed to find evidence that the highly structured nature of the DIS makes it unsuitable for ascertaining symptoms of depression in the elderly.

Adult↗