News & Updates

High-dose antidepressants up risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Patients on high-dose citalopram (>20 mg) and high-dose escitalopram (>10 mg) are more likely to experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) than those on sertraline, while users of high-dose mirtazapine (>30 mg) have a higher OHCA rate than those on duloxetine, a study has shown.

Doxycycline plus zinc helps shield against COVID-19

In healthcare workers, prophylactic therapy with doxycycline plus zinc seems to reduce the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to a study.

Management of multidrug-resistant organisms in paediatric patients: Role of newer antimicrobial agents

The management of multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections in children is complex, with limited studies and a relative lack of approved new antibiotics with paediatric indications.

At a recent Meet-the-Expert session, Dr Louis Grandjean, Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Associate Professor at University College, London, UK, addressed the growing threat of MDR infections in children and discussed treatment strategies and options for management. He focused on ceftazidime-avibactam (CAZ-AVI, Zavicefta^®), whose approval in Singapore was recently expanded to include paediatric patients aged 3 months and older.

Adj Asst Prof Natalie Tan, Senior Consultant at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore, chaired this webinar, which was organized by Pfizer under the auspices of the Singapore Paediatric Society and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Decitabine as good as, but safer than, chemo in AML

Extended treatment with decitabine is as good as, but safer than, standard induction chemotherapy (IC) in older patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), according to a phase III study presented at EHA 2022.

Medication-assisted therapy tied to arrhythmia in patients with opioid use disorder

In patients diagnosed with opioid use disorders, those who received medication-assisted therapy (MAT) prescriptions have a higher risk of cardiac arrhythmia than those who did not, reports a study.