More than Half of Patients with Schizophrenia Are Receiving Polypharmacy and Co-Prescription of Anxiolytics in Pakistan —Findings from Research on Asian Prescription Pattern in 2016

Objective: Little is known about the prescription pattern of psychotropic drugs for patients with schizophrenia in Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristic features of psychotropic drug prescriptions for patients with schizophrenia in Pakistan. Methods: Three centers in Pakistan participated in a large scale collaborative study known as Research on Asian Prescription Pattern (REAP). The 2016 REAP survey included centers from 15 countries in Asia and used a unified research protocol. The design of the study was quantitative and of descriptive epidemiology. Analysis was made on the data collected from three centers i.e., Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The data collected in Pakistan were compared with those from other Asian countries. The details of REAP were presented on the homepage of REAP (http://www.REAP.Asia). Results: From Pakistan, 298 patients were included. Patients with schizophrenia in Pakistan received higher rate of antipsychotic polypharmacy and a higher rate of co-prescription of mood stabilizers and anxiolytics when compared with participants from other South Asian countries (India and Bangladesh). Conclusion: The main findings of the study were that a majority of the patients were prescribed antipsychotic polypharmacy drugs in Pakistan. Insufficient training on the use of psychotropic drugs and a lack of treatment guideline are considered to be the major contributing factors. Further education and training on the proper use of psychotropic drugs are recommended to psychiatrists in Pakistan. The guidelines on pharmacotherapy for patients with schizophrenia should also be developed and promoted in Pakistan.

Effect of Electrode Surface Modification by Sulfide on QCM Based Protein Biosensor

The rapid development of surface sensitive biosensor technologies requires optimum control of surface modification to provide reliable and reproducible results. With the aim to assemble a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM)-based protein biosensor, we focus our attention on sulfide receptor and its integration with the surface of the electrode. Here, we present different surface modification processing time to allow sulfide molecules to be immobilized to gold coated sensor for QCM sensing. The optimum surface modification processing time is also obtained by bovine serum albumin (BSA) binding measurement.

Unveiling the Contribution of Lactic Acid to the Passivation Behavior of Ti-6Al-4V Fabricated by Laser Powder Bed Fusion in Hank’s Solution

In actual physiological environments,bacteria can activate the immune system and release lactic acid.However,the detailed contribution of lactic acid to the passivation behavior of titanium(Ti)alloys is still unclear.The current work investigated the in vitro passivation behavior of Ti-6Al-4V(TC4)alloys fabricated by laser powder bed fusion in Hank's solution with and without adding lactic acid.Electrochemical methods,inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer,and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were jointly used.Adding lactic acid decreases the corrosion resistance of samples by degrading the formed passive film.The film formed in the(lactic acid)-containing solution exhibits a higher level of oxygen vacancies and a lower thickness,attributed to the suppressed formation of Ti^(4+)transformed from Ti^(3+)and Ti^(2+).Moreover,the presence of lactic acid would increase the open circuit potential,relieve the ions release,and hinder the deposition of calcium phosphates within 24 h immersion.