Investors’ expectations of market volatility, captured by the VIX (the Chicago Board Options Exchange's volatility index, also known as the “investor fear gauge”), affects the expected returns of US equities. Changes in the VIX drive variations in the expected returns of the factors included in the Fama and French three‐factor model augmented with a momentum factor. The market risk premium (Rm– Rf) and the value premium (HML) are especially sensitive to changes in the VIX. An increase in expected volatility is associated with flights to quality and increases in estimated required returns.

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Naltrexone has been demonstrated in western studies to be a useful pharmacological adjunct within treatment programmes for alcoholic patients. We report the first study of its efficacy and usefulness in an Asian region. This project was designed to allow naltrexone˜s performance to be assessed under routine clinical conditions but with patients selected on the basis of their being likely to comply. Following in-patient detoxification, 53 male alcohol-dependent patients admitted to the Alcohol Treatment Centre at Woodbridge Hospital, Singapore, were enrolled in a 12-week, placebocontrolled trial of naltrexone hydrochloride (50 mg/day). Subjects were randomized on a 2:1 basis, with 35 receiving naltrexone and 18 receiving placebo. Analyses identified that a higher percentage of naltrexone patients completed the study (40% vs. 22%). In the study non-completers, the dropout rate due to drinking relapse was also lower in the naltrexone group (9% vs. 43%). Of the 39 patients for whom drinking status over the trial could be ascertained, fewer naltrexone-treated patients drank (33% vs. 53%). Alcohol craving scores also showed a selective and distinct reduction in the naltrexone-treated group. Results suggest that naltrexone may be an effective and safe aid to treatment of alcohol dependent patients in Asian patients, for whom the aims are to reduce alcohol craving and drinking reinstatement, but where compliance is likely to be low. [Lee A, Tan S, Lim D, Winslow RM, Wong KE, Allen J, Hall W, Parker G. Naltrexone in the treatment of male alcoholics-an effectiveness study in Singapore. Drug Alcohol Rev 2001;20:193 199]

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