Background Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, a novel virus that emerged in China in December 2019. In many cases of COVID-19, olfactory dysfunction (OD) is the only symptom. Objectives This study aimed to examine the incidence of OD in patients with COVID-19 and identify an association between OD and COVID-19-related morbidity and admission. Design This was a cross-sectional study. Methods Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction-confirmed cases of COVID-19 from the Security Forces Hospital electronic registry from June 2020 to September 2020 were included in our study. Data on medical background, severity of the disease, and other related factors were collected through phone calls and electronic healthcare systems and analyzed to investigate OD in the participants. Results Of the participants, 68% had OD, with a mean recovery time of 18 days and a mean follow-up time of 129 days (76-211 days). OD was negatively correlated with admission and morbidity. Conclusion OD is a common presentation of COVID-19 and is more prevalent in mild cases of infection.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a mental disorder defined as excessive worrying over little things. It is a one of the most common types of anxiety disorders. A study stated that 1-5% of the general population suffers from GAD. The condition affects the quality of life of a patient negatively and activities in their everyday life. In this review article, we highlighted several studies that compared combined therapy of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy to either therapy alone, results were conflicting and differ from one study to another. Provide a thorough and comprehensive review of the different approaches of GAD management, several database websites were searched for articles discussing the pharmacological management of general anxiety disorder. Clinical trials, clinical guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and review articles were all reviewed and considered for inclusion. The review emphasizes the importance of taking the decision of therapy after counseling the patient, taking into account, the cost effectiveness of the treatment, patient’s symptomatology, comorbidity, medical conditions, concomitant using medications, previous trials and preference. Accordingly, thorough assessment should be done before moving to management plan, and a trial of other group or other therapies should be taken if there is no response seen. However, generalized anxiety disorder is one of the most common types of anxiety disorders. It has a lifetime prevalence around 5%, it can include intolerable cognitive, emotional and physical symptoms. Thus, GAD can adversely affect the patient’s life aspects, including personal, functional, social or educational. There are options to be taken among psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy or combined therapy.
Keratoconus (KC) is a noninflammatory cornea disease leading to progressive thinning, causing it to change from its normal dome shape to a cone shape. One of the novel treatments of KC is corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL). Due to its importance, many studies have been conducted to compare corneal cross-linking protocols; this review article aims to discuss corneal cross-linking and compare its different treatment options, including Dresden, accelerated, and customized protocols in patients with progressive KC and their respective long-term outcomes. A search was performed in PubMed and Google Scholar with no language, dates, or study type restriction. Most of the results showed almost no difference between protocols over traditional cross-linking. However, published data are limited, long-term outcomes of novel age groups remain unclear, and further studies are needed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.