Duration of illness

The cornerstone of cholera treatment is fluid replacement. Without treatment, the case-fatality rate for severe cholera is approximately 50%. For cholera, rice-based ORT is better than glucose-based ORT because it reduces the number of stools.21 Patients with significant disease should receive a short antibiotic course, 1 to 3 days, to shorten the duration of illness and decrease the number of stools. Doxycycline 300 mg once daily is the drug of choice. Other antibiotics shown to be effective include erythromycin, azithromycin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and ciprofloxacin.2 Antibiotic resistance has been documented in V cholerae since 1977.2 Antibiotic prophylaxis is not warranted. 

Although antimotility agents are effective at shortening the duration of illness, they do not eradicate microorganisms and should not be used in moderate to severe cases with systemic symptoms unless in combination with an antibiotic. The combination of an antimotility agent and an antibiotic can reduce the duration of illness to a few hours.28... 

Velakoulis, D., Wood, S. J., Smith, D. J. et al. Increased duration of illness is associated with reduced volume in right medial temporal/anterior cingulate grey matter in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 57 43-49, 2002. 

Oseltamivir and zanamivir are neuraminidase inhibitors that have activity against both influenza A and influenza B viruses. When administered within 48 hours of the onset of illness, oseltamivir and zanamivir may reduce the duration of illness by approximately 1 day versus placebo. 

Duration of Illness Three days (usually fatal). 

Duration of Illness Two to five days (often proves fatal). 

Duration of Illness Twenty-four to seventy-two hours (months if lethal). Therapy consists mainly of supportive care such as, intubation and assisted ventilation for respiratory failure. 

Duration of Illness Death in seven to fourteen days via aerosol. 

Duration of Illness Two days to three weeks. A high fever could persist for three weeks or more, but treatment with antibiotics is usually effective within thirty-six to forty-eight hours. With treatment or without treatment, Q fever is generally a self-limiting illness. 

Tetracycline 500 mg every six hours or doxycycline 100 mg every twelve hours for five to seven days will shorten the duration of illness, and fever usually disappears within one to two days after treatment is begun. Ciprofloxacin and other quinolones are active in vitro and should be considered for victims unable to take tetracycline or doxycycline. Successful treatment of Q fever endocarditis is much more difficult. Tetracycline or doxycycline given in combination with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) or rifampin for twelve months or longer has been successful in some cases. However, valve replacement is often required to achieve a cure. 

Duration of Illness Days (death within ten to twelve days for ingestion). No specific treatment exists. 

Duration of Illness Hours, or days to weeks. Treatment is mainly limited to supportive care, but assisted ventilation may be necessary in serious cases, and fluid management is necessary. No antitoxin is available, and antibiotics provide no benefit. 

Duration of Illness One to two weeks. Smallpox therapy is mainly supportive care, and no specific antiviral therapy exists. 

Duration of Illness Days to Months. Therapy is mainly supportive. 

Medical Classification, Probable Form of Dissemination, Detection in the Field, Infective Dose, Incubation Time, Persistence, Personal Protection, Routes of Entry to the Body, Per-son-to-Person Transmissible, Duration of Illness, Potential Ability to Kill, Defensive Measures, Vaccines, Drugs Available, and Decontamination. In each case, for both Chemical and Biological agents, each agent will have guidelines laid out within the book. 

Serial Disease Likely methods of dissemination Transmissibility man to man Infectivity Incubation time Duration of illness Lethality Persistance Vaccination Antimicrobial therapy Antisera... 

Unfortunately, some patients respond poorly to these first-line interventions. In particular, patients with a long duration of illness, extreme agoraphobic avoidance, and comorbid personality disorders are more likely to exhibit a poor treatment response. For such patients, TCAs such as imipramine or clomipramine and MAOIs such as phenelzine remain viable strategies. 

Anxiety reactivity to 35% CO2 inhalations has been reported not to be significantly influenced by clinical characteristics of the disorder such as baseline anxiety, frequency of panic attacks, severity of agoraphobia, duration of illness, and age (Perna et al. 1994). On the other hand, several studies suggest a relevant role of genetic factors in 35% CO2-induced panic attacks, and it has been concluded that C02-induced panic might be considered a phenotypic expression of a genetic vulnerability to panic disorder even before the clinical onset of panic disorder (e.g., Perna et al. 1995 Bellodi et al. 1999). 

Oseltamivir is approved for the treatment of uncomplicated acute influenza in patients aged 1 year and older. It decreases the duration of illness by 1 to 1.5 days when treatment is initiated within 48 hours of the onset of... 

Panic disorder. Sixty-six panic disorder patients were included in a study. All of whom met the DSM-IV diagnosis of panic disorder (n = 45) or panic disorder with agoraphobia ([PDA] n = 21). Twenty-four patients experienced their first panic attack within 48 hours of cannabis use and then went on to develop panic disorder. All the patients were treated with paroxetine (gradually increased up to 40 mg/day). The two groups responded equally well to paroxetine treatment as measured at the 8 weeks and 12 months follow-up visits. There were no significant effects of age, sex, and duration of illness as covariates with response rates between the two groups. In addition, panic disorder or panic disorder... 

To the best of our knowledge, no studies with child and adolescent depressed cohorts have examined hippocampal volume. The one study that examined hippocampal volume in children and adolescents with PTSD (n = 43), about half of whom met criteria for comorbid MDD, failed to find evidence of hippocampal atrophy (De Beilis et ah, 1999). This finding is not surprising, as most of the children and adolescents in the study had not experienced more than one episode of depression, and hippocampal atrophy was found to be correlated with total lifetime duration of illness in the prior adult studies cited (Sheline et ah, 1996 Brem-ner et ah, 2000). Developmental factors may also account for the discrepant findings in child and adult studies. For example, age-dependent changes in sensitivity to some forms of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor blockade neurotoxicity in corticolimbic regions have been reported in preclinical studies, with cell death minimal or absent prepuberty and reaching peak in early adulthood (Father et ah, 1995). 

As discussed previously, hippocampal-volume assessments have not been obtained in children and adolescents with primary affective disorders. De Beilis and colleagues (1999) conducted structural MRI assessments in a cohort of 44 children and adolescents with PTSD, about half of whom also met criteria for MDD. Unlike in studies of adults with PTSD or MDD (Brem-ner et ah, 1995 1997, 2000), no hippocampal volume reductions were found. Given the demonstrated importance of recurrence and total duration of illness on hippocampal-volume measures in adult studies, this finding is not surprising. 

Factors that predict a positive response to drug therapy have not been well established. Early studies suggested that age of onset, gender, severity, and duration of illness, or type of symptoms did not predict initial response (Leonard and Rapoport, 1989 DeVeaugh-Geiss et ah, 1992). 

Duration of illness. In his classic study, R. F. Hobson (1953] indicated that a shorter duration of the index episode of depression (1-year cutoff) was a predictor of good ECT response. This finding was subsequently confirmed by several other groups (Coryell and Zimmerman 1984 C. G. Dunn and Quinlan 1978 Fraser and Glass 1980 M. Hamilton and White 1960 Kindler et al. 1991], although some studies found no relations or weaker relations between duration of index episode and clinical outcome (Andrade et al. 1988 Mendels 1967 Sackeim et al. 1987a]. If anything, then, a shorter index episode of depression may be associated with an increased likelihood of favorable ECT response. 

The illness variables that were predictive of poor outcome all reflected severity of illness. They included more severe panic and agoraphobic symptoms, psychiatric hospitalization, and longer duration of illness. The best prognostic indicators were the severity of the illness and its duration at the time of first assessment. Comorbid depression was also associated with poorer outcome. A number of environmental variables were also predictive of poor outcome separation from a parent by death or divorce, high interpersonal sensitivity, low social class, and unmarried marital status. 

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