Background: Stevens Johnson syndrome (SJS), toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) and SJS-TEN overlap are rare, but potentially life-threatening, reactions to medications. From Northeast India, limited epidemiological data is available on these cutaneous drug reactions. Aims: The purpose of this study was to assess the drug-induced SJS/TEN cases of a tertiary care hospital of Northeast India. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in Gauhati Medical College and Hospital of Guwahati city, Northeast India. WHO-UMC probability assessment system and ALDEN were used for causality assessment of reported SJS/TEN cases. Results are presented in percentage; mean (standard deviation), and median (interquartile range difference). Results: Forty five cases of drug induced SJS (42.22%), TEN (55.55%) & SJS-TEN (2.22%) overlap were reported. Out of these, 25 patients were males and 20 patients were females. The mean age of the patients was 29.69 (17.57) year. The median time duration between drug intake and onset of symptoms for SJS/TEN was 25(4) and the median duration of hospital stay by patients was 13(8). The most offending groups of drugs were antimicrobials (35.55%), followed by anticonvulsants (28.89%), antipyretics (17.78%), and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (6.67%). In individual drug category, paracetamol (17.77%) and phenytoin (15.55%) were among the commonly reported offending drugs. Altered liver function test was commonly reported complication in SJS/TEN patients. As per ALDEN, drug causality was very probable in 16 cases whereas by WHO-UMC assessment system, 1 case was certain while 29 cases were probable. Limitations: Statistical significance among the variables was not shown and large study sample may be required for interpretation of results to arrive at a definite conclusion. Conclusions: Antimicrobials, anticonvulsants, and antipyretics were commonly reported group of offending drugs to cause SJS/TEN in patients. Paracetamol & phenytoin were commonly reported individual offending drugs.

Objective: Depression is a major psychiatric disorder affecting nearly 350 million people worldwide and imposes a substantial health burden on the society. Ceftriaxone has demonstrated neuroprotective effects in animals. It has also undergone trials as a treatment option for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This study was therefore undertaken to evaluate the antidepressant-like effect of ceftriaxone in mice.Methods: Ceftriaxone was administered at three different doses (0.130, 0.195 and 0.260g/kg) to Swiss albino mice of either sex by intra peritoneal (i. p.) route. The period of immobility in control and drug-treated mice were recorded in forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST). The antidepressant effect of ceftriaxone indicated by the decrease in duration of immobility was compared to that of fluoxetine (0.020 g/kg, i. p.). Results:Ceftriaxone decreased the duration of immobility in mice. It showed a significant dose-dependent antidepressant effect. The antidepressant effect of 0.260g/kg of ceftriaxone was comparable to that of fluoxetine in the TST but not in the FST. Conclusion:The results of the present study indicate antidepressant activity of Ceftriaxone. The study shows that ceftriaxone has additional action on the central nervous system other than neuroprotection. Ceftriaxone therapy in cases of encephalomeningitis and in various cases of hemorrhages in the brain can, therefore, prevent the development of depression in future.

We propose a new realisation of light Dirac neutrino mass and dark matter (DM) within the framework of a non-Abelian discrete flavour symmetry A 4 . In addition to A 4 , we also consider a Z 2 and an unbroken global lepton number symmetry U (1) L to keep unwanted terms away while guaranteeing the Dirac nature of light neutrinos. The field content, their transformations and flavon vacuum alignments are chosen in such a way that the type-I Dirac seesaw generates only one light Dirac neutrino mass while the other two masses arise from scotogenic contributions at one-loop. The symmetry breaking of A 4 leaves a remnant Z 2 symmetry responsible for stabilising DM. Dirac nature of light neutrinos introduces additional relativistic degrees of freedom ∆N eff within reach of cosmic microwave background experiments.

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