Background: The most efficacious treatments for social anxiety disorder (SAD) are the SSRIs and cognitive therapy (CT). Combined treatment is advocated for SAD but has not been evaluated in randomized trials using CT and SSRI. Our aim was to evaluate whether one treatment is more effective than the other and whether combined treatment is more effective than the single treatments. Methods: A total of 102 patients were randomly assigned to paroxetine, CT, the combination of CT and paroxetine, or pill placebo. The medication treatment lasted 26 weeks. Of the 102 patients, 54% fulfilled the criteria for an additional diagnosis of avoidant personality disorder. Outcomes were measured at posttreatment and 12-month follow-up assessments. Results: CT was superior to paroxetine alone and to pill placebo at the end of treatment, but it was not superior to the combination treatment. At the 12-month follow-up, the CT group maintained benefits and was significantly better than placebo and paroxetine alone, whereas there were no significant differences among combination treatment, paroxetine alone, and placebo. Recovery rates at 12 months were much higher in the CT group (68%) compared to 40% in the combination group, 24% in the paroxetine group, and 4% in the pill placebo group. Conclusions: CT was the most effective treatment for SAD at both posttreatment and follow-up compared to paroxetine and better than combined treatment at the 12-month follow-up on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. Combined treatment provided no advantage over single treatments; rather there was less effect of the combined treatment compared to CT alone.

No abstract

Multinational companies and their subsidiaries have been important actors in the world economy. However, we know relatively little about the evolution of subsidiaries and their adaption to host country conditions. This article is a case study of a Norwegian subsidiary of the Canadian mining multinational Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd. It examines what autonomy the subsidiary had, how the autonomy was used, its development of knowledge and how it adapted to Norwegian ways of doing business. The article shows that subsidiaries may contribute significantly to the development of their mother companies. It highlights four factors that influenced the degree of autonomy and the evolution of subsidiaries in the inter-war era; namely host country politics, the line of business, the configuration of knowledge within the given multinational company and in case of acquisitions; the prehistory of the subsidiary.subsidiaries, subsidiary autonomy, multinational companies, host countries, nickel industry, Falconbridge,

Very little is known to which extent severe underweight could affect cytochrome P‐450 (CYP) enzyme activity. In this study, 24 patients with anorexia nervosa at two occasions ingested single oral doses of five test drugs known to be metabolized by CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4, respectively. A mixed model analysis was used to evaluate the effect of changes in body mass index (BMI) on the metabolic activities of these enzymes. The primary end point was the change in drug/metabolite ratio of each of the test drugs per kg/m2 change in BMI. With increasing BMI, the metabolic activity of CYP3A4 decreased (change in the CYP3A4 drug/metabolite ratio per unit change in BMI = 0.056; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.011 to 0.102; P = .017). For CYP1A2, increasing BMI increased the metabolic activity with borderline significance (change in the CYP1A2 drug/metabolite ratio per unit change in BMI = –0.107; CI –0.220 to 0.005; P = .059). For CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and CYP2D6, no significant changes were seen. The clinical impact of these findings for drug treatment in patients with anorexia nervosa and other severely underweight patients needs to be further studied by examining the pharmacokinetics of specific drugs. This might be particularly relevant for drugs metabolized by CYP1A2 and/or CYP3A4.

Efficient prevention of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) requires knowledge about their severity and pharmacological mechanisms and is dependent on reliable data on their frequencies and possible risk factors. The study was conducted to investigate the prescribers' experience and understanding of the ADRs of psychotropic drugs, and their attitude towards reporting these. In a questionnaire, physicians treating adult psychiatric patients were asked which ADRs that they regarded bothersome for some of the most widely used antidepressants and antipsychotics. Questions about the relationship between blockade of drug receptors and ADRs, and about the physicians' personal experience of and attitudes towards reporting of ADRs were also included. In total, 70 of 91 questionnaires (78%) were returned. The mean number of ADRs regarded bothersome ranged from 2.4 to 9.3 for the various drugs/drug classes. Qualified psychiatrists stated a significantly higher number of bothersome ADRs than did the residents. The percentage of physicians associating blockade of a receptor with a specific ADR varied from 76% (histamine receptor blockade and sedation) to 37% (alpha(1)-adrenergic blockade and tachycardia). Thirty-nine per cent of the physicians had never reported an ADR to the Norwegian Medicines Agency. The number of ADRs considered bothersome was relatively high. The pattern of these ADRs generally mirrored the typical ADR profiles of the drugs. The knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of ADRs was more or less incomplete. The reporting rate of ADRs to the national regulatory authorities was low.