Background: Anxiety is a state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components, associated with significant disability. The pharmacotherapy for anxiety remains limited for achievable safety and tolerability of the medicines. Benzodiazepines use associated with side effects like psychomotor impairment and addiction liability. Due to the ADRs associated with antianxiety drugs, the drug trials have focused on screening herbal medicines that are reportedly used in the treatment of anxiety and which have minimal side effects.Methods: The anxiolytic activity was examined by using the elevated plus maze (EPM) and open field test (OFT), forty Albino wistar strain rats of both sex of weighing 120 to 200 g were divided into four groups of ten rats each.. Group 1 received vehicle (normal saline); group 2 received diazepam (1 mg/kg); groups 3 and 4 received BacoMind™, 30 and 60 mg/kg oral, respectively.Results: Rats treated with diazepam (1 mg/kg, p.o.) showed significant (p<0.001) increase in the percentage of open arms entries and time spent whereas, in closed arm the number of entries and time spent were significantly (p<0.05) decreased. Intraperitonial administration of BacoMind™ extract of plant Bacopa monnieri Linn. exhibited significant (p<0.05) increase in the number of open arm entries and time spent with significant (p<0.05) reduction in number of entries and time spent in the closed arm as compared to group 1. BacoMind™ treated rats also produced significant increase in the number of rearings (p<0.05), assisted rearings and number of squares crossed (p<0.01).Conclusions: BacoMind™ extract of plant Bacopa monnieri Linn possess significant anxiolytic activity in the rats. It can be a promising anxiolytic agent.

BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem associated with an eight- to ten-fold increase in cardiovascular mortality. Among patients with CKD, on drug treatment, we aimed to determine the characteristics, etiology, patterns and rates of drug use, and outcomes and factors determining the outcomes at 6 months. METHODS: We conducted an observational follow-up study on inpatients with CKD at a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India. We collected data on patient characteristics, comorbidities, treatments at baseline, and treatments and outcomes at 6 months. We used Chi-squared tests and Cochran's Q-test to compare categorical variables, t -tests to compare continuous variables, and a multivariable logistic regression analysis to estimate the determinants of the outcome. RESULTS: We recruited 305 patients with the mean age 52.98 (±14.89) years, 73.1% were male and 55.4% patients were from a lower-middle socioeconomic background. About 72.1% were in CKD Stage 5 and 37.0% had diabetic nephropathy. Antihypertensives (84.6%) were the most common drug class prescribed, followed by multivitamins (65.2%), proton-pump inhibitors (64.9%), and antidiabetic drugs (32.5%). There was no significant difference in rates of drug use over 6 months. Increased serum creatinine (odds ratio [OR]: 1.29 [1.04, 1.60]; P = 0.017) and lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (OR: 38.23 [3.92, 372.06]; P = 0.002) predicted progression of CKD, and antiplatelets reduced progression (OR: 0.278 [0.09, 0.85]; P = 0.026). CONCLUSION: Diabetic nephropathy was the most common cause of CKD. There was no change in treatments over 6 months. Low eGFR predicted progression and use of antiplatelets reduced progression of CKD. Large multicenter studies are needed to study the variability in patient characteristics, treatment and outcomes to obtain a national picture, and to enable policy changes.