The present study compared 70 methadone-maintained mothers (MM) and their 70 preschool-age children to a matched control group of 70 non-drug-addicted mothers (NDA) and their 70 preschool-age children on mothers' personalities, intelligence levels, and parenting attitudes and behavior; and on children's behavior and intelligence and developmental levels. Findings showed that in comparison to the control group, MM mothers performed less adaptively on measures of intelligence, personality, and parenting behavior. Their scores on the parenting attitude measures reflected authoritarian childrearing beliefs. Children of MM mothers performed more poorly than children of NDA mothers on measures of intelligence and socially adaptive behavior. In a comparison of children of MM mothers who experienced withdrawal from drugs at birth to children of MM mothers who were not born addicted to drugs, results revealed a tendency for withdrawal children to have developmental delays, lower IQ scores, and lower heights and weights.

The impact of a herbal extract with excitatory modulator activity in the management of asthma was studied. An open and selective 3-year follow-up of 14 chronic refractory asthmatics aged between 22 and 70 was used. Participants received an extract of Sophora flavescens Ait. Medication use, a diary card of symptoms and respiratory function were recorded. The study was retrospective and all patients gave written informed consent. The quality of life, clinical symptoms and respiratory function improved during all periods of measurement. The use of inhaled corticosteroid and beta-agonists were reduced or eliminated. There were no significant adverse reactions reported. Therefore the extract of S. flavescens as an excitatory modulator appears to be a safe and may be an effective alternative treatment for refractory chronic asthma.

The number of children suffering from atopic eczema has increased over the past 30 years especially in children between the ages of 2 and 5 years. These is a significant group of eczematous children that are resistant to standard therapy. Babies and children with eczema suffer pain, irritation and disfigurement from the dermatitis. In this study, we have followed 14 cases of pediatric patients (ages of 8 months to 64 months) with a history of resistant eczema for a period of at least six months. All of these children received 300 mg to 500 mg standardized Lactobacillus rhamnosus cell lysate daily as an immunobiotic supplement. The results of this open label non-randomized clinical observation showed a substantial improvement in quality of life, skin symptoms and day- and nighttime irritation scores in children with the supplementation of Lactobacillus rhamnosus lysate. There were no intolerance or adverse reactions observed in these children. Lactobacillus rhamnosus cell lysate may thus be used as a safe and effective immunobiotic for the treatment and prevention of childhood eczema and possible other types of atopy (allergic diseases).

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Intractable and untreatable pain from cancer remains a challenge for both patients and clinicians. The pain may be related to the disease itself or the consequences of treatment, such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Cancer pain is intense and has a major impact on patients' quality of life and survival. A significant number of patients receiving analgesic therapy with opioids report persisting pain of a higher intensity than the pain in those who were not on this class of drugs. The pathophysiology of pain in cancer patients is complex and remains poorly understood. Several research groups have studied and demonstrated that cancer and cancer-related symptoms may have an underlying problem of membrane hyper-excitability due to over-presentation of sodium channels and glutamate build-up or over-stimulation of glutamate/N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)/α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionic acid (AMPA) system in cancer cells and the body. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a naturally derived, inexpensive, non-toxic solvent and pharmaceutical agent that has been demonstrated to have numerous health enhancing and therapeutic benefits. In the present article, we provide the scientific evidence and substantiate possible application of DMSO as a well-tolerated excitatory modulator in the management of cancer pain.