COORDINATION OF MANAGEMENT OF THE ACUTE RADIATION SYNDROME

The acute radiation syndrome (ARS) constitutes the most challenging, immediate medical consequence of exposure to high doses of ionizing radiation in an emergency situation. This report highlights some of the currently available medical guidelines and recommendations on the clinical management of ARS, comments recent trends regarding the approval of targeted pharmaceuticals for ARS, and suggests further initiatives for international collaboration aiming at continuously updating the medical knowledge base of this syndrome.

Lessons Learnt from the Fukushima Accident-A Swedish Medical Preparedness Perspective

The triple disaster in March 2011 tragically and severely affected the Japanese society, in spite of its well-developed infrastructure and good access to resources. A multitude of Japanese and international reports have since described the chain of events and actions taken in connection with the earthquake, the tsunami and the power plant failure in Fukushima. In order to further evaluate Japanese experiences of the disaster, and to bring home 'lessons-learnt' of relevance for continued emergency preparedness planning, a group from the National Board of Health and Welfare and other Swedish agencies performed an observer visit to Japan in 2012. A report from the group was recently published. Its main conclusions, and implications focusing on a strengthened national medical preparedness for radionuclear events in Sweden (and possibly elsewhere), are presented here.

Sleep deprivation as treatment for endogenous depression

Twenty-six depressed patients, 19 of whom suffered from an endogenous depression, were sleep-deprived for one night, and eight of these were additionally sleep-deprived for three to nine nights with two sleep deprivations per week. While the sleep deprivation was being carried through, none of the patients were treated with tricyclic antidepressants. The patients were rated before and after the sleep deprivation(s). Sleep deprivation appeared to be effective for both unipolar and bipolar depressions. According to the rating scale an improvement was registered especially when the clinical picture was characterized by depressed mood, psycho-motor retardation and anxiety. As sleep deprivation cured 25% of the patients and further incidentally improved another 20% of the patients, it can be concluded that sleep deprivation seems to be a valuable treatment, especially in retarded endogenous depressions.