Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0392680 (shortness of breath)
 5,217 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We report on the distress associated with physical symptoms in 761 male hypertensive patients enrolled in a clinical trial of the effects of captopril, methyldopa or propranolol on quality of life. Educational level at entry into the trial showed a negative association with a series of physical symptom distress items among patients not previously treated with antihypertensive medications but no association with symptoms among the previously treated. Over the 24 weeks of therapy captopril as monotherapy was associated with no change from baseline in distress in all symptoms examined. In contrast, distress increased in the methyldopa treated patients for dry mouth and blurred vision. Propranolol treated patients had increased "trouble getting breath," bradycardia, shortness of breath or wheezing, and blurred vision. Between group comparisons revealed significant differences favorably comparing captopril to both methyldopa and propranolol in regard to fatigue, and blurred vision, as well as to methyldopa alone for dry mouth and "feeling worn out." There were significant differences as well between captopril and propranolol with patients on propranolol worsening in bradycardia. Other comparisons of patients on propranolol and methyldopa monotherapy showed propranolol patients worsening in bradycardia and loss of taste, but methyldopa patients reported more dry mouth and feeling worn out than those on propranolol. The addition of hydrochlorothiazide to therapy worsened total physical symptom distress scores for methyldopa and propranolol patients. This study confirms the value of methods which assess the degree of distress associated with symptoms commonly reported by hypertensive patients receiving antihypertensive medications. This approach can be useful in establishing a treatment regimen least likely to cause distress and can be of value in preserving quality of life, preventing noncompliance, and withdrawal from treatment.
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PMID:Self-reported side effects from antihypertensive drugs. A clinical trial. Quality of Life Research Group. 240 65

We examined the discriminant ability and responsiveness of the General Well-Being Adjustment Scale in patients enrolled in a randomized clinical trial of antihypertensive therapy. We also tried to translate the effects of physical symptoms on general well-being. This secondary analysis used demographic, clinical, physical symptom, and general well-being data for 545 white, male hypertensive patients. General well-being was measured by the General Well-Being Adjustment Scale (GWB) collected on 2 occasions over 8 weeks of treatment. Patients with any one of 14 physical symptoms or problems, compared to those without symptoms, had lower GWB scores (p < 0.003 to p < 0.0001). Decreases of 2.83-8.76 points in GWB scores were observed in patients developing physical symptoms over the 8 week study period (p < 0.05 to p < 0.0001). These effects were demonstrated in patients developing cold sensitivity, sexual problems, chest pain, shortness of breath, loss of taste, nausea, hot or cold spells, numbness and tingling, dry mouth, blurred vision, and dizziness. We conclude that the GWB is responsive to clinically meaningful changes in symptoms and may provide a more complete evaluation of the effects of medical treatment. The GWB is a valid and responsive measure of health status outcomes in the evaluation of antihypertensive treatment.
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PMID:Responsiveness and calibration of the General Well-Being Adjustment Scale in patients with hypertension. 773 Aug 42

In the palliative care setting, the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) was developed for use in daily symptom assessment of palliative care patients. ESAS considers the presence and severity of nine symptoms common in cancer patients: pain, tiredness, nausea, depression, anxiety, drowsiness, appetite, well-being and shortness of breath plus an optional tenth symptom, which can be added by the patient. The aim of this study was to validate the Italian version of ESAS and to evaluate an easy quality of life monitoring system that uses a patient's self-rating symptom assessment in two different palliative care settings: in-patients and home patients. Eighty-three in-patients and 158 home care patients were enrolled. In the latter group, the Italian validated version of the Symptom Distress Scale (SDS) was also administered at the admission of the patients. The two groups of patients have similar median survival, demographic and clinical characteristics, symptom prevalence and overall distress score at baseline. ESAS shows a good concurrent validity with respect to SDS. The correlation between the physical items of ESAS and SDS was shown to be higher than the correlation between the psychological items. The association of ESAS scores and performance status (PS) showed a trend: the higher the symptom score was, the worse was the PS level. Test-retest evaluation, applied in the in-patient group, showed good agreement for depression, well-being and overall distress and a moderate agreement for all the other items. In conclusion, ESAS can be considered a valid, reliable and feasible instrument for physical symptom assessment in routine "palliative care" clinical practice with a potentially different responsiveness in different situations or care settings.
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PMID:Edmonton symptom assessment scale: Italian validation in two palliative care settings. 1593 88