Down Syndrome — Assessment of Hypotonia in Children With Down Syndrome
Citation(s)
Goo M, Tucker K, Johnston LM Muscle tone assessments for children aged 0 to 12 years: a systematic review. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2018 Jul;60(7):660-671. doi: 10.1111/dmcn.13668. Epub 2018 Feb 6. Review.
Govender P, Joubert RWE 'Toning' up hypotonia assessment: A proposal and critique. Afr J Disabil. 2016 May 26;5(1):231. doi: 10.4102/ajod.v5i1.231. eCollection 2016.
Govender P, Joubert RWE Evidence-Based Clinical Algorithm for Hypotonia Assessment: To Pardon the Errs. Occup Ther Int. 2018 Apr 24;2018:8967572. doi: 10.1155/2018/8967572. eCollection 2018. Review.
Naidoo P, Joubert RW Consensus on hypotonia via Delphi process. Indian J Pediatr. 2013 Aug;80(8):641-50. doi: 10.1007/s12098-013-1018-7. Epub 2013 May 17.
Naidoo P Development of an evidence-based clinical algorithm for practice in hypotonia assessment: a proposal. JMIR Res Protoc. 2014 Dec 5;3(4):e71. doi: 10.2196/resprot.3581.
Interventional studies are often prospective and are specifically tailored to evaluate direct impacts of treatment or preventive measures on disease.
Observational studies are often retrospective and are used to assess potential causation in exposure-outcome relationships and therefore influence preventive methods.
Expanded access is a means by which manufacturers make investigational new drugs available, under certain circumstances, to treat a patient(s) with a serious disease or condition who cannot participate in a controlled clinical trial.
Clinical trials are conducted in a series of steps, called phases - each phase is designed to answer a separate research question.
Phase 1: Researchers test a new drug or treatment in a small group of people for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify side effects.
Phase 2: The drug or treatment is given to a larger group of people to see if it is effective and to further evaluate its safety.
Phase 3: The drug or treatment is given to large groups of people to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.
Phase 4: Studies are done after the drug or treatment has been marketed to gather information on the drug's effect in various populations and any side effects associated with long-term use.