Effectiveness of Edaravone in Slowing Down Functional Impairment in Lou Gehrig’s Disease

Student number 1
Question 1
Is Edaravone effective in slowing down the rate of functional impairment in patients suffering
from Lou Gehrig’s disease?
a) Using the PICO format the clinical question can be broken down. PICO stands for
Patient/Problem/Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome. In the clinical
question chosen, the problem is Lou Gehrig’s disease. This disease affects the motor
neurons and muscles and affects the physical state of the patient. It is named after a
famous football player who was first diagnosed with the disease in 1930. Lou Gehrig’s
disease is also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The intervention being considered is
reducing the rate of functional impairment in the patient using chemotherapy. Using
drugs there is hope that the rate that the symptoms will be slowed down. The Comparison
will be done by comparing a placebo group and a group that is being administered
Edaravone. The drug is known to reverse the weakening of the motor neurons. The
outcome is improved functionally and reduction in the weakening of the muscle. The
outcome is patient oriented [1].
The clinical question formulated in an intervention.
b) i) The online resource chosen was Pub Med and Google scholar. The search terms
that were used are ALS, Edaravone, Lou Gehrig’s disease and functional impairment.
Pub Med was chosen as a source because the entire articles published in this journal are
peer-reviewed. This ensures that the articles are free from biases and that the results are
accurate. Google scholar was chosen because most of the articles in this resource are free
and do not require a university key in order to access them.