The trauma care system in Ireland is being re-configured to have major trauma centers for severe injuries and other sites for less severe injuries. This is to ensure patients are brought quickly to the most appropriate hospital to manage their injuries. The National Ambulance Service (NAS) electronic Patient Care Record (ePCR) records what happens to patients before they reach the hospital and the Major Trauma Audit (MTA) captures data on patients’ hospital treatment. These datasets are currently separate and if they could be joined, they would inform important decisions on which hospitals to take patients. This study aims to investigate joining these datasets to create a seamless database of the patient journey from roadside to recovery.

Proof of Concept–The ePCR and MTA datasets will be linked on a once-off basis. The combined anonymized dataset will then be analyzed to identify pre-hospital characteristics that determine the need to bypass smaller hospitals and bring patients to a larger major trauma center or trauma unit.

Stakeholder input for ongoing dataset combination and utilization–A stakeholder consultation process will explore the best way to make a GDPR-compliant combination of datasets on an on-going basis, including geo-location data and the inclusion of patient reported outcome measures. This will incorporate the requirements of the Data Protection Commissioner, National Office of Clinical Audit, patients, clinicians, NAS, HSE and other stakeholders.

Geospatial implications of major trauma services–Once ongoing data combination is approved, we will determine geospatial implications of the trauma network for prehospital care configuration and the patient journey.

Study results will inform prehospital service configuration to ensure safe and equitable patient management.

The data arising from this study will capture the full trauma patient journey. This data is essential to inform policy and practice for trauma care in Ireland.

Refractory depression is a devastating condition with significant morbidity, mortality, and societal cost. Approximately 15% of patients with major depressive disorder are refractory to currently available treatments. We hypothesized metabolic abnormalities contributing to treatment refractory depression are associated with distinct findings identifiable in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Our hypothesis was confirmed by a previous small case-controlled study. Here we present a second, larger replication study.

We conducted a case-controlled, targeted, metabolomic evaluation of 141 adolescent and adult patients with well-characterized history of depression refractory to three maximum-dose, adequate-duration medication treatments, and 36 healthy controls. Plasma, urine, and CSF metabolic profiling were performed by coupled gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and high-performance liquid chromatography, electrospray ionization, tandem mass spectrometry.

Abnormalities were identified in 67 of 141 treatment refractory depression participants. The CSF abnormalities included: low cerebral folate (n = 20), low tetrahydrobiopterin intermediates (n = 11), and borderline low-tetrahydrobiopterin intermediates (n = 20). Serum abnormalities included abnormal acylcarnitine profile (n = 12) and abnormal serum amino acids (n = 20). Eighteen patients presented with two or more abnormal metabolic findings. Sixteen patients with cerebral folate deficiency and seven with low tetrahydrobiopterin intermediates in CSF showed improvement in depression symptom inventories after treatment with folinic acid and sapropterin, respectively. No healthy controls had a metabolite abnormality.

Examination of metabolic disorders in treatment refractory depression identified an unexpectedly large proportion of patients with potentially treatable abnormalities. The etiology of these abnormalities and their potential roles in pathogenesis remain to be determined.

A growing volume of research suggests that religion protects against late-life suicide, but it remains unclear whether effects are relevant to clinical samples, which facets of religion are most relevant, and variations over the course of mood disorders (e.g. during periods of euthymia, depression, and/or heightened suicidality).

Eighty adults aged 55–85 years with mood disorders completed assessments of religion (affiliation, service attendance, importance of religion, belief and faith in God), depression, and suicidality over time (M = 7.31 measurements over M = 727 days). We computed metrics to identify mean and maximum levels of depression and suicidality, and the number of episodes of significant depression and suicidality experienced by each participant.

Religious affiliation and importance of religion, but not service attendance, belief, or faith in God, were associated with lower mean and maximum depression. Conversely, all facets of religion predicted significantly lower mean and maximum levels of suicidality (rs ranging from −0.24 to −0.39), and substantially less likelihood of experiencing significant suicidality during the study (ORs ranging from 0.19 to 0.33). Service attendance, belief, and faith in God predicted less suicidality even among individuals who did not affiliate with a religious group.

Religious factors, particularly faith in God, are associated with substantially less suicidality over time among older adults with mood disorders, irrespective of religious affiliation.

Stretcher transport isolators provide mobile, high-level biocontainment outside the hospital for patients with highly infectious diseases, such as Ebola virus disease. Air quality within this confined space may pose human health risks.

Ambient air temperature, relative humidity, and CO2 concentration were monitored within an isolator during 2 operational exercises with healthy volunteers, including a ground transport exercise of approximately 257 miles. In addition, failure of the blower unit providing ambient air to the isolator was simulated. A simple compartmental model was developed to predict CO2 and H2O concentrations within the isolator.

In both exercises, CO2 and H2O concentrations were elevated inside the isolator, reaching steady-state values of 4434 ± 1013 ppm CO2 and 22 ± 2 mbar H2O in the first exercise and 3038 ± 269 ppm CO2 and 20 ± 1 mbar H2O in the second exercise. When blower failure was simulated, CO2 concentration exceeded 10 000 ppm within 8 minutes. A simple compartmental model predicted CO2 and H2O concentrations by accounting for human emissions and blower air exchange.

Attention to air quality within stretcher transport isolators (including adequate ventilation to prevent accumulation of CO2 and other bioeffluents) is needed to optimize patient safety.

Clinical assessments are a primary method for ascertaining suicide risk, yet the language used across measures is inconsistent. The implications of these discrepancies for adolescent responding are unknown, which is troubling as multiple research areas (i.e. on culture, mental health language, and suicide communication) indicate individuals from varying sociodemographic backgrounds may communicate differently regarding mental health concerns. The aims of the current study are to investigate whether a geographically diverse sample of adolescents respond differently to directly and indirectly phrased suicide attempt questions (i.e. directly phrased includes the term ‘suicide’ and indirectly asks about suicidal behavior without using ‘suicide’), and to examine whether sociodemographic factors and history of mental health service usage relate to endorsement differences.

Participants were N = 5909 adolescents drawn from the Emergency Department Screening for Teens at Risk for Suicide multi-site study. The lifetime suicide attempt was assessed with two items from an adapted version of the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS; Posner et al., 2008): (1) a directly phrased question asking about ‘suicide attempts’ and (2) an indirectly phrased question providing the definition of an attempt.

An adolescent majority (83.7%) consistently reported no lifetime suicide attempt across items, 10.1% consistently reported one or more lifetime attempts across items, and 6.2% of adolescents responded discordantly to the items.

Multivariable models indicated multiple demographic and mental health service variables significantly predicted discordant responding, with a notable finding being that father/stepfather education level at or below high school education predicted endorsing only the direct question.

Suicide and cardiovascular disease rank among the leading causes of disability and premature mortality worldwide. Young adult suicide attempters are at increased risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease even compared to those with major depressive disorder suggesting an increased burden of cardiovascular risk factors. We compared the cardiovascular risk burden between youth attempters and other high-risk individuals.

Participants were from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), a U.S. population-based study, aged 18–30 years [suicide attempt (SA): n = 303; suicidal ideation (SI): n = 451; controls: n = 3671]; and psychiatric inpatients admitted for a SA (n = 38) or SI (n = 40) and healthy controls (n = 37) aged 15–30 years. We computed a cardiovascular risk score and high- and low-risk latent classes based on risk factors of high blood pressure, obesity, and smoking.

Suicide attempters showed an increased cardiovascular risk score (CPES: B = 0.43, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.31–0.54, p < 0.001; inpatient sample: B = 1.61, 95% CI 0.53–2.68, p = 0.004) compared to controls. They were also more likely to be classified in the high cardiovascular risk group (CPES: odds ratio (OR) 3.36, 95% CI 1.67–6.78, p = 0.001; inpatient sample: OR 9.89, 95% CI 1.38–85.39, p = 0.03) compared to those with SI (CPES: OR 1.15, 95% CI 0.55–2.39, p = 0.71; inpatient sample: OR 1.91, 95% CI 0.25–15.00, p = 0.53).

Youth attempters show an increased burden for cardiovascular risk compared to other high-risk individuals in inpatient and population-based samples. Clinicians should pay particular attention to cardiovascular risk factors among suicide attempters in order to reduce their risk for cardiovascular events.

To assess the influence of mild behavioral impairment (MBI) on the cognitive performance of older adults who are cognitively healthy or have mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Secondary data analysis of a sample (n = 497) of older adults from the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center who were either cognitively healthy (n = 285) or diagnosed with MCI (n = 212). Over half of the sample (n = 255) met the operationalized diagnostic criteria for MBI. Cognitive domains of executive function, attention, short-term memory, and episodic memory were assessed using a battery of neuropsychological tests.

Older adults with MBI performed worse on tasks of executive function, attention, and episodic memory compared to those without MBI. A significant interaction revealed that persons with MBI and MCI performed worse on tasks of episodic memory compared to individuals with only MCI, but no significant differences were found in performance in cognitively healthy older adults with or without MBI on this cognitive domain. As expected, cognitively healthy older adults performed better than individuals with MCI on every domain of cognition.

The present study found evidence that independent of cognitive status, individuals with MBI performed worse on tests of executive function, attention, and episodic memory than individuals without MBI. Additionally, those with MCI and MBI perform significantly worse on episodic memory tasks than individuals with only MCI. These results provide support for a unique cognitive phenotype associated with MBI and highlight the necessity for assessing both cognitive and behavioral symptoms.

We examine the performance of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-fifth edition (DSM-5) persistent complex bereavement-related disorder (PCBD) criteria in bereaved adults to identify prolonged grief cases determined prospectively.

Bereaved adults (n = 138) were assessed at 8, 21, 32, 67, and 90 months after the sudden death of a spouse or close relative. We used latent class growth analysis to identify the longitudinal trajectories of grief assessed using the Inventory for Complicated Grief. To validate the trajectory that corresponded to prolonged grief, we examined the baseline predictors of these trajectories and their relationship with functional impairment.

We found three distinct trajectories of grief reactions. One of these trajectories (13.8%) showed high and sustained grief reactions that persisted for almost 7.5 years after the death. Participants with prolonged grief showed greater functional impairment [relative risk ratio (RRR) = 0.82, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.70 to −0.97; p = 0.02] and higher self-reported depression (RRR = 1.21, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.96; p = 0.001) than participants whose grief reactions subsided over time. The original PCBD (requiring 6 criterion C symptoms) criteria correctly identified cases (57.9–94.7%) with perfect specificity (100%) but low to high sensitivity (5.6–81.3%); however, its sensitivity increased when revising criterion C to require ⩾3 (45.5–94.1%). The dimensional approach showed high sensitivity (0.50–1) and specificity (0.787–0.97).

We recommend revisions to the PCBD criteria, which are overly restrictive and may exclude cases with clinically significant grief-related distress and impairment. In the meantime, clinicians need to monitor grief symptoms over time using available dimensional approaches to reduce the burden of grief.

Simulation plays an integral role in the Canadian healthcare system with applications in quality improvement, systems development, and medical education. High-quality, simulation-based research will ensure its effective use. This study sought to summarize simulation-based research activity and its facilitators and barriers, as well as establish priorities for simulation-based research in Canadian emergency medicine (EM).

Simulation-leads from Canadian departments or divisions of EM associated with a general FRCP-EM training program surveyed and documented active EM simulation-based research at their institutions and identified the perceived facilitators and barriers. Priorities for simulation-based research were generated by simulation-leads via a second survey; these were grouped into themes and finally endorsed by consensus during an in-person meeting of simulation leads. Priority themes were also reviewed by senior simulation educators.

Twenty simulation-leads representing all 14 invited institutions participated in the study between February and May, 2018. Sixty-two active, simulation-based research projects were identified (median per institution = 4.5, IQR 4), as well as six common facilitators and five barriers. Forty-nine priorities for simulation-based research were reported and summarized into eight themes: simulation in competency-based medical education, simulation for inter-professional learning, simulation for summative assessment, simulation for continuing professional development, national curricular development, best practices in simulation-based education, simulation-based education outcomes, and simulation as an investigative methodology.

This study summarized simulation-based research activity in EM in Canada, identified its perceived facilitators and barriers, and built national consensus on priority research themes. This represents the first step in the development of a simulation-based research agenda specific to Canadian EM.