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Changing practice patterns caused by the pandemic have created an urgent need for guidance in prescribing stimulants using telepsychiatry for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A notable spike in the prescribing of stimulants accompanied the suspension of the Ryan Haight Act, allowing the prescribing of stimulants without a face-to-face meeting. Competing forces both for and against prescribing ADHD stimulants by telepsychiatry have emerged, requiring guidelines to balance these factors. On the one hand, factors weighing in favor of increasing the availability of treatment for ADHD via telepsychiatry include enhanced access to care, reduction in the large number of untreated cases, and prevention of the known adverse outcomes of untreated ADHD. On the other hand, factors in favor of limiting telepsychiatry for ADHD include mitigating the possibility of exploiting telepsychiatry for profit or for misuse, abuse, and diversion of stimulants. This Expert Consensus Group has developed numerous specific guidelines and advocates for some flexibility in allowing telepsychiatry evaluations and treatment without an in-person evaluation to continue. These guidelines also recognize the need to give greater scrutiny to certain subpopulations, such as young adults without a prior diagnosis or treatment of ADHD who request immediate-release stimulants, which should increase the suspicion of possible medication diversion, misuse, or abuse. In such cases, nonstimulants, controlled-release stimulants, or psychosocial interventions should be prioritized. We encourage the use of outside informants to support the history, the use of rating scales, and having access to a hybrid model of both in-person and remote treatment.
Over the last 25 years, radiowave detection of neutrino-generated signals, using cold polar ice as the neutrino target, has emerged as perhaps the most promising technique for detection of extragalactic ultra-high energy neutrinos (corresponding to neutrino energies in excess of 0.01 Joules, or 1017 electron volts). During the summer of 2021 and in tandem with the initial deployment of the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G), we conducted radioglaciological measurements at Summit Station, Greenland to refine our understanding of the ice target. We report the result of one such measurement, the radio-frequency electric field attenuation length $L_\alpha$. We find an approximately linear dependence of $L_\alpha$ on frequency with the best fit of the average field attenuation for the upper 1500 m of ice: $\langle L_\alpha \rangle = ( ( 1154 \pm 121) - ( 0.81 \pm 0.14) \, ( \nu /{\rm MHz}) ) \,{\rm m}$ for frequencies ν ∈ [145 − 350] MHz.
Policy responses to population ageing have focused on lengthening working lives, overlooking inequalities in older adults’ participation in unpaid activities. This paper examines participation in paid and unpaid activities between the ages of 55 and 70 to answer two questions: how do people navigate pathways of paid work, informal care, volunteering, civic participation and housework in mid to later life?; and how do these pathways relate to gender, socio-economic and health inequalities? Two-staged latent class analysis was used to identify activity pathways using data from the British Household Panel Survey (1996–2008). Multinomial logistic models assessed associations between latent pathways and socio-demographic and health characteristics. Three pathways were observed: full-time work to low activity (49%), part-time and in-home work (34%) and multiple activities (16%). Aside from retirement from full-time work, the pathways of participation in paid and unpaid activities were characterised by continuity; substitution between different forms of paid and unpaid work was not observed. Participation in multiple paid and unpaid activities was more common for respondents in better health and of higher socio-economic status. Since the promotion of paid work and volunteering in later life may mainly benefit individuals in advantaged circumstances, policies should avoid taking a blanket approach to encouraging participation in multiple activities, a key component of active ageing.
Empirical research and current statistics show that child sexual violence/abuse and its lasting effects, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, are key issues in adolescent development and could be addressed in a novel fashion involving supervised peer-groups and the arts.
We propose a pilot program that would span twenty-two weeks, with ideally a maximum of twenty (20) students from a large, metropolitan-area of United States. These high school aged adolescents will have experienced trauma through sexual violence/abuse and also will have experienced academic and behavioral decline within six months of the initial trauma. Students will explore, through the medium of photography, a weekly-assigned issue that relates to their daily life.
After the twenty-two weeks have passed, we will continue to check in with the teens, parents, and teachers to see if any measured gains persist. My goal is to show that through the creative exploration of the self, coupled with the building a new social system, there will be an increase in academic performance, mental health, self-esteem, and behavior. As a pilot, I will be able to predict efficacy in advance of moving forward into a larger study.
As clinical practitioners, we often encounter clients who present with certain behaviors that might mimic criteria found in more than one disorder. Many times it is difficult to separate what are learned behaviors, coping skills, or personality traits; navigating this while providing a sound and comprehensive level of care can be a lengthy process.
Because clients who have a long history of trauma frequently do not report it upon intake, clinicians working with some of the most vulnerable populations (eg. those suffering from poverty, domestic violence, sexual abuse and under-education) find themselves working with clients who could present at first glance as meeting criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The critical decision for the clinician is whether BPD is actually the best descriptor for understanding the client. The differential diagnosis is not only essential for defining the clinical approach, but care must be taken before characterizing a client as BPD due to the reservations that clinicians have working with this population.
When looking at the nine criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder found in the DSM, there are parallels that can be drawn to criteria from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is not to say that the two are the same, or even possibly co-morbid in presentation. It is important as sound practitioners to unravel and peal back how certain responses came to be in a client. Understanding the motivation or sub-text for behavior becomes a puzzle.
The re-emergence of debates on the decolonisation of knowledge has revived interest in the National Question, which began over a century ago and remains unresolved. Tensions that were suppressed and hidden in the past are now being openly debated. Despite this, the goal of one united nation living prosperously under a constitutional democracy remains elusive. This edited volume examines the way in which various strands of left thought have addressed the National Question, especially during the apartheid years, and goes on to discuss its relevance for South Africa today and in the future. Instead of imposing a particular understanding of the National Question, the editors identified a number of political traditions and allowed contributors the freedom to define the question as they believed appropriate – in other words, to explain what they thought was the Unresolved National Question. This has resulted in a rich tapestry of interweaving perceptions. The volume is structured in two parts. The first examines four foundational traditions: Marxism-Leninism (the Colonialism of a Special Type thesis); the Congress tradition; the Trotskyist tradition; and Africanism. The second part explores the various shifts in the debate from the 1960s onwards, and includes chapters on Afrikaner nationalism, ethnic issues, black consciousness, feminism, workerism and constitutionalism. The editors hope that by revisiting the debates not popularly known among the scholarly mainstream, this volume will become a catalyst for an enriched debate on our identity and our future.
Despite the complexity of the retirement process, most research treats it as an abrupt and one-way transition. Our study takes a different approach by examining retirement reversals (unretirement) and their predictors. Using the British Household Panel Survey (1991–2008), and following participants into Understanding Society (2010–2015), we undertake a survival analysis to investigate retirement reversals among Britons aged 50–69 years who were born in 1920–1959 (N = 2,046). Unretirement was defined as: (a) reporting being retired and subsequently recommencing paid employment, or (b) beginning full-time work following partial retirement (the latter defined here as reporting being retired and working fewer than 30 hours per week). A cumulative proportion of around 25 per cent of participants experienced a retirement reversal after reporting being retired; about half of these reversals occurred within the first five years of retirement. Unretirement was more common for participants who were male, more educated, in better health, owned a house with a mortgage (compared to owning it outright) and whose partner was in paid work. However, unretirement rates were not higher for participants in greater financial need, whether measured as subjective assessment of finances or household income quintiles. These results suggest that unretirement is a strategy more often used by those who are already advantaged and that it has the potential to exacerbate income inequalities in later life.
Associations between employment status and mental health are well recognised, but evidence is sparse on the relationship between paid employment and mental health in the years running up to statutory retirement ages using robust mental health measures. In addition, there has been no investigation into the stability over time in this relationship: an important consideration if survey findings are used to inform future policy. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between employment status and common mental disorder (CMD) in 50–64-year old residents in England and its stability over time, taking advantage of three national mental health surveys carried out over a 14-year period.
Methods.
Data were analysed from the British National Surveys of Psychiatric Morbidity of 1993, 2000 and 2007. Paid employment status was the primary exposure of interest and CMD the primary outcome – both ascertained identically in all three surveys (CMD from the revised Clinical Interview Schedule). Multivariable logistic regression models were used.
Results.
The prevalence of CMD was higher in people not in paid employment across all survey years; however, this association was only present for non-employment related to poor health as an outcome and was not apparent in those citing other reasons for non-employment. Odds ratios for the association between non-employment due to ill health and CMD were 3.05 in 1993, 3.56 in 2000, and 2.80 in 2007, after adjustment for age, gender, marital status, education, social class, housing tenure, financial difficulties, smoking status, recent physical health consultation and activities of daily living impairment.
Conclusions.
The prevalence of CMD was higher in people not in paid employment for health reasons, but was not associated with non-employment for other reasons. Associations had been relatively stable in strength from 1993 to 2007 in those three cross-sectional nationally representative samples.
Our study examines the contribution of genetic and environmental factors (both shared and unique) to frailty, measured using the Rockwood Frailty Index (FI) in a sample of twins from the St Thomas’ UK Adult Twin Registry. The FI was based on 39 items of potential health deficit. Study participants were 3,375 volunteer adult twins (840 monozygotic and 802 dizygotic twin-pairs) 40.0–84.5 years old. First, we used structural equation modeling to estimate the relative contribution of genetics and of the shared and unique environment to variance in FI adjusted for age. In a second analysis, multiple linear regression was used to examine variance in FI as a function of father's occupational class (a component of shared environment and a measure of childhood socioeconomic status [SES]), adjusting for age, birth weight, marital status, and health behaviors (smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity). Statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS® Version 22 software and Mx open source software. Findings showed that 45% (95% confidence intervals [CIs] 30–53%) of the inter-individual variation in FI was heritable and 52% (95% CIs 47–57%) was due to the individual's unique environment. Multiple linear regression also showed a small but statistically significant inverse association between father's occupational class and FI, mediated by one's own educational attainment and birth weight. Our results indicate that frailty is both genetically and environmentally determined. Thus, its prevention and management call for a multifaceted approach that includes addressing deleterious environmental factors, some of which, like childhood SES, may act across the life course.
Many adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain undiagnosed. Specialist assessment clinics enable the detection of these cases, but such services are often overstretched. It has been proposed that unnecessary referrals to these services could be reduced by prioritizing individuals who score highly on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), a self-report questionnaire measure of autistic traits. However, the ability of the AQ to predict who will go on to receive a diagnosis of ASD in adults is unclear.
Method
We studied 476 adults, seen consecutively at a national ASD diagnostic referral service for suspected ASD. We tested AQ scores as predictors of ASD diagnosis made by expert clinicians according to International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 criteria, informed by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic (ADOS-G) and Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) assessments.
Results
Of the participants, 73% received a clinical diagnosis of ASD. Self-report AQ scores did not significantly predict receipt of a diagnosis. While AQ scores provided high sensitivity of 0.77 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.72–0.82] and positive predictive value of 0.76 (95% CI 0.70–0.80), the specificity of 0.29 (95% CI 0.20–0.38) and negative predictive value of 0.36 (95% CI 0.22–0.40) were low. Thus, 64% of those who scored below the AQ cut-off were ‘false negatives’ who did in fact have ASD. Co-morbidity data revealed that generalized anxiety disorder may ‘mimic’ ASD and inflate AQ scores, leading to false positives.
Conclusions
The AQ's utility for screening referrals was limited in this sample. Recommendations supporting the AQ's role in the assessment of adult ASD, e.g. UK NICE guidelines, may need to be reconsidered.
Accurate data on the incidence of West Nile virus (WNV) disease are important for directing public health education and control activities. The objective of this project was to assess the underdiagnosis of WNV neuroinvasive disease through laboratory testing of patients with suspected viral meningitis or encephalitis at selected hospitals serving WNV-endemic regions in three states. Of the 279 patients with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens tested for WNV immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies, 258 (92%) were negative, 19 (7%) were positive, and two (1%) had equivocal results. Overall, 63% (12/19) of patients with WNV IgM-positive CSF had WNV IgM testing ordered by their attending physician. Seven (37%) cases would not have been identified as probable WNV infections without the further testing conducted through this project. These findings indicate that over a third of WNV infections in patients with clinically compatible neurological illness might be undiagnosed due to either lack of testing or inappropriate testing, leading to substantial underestimates of WNV neuroinvasive disease burden. Efforts should be made to educate healthcare providers and laboratorians about the local epidemiology of arboviral diseases and the optimal tests to be used in different clinical situations.