Mothers of preterm babies that were hospitalized in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), might react with anxiety due to the extremely challenging circumstances. From maternal point of view, after a sudden, high-risk and traumatic birth that has recently occurred, their fragile preterm babies are in an intimidating medical environment, separated from them and are at high-risk of morbidity and mortality. Those circumstances, accompanied by great uncertainty, provoke perceptions of control such as locus of control and maternal self-efficacy, which are both known as central in evoking anxiety.

The proposed presentation examines the mediating effect of maternal self-efficacy in the association between locus of control and anxiety, among mothers of hospitalized babies in the NICU, above and beyond gestational age and mothers’ socio-economic status.

The participants in the present study were 128 Israeli mothers of 208 NICU hospitalized preterm babies. They completed self-report questionnaires regarding their background variables, internal locus of control, maternal self-efficacy, and anxiety.

The analysis showed that while gestational age and mothers’ socio-economic status were controlled, internal locus of control had a significant and positive effect on maternal self-efficacy, and that maternal self-efficacy had a significant and negative effect on mothers’ anxiety. Finally, the direct negative effect of internal locus of control on anxiety decreased with the inclusion of maternal self-efficacy. Altogether, the model explains 26.2% of the variance in maternal anxiety.

The results demonstrate the central role of senses of control in reducing the levels of anxiety experienced by mothers while their preterm babies are NICU hospitalized. fessionals’ interventions with preterm mothers should focus on supporting and encouraging perceptions of internal control as well as promote positive self-perception regarding their ability to succeed in mothers’ tasks. Higher internal perception of control will lead to higher maternal confidence in their ability to perform as mother, which in turn will reduce their anxiety levels. These outcomes may potentially benefit not only the preterm mothers themselves, but also their babies through higher levels of maternal engagement and responsibility as well as through better maternal functioning and subjective well-being. These will impact infants in the short and long run, in terms of physical, cognitive and emotional development.

None Declared

Schizophrenia is a severe and chronic disorder causing significant disability and functional decline. Schizophrenia is a polygenic disease, with about 100 monogenic sites and 11 sites of chromosomal deletions / duplications involved in its pathogenesis identified. It is a pleiotropic disease, with causative genetic changes leading to multiple symptoms, including bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, mental retardation and epilepsy. The chromosomal microarray (CMA) technology detects submicroscopic chromosomal changes, which are involved in neurodevelopmental disorders, and are subject to prenatal diagnosis. Pathological findings in CMA are detected in 10-20% of patients with neurodevelopmental disorders and can contribute significantly to medical follow-up, prognosis assessment, influence treatment choice, and allow prenatal diagnosis. Preliminary studies in schizophrenia identified pathological CMA findings in 10–30% of patients.

CMA testing of schizophrenia patients to detect genetic changes causing the disease.

Recruitment of schizophrenia patients from the Haifa and Western Galilee districts of Clalit, genetic counseling in Carmel Hospital, CMA testing of the consenting patients.

Schizophrenia patients with and without neurodevelopmental disorders underwent CMA analysis, with the findings of significant chromosomal submicroscopic disorders (such as 22q11 microdeletion, among others) in 30% of the patients, providing the explanation for the patients’ symptoms and enabling specific medical follow-up and adjusted pharmacological treatment.

CMA can be used in diagnosing schizophrenia, assessing prognosis, adjusting pharmacological treatment and follow-up and providing genetic counseling including prenatal diagnosis, as in cases neurodevelopmental disorders. The findings support the application of CMA as part of a routine procedures in schizophrenia.

No significant relationships.

We investigated the accuracy of initial critical care triage in blast-injured versus non-blast-injured trauma patients, focusing on those inappropriately triaged to the intensive care unit (ICU) for brief (<16 h) stays.

We conducted a retrospective review of the Israel National Trauma Registry, applying a predetermined definition of need for initial ICU admission.

A total of 883 blast-injured and 112 185 non-blast-injured patients were categorized according to their need for ICU admission. Of these admissions, 5.7% in the blast setting and 8.4% in the non-blast setting were considered unnecessary. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios for the triage officers' decisions in assigning patients to the ICU were 95.5%, 98.8%, 77.2, and 0.05, respectively, in the blast setting, and 91.2%, 99.5%, 200.5, and 0.09, respectively, in the non-blast setting.

Triage officers do a better job sending to the ICU only those patients who require initial intensive care in the non-blast setting, though this is obscured by a much greater overall need for ICU-level care in the blast setting. Implementing triage protocols in the blast setting may help reduce the number of patients sent initially to the ICU for brief periods, thus increasing the availability of this resource. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1–7)