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Uterine fibroids or leiomyomas are the most common benign gynaecological tumours; up to 25–30% of women may be diagnosed with fibroids during their lifetime [1]. Women with uterine fibroids may be asymptomatic, or they may present with menstrual symptoms such as menorrhagia and dysmenorrhoea, pressure symptoms, infertility, recurrent miscarriage or complications during pregnancy like red degeneration.
Metabolic abnormality is common among schizophrenia patients. Some metabolic traits were found associated with subgroups of schizophrenia patients.
Objectives:
We examined a possible relationship between metabolic abnormality and psychosis profile in schizophrenia patients.
Method:
Three hundred and seventy-two chronic schizophrenia patients treated with antipsychotics for more than 2 years were assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. A set of metabolic traits was measured at scheduled checkpoints between October 2004 and September 2006.
Results:
Multiple regressions adjusted for sex showed negative correlations between body mass index (BMI) and total score and all subscales; triglycerides (TG) was negatively correlated with total score and negative syndrome, while HDLC was positively correlated with negative syndrome. When sex interaction was concerned, total score was negatively correlated with BMI but not with others; negative syndrome was negatively correlated with BMI and positively with HDLC. No metabolic traits were correlated with positive syndrome or general psychopathology.
Conclusions:
Loss of body weight is a serious health problem in schizophrenia patients with severe psychosis syndrome, especially the negative syndrome. Schizophrenia patients with severe negative syndrome may have a distinct lipid pathophysiology in comparison with those who were less severe in the domain.
This paper investigates the recidivism of Mount Sinai Hospital mental health court support program in Toronto, Canada among patients involved in the criminal justice system. It also looks to find relationships between recidivism and factors including gender, age and ethnicity.
Method
Follow up periods of up to 48 months after the time of initial admission to the program was conducted and the frequency of re-offense was observed. Comparisons for the significance of risk factors were analyzed using t-tests and Chisquare tests.
Results
191 clients were admitted to the Mount Sinai Hospital Court Support Program between September 2001 and June 2007. At first admission, the mean ± s.d. age was 35.8 ± 9.8 years (range=18-74 years; n=184). The median age was 35 years. The modal age was 34 years. Of the 191 clients, 16 (8.4%) reoffended. Two of them (12.5%) had a third offense; and 1 (6.3%) had a total of four offenses within this tracking period. it appears that re-offense is more likely between 13 and 24 months. No re-offense was noted beyond the 48 months. The gender distribution was not significantly different between reoffenders and non-reoffenders. The mean age at first admission also did not differ between reoffenders and non-reoffenders. The distribution of ethnic groups among reoffenders and non-reoffenders did not differ.
Conclusions
The findings seem to indicate that recidivism has no relationship with gender, age and ethnic groups. The comprehensive and length of support services seem more important in preventing recidivism.
Psychiatric assessment and care of people with Intellectual Disability (ID) is complex due to their cognitive and communication impairments. Demand for further training in this area by trainees in psychiatry has been well documented. The main of aims of this study were to explore the attitudes and perceptions of psychiatry residents and non-residents (non-trainees) with regards to care of patients with ID as well as their knowledge and training in this area.
Method
The study was conducted as an anonymous survey at the Institute of Mental Health, Singapore. A survey questionnaire developed by the study team was sent to residents and non-residents in psychiatry.
Results
Forty-eight out of the 76 questionnaires were returned with a response rate of 63.16%. Twenty-eight participants described themselves as non-residents and the rest were residents. All participants responded that postgraduate training was required in the area of ID and mental health and majority reported that available training was inadequate. Ninety percent of respondents believed that people with ID were vulnerable to exploitation by other patients in the inpatient unit and 94% of respondents believed that people with ID should be managed by a specialist team.
Conclusion
Currently residents and non-residents in psychiatry see that training in ID and mental health as well as services for people with ID as inadequate. Efforts should be made to include specialist training in psychiatry of ID in the Singapore psychiatry curriculum to enhance the confidence and expertise of psychiatrists in this field.
Little is known about the combined use of benzodiazepines and antidepressants in older psychiatric patients. This study examined the prescription pattern of concurrent benzodiazepines in older adults treated with antidepressants in Asia, and explored its demographic and clinical correlates.
Methods:
The data of 955 older adults with any type of psychiatric disorders were extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antidepressants (REAP-AD) project. Demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure. Both univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed.
Results:
The proportion of benzodiazepine and antidepressant combination in this cohort was 44.3%. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that higher doses of antidepressants, younger age (<65 years), inpatients, public hospital, major comorbid medical conditions, antidepressant types, and country/territory were significantly associated with more frequent co-prescription of benzodiazepines and antidepressants.
Conclusions:
Nearly, half of the older adults treated with antidepressants in Asia are prescribed concurrent benzodiazepines. Given the potentially adverse effects of benzodiazepines, the rationale of benzodiazepines and antidepressants co-prescription needs to be revisited.
The treatment gap between the number of people with mental disorders and the number treated represents a major public health challenge. We examine this gap by socio-economic status (SES; indicated by family income and respondent education) and service sector in a cross-national analysis of community epidemiological survey data.
Methods
Data come from 16 753 respondents with 12-month DSM-IV disorders from community surveys in 25 countries in the WHO World Mental Health Survey Initiative. DSM-IV anxiety, mood, or substance disorders and treatment of these disorders were assessed with the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI).
Results
Only 13.7% of 12-month DSM-IV/CIDI cases in lower-middle-income countries, 22.0% in upper-middle-income countries, and 36.8% in high-income countries received treatment. Highest-SES respondents were somewhat more likely to receive treatment, but this was true mostly for specialty mental health treatment, where the association was positive with education (highest treatment among respondents with the highest education and a weak association of education with treatment among other respondents) but non-monotonic with income (somewhat lower treatment rates among middle-income respondents and equivalent among those with high and low incomes).
Conclusions
The modest, but nonetheless stronger, an association of education than income with treatment raises questions about a financial barriers interpretation of the inverse association of SES with treatment, although future within-country analyses that consider contextual factors might document other important specifications. While beyond the scope of this report, such an expanded analysis could have important implications for designing interventions aimed at increasing mental disorder treatment among socio-economically disadvantaged people.
The purpose of this study was to dosimetrically compare TomoDirect, TomoHelical and linear accelerator-based 3D-conformal radiotherapy (Linac-3DCRT) for craniospinal irradiation (CSI) in the treatment of medulloblastoma.
Methods
Five CSI patients were replanned with Linac-3DCRT, TomoHelical, TomoDirect-3DCRT and TomoDirect-intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Dose of 36 Gy in 20 fractions was prescribed to the planning target volume (PTV). Homogeneity index (HI), non-target integral dose (NTID), dose–volume histograms, organs-at-risk (OARs) Dmax, Dmean and treatment times were compared.
Results
TomoHelical achieved the best PTV homogeneity compared with Linac-3DCRT, TomoDirect-3DCRT and TomoDirect-IMRT (HI of 3·6 versus 20·9, 8·7 and 9·4%, respectively). TomoDirect-IMRT achieved the lowest NTID compared with TomoDirect-3DCRT, TomoHelical and Linac-3DCRT (141 J versus 151 J, 181 J and 250 J), indicating least biological damage to normal tissues. TomoHelical plans achieved the lowest Dmax in all organs except the breasts, and lowest Dmean for most OARs, except in laterally situated OARs, where TomoDirect triumphed. Beam-on time was longest for TomoHelical, followed by TomoDirect and Linac-3DCRT.
Findings
TomoDirect has the potential to lower NTID and shorten treatment times compared with TomoHelical. It reduces PTV inhomogeneity and better spares OARs compared with Linac-3DCRT. Therefore, TomoDirect may be a CSI treatment alternative to TomoHelical and in place of Linac-3DCRT.
The U.S. Army uses universal preventives interventions for several negative outcomes (e.g. suicide, violence, sexual assault) with especially high risks in the early years of service. More intensive interventions exist, but would be cost-effective only if targeted at high-risk soldiers. We report results of efforts to develop models for such targeting from self-report surveys administered at the beginning of Army service.
Methods
21 832 new soldiers completed a self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) in 2011–2012 and consented to link administrative data to SAQ responses. Penalized regression models were developed for 12 administratively-recorded outcomes occurring by December 2013: suicide attempt, mental hospitalization, positive drug test, traumatic brain injury (TBI), other severe injury, several types of violence perpetration and victimization, demotion, and attrition.
Results
The best-performing models were for TBI (AUC = 0.80), major physical violence perpetration (AUC = 0.78), sexual assault perpetration (AUC = 0.78), and suicide attempt (AUC = 0.74). Although predicted risk scores were significantly correlated across outcomes, prediction was not improved by including risk scores for other outcomes in models. Of particular note: 40.5% of suicide attempts occurred among the 10% of new soldiers with highest predicted risk, 57.2% of male sexual assault perpetrations among the 15% with highest predicted risk, and 35.5% of female sexual assault victimizations among the 10% with highest predicted risk.
Conclusions
Data collected at the beginning of service in self-report surveys could be used to develop risk models that define small proportions of new soldiers accounting for high proportions of negative outcomes over the first few years of service.
Background: CAS is reported to have higher complication rates in elderly compared to younger patients. This effect may be a surrogate for unfavourable anatomy (tortuosity, arch/access vessel atheroma burden) for endovascular treatment. We report our experience with 42 highly selected patients with favourable anatomy in spite of age. Methods: From a cohort of 217 consecutive patients undergoing CAS at St Michael’s Hospital from 2010-2016, stroke and a composite outcome of stroke, MI or death at 30 days post procedure was recorded. We compared outcomes in patients below and above the age of 75. Results: In 217 patients, 175 (80.7%) were below and 42 (19.3%) were above age 75 years. The stroke rate was 1.7% (n=3) and 2.4% (n=1), for patients below and above age 75 years respectively (p=0.58). The composite outcome rate was 4.0% (n=7) and 4.8% (n=2) for patients below and above age 75 years respectively (p=0.69). Conclusions: Patients without high-risk anatomic features were selected for CAS treatment. In this selected group, outcomes for those older than 75 years are comparable to the younger age category. Complication rates were comparable to the results in major randomized symptomatic carotid trials.
Background: On imaging, thrombosed aneurysms can be mistaken for tumor with potentially disastrous consequences. Methods: We present two cases of aneurysms mimicking tumor. Results:Patient 1 (6 months of left-sided facial weakness): MRI demonstrated a 3.3 cm, T1-isotense, T2-hypertense heterogeneous enhancing mass favored to represent a CPA schwannoma. Biopsy revealed a thrombosed aneurysm. DSA subsequently revealed an area of contrast penetration, treated by parent artery (AICA) obliteration. Two-year follow-up revealed stable occlusion with reduced mass effect. Patient 2 (1 year of headaches): Imaging demonstrated an extra-axial T1-mixed, T2-hyperintense heterogeneously enhancing mass in the left CPA adjacent to the vertebral artery, enlarging from 1.7 cm to 3.2 cm over 2 years. DSA revealed slow, crescentic filling with suggestion of arborisation distally. Patient deteriorated due to mass effect requiring a VP shunt and passed away from SAH 3 months later. Imaging review revealed crescentic filling of the remnant lumen on CE-MRA and signal voids on T2 in both cases, which may suggest the aneurysm diagnosis. However our cases did not have other features such as lamellated thrombus or pulsation artifact. Conclusions: Central contrast enhancement does not necessarily preclude the diagnosis of thrombosed aneurysm. The possibility of revascularization or penetration of contrast through the thrombus in giant aneurysms needs to be considered.
Background: The CREST trial remains the most influential study regarding choice of treatment modality for carotid revascularization in the modern era. The effect of the CREST trial on patient outcomes and changes to clinical practice are yet to be fully elucidated. Methods: We report a cohort of 217 consecutive symptomatic average risk patients undergoing CAS at St. Michael’s Hospital, between 2010 and 2016. Outcome measures were stroke, MI and death at 30 days post procedure. Of the 217 patients, 42 were above the age of 75 (19%). Results: The 30-day combined stroke, MI and death outcome for all patients was 4.1%. One death occurred (0.46%) in a patient who suffered an MI. One disabling stroke (0.46%) and 3 mild strokes (1.38%) with full recovery by 6 months occurred. Overall 4 patients suffered an MI (1.84%). Conclusions: As a result of the CREST trial in our single institutional experience there has been a clear migration to treating average risk patients using CAS, a treatment previously reserved for high risk patients. In this average risk cohort we report favourable outcomes when compared to the CREST trial as well as the firmly established benchmarks for CEA complications derived from the NASCET trial.
Although acknowledged to be variable and subjective, manual annotation of cryo-electron tomography data is commonly used to answer structural questions and to create a “ground truth” for evaluation of automated segmentation algorithms. Validation of such annotation is lacking, but is critical for understanding the reproducibility of manual annotations. Here, we used voxel-based similarity scores for a variety of specimens, ranging in complexity and segmented by several annotators, to quantify the variation among their annotations. In addition, we have identified procedures for merging annotations to reduce variability, thereby increasing the reliability of manual annotation. Based on our analyses, we find that it is necessary to combine multiple manual annotations to increase the confidence level for answering structural questions. We also make recommendations to guide algorithm development for automated annotation of features of interest.
Surveillance data on the burden of pertussis in Asian adults are limited. This cross-sectional study evaluated the prevalence of serologically confirmed pertussis in adults with prolonged cough in Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand. Adults (⩾19 years) with cough lasting for ⩾14 days without other known underlying cause were enrolled from outpatient clinics of seven public and/or private hospitals. Single blood samples for anti-pertussis toxin antibodies (anti-PT IgG) were analysed and economic impact and health-related quality of life (EQ-5D) questionnaires assessed. Sixteen (5·13%) of the 312 chronically coughing adults had serological evidence of pertussis infection within the previous 12 months (anti-PT IgG titre ⩾62·5 IU/ml). Three of them were teachers. Longer duration of cough, paroxysms (75% seroconfirmed, 48% non-seroconfirmed) and breathlessness/chest pain (63% seroconfirmed, 36% non-seroconfirmed) were associated with pertussis (P < 0·04). Of the seroconfirmed patients, the median total direct medical cost per pertussis episode in public hospitals (including physician consultations and/or emergency room visits) was US$13 in Malaysia, US$83 in Taiwan (n = 1) and US$26 in Thailand. The overall median EQ-5D index score of cases was 0·72 (range 0·42–1·00). Pertussis should be considered in the aetiology of adults with a prolonged or paroxysmal cough, and vaccination programmes considered.
Civilian suicide rates vary by occupation in ways related to occupational stress exposure. Comparable military research finds suicide rates elevated in combat arms occupations. However, no research has evaluated variation in this pattern by deployment history, the indicator of occupation stress widely considered responsible for the recent rise in the military suicide rate.
Method
The joint associations of Army occupation and deployment history in predicting suicides were analysed in an administrative dataset for the 729 337 male enlisted Regular Army soldiers in the US Army between 2004 and 2009.
Results
There were 496 suicides over the study period (22.4/100 000 person-years). Only two occupational categories, both in combat arms, had significantly elevated suicide rates: infantrymen (37.2/100 000 person-years) and combat engineers (38.2/100 000 person-years). However, the suicide rates in these two categories were significantly lower when currently deployed (30.6/100 000 person-years) than never deployed or previously deployed (41.2–39.1/100 000 person-years), whereas the suicide rate of other soldiers was significantly higher when currently deployed and previously deployed (20.2–22.4/100 000 person-years) than never deployed (14.5/100 000 person-years), resulting in the adjusted suicide rate of infantrymen and combat engineers being most elevated when never deployed [odds ratio (OR) 2.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.1–4.1], less so when previously deployed (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1–2.1), and not at all when currently deployed (OR 1.2, 95% CI 0.8–1.8). Adjustment for a differential ‘healthy warrior effect’ cannot explain this variation in the relative suicide rates of never-deployed infantrymen and combat engineers by deployment status.
Conclusions
Efforts are needed to elucidate the causal mechanisms underlying this interaction to guide preventive interventions for soldiers at high suicide risk.
The main purpose of this study is to provide an overview of library and information science (LIS) students’ actual experiences in using mobile phones or smartphones for study and learning purposes and their perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of mobile phones for learning in general. The study is focused on LIS undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the University of Tsukuba from Japan (UT).
Recent studies of mobile learning in higher education generally suggest that mobile phones are increasingly being used for learning purposes (Dahlstrom, Dziuban and Walker, 2012; Dresselhaus and Shrode, 2012; Cheon et al., 2012; Bomhold, 2013; Gikas and Grant, 2013; Park and Jung, 2013; Kim, Ilon and Altmann, 2013). A few studies involving students from Hong Kong and Japan (Kukulska- Hulme et al., 2011; Ang et al., 2012; Bibby, 2011) indicate students’ tendencies to use mobile phones or smartphones for learning as well.
Objectives
This study is based on current research findings on learning with mobile phones and the following research questions were identified:
How do LIS students use mobile phones or smartphones in their everyday lives?
Do LIS students use mobile phones or smartphones for learning purposes?
Do LIS students use mobile phones or smartphones to access library services for learning purposes?
Do LIS students at HKU and UT differ in their use of mobile phones or smartphones for learning purposes?
Research methods
A qualitative research methodology was applied to this study. The data was collected through an asynchronous online focus group (Williams et al., 2012), while a Facebook page titled ‘LISEXCHANGE’ was used as a platform for online discussions. The Facebook page was established by researchers from HKU and UT: undergraduate and graduate students of LIS programmes from both universities were encouraged to participate in discussions about using smartphones for everyday needs, focusing on learning purposes. The discussions were initiated and moderated by researchers.
Altogether 13 students from HKU and 5 students from UT actively took part in online discussions. The empirical materials gathered contained 42 postings (34 posts from HKU students and 8 posts from UT students). The study was conducted over a period of three months, from October to December 2013.
An uneven neurocognitive profile is a hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies focusing on the visual memory performance in ASD have shown controversial results. We investigated visual memory and sustained attention in youths with ASD and typically developing (TD) youths.
Method
We recruited 143 pairs of youths with ASD (males 93.7%; mean age 13.1, s.d. 3.5 years) and age- and sex-matched TD youths. The ASD group consisted of 67 youths with autistic disorder (autism) and 76 with Asperger's disorder (AS) based on the DSM-IV criteria. They were assessed using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery involving the visual memory [spatial recognition memory (SRM), delayed matching to sample (DMS), paired associates learning (PAL)] and sustained attention (rapid visual information processing; RVP).
Results
Youths with ASD performed significantly worse than TD youths on most of the tasks; the significance disappeared in the superior intelligence quotient (IQ) subgroup. The response latency on the tasks did not differ between the ASD and TD groups. Age had significant main effects on SRM, DMS, RVP and part of PAL tasks and had an interaction with diagnosis in DMS and RVP performance. There was no significant difference between autism and AS on visual tasks.
Conclusions
Our findings implied that youths with ASD had a wide range of visual memory and sustained attention impairment that was moderated by age and IQ, which supports temporal and frontal lobe dysfunction in ASD. The lack of difference between autism and AS implies that visual memory and sustained attention cannot distinguish these two ASD subtypes, which supports DSM-5 ASD criteria.
Some studies demonstrated that physical activity may have beneficial effect on cognitive function. The objective of the study was to estimate the association between physical activity and cognitive function in community-dwelling elderly Chinese in Hong Kong (HK) and Guangzhou (GZ).
Methods:
In the neighborhood of HK and GZ, a convenience sample of 557 (260 in HK and 297 in GZ) older persons without dementia aged over 60 years (73.4 ± 6.5) was recruited. Physical activity was measured using a checklist. Information on physical activity participation, cognitive function, and other variables were collected. Multivariate linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate the association between physical activity and cognitive function.
Results:
Total number of physical activities showed significant association with the delayed recall test (p < 0.01) and category verbal fluency test (CVFT) (p < 0.01). However, with further adjustment for participation in intellectual activity, the coefficients were no longer statistically significant (p > 0.05)
Conclusion:
Physical activity may not be associated with better cognitive function among elderly Chinese independently of other factors.