Ann Packman, Tanya.Coo 2001, 'Stuttering and lexical retrieval', Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 487-498.
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A number of models of stuttering suggest that a problem with lexical retrieval is fundamental to the disorder. Such models predict, then, that lexical retrieval is a necessary condition for stuttering to occur. To investigate this prediction, this study looked at the effects of having persons who stutter speak in a way that does not involve lexical retrieval. If stuttering is a lexical retrieval problem, then stuttering should not occur under such conditions. In this study, three adults who stutter read aloud a standard English passage and two passages consisting of non-words, which were matched for length and initial sound to the words in the English passage. Stuttering occurred in all three subjects at significant levels during the reading of the non-word passages. This finding is inconsistent with the idea that stuttering in caused by a problem with lexical retrieval.
Balandin, S, Hemsley, B, Sigafoos, J, Green, V, Forbes, R, Taylor, C & Parmenter, T 2001, 'Communicating with Nurses: The Experiences of 10 Individuals with an Acquired Severe Communication Impairment', Brain Impairment, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 109-118.
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AbstractSuccessful communication is integral to quality health care and successful nursing practice. Ten people who had been in hospital in the 12 months prior to the study and who had no functional speech at that time were interviewed about their communication experiences with nurses. Overall, these individuals experienced difficulties, some of which appeared to be related to a lack of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) resources and a lack of knowledge of AAC among nurses. In addition, the participants noted that nurses did not always have the time or the skills to communicate effectively with them. The participants suggested strategies to improve communication interactions between patients with no or limited functional speech and nurses. These strategies include pre-admission briefing and training nurses about effective strategies for communicating with patients who are unable to speak, including the use of augmentative and alternative communication systems.
Bensoussan, A, Chang, SW, Menzies, RG & Talley, NJ 2001, 'Application of the general health status questionnaire SF36 to patients with gastrointestinal dysfunction: initial validation and validation as a measure of change', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 71-77.
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Blumgart, E, Packman, A, Onslow, M, Harrison, E, Andrews, C, Wahlhaus, MM & Menzies, RG 2001, 'Investigating the involvement of partners in stuttering therapy', Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 103-107.
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Brodaty, H, Berle, D, Hickie, I & Mason, C 2001, '‘Side effects’ of ECT are mainly depressive phenomena and are independent of age', Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 66, no. 2-3, pp. 237-245.
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Cole, FH, Pate, JW & Weiman, D 2001, 'The surgeon and the follow-up clinic', The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, vol. 71, no. 2, pp. 757-757.
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Dewis, LM, Kirkby, KC, Martin, F, Daniels, BA, Gilroy, LJ & Menzies, RG 2001, 'Computer-aided vicarious exposure versus live graded exposure for spider phobia in children', Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 17-27.
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The efficacy of computer-aided vicarious exposure (CAVE) for the treatment of spider phobia in children was evaluated in a single blind, randomised, controlled trial. Twenty-eight participants, aged 10-17 years, received three 45-min sessions of either Live graded exposure (LGE), CAVE or were assigned to a Waitlist. Phobic symptomatology was measured at pre- and post-treatment, and at one month follow-up on a range of behavioural and subjective assessments. The results showed the superiority of the LGE treatment over the CAVE and Waitlist conditions. Effect sizes support CAVE treatment as being superior to the Waitlist and resulting in reductions of phobic symptomatology. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Freeman, AW & Nguyen, VA 2001, 'Controlling binocular rivalry', Vision Research, vol. 41, no. 23, pp. 2943-2950.
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Harris, LM, Menzies, RG & Robinson, J 2001, 'Predictors of panic symptoms during magnetic resonance imaging scans', International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 80-87.
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This study examined the usefulness of a score derived from nine items of Wolpe and Lang's (1964) Fear Survey Schedule (FSS) in predicting the number of symptoms consistent with panic reported by a large outpatient sample undertaking magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The items were those identified by Lukins, Davan, and Drummond (1997) as likely to reflect fears associated with the aversive characteristics of the MRI procedure (i.e., noise, confinement, and isolation) and were taken 1 week before the scan. The MRI-related FSS score was a better predictor of symptoms consistent with panic attack during the scan than (a) Rachman and Taylor's (1993) Claustrophobia Questionnaire, (b) a score derived from nine FSS items reflecting common community fears, or (c) a measure of state anxiety. It is suggested that the brief MRI-related FSS scale can provide information important for planning patient management during MRI scans at a time when the information can be most useful.
Heading, K, Kirkby, KC, Martin, F, Daniels, BA, Gilroy, LJ & Menzies, RG 2001, 'Controlled Comparison of Single-session Treatments for Spider Phobia: Live Graded Exposure Alone versus Computer-aided Vicarious Exposure', Behaviour Change, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 103-113.
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AbstractThe efficacy of prolonged single sessions of live graded exposure (LGE) and computer-aided vicarious exposure (CAVE) for spider phobia was examined in a single-blind, controlled trial. Forty participants diagnosed with specific phobia (spiders) received a prolonged single-session treatment of either therapist-aided LGE comprising exposure only or CAVE, or were assigned to a waiting list. Phobic symptomatology was measured at pre- and post-treatment, and at 1-month follow-up on a range of behavioural and subjective assessments. The results showed that the single-session therapist-aided LGE was superior to both CAVE and the waiting-list control. In contrast with previous findings of comparability between LGE and CAVE, and superiority of CAVE over placebo, the present study found no significant differences between the CAVE and waiting-list groups, with the exception of subjective units of distress, providing little support for single-session CAVE treatment.
Hemsley, B, Sigafoos, J, Balandin, S, Forbes, R, Taylor, C, Green, VA & Parmenter, T 2001, 'Nursing the patient with severe communication impairment', Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 827-835.
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Nursing the patient with severe communication impairment Background. Effective communication with patients is critical to effective nursing practice. Surprisingly, there is little information on nurses’ experiences in caring for patients who are unable to speak. Purpose and method. This study provides descriptive information from interviews with 20 nurses who cared for patients with severe communication impairment. The interview protocol explored positive and negative experiences of nursing patients with severe communication impairment. Frequency counts and descriptive analyses were conducted to identify the major themes emerging from the interviews. Results. The results suggest that nurse–patient communication is difficult when the patient has severe communication impairment, although some nurses discovered effective strategies to facilitate communication with such patients. Many of the difficulties could be viewed as a breakdown in understanding arising from the lack of a readily interpretable communication system that could be used by nurse and patient. Conclusions. The results suggest a need for training nurses in the use of alternative modes of communication. Nurses also need access to a variety of simple augmentative communication devices for use with patients who are unable to speak. Finally, nurses should collaborate with speech pathologists on the development of preadmission information and bedside training for people who are admitted to hospital with severe communication impairment.
Hewat, S, O'Brian, S, Onslow, M & Packman, A 2001, 'Control of chronic stuttering with self-imposed time-out: preliminary outcome data', Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 97-102.
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Hughes, JM, Rimmer, SJ, Salome, CM, Hodge, L, Liu‐Brennan, D, Woolcock, AJ & Armour, CL 2001, 'Eosinophilia, interleukin‐5, and tumour necrosis factor‐alpha in asthmatic children', Allergy, vol. 56, no. 5, pp. 412-418.
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Background: There are few paediatric studies of the interrelationships between inflammatory markers and asthma severity. We therefore assessed the relationships between eosinophil‐associated markers, cytokines, and asthma severity in asthmatic children aged 8–12 years. Methods: Forty‐five children were tested twice, 2 weeks apart. Asthma severity was measured in terms of symptoms, lung function, medication needs, and histamine responsiveness. Peripheral inflammatory markers measured included eosinophil numbers, serum ECP, IL‐5, and TNF‐α and mononuclear cell IL‐5, and TNF‐α production. Results: Histamine responsiveness was correlated with circulating eosinophils (r=0.56, P=0.0001) and serum ECP (r=0.54, P=0.003). Eosinophilia was increased in children with severe as opposed to mild airway hyperresponsiveness (P=0.02) and those who lost days at school as opposed to those who did not (P=0.01). There were no other associations between markers of asthma severity and inflammation. Children taking inhaled corticosteroids had lower serum IL‐5 levels than those on β‐agonists±cromolyn (mean and 95% CI: 20.5 [11.7–35.7] pg/ml vs 64.3 [26.6–155.4] pg/ml; P=0.04). Cellular IL‐5 production correlated with serum TNF‐α (r=0.63, P=0.0062) and IL‐5 (r=−0.59, P=0.005). Conclusions: Serum levels of TNF‐α and IL‐5 were not related to peripheral eosinophilia and asthma severity in these children but were related to their own cellular production ex vivo. This study confirms that eo...
Jones, M, Gebski, V, Onslow, M & Packman, A 2001, 'Design of randomized controlled trials', Journal of Fluency Disorders, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 247-267.
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The "gold standard" methodology for treatment efficacy research is the randomized controlled trial (RCT), which is used extensively in medical research and in other areas such as psychology. Results from a well designed and conducted RCT, which show a new treatment to be clinically and statistically superior to current standard practice, can lead to a change in clinical practice. This paper presents a tutorial on RCTs, presenting and discussing the following principles and methods: the trial protocol, choice of control treatment, eligibility criteria, random allocation, outcomes and hypotheses, sample size, subject recruitment, analysis by intention to treat, interim analysis, stopping rules, safety data monitoring/trial management, and study documentation. RCTs are a complicated and logistically involved methodology. Hence, prior to the commitment of resources to such a trial in the development of a new treatment, the safety and clinical promise of the new treatment needs to be demonstrated with preliminary studies. Such preliminary studies have been completed for the Lidcombe Program (LP) of early stuttering intervention, and an RCT of that treatment is being conducted at the time of writing. The principles and methods of RCTs are illustrated with reference to that study. Educational objectives: The reader will understand the design principles and methods of RCTs. The reader will understand the logistics of conducting a RCT of a treatment for early stuttering. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
Krochmalik, A, Jones, MK & Menzies, RG 2001, 'Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy (DIRT) for treatment-resistant compulsive washing', Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 39, no. 8, pp. 897-912.
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Five intractable cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder were treated with the Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy (DIRT) program. All five cases: (1) had displayed excessive washing/cleaning behaviour for at least 10 years; (2) had failed to respond to a minimum of two separate, 12-week drug trials with serotonergic agents; (3) failed to respond to at least 15 sessions of exposure and response prevention at the beginning of the present trial, and; (4) satisfied the DSM-IV criteria for OCD with Poor Insight. DIRT was conducted in 14, weekly, individual sessions or until, in the judgement of the treating clinician: (1) clinically significant gains were apparent with minimal symptomatology remaining, and (2) clients displayed a sound grasp of the cognitive model underpinning DIRT procedures. At post-treatment, substantial reductions in scores on the Padua Inventory (PI), Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory (MOCI), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and two global rating scales were apparent for four of the five subjects. These improvements were maintained at 4-to-6 month follow-up, with four of the five cases meeting Jacobson and Truax's (1991) criteria for 'recovery' on the MOCI and the PI by this assessment stage. While one subject remained non-responsive, the present findings suggest that DIRT may be a viable option for treatment-resistant cases of compulsive washing. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.
Lievense, A, Bierma-Zeinstra, S, Verhagen, A, Verhaar, J & Koes, B 2001, 'Influence of work on the development of osteoarthritis of the hip: a systematic review.', J Rheumatol, vol. 28, no. 11, pp. 2520-2528.
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OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the evidence for the influence of physical workload on the occurrence of osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip. METHODS: We carried out a database search of Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane library to identify observational studies, and articles on the relationship between workload and hip OA were identified. Methodological quality of the selected studies was assessed using a standardized set of criteria. The outcome of each study was compared with its study characteristics and methodological quality score. Finally, a best-evidence synthesis was used to summarize the results from the individual studies. RESULTS: Two retrospective cohort studies and 14 case-control studies were included in this review. There was a slight negative, but not significant association between the study outcome and the methodological quality score. Overall, moderate evidence was found for a positive association, with an odds ratio of approximately 3, between previous heavy physical workload and the occurrence of hip OA. In addition, for the subcategories, i.e., > or = 10 years farming or lifting heavy weights (> or = 25 kg), moderate evidence was found for a positive relationship with hip OA. Possible selection of the populations studied may be partly responsible for the association we identified. CONCLUSION: The evidence for the influence of previous heavy physical workload on the occurrence of hip OA is moderate.
M. Peeters, GG, Verhagen, AP, de Bie, RA & B. Oostendorp, RA 2001, 'The Efficacy of Conservative Treatment in Patients With Whiplash Injury', Spine, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. E64-E73.
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STUDY DESIGN: A systematic review of the literature. OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy of conservative treatment in patients with whiplash injuries. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Many treatments are available for patients with whiplash injury, but there continues to be no evidence for their accepted use. METHODS: A computerized literature search of Medline, Embase, Cinahl, Psychlit, and the Cochrane Controlled Trial Register was performed. Studies were selected if the design was a (randomized) clinical trial; if all patients had sustained a whiplash injury; if the type of intervention was a conservative one; if pain, global perceived effect, and participation in daily activities were used as one of the outcome measures, and if the publication was written in English, French, German, or Dutch. The methodologic quality was independently assessed by two reviewers by using the Maastricht-Amsterdam list. Three quality scores were calculated using this criteria list: the Overall Methodologic Quality Score, the Internal Validity Score, and the Delphi Quality Score. The conclusion of the review was based on articles that scored a quality score of at least 50% of the maximum available score on two of three quality scores. RESULTS: Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. Only three studies satisfied at least 50% on two of three ways of calculating a quality score, indicating overall poor methodology. There was a high rank correlation among the three ways of calculating a quality score. No statistical pooling was performed because of the heterogeneity of the interventions. This review indicates that active treatments show a beneficial long-term effect on at least one of the primary outcome measures. CONCLUSION: Caution is needed when drawing a valid conclusion on the efficacy of conservative treatments in patients with whiplash injury. It appears that "rest makes rusty," whereas active interventions have a tendency to be more effective in patients with whiplash injury.
Madland, G, Newton-John, T & Feinmann, C 2001, 'Chronic idiopathic orofacial pain: 1: What is the evidence base?', BRITISH DENTAL JOURNAL, vol. 191, no. 1, pp. 22-24.
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Menzies, RG & Parker, L 2001, 'The origins of height fear: an evaluation of neoconditioning explanations', Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 185-199.
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The present research sought to establish a reliable and valid instrument for assessing the relevance of neoconditioning factors (e.g. latent inhibition, UCS inflation/revaluation, prior fear levels, prior expectancies of harm, fear and pain levels experienced during supposed learning events), in the development of human fear. Fifty-four undergraduate height-fearful students completed the new origins instrument (OQ-II), while 54 matched controls completed a modified version (OQM-II) that examined their prior experiences with heights. In general, few differences between groups were found. Height-fearful and control subjects did not differ on trait anxiety, the frequency of negative encounters with heights, the age at which these events had occurred, prior fear levels, prior expectancies of harm, or reports of UCS inflation/revaluation procedures. However, in a finding directly opposite to that expected from a conditioning account, the mean fear and pain scores reported by subjects who had experienced direct conditioning events were significantly higher in the non-fearful group than in the height-fearful group. These findings are discussed in terms of associative and non-associative models of fear. Copyright (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.
Newton-John, T, Ashmore, J & McDowell, M 2001, 'Early Intervention in Acute Back Pain', Physiotherapy, vol. 87, no. 8, pp. 397-401.
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Disability related to chronic back pain has been identified as one of the major medical and social problems of current times. There is substantial evidence that pain management programmes based on cognitive behavioural principles are effective in terms of improving physical function and psychological well-being for long-term back pain sufferers (Morley et al, 1999). However, few studies have investigated the efficacy of pain management with patients in the early phases of the condition, before many of the problems associated with chronic pain have developed. A project was therefore designed in order to determine whether the provision of a pain management intervention during the acute phase of back pain would help prevent the development of chronic disability. For a variety of reasons this study did not proceed, and the aim of this article is to outline the pitfalls that were encountered in setting up such a study. It is hoped that future clinicians/researchers might benefit from our hindsight.
Nguyen, VA, Freeman, AW & Wenderoth, P 2001, 'The depth and selectivity of suppression in binocular rivalry', Perception & Psychophysics, vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 348-360.
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O'Brian, S, Cream, A, Onslow, M & Packman, A 2001, 'A replicable, non-programmed, instrument-free method for the control of stuttering with prolonged speech', Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 91-96.
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Onslow, M 2001, 'Changes in linguistic variables during operant, laboratory control of stuttering in children', Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, vol. 15, no. 8, pp. 651-662.
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Response contingent stimulation (RCS) is known to reduce stuttering in many cases. Time-out (TO) from speaking after stuttering is a particularly effective form of RCS. However, the mechanism underlying the TO effect is unknown. The demonstrated value of operant methods in the clinical control of stuttering in young children warrants renewed interest in exploring why pausing for a short time after stuttering would reduce the frequency of stuttering. In this study, selected linguistic measures were made for two school-age boys whose stuttering reduced during TO in a laboratory study. One boy showed a clear reduction in verbal output, accompanied by a reduction in lexical diversity, but the other boy showed no changes in linguistic measures. This finding is of interest because, in a previous acoustic analysis of the same speech samples, the first boy showed no changes in acoustic speech measures of duration while the second boy did show changes in acoustic speech measures of duration. This raises the possibility that people who stutter may change their verbal output in response to TO, but in different ways. Although the present data do not establish a causal relationship between alterations in verbal output and reductions in stuttering, they raise the need for further research that might explain why TO might control stuttering.
Onslow, M & Packman, A 2001, 'Ambiguity and Algorithms in Diagnosing Early Stuttering', Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 593-594.
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Onslow, M & Packman, A 2001, 'The Lidcombe Program of early stuttering intervention: awaiting the results of a randomized controlled trial', Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 85-89.
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Onslow, M, Menzies, RG & Packman, A 2001, 'An Operant Intervention for Early Stuttering', Behavior Modification, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 116-139.
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Stuttering is a common speech disorder that causes significant distress and may cause social maladjustment and hinder occupational potential. Treatments for chronic stuttering in adults can control stuttering by teaching the speaker to use a newspeech pattern. However, these treatments are resource intensive and relapse prone, and they produce speech that sounds unnatural to the listener and feels unnatural to the speaker. This article describes the development and evaluation of an operant treatment for early stuttering. Parents are trained to present verbal contingencies for stuttered and stutter-free speech during everyday speaking situations with their children. The authors overview outcome data from several studies that suggest that this program produces relapse-free control of stuttered speech in preschool children in the medium and long term in a cost-effective manner.
Pate, JW & Tolley, EA 2001, 'Traumatic rupture of the aorta and paraplegia', The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, vol. 72, no. 5, pp. 1796-1796.
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Pate, JW, Snow, NJ, Downing & Sundt, T 2001, 'Experience with spiral computed tomography as the sole diagnostic method for traumatic aortic rupture - Discussion', ANNALS OF THORACIC SURGERY, vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 501-502.
Poulton, R, J. Milne, B, Craske, MG & Menzies, RG 2001, 'A longitudinal study of the etiology of separation anxiety', Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 39, no. 12, pp. 1395-1410.
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A longitudinal examination of the relation between separation experiences and the development of separation anxiety at age 3, 11 and 18 years was conducted. Three associative pathways (Rachman, S.J. (1978). Fear and courage. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman) were assessed. Conditioning events were not related to separation anxiety at age 3. Vicarious learning (modelling) in middle childhood (age 9 years) was the conditioning variable most strongly related to separation anxiety at age 11, accounting for 1.8% of the variance in symptoms. Separation experiences (hospitalisations) before the age of 9 were inversely correlated with separation anxiety at age 18. That is, more overnight hospital stays in childhood were related to less separation anxiety in late adolescence. However, none of these conditioning correlates remained significant predictors of separation anxiety in adjusted regression models. In contrast, certain 'planned' separations in early-mid childhood were associated with lower levels of separation anxiety at later ages. Generally, the findings were consistent with predictions from the non-associative theory of fear acquisition. That vicarious learning processes appeared to modulate, albeit to a minor degree, the expression of separation anxiety during mid-late childhood suggests that there may be critical periods during which some individuals are susceptible to the interactive effects of both associative and non-associative processes. These findings serve to illustrate the complexity of fear acquisition, the relevance of developmental factors and the likely interplay between associative and non-associative processes in the etiology of fear and anxiety. Copyright © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.
Poulton, R, Waldie, KE, Menzies, RG, Craske, MG & Silva, PA 2001, 'Failure to overcome ‘innate’ fear: a developmental test of the non-associative model of fear acquisition', Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 29-43.
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The non-associative, Darwinian theory of fear acquisition proposes that some individuals fail to overcome biologically-relevant fears (e.g. height) because they (1) do not have sufficient safe exposure to the relevant stimuli early in life or (2) are poor habituators who have difficulty 'learning not to fear'. These two hypotheses were tested in a longitudinal birth cohort study. Study 1 found evidence for reduced exposure to height stimuli in childhood for individuals with a fear of heights compared to study members without fear. Study 2 found evidence for higher levels of stress reactivity (a proxy for habituation) in childhood and adolescence among 18-year-old height phobics compared to study members with dental phobia and those with no fear. The results were discussed in relation to recent findings suggesting that some evolutionary-relevant fears may appear in the absence of traumatic 'learning' experiences. The merits of adding a fourth, non-associative pathway to Rachman's [Rachman, S. (1977)]. The conditioning theory of fear acquisition: a critical examination. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 15, 375-387) three pathways model of fear acquisition were briefly considered. Copyright (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.
Schulz, M, Schmoldt, A, Donn, F & Becker, H 2001, 'Lack of Methemoglobinemia with Flutamide', Annals of Pharmacotherapy, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 21-25.
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OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the nonsteroidal antiandrogenic drug flutamide is a clinically relevant inducer of methemoglobinemia in patients with prostatic cancer. METHODS: Fifty consecutive outpatients with prostatic cancer stage D2 entered the study (age 71.1 ± 7.3 y). Five patients were lost to follow-up; the remaining 45 patients received the recommended oral dose of flutamide 250 mg three × daily. Total hemoglobin (Hb) and methemoglobin (Met-Hb) concentrations were measured on varying days using an ultraviolet/visible-spectrophotometric method with an intra- and interday variability <8%. In 12 patients, Met-Hb was analyzed before initiating flutamide therapy and after therapy was begun. RESULTS: On average, 2.6 venous blood samples per patient were analyzed with a mean Met-Hb concentration of 1.9% of total Hb. Mean concentrations of ⩾ 3% were detected in only six patients (13%). The data from 12 patients evaluated before and after initiating flutamide therapy were without significantly different changes. During the study period, no clinical signs of methemoglobinemia were reported or observed. CONCLUSIONS: This study found no clinically relevant increase of Met-Hb concentrations in elderly patients with prostatic cancer during chronic treatment with flutamide. However, clinicians should be aware of the very rare possibility of flutamide-induced methemoglobinemia.
Sitharthan, G, Hough, MJ, Sitharthan, T & Kavanagh, DJ 2001, 'The Alcohol Helplessness Scale and its prediction of depression among problem drinkers', Journal of Clinical Psychology, vol. 57, no. 12, pp. 1445-1457.
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AbstractEvent‐specific scales commonly have greater power than generalized scales in prediction of specific disorders and in testing mediator models for predicting such disorders. Therefore, in a preliminary study, a 6‐item Alcohol Helplessness Scale was constructed and found to be reliable for a sample of 98 problem drinkers. Hierarchical multiple regression and its derivative path analysis were used to test whether helplessness and self‐efficacy moderate or mediate the link between alcohol dependence and depression. A test of a moderation model was not supported, whereas a test of a mediation model was supported. Helplessness and self‐efficacy both significantly and independently mediated between alcohol dependence and depression. Nevertheless, a significant direct effect of alcohol dependence on depression also remained. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol 57: 1445–1457, 2001.
Spence, SH, Sharpe, L, Newton-John, T & Champion, D 2001, 'An investigation of symptom-specific muscle hyperreactivity in upper extremity cumulative trauma disorder', CLINICAL JOURNAL OF PAIN, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 119-128.
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Tjendraputra, E, Tran, VH, Liu-Brennan, D, Roufogalis, BD & Duke, CC 2001, 'Effect of Ginger Constituents and Synthetic Analogues on Cyclooxygenase-2 Enzyme in Intact Cells', Bioorganic Chemistry, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 156-163.
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Veninga, CC, Denig, P, Pont, LG & Haaijer-Ruskamp, FM 2001, 'Comparison of indicators assessing the quality of drug prescribing for asthma.', Health Serv Res, vol. 36, no. 1 Pt 1, pp. 143-161.
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OBJECTIVE: To compare different indicators for assessing the quality of drug prescribing and establish their agreement in identifying doctors who may not adhere to treatment guidelines. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Data from 181 general practitioners (GPs) from The Netherlands. The case of asthma is used as an example because, in this area, different quality indicators exist whose validity is questioned. The study is part of the European Drug Education Project. STUDY DESIGN: Spearman rank correlations were assessed among the GPs' scores on self-report instruments, aggregated prescribing indicators, and individualized prescribing indicators. Kappa values were calculated as agreement measures for identifying low adherence to the guidelines. DATA COLLECTION: Prescribing data from GPs were collected through pharmacies, public health insurance companies, or computerized GP databases. Two self-report instruments were mailed to the GPs. The GPs first received a questionnaire assessing their competence regarding the treatment of asthma patients. Three months later they received a series of 16 written asthma cases asking for their intended treatment for each case. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Correlations between scores based on self-report instruments and indicators based on actual prescribing data were mostly nonsignificant and varied between 0 and 0.21. GPs identified as not adhering to the guidelines by the prescribing indicators often had high scores on the self-report instruments. Correlations between 0.20 and 0.55 were observed among indicators based on aggregated prescribing data and those based on individualized data. The agreement for identifying low adherence was small, with kappa values ranging from 0.19 to 0.30. CONCLUSIONS: Indicators based on self-report instruments seem to overestimate guideline adherence. Indicators assessing prescribing quality at an aggregated level give clearly different results, as compared to indicators evaluating prescribing data on...
Verhagen, A, Kroese, M, Ponsioen, BEN, Verkerk, K & Drukker, M 2001, 'Bekkenpijn tijdens zwangerschap en bevalling: Een systematische review', Huisarts en Wetenschap, vol. 44, no. 4.
Verhagen, AP, de Vet, HCW, de Bie, RA, Boers, M & A van den Brandt, P 2001, 'The art of quality assessment of RCTs included in systematic reviews', Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, vol. 54, no. 7, pp. 651-654.
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