1,720,955 research outputs found
Neurobehavioural aspects of drug addiction. Some insights into physiopathology and possible treatment
No full textLa tossicodipendenza è un complesso processo di malattia del cervello, provocato dall’intossicazione ricorrente da droghe (Goldstein & Volkow, 2002). La dipendenza può essere una devastante patologia recidivante e cronica, con conseguenze fisiche, psicologiche e sociali, e sono necessarie opzioni di trattamento più efficaci (O'Brien, 2008).
Il riconoscimento accurato delle espressioni facciali emotive è un'importante funzione adattiva (Montagne et al., 2005). In particolare, l'espressione degli occhi è generalmente associata alla nostra percezione delle emozioni. La capacità di inferire gli stati emotivi altrui espressi attraverso gli occhi è relativamente inesplorata nelle persone con dipendenza da oppiacei. Viene presentato qui uno studio neuropsicologico mirato a confrontare il riconoscimento delle emozioni nei pazienti in trattamento con metadone con controlli sani. Abbiamo trovato che i pazienti in trattamento metadonico sembrano avere meno capacità di decodificare gli stati emotivi altrui basandosi sull'espressione degli occhi rispetto ai controlli. Questo risultato, se confermato in un campione più ampio, potrebbe essere utile nel guidare approcci di counseling.
Mentre sono stati compiuti grandi progressi nell’identificazione di terapie comportamentali e farmacologiche per le dipendenze, nessun trattamento esistente, da solo, è risultato completamente efficace (Carroll & Onken, 2005; Vocci et al, 2005). La Stimolazione Magnetica Transcranica ripetitiva (rTMS) è una tecnica non invasiva di stimolazione cerebrale che è stata valutata in un crescente numero di studi per il suo potenziale nel trattamento della dipendenza (Bellamoli et al., 2013). Il nostro trial clinico randomizzato con la rTMS si proponeva di valutare l’efficacia dell’inserimento di sedute di rTMS all’interno di un programma di ricovero per il trattamento della dipendenza da alcol o droga, nel ridurre il consumo e l’intensità del craving per l’alcol. Sono state misurate anche variabili psicologiche e neurofisiologiche per una valutazione più completa degli effetti del trattamento. In questo studio controllato con placebo, in singolo cieco, i partecipanti hanno ricevuto 4 sessioni di rTMS sulla corteccia prefrontale dorsolaterale (DLPFC). Non sono emerse differenze significative nel consumo e nel craving soggettivo, e l’analisi dei risultati suggerisce che sono necessarie ulteriori ricerche per identificare i parametri ottimali di stimolazione per un trattamento più efficace della tossicodipendenza, per migliorare la comprensione degli effetti della rTMS, e per valutare l’efficacia con studi controllati con un numero adeguato di soggetti.Addiction is a complex disease process of the brain that results from recurring drug intoxication (Goldstein & Volkow, 2002). Drug addiction can be a devastating and chronic relapsing disorder with social, psychological and physical consequences, and more effective treatment options are needed (O'Brien, 2008).
Accurate recognition of emotional facial expressions is an important adaptive function (Montagne et al., 2005). In particular, eyes expression is generally related with our perception of emotions. The ability to infer others' emotional states expressed through the eyes is relatively unexplored among individuals with opioid dependence. A neuropsychological study aimed to compare emotion recognition in methadone patients with healthy controls is presented. We found that methadone patients appeared to have less ability to decode others' emotional states based on eyes expression compared to controls. This finding, if confirmed in a larger sample, might be useful in guiding counseling approaches.
While great progress has been made in identification of effective behavioral therapies and pharmacotherapies for the addictions, no existing treatment, delivered alone, is completely effective (Carroll & Onken, 2005; Vocci et al., 2005). Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that has been assessed in a growing number of studies for its therapeutic potential in treating addiction (Bellamoli et al., 2013). Our rTMS randomized clinical trial aimed to assess the effectiveness of introducing rTMS sessions in a program of hospitalization for the treatment of alcohol or drug addiction, in reducing alcohol consumption and the severity of craving. Psychological and neurophysiological variables were also measured for more comprehensive assessment of the treatment effects. In this single-blind, sham-controlled study, participants were administered 4 sessions of high frequency rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We did not found significant effect on subjective craving and consumption, and analyses of results suggested that further studies are needed to identify the optimal parameters of stimulation for the most effective treatment of drug addiction, to improve our comprehension of the rTMS effects, and to conduct controlled efficacy studies with adequate sample
rTMS in the treatment of drug addiction: an update about human studies
Full text linkDrug addiction can be a devastating and chronic relapsing disorder with social, psychological and physical consequences, and more effective treatment options are needed. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that has been assessed in a growing number of studies for its therapeutic potential in treating addiction. This review paper offers an overview on the current state of clinical research in treating drug addiction with rTMS. Because of the limited research in this area, all studies (including case reports) that evaluated the therapeutic use of rTMS in nicotine, alcohol or illicit drug addiction were included in this review. Papers published prior to December 2012 were found through an NCBI PubMed search (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). A total of eleven studies were identified that met review criteria. There is nascent evidence that rTMS could be effective in reducing cocaine craving, and nicotine and alcohol craving and consumption, and might represent a potential therapeutic tool for treating addiction. Further studies are needed to identify the optimal parameters of stimulation for the most effective treatment of drug addiction, to improve our comprehension of the treatment neurophysiological effects, and to conduct rigorous, controlled efficacy studies with adequate power
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
- …
