1,720,957 research outputs found
Trichotillomania in sexual minority individuals
Background: trichotillomania is a common psychiatric disorder, but little is known about whether or how it differs in people with minority sexual identities. We sought to understand whether lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other individuals differ from heterosexual individuals in terms ofhair pulling and associated characteristics. Methods: a total of 207 participants age 18 to 64 with trichotillomania undertook clinical evaluations. Those who identified as sexual minorities were compared to those who identified as heterosexuals on clinical measures, comorbidities, impulsivity, and stress responses. Results: overall, 33 participants (15.9%) identified as sexual minorities. These individuals showed significantly higher levels of attentional impulsivity and higher rates of co-occurring obsessive-compulsive disorder compared to heterosexual participants. The groups did not differ in terms of trichotillomania severity or dysfunction due to trichotillomania or in terms of stress response. Conclusions: the rate of sexual minorities in this study (15.9%) is higher than recent US Census Bureau data for sexual minorities in the US population (11.7%). People with trichotillomania from sexual minority groups may present with unique clinical symptoms. Treatments may need to be tailored for this population.</p
A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of brexpiprazole in the treatment of borderline personality disorder
Background: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with impaired quality of life and has a number of untoward public health associations. There is no established first-line pharmacological treatment for BPD, and available options are not suitable for all individuals. Aims: To evaluate Brexpiprazole, which has effects on the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems, for the reduction of BPD symptoms. Method: Eighty adults with BPD were recruited for a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Participants received 12-week treatment with brexpiprazole (1 mg/day for 1 week, then increasing to 2 mg/day) or placebo in a parallel design. The primary efficacy outcome measure was the clinician-rated Zanarini Rating Scale for Borderline Personality Disorder (“ZAN-BPD”). Safety data were collected. Effects of active versus placebo treatment were characterized using linear repeated measures models. Results: There was a significant interaction between treatment and time on the ZAN-BPD scale (p=0.0031), solely due to differentiation specifically at week 12. Brexpiprazole was generally well tolerated. Secondary measures did not result in statistically significant differences from placebo.Discussion: Brexpiprazole appears to have some possible effect on BPD symptoms but further studies are needed due to significant effects being evident specifically at the final time point. These findings also need to be viewed cautiously given the small sample size, large drop-out rate, and robust placebo response. <br/
Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study of Memantine in Trichotillomania and Skin-Picking Disorder
Objective: trichotillomania and skin-picking disorder are underrecognized and often disabling conditions in which individuals repeatedly pull at their hair or pick at their skin, leading to noticeable hair loss or tissue damage. To date there is a severe paucity of evidence-based treatments for these conditions. In this study, the authors sought to determine whether memantine, a glutamate modulator, is more effective than placebo in reducing hair-pulling and skin-picking behavior. Methods: one hundred adults with trichotillomania or skin-picking disorder (86 women; mean age, 31.4 years [SD=10.2]) were enrolled in a double-blind trial of memantine (dosing range, 10-20 mg/day) or placebo for 8 weeks. Participants were assessed with measures of pulling and picking severity. Outcomes were examined using a linear mixed-effects model. The prespecified primary outcome measure was treatment-related change on the NIMH Trichotillomania Symptom Severity Scale, modified to include skin picking. Results: compared with placebo, memantine treatment was associated with significant improvements in scores on the NIMH scale, Sheehan Disability Scale, and Clinical Global Impressions severity scale in terms of treatment-by-time interactions. At study endpoint, 60.5% of participants in the memantine group were "much or very much improved," compared with 8.3% in the placebo group (number needed to treat=1.9). Adverse events did not differ significantly between the treatment arms. Conclusions: this study found that memantine treatment resulted in statistically significant reductions in hair pulling and skin-picking symptoms compared with placebo, with relatively high efficacy (based on number needed to treat), and was well tolerated. The glutamate system may prove to be a beneficial target in the treatment of compulsive behaviors.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The 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
“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
We 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
We 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
We 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
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