1,721,465 research outputs found
Risk factors for common mental disorder in caregiving and bereavement
No full textContext: longitudinal studies that have described the trajectory of familial caregiving and bereavement outcomes have often failed to include a comprehensive range of carer and caregiving variables or any patient assessments, and only a few have used a recognized structured interview for psychiatric disorders.Objectives: to address these limitations, this study aimed to establish links between symptoms of CMD in carers of patients (with advanced disease) during the caregiving phase and their subsequent bereavement.Methods: to identify the risk factors for poor caregiving and bereavement outcomes, we assessed patients and caregivers using a wide range of measures in a prospectively acquired sample. The main outcome, CMD, was measured through the use of a standardized interview (Revised Clinical Interview Schedule). One hundred carers of patients with advanced disease (more than 95% of patients had a cancer diagnosis) were interviewed shortly after the patient was referred to a U.K. hospice. Interviews were repeated at three and six months after the death of the patient.Results: multivariate analyses revealed that carers who perceived their caring experience as more burdening had more symptoms of CMD while caring for their loved one. Carer mental health during the caregiving experience was predictive of their mental health at three and six months after death. No relationships were observed between family relations, levels of social support, levels of religious or spiritual beliefs, carers’ coping strategies, quality of death in the patient, and caregiving and bereavement outcomes.Conclusion: our findings suggest that much psychological distress detected during caregiving continues into bereavemen
Concepts of mental capacity for patients requesting assisted suicide: a qualitative analysis of expert evidence presented to the Commission on Assisted Dying
No full textBackground: In May 2013 a new Assisted Dying Bill was tabled in the House of Lords and is currently scheduled for a second reading in May 2014. The Bill was informed by the report of the Commission on Assisted Dying which itself was informed by evidence presented by invited experts. This study aims to explore how the experts presenting evidence to the Commission on Assisted Dying conceptualised mental capacity for patients requesting assisted suicide and examine these concepts particularly in relation to the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Methods: This study was a secondary qualitative analysis of 36 transcripts of oral evidence and 12 pieces of written evidence submitted by invited experts to the Commission on Assisted Dying using a framework approach. Results: There was agreement on the importance of mental capacity as a central safeguard in proposed assisted dying legislation. Concepts of mental capacity, however, were inconsistent. There was a tendency towards a conceptual and clinical shift toward a presumption of incapacity. This appeared to be based on the belief that assisted suicide should only be open to those with a high degree of mental capacity to make the decision. The 'boundaries' around the definition of mental capacity appeared to be on a continuum between a circumscribed legal 'cognitive' definition of capacity (in which most applicants would be found to have capacity unless significantly cognitively impaired) and a more inclusive definition which would take into account wider concepts such as autonomy, rationality, voluntariness and decision specific factors such as motivation for decision making. Conclusion: Ideas presented to the Commission on Assisted Dying about mental capacity as it relates to assisted suicide were inconsistent and in a number of cases at variance with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Further work needs to be done to establish a consensus as to what constitutes capacity for this decision and whether current legal frameworks are able to support clinicians in determining capacity for this group.</p
Antidepressants for the treatment of depression in people with cancer
No full textMajor depression and other depressive conditions are common in people with cancer. These conditions are not easily detectable in clinical practice, due to the overlap between medical and psychiatric symptoms, as described by diagnostic manuals such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Moreover, it is particularly challenging to distinguish between pathological and normal reactions to such a severe illness. Depressive symptoms, even in subthreshold manifestations, have been shown to have a negative impact in terms of quality of life, compliance with anti-cancer treatment, suicide risk and likely even the mortality rate for the cancer itself. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on the efficacy and tolerability of antidepressants in this population group are few and often report conflicting results
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the pharmacological treatment of cancer-related fatigue.
No full textBackground: cancer-related fatigue is an important clinical problem. It is common, distressing, and often difficult to treat. There is a role for drug treatment of cancer-related fatigue, but no consensus has been reached on which drugs are useful. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to review the available evidence and make recommendations for practice and research.Methods: we searched the Cochrane register of controlled trials (through the second quarter 2007), Medline (January 1, 1966, through August 1, 2007), and EMBASE (January 1, 1980, through August 1, 2007) by use of a predetermined list of search terms. Cochrane Collaboration meta-analysis review methodology was used for this study. The change in fatigue score on the instrument used in each study and other outcomes of interest (adverse events and withdrawal rates) were compared between treatment and control arms by use of the standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). All statistical tests were two-sided.Results: we identified 27 eligible trials of drug treatments for cancer-related fatigue (with a total of 6746 participants). The overall effect size for all drug classes was small. A meta-analysis of two studies (n = 264 patients) indicated that methylphenidate (a psychostimulant) was superior to placebo (standardized mean difference [SMD] in change in fatigue score = –0.30, 95% confidence interval [CI] = –0.54 to –0.05; P = .02) for treating cancer-related fatigue. A meta-analysis of 10 studies (n = 2226 patients) evaluating erythropoietin in anemic cancer patients who were undergoing chemotherapy indicated that erythropoietin was superior to placebo (SMD = –0.30, 95% CI = –0.46 to –0.29; P = .008). Among anemic patients (four studies with n = 964 patients), improvement in fatigue was associated with darbepoetin treatment compared with placebo treatment (SMD = –0.13, 95% CI = –0.27 to 0.00; P = .05). Progestational steroids and paroxetine were no better than placebo in the treatment of cancer-related fatigue.Conclusions: there is some evidence that treatment of cancer-related fatigue with methylphenidate appears to be effective. More robust evidence indicates that treatment with hematopoietic agents appears to relieve cancer-related fatigue caused by chemotherapy-induced anemia. Further confirmatory trials are required for both observation
Intervention Review: Drug therapy for the management of cancer-related fatigue
No full textBackgroundThis is an updated version of the original Cochrane review published in issue 1 2008 (Minton 2008). Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is common, under-recognised and difficult to treat. There have been studies looking at drug interventions to improve CRF but results have been conflicting depending on the population studied and outcome measures used. No previous reviews of this topic have been exhaustive or have synthesised all available data.ObjectivesTo assess the efficacy of drugs for the management of CRF.Search strategyWe searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (from Issue 2 2007) MEDLINE and EMBASE from January 2007 to October 2009 and a selection of cancer journals. We searched references of identified articles and contacted authors to obtain unreported data.Selection criteriaStudies were included in the review if they 1) assessed drug therapy for the management of CRF compared to placebo, usual care or a non-pharmacological intervention in 2) randomised controlled trials (RCT) of 3) adult patients with a clinical diagnosis of cancer.Data collection and analysisTwo review authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. Meta-analyses were performed on different drug classes using continuous variable data.Main resultsFifty studies met the inclusion criteria. Six additional studies were identified since the original review. Only 31 of these studies involving 7104 participants were judged to have used a sufficiently robust measure of fatigue and thus were deemed suitable for detailed analysis. The drugs were still analysed by class (psychostimulants; haemopoietic growth factors; antidepressants and progestational steroids). Methylphenidate showed a small but significant improvement in fatigue over placebo (Z = 2.83; P = 0.005). Since the publication of the original review increased safety concerns have been raised regarding erythropoietin and this cannot now be recommended in practice.There was a very high degree of statistical and clinical heterogeneity in the trials and the reasons for this are discussed.Authors' conclusionsThere is increasing evidence that psychostimulant trials provide evidence for improvement in CRF at a clinically meaningful level. There is still a requirement for a large scale RCT of methylphenidate to confirm the preliminary results from this review. There is new safety data which indicates that the haemopoietic growth factors are associated with increased adverse outcomes. These drugs can no longer be recommended in the treatment of CRF. Readers of the first review should re-read the document in full.<br/
Can We Identify the Active Ingredients of Behaviour Change Interventions for Coronary Heart Disease Patients? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Full text linkBackgroundThe main behaviour change intervention available for coronary heart disease (CHD) patients is cardiac rehabilitation. There is little recognition of what the active ingredients of behavioural interventions for CHD might be. Using a behaviour change technique (BCT) framework to code existing interventions may help to identify this. The objectives of this systematic review are to determine the effectiveness of CHD behaviour change interventions and how this may be explained by BCT content and structure.Methods and findingsA systematic search of Medline, EMBASE and PsycInfo electronic databases was conducted over a twelve year period (2003-2015) to identify studies which reported on behaviour change interventions for CHD patients. The content of the behaviour change interventions was coded using the Coventry Aberdeen and London-Refined (CALO-RE) taxonomy. Meta-regression analyses examined the BCT content as a predictor of mortality. Twenty two papers met the criteria for this review, reporting data on 16,766 participants. The most commonly included BCTs were providing information, and goal setting. There was a small but significant effect of the interventions on smoking (risk ratio (RR) = 0.89, 95% CI 0.81-0.97). The interventions did not reduce the risk of CHD events (RR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.68, 1.09), but significantly reduced the risk of mortality (RR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.69, 0.97). Sensitivity analyses did not find that any of the BCT variables predicted mortality and the number of BCTs included in an intervention was not associated with mortality (β = -0.02, 95% CI -0.06-0.03).ConclusionsBehaviour change interventions for CHD patients appear to have a positive impact on a number of outcomes. Using an existing BCT taxonomy to code the interventions helped us to understand which were the most commonly used techniques, providing information and goal setting, but not the active components of these complex interventions
Drug therapy for the management of cancer related fatigue
No full textBackground: cancer related fatigue (CRF) is common, under-recognised and difficult to treat. There have been trials looking at drug interventions to improve CRF but results have been conflicting depending on the population studied and outcome measures used. No previous reviews of this topic have been exhaustive or have synthesised all available data.Objectives: to assess the efficacy of drugs for the management of CRF.Search strategy: we searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Issue 1, 2007), MEDLINE (1966 to March 2007) and a selection of cancer journals. We searched references of identified articles and contacted authors to obtain unreported data.Selection criteria: trials were included in the review if they 1) assessed drug therapy for the management of CRF compared to placebo, usual care or a non-pharmacological intervention in 2) randomised controlled trials (RCT) of 3) adult patients with a clinical diagnosis of cancer.Data collection and analysis: two review authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. Meta-analyses were performed on different drug classes using continuous variable data.Main results: forty-five trials met the inclusion criteria. Only 27 of these trials involving 6746 participants were judged to have used a sufficiently robust measure of fatigue and thus were deemed suitable for detailed analysis. The drugs were analysed by class (psychostimulants; haemopoetic growth factors; antidepressants and progestational steroids). Methylphenidate showed a small but significant improvement in fatigue over placebo (Z = 2.40; P = 0.02). Erythropoietin showed a small but significant improvement in fatigue (for anaemic patients receiving chemotherapy) compared to placebo (Z = 2.67; P = 0.008). Darbopoietin also demonstrated a smaller but significant improvement in fatigue over placebo (Z = 1.96; P = 0.05). Paroxetine and progestational steroids demonstrated no superiority over placebo in treating CRF. There was a very high degree of statistical and clinical heterogeneity in the trials and the reasons for this are discussed. It was not possible to determine optimum doses as a result of this review.Authors' conclusions: brythropoietin and darbopoetin (for anaemic patients on chemotherapy) and psychostimulant trials provide evidence for improvement in CRF at a clinically meaningful level. There are no data to support the use of paroxetine or progestational steroids for the treatment of CRF. The obvious candidate drug for use in a large scale RCT is methylphenidate to confirm the preliminary results from this revie
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
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