The Admissibility of Research in Emergency Medicine

The main goal in this paper is to present the legal rules connected with medical experiment on human beings in emergency medicine and to explain the scope, significance, and meaning of these rules, especially with regard to their interpretation. As the provisions about medical experiments truly make sense only if they can be observed by the whole "civilised" international community, they are presented in the context of international law with reference to Polish law. By considering the appropriate regulations of research contained in legal documents, it is possible to formulate a catalogue of doctors' duties and patients' rights. This general catalogue refers to all kinds of medical research involving human beings. In the field of emergency medicine, general provisions are sometimes involved, and they are sometimes limited. The main and most important conclusion is that a medical experiment in emergency medicine is admissible only if previously indicated conditions based on general rules of conducting research are fulfilled.     

Patients’ and Parents’ Perceptions of Appearance in Scoliosis Treated with a Brace: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

The perspective of trunk deformity is a matter of special concern for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients. No research group has ever reported interviewing patients and their parents regarding differences in perception of body appearance in the course of Cheneau brace treatment. We aimed to investigate the level of agreement in the field of concerns and perceptions of spinal appearance in relation to brace- and scoliosis-related data between parents and female patients with AIS, treated with a Cheneau brace, by means of the Spinal Appearance Questionnaire-pl (SAQ-pl). In this cross-sectional study forty-one pairs of parents and female patients with AIS were asked to separately complete the Polish versions of the Spinal Appearance Questionnaire-pl patient form (SAQ-pl patient form) and the SAQ-pl parent form. Age of patients was 13.60 years SD 1.60 (range 10–17). Patients scored 2.70 (SD 0.60) and parents scored 2.70 SD 0.60 in the total score of the SAQ-pl. The study groups do not differ significantly in regards to the SAQ-pl results. The percentage of consistent answers on SAQ-pl items ranges from 34.10 % (item 20) to 78 % (item 8). Height, age and brace-wearing time per day, were significantly related to the differences in the patient-parent General perception of body shape (r _s  = ?0.51, r _s  = ?0.34, r _s  = 0.36, respectively). Parents and female patients with AIS have similar concerns and perceptions of spinal appearance. The discrepancies in General perception of spinal appearance between parents and AIS females decrease with age of patient. Parental emotional support may contribute to minimizing the risk factors of psychological impairment, especially in late adolescents with AIS.     

Cognition, daily living, and health-related quality of life in 85-year-olds in Sweden

This study investigates how cognition influences activities of daily living and health-related quality of life in 85-year-olds in Sweden (n = 373). Data collection included a postal questionnaire comprising demographics and health-related quality of life measured by the EQ-5D. The ability to perform personal activities of daily living (PADL) was assessed during a home visit that included administering the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Cognitive impairment was shown in 108 individuals (29%). The majority were independent with respect to PADL. A larger number of participants with cognitive impairment reported that they needed assistance in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) compared to the group without cognitive impairment. Impaired cognition was significantly related to problems with IADL. Significant but low correlations were found between cognition and health-related quality of life - higher ratings on perceived quality of life correlated with higher results on the MMSE.     

Gender of the expresser moderates the effect of emotional faces on the startle reflex

It has been suggested that the impact of emotional expressions on the startle reflex is influenced by the intention communicated by the expression (e.g., the intention to attack). However, we propose that the meaning of an emotional expression is not only based on the intention, but is also influenced by characteristics of the expresser such as gender: since men are typically seen as more dominant than women, anger expressed by men should be perceived as particularly threatening, thus amplifying the startle response. We compared the influence of anger, fear and neutral expressions shown by men and women on the startle reaction. Startle reactions were measured using electromyography. As predicted, we found stronger startle reactions after the presentation of anger expressed by men compared to fearful and neutral expressions shown by men. For female expressers, the startle response was not affected by expression type.     

Cultural context, obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms, and cognitions: a preliminary study of three Turkish samples living in different countries

Previous research findings have suggested that recent cognitive accounts of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are valid across different cultural contexts for both clinical and nonclinical samples; however, there is evidence that cultural differences may have an impact on a number of cognitive variables. For this reason, immigration provides an exceptional opportunity for an examination of the role of cultural context in cognitions and possible changes in cultural characteristics. To this end, the present study examined the interrelationships between thought-action fusion, thought control strategies and OCD symptoms in three nonclinical samples, taking the immigration factor into consideration. Thus, the current study included three Turkish sample groups: those who remigrated to Turkey from Bulgaria, those still living in Bulgaria, and those that have always resided in Turkey. The findings of the study supported the role of thought and action fusion and control strategies in OCD symptoms in a cross-cultural context. To illustrate, worry, as a thought control strategy for OCD symptoms, was a common factor in all three sample groups. However, differences were also noted between the groups, despite having the same ethnic origin. Although they immigrated back to Turkey and have been living there for a considerable period of time, the Turkish remigrants retained similar characteristics to the respondents in Bulgaria on cognitions in general. Consequently, it may be suggested that cultural context might have a relative impact on certain correlates. A replication of these findings using different immigration groups and examining various cultural factors is strongly encouraged.