Speech abnormalities in seizures: a comparison of absence and partial complex seizures

In order to determine whether speech changes are useful in differentiating seizure types, a study was done in which speech abnormalities during two distinct seizure types, partial complex and absence seizures, were compared. Speech changes noted during prolonged electroencephalographic and video monitoring were compared in 16 patients with 47 partial complex seizures and 19 patients with 95 absence seizures. Speech changes were common during both seizure types. Although some significant differences in speech patterns were noted in the two seizure types, the degree of overlap was such to preclude using speech changes alone as the sole clinical criteria in differentiating the seizures.     

Social Problem-Solving and Suicidal Ideation Among Homeless Youth Receiving a Cognitive Therapy Intervention: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

Despite the high prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempts among homeless youth, little research has examined how suicide prevention interventions influence suicide-related risk and protective factors, and ultimately produce positive outcome in suicidality in this population. Drawing on the Diathesis-Stress Model and the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide, the current study examined whether participation in Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Prevention (CTSP) moderated the mediation link between social problem-solving, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, and suicidal ideation among a sample of homeless youth experiencing suicidal ideation. Social problem-solving refers to a set of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral coping responses in the face of stressful situations, and it is identified as a potent protective factor in alleviating perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, and reducing suicidal ideation. Participants included 150 homeless youth (M age = 20.99, range = 18-24; 41% female) who were randomly assigned to Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Prevention (CTSP) + Treatment as Usual (TAU) (n = 75) or Treatment as Usual alone (n = 75). Participants were assessed at baseline, 3, 6, and 9 months post-baseline. Findings showed that perceived burdensomeness mediated the association of social problem-solving with suicidal ideation only among youth participating in the CTSP condition. These findings provide evidence to support the promising effects of CTSP in enhancing the protective effects of social problem-solving on suicidal ideation through the mediating effects of perceived burdensomeness. Findings also have implications for improving intervention effectiveness with a community-based population at high risk of suicide.     

Estimation of a Latent Variable Regression Growth Curve Model for Individuals Cross-Classified by Clusters

The cross-classified multiple membership latent variable regression (CCMM-LVR) model is a recent extension to the three-level latent variable regression (HM3-LVR) model which can be utilized for longitudinal data that contains individuals who changed clusters over time (for instance, student mobility across schools). The HM3-LVR model can include the initial status on growth effect as varying across those clusters and allows testing of more flexible hypotheses about the influence of initial status on growth and of factors that might impact that relationship, but only in the presence of pure clustering of participants within higher-level units. This Monte Carlo study was conducted to evaluate model estimation under a variety of conditions and to measure the impact of ignoring cross-classified data when estimating the incorrectly specified HM3-LVR model in a scenario in which true values for parameters are known. Furthermore, results from a real-data analysis were used to inform the design of the simulation. Overall, it would be recommended for researchers to utilize the CCMM-LVR model over the HM3-LVR model when individuals are cross-classified, and to use a bare minimum of more than 100 clustering units in order to avoid overestimation of the level-3 variance component estimates.     

Extending Awareness of Catholic Healthcare Ethics Among Junior Clinicians: A Qualitative Study

Journal of Religion and Health - As Catholic healthcare organizations form a substantive part of healthcare delivery in the USA and Australia, ethical standards for Catholic health care were...     

Mexican American Mothers and Fathers’ Prenatal Attitudes and Father Prenatal Involvement: Links to Mother–Infant Interaction and Father Engagement

The present study examines the associations between Mexican American mothers’ and fathers’ pregnancy intentions, fathers’ participation in prenatal activities and mother–infant interactions and father engagement with 9 month-old infants in a nationally representative sample of 735 infants and their parents participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort. After controlling for a host of variables, multiple regressions revealed that when mothers wanted the pregnancy, fathers engaged in more literacy and caregiving activities than when mothers did not want the pregnancy. When couples disagreed about wanting the pregnancy, fathers engaged in more literacy activities and showed more warmth than when they agreed. Relationship quality significantly moderated the effects of parents’ wantedness on mother–infant interactions and fathers’ engagement in literacy activities.     

Summer Camp Program for Children With Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: Description and Preliminary Observations

Summer camp programming has a rich history of promoting childhood development. In the care of children with specific childhood psychiatric disorders, the incorporation of targeted cognitive-behavioral principles provides an opportunity to marry targeted evidence-based practices with broader development, in particular social, emotional, and fine- and gross-motor development. This union is synergistic, providing the practitioner with an opportunity to employ cognitive-behavioral practices in an environment that may overcome common barriers to effective interventions outside the scope of the targeted illness. In this paper, the authors describe the preliminary findings concerning a weeklong, 25-hour summer camp program targeting childhood obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Nine children ages 9–12 years participated in this pilot program. Child and parent feedback alike suggested strong treatment acceptability and efficacy in targeting both core symptoms of OCD as well as associated developmental deficits. The camp’s implementation of exposure and response prevention enables an opportunity to report on the capability of employing these strategies in a summer camp setting. In conjunction with an evidence-based treatment program for childhood OCD, a summer camp program specifically targeted for children with OCD presents a valuable tool for improving child welfare and reducing functional impairments.     

FATHER–CHILD INTERACTIONS AT 3 MONTHS AND 24 MONTHS: CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHILDREN'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AT 24 MONTHS

The quality of father–child interactions has become a focus of increasing research in the field of child development. We examined the potential contribution of father–child interactions at both 3 months and 24 months to children's cognitive development at 24 months. Observational measures of father–child interactions at 3 and 24 months were used to assess the quality of fathers’ parenting (n = 192). At 24 months, the Mental Developmental Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Second Edition (N. Bayley, 1993 ) measured cognitive functioning. The association between interactions and cognitive development was examined using multiple linear regression analyses, adjusting for paternal age, education and depression, infant age, and maternal sensitivity. Children whose fathers displayed more withdrawn and depressive behaviors in father–infant interactions at 3 months scored lower on the MDI at 24 months. At 24 months, children whose fathers were more engaged and sensitive as well as those whose fathers were less controlling in their interactions scored higher on the MDI. These findings were independent of the effects of maternal sensitivity. Results indicate that father–child interactions, even from a very young age (i.e., 3 months) may influence children's cognitive development. They highlight the potential significance of interventions to promote positive parenting by fathers and policies that encourage fathers to spend more time with their young children.     

Mediated configural learning in rats

Three experiments investigated mediated configural learning in male rats. In Experiment 1, after exposure to audio-visual compounds AX and BY, rats received trials where X was paired with shock, and Y was not. The idea that conditioning with X enables the evoked configural representation of AX to be linked to shock received support from the facts that while AX provoked more fear than BX, there was no difference between BY and AY. Similarly, Experiment 2 showed that after exposure to AX and BY, separate pairings of X and Y with shock resulted in more fear to AX and BY than AY and BX. In Experiment 3, rats in group consistent received separate exposures to A and X in Context C, and B and Y in D, while those in group inconsistent received A and X (and B and Y) in both C and D. After rats had received shocks in both C and D, rats in group consistent showed more fear to AX and BY than to BX and AY, but this was not the case in group inconsistent. These results indicate that configural representations, formed either by presenting auditory and visual stimuli as parts of a compound or in a shared context, are subject to a process of mediated learning.     

Unstable Embodiments: A Phenomenological Interpretation of Patient Satisfaction with Treatment Outcome

Many patients experience aspects of treatment and care as dehumanizing because the body is considered separate from the self and its life context. An attempt to transcend viewing persons in dualistic terms is posed by phenomenologists who focus not on "the body" as such but on what it means to be "embodied." In this paper, we review the relevance of the phenomenology of the body for health care and report the results of comparing Sally Gadow's phenomenological insights about body-self unity with a qualitative analysis of patients' accounts of satisfaction with the outcome of hand surgery. We illustrate the ways in which our findings were and were not congruent with Gadow's conceptualization of embodiment and highlight aspects that are ambiguous. We conclude that the body-self dialectical relationship should be recast as a body-self-society trialectic and discuss the implications of this new conceptualization for clinical practices.     

Working memory and error detection in texts: what are the roles of the central executive and the phonological loop?

Subjects performed a text error detection task, either alone or in conjunction with a secondary task aimed at specifically hindering the functioning of either the central executive in working memory or of the phonological loop. We focused on the decline in detection performance as a function of the type of error to be detected (typographical, orthographic, or semantic/syntactic) and the processing span required for detection (one word, several words within the same clause, or several clauses). The results showed that the central executive in working memory is involved in detecting semantic/syntactic errors and in detecting orthographic ones, but not in detecting typographical errors. Moreover, the degree of involvement increases with the processing span. The phonological loop is involved in detection whenever processing above the word level is required. As observed in many studies, these results suggest that the difficulty subjects have detecting semantic errors as compared to other types of errors is due to the heavier working memory load: maintenance of the phonological representation and greater involvement of the central executive. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.