Valuing life and evaluating suffering in infants with life-limiting illness

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - In this paper, we explore three separate questions that are relevant to assessing the prudential value of life in infants with severe life-limiting illness....     

“It’s Really No Big Deal”: The Role of Social Supply Networks in Normalizing Use of Cannabis by Students at Canadian Universities

Cannabis (marijuana) has undergone a normalizing process as indicated by high use rates, social tolerance, and broader cultural acceptance of its use in many countries. Users also maintain access through extended friendship networks that facilitate the cultural diffusion of the practice. The social nature of supply is herein theorized in terms of Goffman’s understanding of activities that function to preserve a sense of normalcy as a collective achievement enabling predictable constructions of reality. Based on in-depth interviews with undergraduate students, we explore how social networks of supply—characterized by casual access, reciprocity, and sharing—contribute to shared meanings about using marijuana as an unremarkable or “normal” thing to do.     

Effectiveness of Acceptance–Commitment Therapy on Craving Beliefs in Patients on Methadone Maintenance Therapy: A Pilot Study

The present study is designed to evaluate the efficacy of acceptance–commitment therapy (ACT) on craving beliefs in opioid dependent patients on methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). Twenty-eight opioid dependent participants, aged 18–50 years, who were on MMT based on Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education published protocol, were evaluated in Mashhad during 2011–2012. The treatment group comprised fourteen participants, who received eight sessions of individual ACT alongside MMT while fourteen participants of the control group received just MMT. The effectiveness of the intervention was assessed by the craving beliefs questionnaire (CBQ), the action and acceptance questionnaire (AAQ-I) and the mean dosage of methadone the participants consumed in the last 3 days. Assessment was performed three times; the first was before the initiation of ACT (as pretest), the second was 2 weeks after ACT was terminated (as posttest), and the third one was 12 weeks after the termination of ACT (as follow-up). The extracted data were analyzed by two way ANOVA and ANCOVA using SPSS-20. While there was no significant difference in the mean methadone dosage between the treatment and the control group at pretest (p = 0.067), patients in the treatment group had a significantly lower methadone dosage at posttest (p < 0.001) and follow-up (p < 0.001) compared to the control group. There was a significant reduction in the CBQ scores between treatment and control groups at posttest (p = 0.047) and follow-up (p = 0.014). There was also a significant difference in AAQ-I score between treatment and control at posttest (p < 0.001) and follow-up (p < 0.001). It seems that short-term individual ACT is associated with a significant decline in craving beliefs in substance-dependent patients, which lasts for at least 12 weeks after the termination of ACT.     

Using the Structure of Evaluative Components as a basis for comparing the oral narratives of schizophrenics and healthy individuals

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - In this study, evaluative language in narratives of 15 healthy and 15 schizophrenic females was compared using the Structure of Evaluative Components. The two...     

The role of personality traits,core self‐evaluation,and emotional intelligence in career decision‐making difficulties

This study examines the role of personality traits, core self‐evaluation, and emotional intelligence (EI) in career decision‐making difficulties. Italian university students (N= 232) responded to questions on the Big Five Questionnaire, Core Self‐Evaluation Scale, Bar‐On Emotional Quotient Inventory, and Career Decision‐Making Difficulties Questionnaire. It was found that EI adds significant incremental variance compared with personality traits and core self‐evaluation in predicting career decision‐making difficulties. The results draw attention to the unique role of EI in career decision‐making difficulties, offering new research opportunities and intervention possibilities.     

Spiritual Health and Outcomes in Muslim ICU Patients: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study

The aim of the present study is to describe how religiosity and spirituality affect the psychiatric morbidity of Muslim intensive care unit (ICU) patients. We conducted a prospective nationwide cross-sectional study of ICU patients discharged from 45 medical centers spanning 31 proivinces in Iran. Adults (age ≥ 18 years) admitted to the ICU and treated with invasive mechanical ventilation were eligible. Nine validated survey tools were administered to detect direct and indirect associations between spiritual health (SH) and depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic disorder. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Impact of Event Scale—Revised (IES-R), Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome 14 question (PTSS-14) quality-of-life (QoL), and quality of patient to physician or nurse communication (PP-QoC and PN-QoC) scales were modeled through two mediators by structural equation modeling (SEM). Sex, ICU type, LOS, and APACHE II score were added in the independent variable list. 338 eligible patients were discharged from the ICUs during the study period. 56 were excluded (clinical status), and 282 were administered the survey. 278 returned it, with 272 complete and 6 partial responses. SH displayed no direct or indirect association to QoL. SH was indirectly associated with decreased depression and anxiety (B = ? 0.081, p < 0.05) via PP-QoC mediator. Both direct and indirect positive associations were observed between SH and IES-R (B = 0.293, p < 0.05; via PP-QoC) and PTSS-14 scores (B = 0.267, p < 0.001; via PP-QoC). Medical ICU location was associated with decreased PTSS-14 scores via the same mediator. In this survey of Muslim ICU patients treated with invasive mechanical ventilation, SH correlated with decreased depression and anxiety, but paradoxically increased post-traumatic stress. The most influential mediator was patient–physician quality-of-communication.     

Visual attention and its intimate links to spatial cognition

It is almost universal to regard attention as the facility that permits an agent, human or machine, to give priority processing resources to relevant stimuli while ignoring the irrelevant. The reality of how this might manifest itself throughout all the forms of perceptual and cognitive processes possessed by humans, however, is not as clear. Here, we examine this reality with a broad perspective in order to highlight the myriad ways that attentional processes impact both perception and cognition. The paper concludes by showing two real-world problems that exhibit sufficient complexity to illustrate the ways in which attention and cognition connect. These then point to new avenues of research that might illuminate the overall cognitive architecture of spatial cognition.     

Contents Just Are In The Head

The purpose of the paper is to show that semanticexternalism – the thesis that contents are notdetermined by ``individualistic' features of mentalstates – is mistaken. Externalist thinking, it isargued, rests on two mistaken assumptions: theassumption that if there is an externalist wayof describing a situation the situation exemplifiesexternalism, and the assumption that cases in which adifference in the environment of an intentional stateentails a difference in the state's intentional objectare cases in which environmental factors determine thestate's content. Exposing these mistakes leads to seethat the conditions that are required for thetruth of externalism are inconsistent.