Can Messages Make a Difference? The Association Between E‐Mail Messages and Health Outcomes in Diabetes Patients

This investigation examined the impact of social support messages on patient health outcomes. Forty‐one American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian patients received a total of 618 e‐mail messages from their healthcare provider (HCP). The e‐mail messages were divided into 3,565 message units and coded for instances of emotional social support. Patient glycosulated hemoglobin scores (HbA1c) showed significantly improved glycemic control and emotional social support messages were associated with significant decreases in HbA1c values. Patient involvement with the system, measured by system login frequency and the frequency of uploaded blood glucose scores to the HCP, did not predict change in HbA1c.     

Fatigue and Quality of Life Following Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer: A Comparative Study

Clinical reports suggest that fatigue is a common and disruptive long-term side effect of radiotherapy; however, there has been little systematic attention given to this phenomenon. The primary aim of this study was to assess fatigue its impact on quality of life in women who had completed radiotherapy for breast cancer. A key feature of this study was the inclusion of a comparison group of women of similar age with no history of cancer. The results indicated that the fatigue experienced by women after radiotherapy for breast cancer was not significantly different in intensity, duration, or disruptiveness from fatigue experienced by healthy women. In addition, radiotherapy recipients reported a quality of life similar to that of the healthy women. For both groups of women greater fatigue was related to a poorer quality of life. These findings suggest that following radiotherapy for breast cancer, women can expect to experience fatigue which is not worse than what they might normally experience. This information may be a useful part of psychoeducational interventions designed for women scheduled to begin radiotherapy for breast cancer.     

Conditioning treatment of nocturnal enuresis in adults: preliminary findings

Four male and six female adults (aged between 16 and 23) were treated for nocturnal enuresis with bell and pad apparatus. Although the trial was based upon an atypical sample (most patients were referred by psychiatrists), the results do suggest that bell and pad treatment may often markedly reduce or entirely eliminate nocturnal wetting even when the problem has persisted into adulthood.The special problems which may occur when treating enuresis in adults are discussed.     

Personality correlates of Holland's occupational types: A cross cultural study

Recent studies have investigated the personality traits of persons in Holland's six occupational categories. In the present study the generalizability of Holland's characterizations of adults within the occupational categories was investigated in a group of 402 Mexican-Americans. Occupational Scale scores on the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey were used to classify subjects into Holland's occupational types. Multiple discriminant analysis of groups' Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey scale scores resulted in significant overall groups differentiation and two significant discriminant functions for males but no significant results for females. The personality characteristics of the male groups provide strong support for the generalizability of Holland's characterizations to Mexican-American males.     

A clinical trial of continuous, intermittent and overlearning ‘bell and pad’ treatments for nocturnal enuresis

Sixty-one enuretic children were allocated sequentially to ‘standard’, ‘intermittent’ or ‘overlearning’ bell and pad treatment. The results suggest that the ‘overlearning’ modification of standard treatment was successful in bringing about a reduction in the relapse rate. The present status and implications of research into nocturnal enuresis were discussed in the light of the results of the investigation.     

Switching attention between the ears to monitor tones Nigel Harvey

Alternating dichotic presentation of tones was compared with monaural presentation in two different perceptual tasks. When Ss were asked to detect higher frequency target tones in fists of six background tones, they missed less than 5%. However, when the presentation was fast (10/sec) and the tones alternated dichotically, Ss reported “hearing” only three or four tones. In two further experiments, Ss were asked to judge the number of tones or to report their spatial and temporal positions; these tasks were much less accurately performed, for the dichotic lists, than the target detection task. The differing effects of switching rate on these tasks are discussed in relation to the types of processing they require.