Can hopelessness and adolescents' beliefs and attitudes about seeking help account for help negation?

Avoidance of appropriate help is common in acutely suicidal samples and has been confirmed in nonclinical samples but factors that contribute to this help negation effect remain unclear. In a sample of 269 nonclinical Australian high school students, the current study examines the impact of hopelessness, previous mental health care, beliefs, and attitudes toward professional psychological help on the help negation relationship. Results revealed that suicidal ideation significantly predicted lower help seeking intentions and that although hopelessness could not explain the help negation effect, it moderated the effect for seeking help from family. They also revealed that although previous mental health care was unable to explain the effect fully for professional mental health sources, beliefs and attitudes about professional psychological help could. Implications of the findings for prevention, primary health care, and professional psychological practice are discussed.     

Can “YouTube” help students in learning surface anatomy?

Aims

In a problem-based learning curriculum, most medical students research the Internet for information for their “learning issues.” Internet sites such as “YouTube” have become a useful resource for information. This study aimed at assessing YouTube videos covering surface anatomy.

Method

A search of YouTube was conducted from November 8 to 30, 2010 using research terms “surface anatomy,” “anatomy body painting,” “living anatomy,” “bone landmarks,” and “dermatomes” for surface anatomy–related videos. Only relevant video clips in the English language were identified and related URL recorded. For each videotape the following information were collected: title, authors, duration, number of viewers, posted comments, and total number of days on YouTube. The data were statistically analyzed and videos were grouped into educationally useful and non-useful videos on the basis of major and minor criteria covering technical, content, authority, and pedagogy parameters.

Results

A total of 235 YouTube videos were screened and 57 were found to have relevant information to surface anatomy. Analysis revealed that 15 (27%) of the videos provided useful information on surface anatomy. These videos scored (mean?±?SD, 14.0?±?0.7) and mainly covered surface anatomy of the shoulder, knee, muscles of the back, leg, and ankle, carotid artery, dermatomes, and anatomical positions. The other 42 (73%) videos were not useful educationally, scoring (mean?±?SD, 7.4?±?1.8). The total viewers of all videos were 1,058,634. Useful videos were viewed by 497,925 (47% of total viewers). The total viewership per day was 750 for useful videos and 652 for non-useful videos. No video clips covering surface anatomy of the head and neck, blood vessels and nerves of upper and lower limbs, chest and abdominal organs/structures were found.

Conclusions

Currently, YouTube is an inadequate source of information for learning surface anatomy. More work is needed from medical schools and educators to add useful videos on YouTube covering this area.     

Microbicides and HIV: help or hindrance?

We present a simple mathematical model for assessing the effects of introducing a microbicide as an HIV infection protective method. As very little is known about the in vivo efficacy of microbicides, we ran sample scenarios for microbicides of various efficacies. We found that, in general, if existing condom usage in a community is low, introducing a microbicide will most likely have a positive impact on HIV incidence as abandonment of condom use in favor of microbicides will not play a significant role. If condom use in a community is high, though, attrition of condom users could play a role large enough to overwhelm any added risk reduction afforded new microbicide users. Our model illustrates the importance of knowing key behavioral parameters, such as the proportion of the population that uses condoms, before microbicides can be safely introduced. These parameters include the proportion of condom users likely to maintain condom use and the proportion of condom nonusers likely to adopt microbicides, as well as the efficacy of the candidate microbicide.     

Are numbers special? An overview of chronometric,neuroimaging, developmental and comparative studies of magnitude representation

There is a current debate whether the human brain possesses a shared representation for various types of magnitude such as numerical quantities, physical size, or loudness. Here, we critically review evidence from chronometric, neuroimaging, developmental and comparative fields, and supplement it with a meta-analysis of the neuroimaging data. Together, based on such an integrative overview, we discuss limitations inherent in each approach, and the possibility whether shared, or distinct magnitude representation, or both representations exist.     

Grief work, disclosure and counseling: do they help the bereaved?

Bereavement is associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality. How to protect the bereaved against extreme suffering and lasting health impairment remains a central research issue. It has been widely accepted that to adjust, the bereaved have to confront and express intense emotions accompanying their loss. It has further been assumed that others assist in this process, and that intervention programs are effective. To assess validity of these assumptions, this article reviews research on the impact of expressing and sharing emotions across four research domains (social support; emotional disclosure; experimentally induced emotional disclosure; and grief intervention). In none of these areas is there evidence that emotional disclosure facilitates adjustment to loss in normal bereavement. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Bipolar or unipolar? - the question for clinicians and researchers

BACKGROUND: Correct diagnosis and criteria of affective disorders is always a subject of interest to researchers and practitioners. METHODS: The study aimed at assessing frequency of various traits and symptoms of bipolar affective disorders (BP-I, BP-II, BP-S spectrum) in patients (n=246) treated for recurrent affective disorders (unipolar-UP). The analysis was based on criteria of affective disorders of Ghaemi et al. and Hirschfeld's Mood Disorders Questionnaire. RESULTS: UP was confirmed in 32.9% of individuals, whereas 19.5% were BP-I, 35% BP-II and 12.6% BP-S. UP patients were significantly more often professionally active than those with BP (37.2% vs. 22.7%). Duration of a disorder was significantly shorter and the number of depressive episodes lower in the UP group. In comparison with UP, BP-I were associated with the previous occurrence of unusual and/or risky behaviour (OR=24.5), excessive, irrational expenditure (OR=21.1), lack of a critical attitude with respect to social behaviour (OR=20.3), increased sex drive (OR=17.7), and excessive self-confidence (OR=12). BP-II were associated with a lack of criticism with regard to social behaviour (OR=12.7) and unusual and/or risky behaviour (OR=10). Spectrum BP were most strongly associated with short term hypomanic episodes, including drug induced episodes (OR=15.8) and lack of criticism (OR=11.8). Early onset of depression (before 25 years of age) increased the risk of all three types of BP (by a factor of 3 to 5). LIMITATIONS: This was a naturalistic study, in which treatment was uncontrolled. CONCLUSIONS: Results of the study are a voice in the discussion on too narrow criteria defining bipolar affective disorders.     

Lesion symptom mapping of manipulable object naming in nonfluent aphasia: Can a brain be both embodied and disembodied?

Embodied cognition offers an approach to word meaning firmly grounded in action and perception. A strong prediction of embodied cognition is that sensorimotor simulation is a necessary component of lexical–semantic representation. One semantic distinction where motor imagery is likely to play a key role involves the representation of manufactured artefacts. Many questions remain with respect to the scope of embodied cognition. One dominant unresolved issue is the extent to which motor enactment is necessary for representing and generating words with high motor salience. We investigated lesion correlates of manipulable relative to nonmanipulable name generation (e.g., name a school supply; name a mountain range) in patients with nonfluent aphasia (N?=?14). Lesion volumes within motor (BA4, where BA = Brodmann area) and premotor (BA6) cortices were not predictive of category discrepancies. Lesion symptom mapping linked impairment for manipulable objects to polymodal convergence zones and to projections of the left, primary visual cortex specialized for motion perception (MT/V5+). Lesions to motor and premotor cortex were not predictive of manipulability impairment. This lesion correlation is incompatible with an embodied perspective premised on necessity of motor cortex for the enactment and subsequent production of motor-related words. These findings instead support a graded or “soft” approach to embodied cognition premised on an ancillary role of modality-specific cortical regions in enriching modality-neutral representations. We discuss a dynamic, hybrid approach to the neurobiology of semantic memory integrating both embodied and disembodied components.