Lay carers of patients admitted to a hospice: how caring restricts their lives

The aim of this paper is to examine how caring for a terminally ill person in the domestic home restricts the lives of their lay carers. Fifty-nine lay carers of hospice patients were interviewed in the hospice approximately a week after the patient's admission using a structured and primarily closed choice schedule. Respondents were mainly the spouse or other close kin of terminally ill patients admitted to the hospice. Respondents reported that in the month prior to their admission, patients were highly symptomatic and required a great deal of help with activities of daily living. Forty per cent of patients required help. Three-quarters of the lay carers reported receiving help from one to three other lay carers in looking after the patient. Two thirds of the carers said that either the patient or they themselves, o both, would have benefited from moe help. Ove one thid of carers reported that in the month prior to the patient's hospice admission their own activities had been severely restricted, especially in the areas of visiting friends and relatives and going out to social activities. Activities least affected were looking after other members of the household and going out to paid work.     

Managers' lives. Stressed to kill

Stress is more prevalent among NHS managers than those in other sectors. Managers suffer more stress than other groups in the NHS. Perceived failure to influence decision-making was particularly stressful for managers. Managers should be targeted first in any organisation's stress-reduction programme.     

Plasmodium falciparum in Haiti: susceptibility to pyrimethamine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine

Eighteen patients with Plasmodium falciparum infection were studied in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to monitor the response of the malaria parasite to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine. In all infections the parasitaemia was cleared rapidly following treatment with standard dose of the drug combination; no recrudescence was observed during follow-up periods of 1 week (4 patients) and 4 weeks (14 patients). Parallel in vitro tests indicated that 5 of the 16 isolates successfully tested were resistant to pyrimethamine alone.     

Dose dependent changes in cognitive performance and mood following acute administration of Ginseng to healthy young volunteers

Recent evidence suggests that chronic administration of Ginseng can improve cognitive performance in animals and in humans. No previous study has examined the possibility of cognitive effects following single doses of Ginseng in healthy adults. The present study investigated whether acute administration of Ginseng (G115, Pharmaton SA) had any consistent effect on mood and four aspects of cognitive performance ("Quality of Memory", "Speed of Memory", "Quality of Attention" and "Speed of Attention") that can be derived by factor analysis of the Cognitive Drug Research computerised assessment battery. The study followed a placebo-controlled, double-blind, balanced, crossover design. Twenty healthy young adult volunteers received 200, 400, and 600 mg of G115, and a matching placebo, in counterbalanced order, with a 7 day wash-out period between treatments. Following a baseline cognitive assessment, further test sessions took place 1, 2.5, 4 and 6 h after the day's treatment. The most striking result was a significant improvement in "Quality of Memory" and the associated "Secondary Memory" factor at all time points following 400 mg of Ginseng. Both the 200 and 600 mg doses were associated with a significant decrement of the "Speed of Attention" factor at later testing times only. Subjective ratings of alertness were also reduced 6 h following the two lowest doses. To the best of our knowledge this represents the first demonstration of a modulation of mood and cognitive performance by acute administration of Ginseng.