Depression and Anxiety Predict Decline in Physical Health Functioning in Patients with Heart Failure

Background  

Few studies have examined the prospective influences of depression and anxiety on physical health functioning in heart failure (HF) patients. Prior studies were also limited by employing psychological measures containing somatic items confounded with HF symptoms.     

Intentional Communication of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Judgments of Different Communication Partners

The purpose of this study was to examine judgments made by different listeners of the communicative intent, specifically requesting and rejecting, of young children with autism and limited expressive language. Video clips from a structured assessment study of three young children with autism spectrum disorder were edited and viewed by adult raters from four subgroups. Analysis of the findings indicated that those who were both familiar and expert were more accurate and more confident in their judgments than those who were unfamiliar and non-expert. There was more variation among the four subgroups of raters in accuracy related to rejecting compared to requesting behavior. It was concluded that collaboration in the determination of intention and consistency of responding to specific communicative forms among all individuals who are involved in the child’s life appear to be important steps in developing common communication goals.     

Using lipid profiling to better characterize metabolic differences in apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype among community-dwelling older Black men

GeroScience - Apolipoprotein E (APOE) allelic variation is associated with differences in overall circulating lipids and risks of major health outcomes. Lipid profiling provides the opportunity for...     

Automatic Activation of Alcohol Concepts in Response to Positive Outcomes of Alcohol Use

Seventy-one subjects with various levels of drinking experience completed a computerized semantic priming task. Prime phrases (describing positive outcomes of drinking alcohol or neutral phrases) were presented immediately before a target word (either alcohol-related or not). The results replicated earlier basic research examining the effects of semantically related primes on the processing of subsequent words. Furthermore, the results provided evidence that, for heavy drinking subjects, the presentation of phrases describing positive drinking outcomes significantly primed, or facilitated, responses to the alcohol-related words. These results are consistent with the view that for some individuals, thoughts about certain outcomes automatically prime, or make accessible, concepts related to alcohol use. An increase in the accessibility of these concepts has important implications for behavioral decisions about alcohol consumption.     

Geriatric medicine curriculum consultations for family practice residency programs: american academy of family physicians residency assistance program/hartford geriatrics initiative

Increasing the quality and quantity of geriatric medicine training for family practice residents is a particular challenge for community-based programs. These programs have an average of only seven full-time equivalent physician faculty. This report summarizes results of the Residency Assistance Program/Hartford Geriatric Initiative (RAP/HGI) geriatric medicine curriculum consultations for family practice (FP) residency programs conducted from 1996 to 2001. This project was developed as part of the RAP in family practice. Ten experienced FP educators were selected and trained as special consultants. Between 1996 and 2001, 39 FP residency programs participated in the 1- to 4-day RAP/HGI consultations. The programs were diverse in size and location. The consultations reached 308 family practice residency faculty members involved in training 807 residents. Program evaluations of the consultants were uniformly in the very good to excellent range, with a mean rating of 4.6 (5-point scale, with 5 indicating excellent). At the end of the initial consultation visit, the residency program faculty and the consultant developed short-term goals for geriatrics program development. Eighty-five percent (33/39) of the programs submitted their curriculum goals in writing. The mean number of goals per program was 4.8 (range = 3-11). Of the 33 programs with written goals, follow-up was documented for 29 programs. Seventy-nine percent of the programs' self-defined educational goals were met during the 6 to 12 months of follow-up (range 50-100%). Ten of the programs implemented all of their educational goals. The RAP/HGI project demonstrated that achievable geriatric medicine curriculum improvements could occur as part of an onsite consultation process.