Group coping skills training for anxiety and depression: its application with chronic patients

The literature on group coping skills training is reviewed and a model involving the use of a wide range of coping strategies with patients heterogeneous in terms of presenting problem is advocated. This study evaluates the effect of such an approach with a chronic inpatient and day-hospital patient population (n = 36) presenting with problems of anxiety and depression. Results suggest that the use of such groups can facilitate the transition from hospital to community. Further they are associated with symptomatic improvement that is of clinical significance in up to 50% of cases, which is largely maintained at 1 year follow-up and which is associated with a positive change in social functioning. In the light of this experience suggestions are made regarding the screening of patients and ways of enhancing group cohesion.     

Patient teaching or patient counselling?

Careless or confused use of terms such as information giving, teaching and counselling may lead to inadequate understanding and practice. In view of the progress made in this area, designed to help patients cope with illness and treatment, this paper aims to clarify and identify similarities and differences between these activities and discuss their relevance for those in most need of these types of care. Having recognised the complexity and persistence of such needs, patients, their relatives and nurses should perhaps decide their respective roles and work towards improving the quality of and opportunities for such interventions.     

Biliary excretion of radioactivity after intravenous administration of [3H]25-hydroxyvitamin D3 in man

The biliary excretion of radioactivity after intravenous [3H]25-hydroxyvitamin D3 was studied in nine patients with T-tube bile drainage. The mean +/- SD 24-hr radioactivity excretion in T-tube bile expressed as a percentage of the administered dose was 6.7 +/- 2.9%; after correction for incomplete bile collection, the value obtained was 16.0 +/- 11.1%. Chloroform solubility of biliary radioactivity increased from 27.4 +/- 8.9% to 72.9 +/- 10.1% following incubation with beta-glucuronidase. High-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of chloroform extracts of bile revealed that most of the eluted radioactivity was more polar than [3H]25-hydroxyvitamin D3. No free [3H]25-hydroxyvitamin D3 was demonstrated. Thus in man, most of the biliary radioactivity excreted following [3H]25-hydroxyvitamin D3 is in the form of water-soluble compounds, mainly glucuronides. However, our results suggest that glucuronides of metabolites other than 25-OHD3 are predominantly formed.     

Chemotherapy-induced nausea

The rubric complementary medicine covers a variety of approaches that may seem alike only in their being outside conventional care and training. We have asked experienced practitioners to present their own pieces of this jigsaw, realising that these clinical fragments, when seen together, create excitement but also confusion. Of course, this forum is not intended to be a comprehensive review of relevant complementary treatments, and often the individual apporaches to clinical problems will appear totally unrelated, while their apparent effectiveness stretches the biomedical model and conventional research methodology beyond their capacity. With this in mind, we intend that forthcoming articles and reviews will expand on the therapies themselves, and discuss the evidence supporting them.     

Gender differences in informal caring

Men have hitherto largely been invisible in research on informal care. This paper examines gender differences in informal caring, focusing on gender differences according to the relationship between the carer and care-recipient and the location of caring. The paper uses secondary analysis of the 1990–91 General Household Survey, which identified over 2700 adults as informal carers. Four per cent of men and women provide care for someone living in the same household. More women than men, 13% compared with 10%, provide care for someone living in another household. Men carers are less involved in care provision than women, providing fewer hours of care each week, and are less likely to be the main carer. However, gender differences are most marked among married carers, apart from those caring for their spouse, and least among unmarried carers. Married men can often rely on their wives to perform caring roles rather than performing them personally. Women carers are more likely to provide personal care than men carers, but the gender difference is least among those caring for their spouse or for disabled children. Cross-sex personal care is performed within the marital relationship and by parents caring for disabled children, but seldom by adult children caring for their parents or in more distant caring relationships. Evidence of cross-sex taboos in giving personal care is largely restricted to care provided in another household. Since the majority of elderly people in need of care are women, such cultural taboos may reinforce the pressure on mid-life women to care for mothers and mothers-in-law.     

Study on the Tongue and Groove Effect of the Elekta Multileaf Collimator Using Monte Carlo Simulation and Film Dosimetry

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, multileaf collimation of the treatment fields from medical linear accelerators is a common option. Due to the design of the leaf sides, the tongue and groove effect occurs for certain multileaf collimator applications such as the abutment of fields where the beam edges are defined by the sides of the leaves. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this study, the tongue and groove effect was measured for two pairs of irregular multileaf collimator fields that were matched along leaf sides in two steps. Measurements were made at 10 cm depth in a polystyrene phantom using Kodak EDR2 films for a photon beam energy of 6 MV on an Elekta Sli-plus accelerator. To verify the measurements, full Monte Carlo simulations were done. In the simulations, the design of the leaf sides was taken into account and one component module of BEAM code was modified to correctly simulate the Elekta multileaf collimator. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The results of measurements and simulations are in good agreement and within the tolerance of film dosimetry.