Experiences and perceived roles of occupational therapists working with children with special learning needs during transition to school: A pilot study

Occupational therapists provide support to children with special learning needs and their families during the child's transition from early childhood to mainstream school. Little has been documented regarding the role and experiences of occupational therapists working with children, families and teachers during transition in an Australian context. Six paediatric occupational therapists from one geographical area in New South Wales were interviewed and asked to relay their role and experiences when providing a service to children with special learning needs during their transition to school. Participants described their role to include: preparing the child for school; working with school personnel; and providing parental support. Although participants described both positive and negative experiences, among the negative experiences were: limited time to provide a service; recommendations to school personnel not being followed; school personnel not being supportive; feeling uncomfortable in the classroom; and limited involvement in planning. Participants described a role which is consistent with current school-based occupational therapy practice; however, in the participants' experience, there was a gap between the ideal service and what participants were able to provide. This included limited collaboration with teachers.     

Functional differences among those high and low on a trait measure of psychopathy.

BACKGROUND: It has been established that individuals who score high on measures of psychopathy demonstrate difficulty when performing tasks requiring the interpretation of other's emotional states. The aim of this study was to elucidate the relation of emotion and cognition to individual differences on a standard psychopathy personality inventory (PPI) among a nonpsychiatric population. METHODS: Twenty participants completed the PPI. Following survey completion, a mean split of their scores on the emotional-interpersonal factor was performed, and participants were placed into a high or low group. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected while participants performed a recognition task that required attention be given to either the affect or identity of target stimuli. RESULTS: No significant behavioral differences were found. In response to the affect recognition task, significant differences between high- and low-scoring subjects were observed in several subregions of the frontal cortex, as well as the amygdala. No significant differences were found between the groups in response to the identity recognition condition. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that participants scoring high on the PPI, although not behaviorally distinct, demonstrate a significantly different pattern of neural activity (as measured by blood oxygen level-dependent contrast)in response to tasks that require affective processing. The results suggest a unique neural signature associated with personality differences in a nonpsychiatric population.     

International multicenter pilot study of the first comprehensive self-completed nonmotor symptoms questionnaire for Parkinson's disease: the NMSQuest study.

Nonmotor symptoms (NMS) of Parkinson's disease (PD) are not well recognized in clinical practice, either in primary or in secondary care, and are frequently missed during routine consultations. There is no single instrument (questionnaire or scale) that enables a comprehensive assessment of the range of NMS in PD both for the identification of problems and for the measurement of outcome. Against this background, a multidisciplinary group of experts, including patient group representatives, has developed an NMS screening questionnaire comprising 30 items. This instrument does not provide an overall score of disability and is not a graded or rating instrument. Instead, it is a screening tool designed to draw attention to the presence of NMS and initiate further investigation. In this article, we present the results from an international pilot study assessing feasibility, validity, and acceptability of a nonmotor questionnaire (NMSQuest). Data from 123 PD patients and 96 controls were analyzed. NMS were highly significantly more prevalent in PD compared to controls (PD NMS, median = 9.0, mean = 9.5 vs. control NMS, median = 5.5, mean = 4.0; Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and t test, P < 0.0001), with PD patients reporting at least 10 different NMS on average per patient. In PD, NMS were highly significantly more prevalent across all disease stages and the number of symptoms correlated significantly with advancing disease and duration of disease. Furthermore, frequently, problems such as diplopia, dribbling, apathy, blues, taste and smell problems were never previously disclosed to the health professionals.     

Atrial natriuretic peptide levels in the prediction of congestive heart failure risk in frail elderly.

OBJECTIVE--To develop a noninvasive clinical predictive model for acute congestive heart failure (CHF) in a frail elderly cohort using bedside clinical assessment (medical history and physical examination) and venous atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) levels. DESIGN--One-year prospective blinded cohort study. SETTING--Life care facility. PARTICIPANTS--Three hundred thirty-one frail, elderly volunteers free of acute illness at study entry (mean +/- SD age, 88 +/- 7 years; 23% male, 77% female). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE--Clinical episodes of CHF with confirmation of acute pulmonary edema by chest roentgenogram. RESULTS--Fifteen percent of the elderly cohort developed at least one episode of CHF during the 1-year follow-up period. Those developing CHF had significantly higher mean +/- SE ANP values at study entry: 493 +/- 55 vs 207 +/- 15 pmol/L. The risk for development of CHF rose progressively with increasing ANP levels at study entry. In multivariate analysis, only two independent variables significantly predicted CHF: ANP value greater than 200 pmol/L (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 7.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.2 to 19.2) and history of CHF in the previous year (adjusted OR, 7.0; 95% CI, 2.9 to 17). Stratifying the cohort by these two variables results in three CHF risk groups: 55% of the population at 3% annual risk of CHF, 37% of the population at 20% to 24% annual risk of CHF, and 8% of the population at 66% annual risk of CHF. CONCLUSIONS--This simple clinical prediction model identifies elderly subjects at risk for CHF and allows appropriate focusing of medical resources for prevention, early detection, and treatment of this highly morbid clinical syndrome.