A complex mixture of forces

Abstract

The paper argues that purely psychoanalytical theory, by itself, is not sufficient to understand many of the complex, mixed states carried by many of the children seen by child psychotherapists. Mixed forms of understanding are needed. Psychoanalytic thinking and ‘hard’ science are not the same as each other but need to be brought into active dialogue. As an instance of this, the paper looks at the relationship between Kleinian thinking and attachment theory and argues that a mixed, inner world and environment sensitive form of thinking, that draws on both Klein and Bowlby, has become characteristic of Kleinian child psychotherapy today. This established way of thinking is now being stretched in order to accommodate neuroscientific findings.     

Treatment development: Can we find a better way?

The present paper argues that traditional approaches to treatment development, including a technological approach, a stage model, and existing inductive approaches such as functional analysis are inadequate in various ways. Treatment developing needs to focus more on theoretical development, practicality, and the fit with clients and practitioners. We argue that progress requires greater philosophical clarity, and steps to ensure a connection between philosophy of science assumptions and an analytic agenda which fits naturally with applied psychology. Theoretical progress requires distinguishing between clinical and basic models and harmonizing their relationship, and more focus on the manipulable context of action. Applied psychology needs to join in a common cause with basic psychology in domains of mutual interest, and develop basic analyses and mid-level terms that can be both scientifically progressive and clinically useful. Issues of practicality, capacity for dissemination, and public health impact need to be considered at the beginning and throughout treatment development. Issues of effectiveness, change processes, mediation, moderation, training, active components, and similar issues should be part of the evaluation system from the beginning. It is time to create a more coherent approach to treatment innovation.     

Topographical,Autobiographical and Semantic Memory in a Patient with Bilateral Mesial Temporal and Retrosplenial Infarction

The relationship between clinical symptoms and neurocognitive impairment has been a growing interest in the field of schizophrenia research. We review the empirical evidence for whether some schizophrenia symptoms can be viewed as expressions of disordered executive functioning. A specific focus of our review is Frith’s (1992) neurocognitive theory of negative symptoms, and whether this theory is supported by studies of executive functioning in schizophrenia. The current trend towards viewing executive functioning in terms of fractionable cognitive processes is discussed. Difficulties with traditional clinical measures (e.g. the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; WCST) in separating these processes are highlighted. Neurocognitive studies of schizophrenia are then reviewed in terms of this fractionated view of executive processes. We conclude that a more specific approach to executive functioning deficits in schizophrenia using more selective measures is needed before stronger conclusions can be drawn about their relationship to clinical symptoms.     

Increased importance of the documented development stage in process validation

Current trends in pharmaceutical quality assurance moved when the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) of the USA published its new guideline on process validation in 2011. This guidance introduced the lifecycle approach of process validation. In this short communication some typical changes from the point of view of practice of API production are addressed in the light of inspection experiences. Some details are compared with the European regulations.     

Early life Adversity,functional connectivity and cognitive performance in Schizophrenia: The mediating role of IL-6

ObjectiveExposure to childhood trauma (CT) is associated with cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, and deficits in social cognition in particular. Here, we sought to test whether IL-6 mediated the association between CT and social cognition both directly, and sequentially via altered default mode network (DMN) connectivity.MethodsThree-hundred-and-eleven participants (104 patients and 207 healthy participants) were included, with MRI data acquired in a subset of n = 147. CT was measured using the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ). IL-6 was measured in both plasma and in toll like receptor (TLR) stimulated whole blood. The CANTAB emotion recognition task (ERT) was administered to assess social cognition, and cortical connectivity was assessed based on resting DMN connectivity.ResultsHigher IL-6 levels, measured both in plasma and in toll-like receptor (TLR-2) stimulated blood, were significantly correlated with higher CTQ scores and lower cognitive and social cognitive function. Plasma IL-6 was further observed to partly mediate the association between higher CT scores and lower emotion recognition performance (CTQ total: β_indirect −0.0234, 95% CI: −0.0573 to −0.0074; CTQ physical neglect: β_indirect = −0.0316, 95% CI: −0.0741 to −0.0049). Finally, sequential mediation was observed between plasma IL-6 levels and DMN connectivity in mediating the effects of higher CTQ on lower social cognitive function (β_indirect = −0.0618, 95% CI: −0.1523 to −0.285).ConclusionThis work suggests that previous associations between CT and social cognition may be partly mediated via an increased inflammatory response. IL-6′s association with changes in DMN activity further suggest at least one cortical network via which CT related effects on cognition may be transmitted.     

颅脑损伤在手术室中的护理救治流程

创伤已成为青壮年人群的“第一杀手”［1］，是社会劳动力丧失的主要原因。而在创伤人群中，颅脑损伤居全身各部位损伤中的第二位，仅次于四肢损伤，但其病死率和致残率均居首位，平均为30％～40％［2］，其主要死亡原因为急性顽固性高颅压、大面积脑缺血、脑水肿，目前最有效的治疗方法为手术。近年来，本院全军战创伤中心建立和完善严重创伤救治绿色通道，提高了创伤急救人员的素质和相关科室的急诊意识，使严重创伤患者的救治成功率大为提高。我科护理组人员根据该项工作的经验，结合本科室工作特色，进一步梳理和规范了有关工作流程，使其操作性更强，更易于本专科人员学习和掌握。手术室救治流程再造后，患者到达医院至手术开始的时间，从2008年的82．6min缩短到现在的48．6min，手术室护理救治流程再造促进了“绿色通道”的建设，并取得了显著成效。现将我科手术室护理救治流程再造汇报如下。     

PRACTICE GUIDELINES IN PEDIATRIC HEMATOONCOLOGY: Implementation and Survey. A Possible Way for Medical Quality Assurance

The Hungarian Pediatric Oncology Working Group intended to change the practice of prescribing diagnostic tests as well as to examine the possibility of introducing indicators about the time factors of medical care. A nationwide accepted protocol was established for these tests. The examined time factors were the length of elapsed time from admittance to treatment and the length of hospital stay for different reasons (diagnosis, treatment, complications). Included in to this study are the new cases of 5 common groups of malignancies (acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, osteosarcoma, soft tissue sarcoma, Wilms tumor, neuroblastoma) for a study period of 1 year. The follow-up data of 152 patients were examined; the length of survey was 1-12 months, depending on when the patients entered the study. As a continuous clinical audit, a system of survey was set up for each follow-up test, using a questionnaire about the conformity of physicians to the protocol, evaluating the principal reasons of deviation from the protocol. Using the data provided by this questionnaire, a renewal of the protocols for each disease was made three times during the whole study period. The principal reasons of nonconformity to the protocol were (1) complications, (2) the nonuse of the protocol, (3) nonacceptance of the protocol, and (4) technical problems. The authors intended to use their time indicators for benchmarking, to make a comparison possible between centers concerning the length of treatment, occurrence of complications, and delays in chemotherapy. However, the examination of the time indicators in the most frequent disease (acute lymphoblastic leukemia, n = 73) showed inverse correlation between the numberof admissions per year per center and the length of time elapsed up to the beginning of treatment. This points to a need for better cooperation in small centers at the initial phase of the diagnosis. The main result of this study is the successful elaboration and implementation of practice guidelines by information linked to performance (the feedback) in daily practice: Compliance during the first 3 months of the study was 28%, and compliance during the last 3 months was 61%.     

精益六西格玛管理法在提高24 h尿液标本留取合格率中的应用

目的　提高患者24 h尿液标本留取合格率，明确诊断，及时治疗，提高患者满意度。方法　本研究采用前瞻性研究，于2021年1月至12月，在广州中医药大学第二临床医学院芳村医院内分泌科选取需要留取24 h尿液标本检验的患者。对照组为2021年1—5月50例住院患者，观察组为2021年6—12月53例住院患者。对照组男30例，女20例，年龄（57.30±12.88）岁，病程（5.78±4.82）年；观察组男30例，女23例，年龄（58.00±12.19）岁，病程（6.83±5.76）年。对照组采用常规方法，观察组采用精益六西格玛管理体系，使用DMAIC（define， measure， analyze， improve， control）循环，即界定、测量、分析、改进、控制5个阶段构成的过程，改进方法进行项目推进，同时利用鱼骨图工艺改进工具，优化24 h尿液标本的留取流程，并对全过程进行有效监控。比较两组患者留尿时间正确率、标本污染率、标本量不足率、记录尿量正确率、护士规范宣教率、满意度。采用χ²检验、Fisher确切概率法、独立样本t检验。结果　对照组留尿时间正确率为90.00%（45/50），观察组留尿时间正确率为100.00%（53/53），差异有统计学意义（P=0.024）；对照组记录尿量正确率为90.00%（45/50），观察组记录尿量正确率为100.00%（53/53），差异有统计学意义（P=0.024）。调查患者的满意度，实施前后均调查50人，患者总体满意度评分由实施前的（3.86±0.57）分提升为实施后的（4.20±0.45）分，实施前后结果比较，差异有统计学意义（t=3.310，P=0.001）。结论　基于精益六西格玛管理，24 h尿液标本留取流程取得了较好的改进效果，能提升护理服务质量和患者满意度，得出一套适用于医院推广和借鉴的留取24 h尿液标本的优化流程。