Attitudes towards mental illness: testing the contact hypothesis among Chinese student nurses in Hong Kong

This study investigated whether previous contact with mental illness affected the attitudes to mental illness (AMI) of general student nurses in Hong Kong — the contact hypothesis. We employed a quasi-experimental design. We compared the attitudes to mental illness of students who had previous contact with mental illness through having taken a psychiatric secondment with those who had not taken a psychiatric secondment. Also, we compared the AMI of: students who had taken other courses related to mental illness with those who had not; those who had a family history of mental illness with those who had not; and those who lived with a mentally ill relative with those who did not. We found that previous contact with mental illness had no significant effect on the attitudes to mental illness of the students. In other words our findings do not support the contact hypothesis. Our sample expressed positive general attitudes to mental illness when presented with general issues about mental illness. However, their attitudes were less positive when presented with specific issues about mental illness that might impinge upon their daily lives. We discuss the implications of these findings for mental health nursing practice, education and research.     

The burden of brain diseases in Europe.

The burden [as defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO)] of brain diseases (neurological, neurosurgical and psychiatric diseases together) is very high and yet resources spent on these diseases are not necessarily commensurate with the extent of this burden. However, hard data on the burden of brain diseases in Europe have not previously been easily accessible. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 1990 study conducted jointly by the WHO, Harvard University and the World Bank provided new measures that are now becoming universally accepted and have been used also in a repeat study: The GBD 2000. The key parameter of the study is disability adjusted life years (DALY), which is the sum of years of life lost (YLL) caused by premature death and years of life lived with disability (YLD). In the present report, data from the GBD 2000 study and from the World Health Report 2001 on brain diseases is extracted for the territory of Europe. This territory corresponds roughly to the membership countries of the European Federation of Neurological Societies. The WHO's Report has a category called neuropsychiatric diseases, which comprises the majority but not all the brain diseases. In order to gather all brain diseases, stroke, meningitis, half of the burden of injuries and half of the burden of congenital abnormalities are added. Throughout Europe, 23% of the years of healthy life is lost and 50% of YLD are caused by brain diseases. Regarding the key summary measure of lost health, DALY, 35% are because of brain diseases. The fact that approximately one-third of all burden of disease is caused by brain diseases should have an impact on resource allocation to teaching, reasearch, health care and prevention. Although other factors are also of importance, it seems reasonable that one-third of the curriculum at medical school should deal with the brain and that one-third of life science funding should go to basic and clinical neuroscience. In addition, resource allocation to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases should be increased to approach, at least, one-third of health care expenditure. With the present data on hand, neurologists, neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, patient organizations and basic neuroscientists have a better possibility to increase the focus on the brain.     

血康口服液与他莫昔芬联合治疗免疫性血小板减少性紫癜疗效观察

联合应用血康口服液和他莫昔芬治疗成人免疫性血小板减少性紫癜(ITP)20例。疗程超过2月。15例患者的血小板(BPC)计数明显上升,有效率为75％(15/20),对于激素治疗无效者,仍有良效。对月经过多者和不适合应用激素者尤为适应。两药合用无明显副作用。治疗起效时间较快,平均13天。疗效持续时间较长,长者已达一年以上。     

Cohen syndrome: fertility in a female patient

In this report we describe fertility in an adult female with Cohen syndrome. She gave birth to a son, now 1.5 years old, with discrete facial stigmata and slight psychomotor retardation.     

Health status measurement in Parkinson's disease: validity of the PDQ-39 and Nottingham Health Profile.

We assessed the feasibility and psychometric properties of two commonly used health status questionnaires in Parkinson's disease (PD): the generic Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and the disease-specific 39-item Parkinson's disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39), from a cross-sectional postal survey of PD patients (N = 81), using traditional and Rasch measurement methodologies. Overall response rate was 88%. Both questionnaires were found feasible, although the NHP performed less well. The PDQ-39 had fewer floor effects and was better able to separate respondents into distinct groups than the NHP, whereas the latter exhibited less ambiguous dimensionality and better targeting of respondents with non-extreme scores. Reliability and validity indices were similar, and potential differential item functioning by age and gender groups was found for both questionnaires. PDQ-39 response alternatives indicated ambiguity. With few exceptions, questionnaire scales were unable to meet recommended standards fully. While preliminary, this study illustrates the need for thorough evaluation of outcome measures and has implications beyond the questionnaires used here. Although promising, both questionnaires warrant further developmental work and stronger support of measurement validity before they could be considered fully suitable for valid use in PD, in particular in earlier stages of the disease.     

Controlling for occasion-specific effects when assessing the test–retest reliability of self-report health questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: This study proposes a method for self-report health questionnaires to adjust test-retest reliability for changes during the test-retest interval based on an external measure, and to distinguish such changes from random response errors. METHODS: In our application, eighty participants completed the Symptoms of Illness Checklist (SIC) on two occasions, two weeks apart, immediately before interviews given on each occasion by one of two physicians in a crossover design. The physician interview scores served as external measures, and structural equation modeling was used to estimate the parameters of a model that corrected for the occasion-specific effect of participants' responses using information from the interviews. RESULTS: Correcting for changes in symptoms during the test-retest interval increased SIC test-retest reliability from .744 to .804 and significantly improved model fit (chi2(diff)(1) = 30.78, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest methods that can improve the evaluation of self-report health questionnaire test-retest reliability by identifying changes using an external measure, and distinguishing these from random response errors; these increased the estimated SIC test-retest reliability and indicated that the SIC was indeed able to measure changes over the studied time interval. This method can be applied across a broad range of questionnaires.     

Reproductive health knowledge and implications: A study in Nigeria

Forty-five percent of Nigeria's population is under age 15. This study employed a questionnaire to learn the level of reproductive health knowledge of 416 male and female Nigerian students ages 10 through 16.

The Chi-square statistical procedure was used as demographic characteristics were related to reproductive health knowledge among the pre-teen and teenage youth. Statistically significant (p #lt 0.05) relationships were found between variables such as knowledge of reproduction, family planning, and AIDS when each was compared separately to age, gender, living situation while at school, school club memberships, and so on. With respect to reproduction and related topics, older teenagers indicated more knowledge than pre-teenagers, girls more than boys, and those living in dormitories more than those living at home or in other housing while attending school.

Television ranked first in terms of students' sources of information on reproduction, pregnancy, birth control, and AIDS. Newspapers ranked second, radio third, teachers fourth, and parents fifth. Perhaps the most striking data are the “I don't know” responses with respect to AIDS. Thirteen percent had not heard of AIDS, 27 percent did not know how AIDS is transmitted, 29 percent did not know the seriousness of AIDS, 37 percent did not know how to avoid AIDS, and 14 percent did not know that a mother with AIDS might infect her baby. Recommendations are made for increasing health services and education concerning reproductive health for pre-teen and teenage students.     

以中医神志学说辨析百合病

运用神魂魄意志五神与五藏、五官、五体的配属关系．结合文献对百合病命名、病位、症状、病机及愈期判断加以探讨。提出百合病属中医神志失和类病变，由热病伤阴，余邪未尽．心肺阴虚，神志失养，加之情怀不畅，气郁不舒，百脉失调，形神失和而发病。     

实施责任护士竞聘制的做法与成效

目的 :营造良性竞争的机制和氛围 ,全面提高护理质量。方法 :通过资格认定、理论技术考试、民主测评及双项选择 ,由护理部聘任。结果 :较好地进行了人力资源的开发 ,竞聘上岗后的护士有责任感和使命感 ,工作积极主动 ,自觉地成为科室各项工作的带头人。加之岗位工资的兑现 ,更有利于护士长在科室开展工作 ,使科室各项护理工作质量显著提高。结论 :良性的竞争运行机制 ,使优秀护理人才脱颖而出 ,体现能级对应的原则 ,从而使护理质量不断提高。     

心理咨询门诊与普通专科门诊抽样对照分析

目的调查本院心理咨询门诊与普通专科门诊就诊疾病谱的差异,了解两者在精神分裂症治疗上的差异以及对预后的影响。方法以1/20抽取1995～2002年间的门诊病例进行统计分析,其中心理咨询门诊病例79份,普通专科门诊病例143份。自行设计表格对就诊者的性别、年龄、初诊诊断和服药、住院情况进行统计,比较两者就诊疾病谱的差异,以及两者在精神分裂症治疗上的差异和对预后的影响。结果(1)心理咨询门诊就诊者以心境障碍和神经症为主(分别达25%和27%),普通专科门诊以精神分裂症为主(48%,t=14．66,P＜0．005)；(2)在精神分裂症的治疗上,心理咨询门诊第二代抗精神病药(SGAs)的应用率较高(50%vs 14%,P＜0．005),两处就诊者的预后也存在差异。结论心理咨询门诊与普通专科门诊在初诊中存在一定的分工；两者对精神分裂症治疗存在差异,这种差异可能直接导致精神分裂症的预后,我国有待建立规范的精神分裂症治疗指南；全社会对非重性精神疾病的重视程度仍有待加强。