Adopted Children: Core Issues and Unique Challenges

TOPIC: Psychological impact of adoption and resulting core issues for adopted children. PURPOSE: To raise awareness of the psychological impact of adoption. SOURCES: Published literature and personal observations. CONCLUSIONS: Adoption raises unique issues and challenges for the child and adoptive parents. Resolving the issues of adoption is a lifelong process. Through an awareness of the issues inherent in adoption, nurses and parents can use strategies that will enhance children's self-esteem and decrease their emotional vulnerability. Search terms: Adoption, intervention, loss, self-esteem, strategies     

Providence School Asthma Partnership: School-based Asthma Program for Inner-City Families

Over 3 years, 972 families participated in an after-school asthma program at their child's school. Parents and children attended concurrent 2¹/₂ -hour workshops. Parents were 74% Latino; 45% non-English speaking, with 77% of children on Medicaid. Asthma symptoms were significantly reduced, from multiple times per week to less than once per week on average. Oral steroid use decreased to one third of baseline use. Hospital days decreased from 11% to 2%; emergency visits decreased 35% to 4%; and school days missed decreased 48% to 20%. This program has now become sustainable with both private and Medicaid insurance coverage.     

Effects of self-management training in Type 2 diabetes: a randomized, prospective trial.

AIMS: The efficacy of three education programmes for Type 2 diabetic patients was tested in a randomized trial. A didactic-oriented training programme (treatment A) was compared with a self-management-oriented programme delivered in group sessions (treatment B). The latter programme was compared with a more individualized approach (treatment C). METHODS: One hundred and eighty-one Type 2 diabetic patients (age 55.6 +/- 6.3 years, diabetes duration 6.6 +/- 6.2 years, HbA(1c) 7.8 +/- 1.6%, female 49.7%) took part. Efficacy was assessed 3 months (t1) after baseline (t0) and at a follow-up 15 months (t2) after baseline. RESULTS: The fall in HbA(1c) in treatment B at t1 was sustained at t2 (t0 8.1 +/- 1.8%, t1 7.3 +/- 1.7%, t2 7.4 +/- 1.9%). In treatment A, HbA(1c) was unchanged throughout (t0 7.6 +/- 1.5%, t1 7.5 +/- 1.3%, t2 7.7 +/- 1.7%; treatment A vs. treatment B; P < 0.05). With the more individualized approach of treatment C, there was a fall in HbA(1c) at t1, but this was not sustained at t2 (t0 7.8 +/- 1.6%, t1 7.1 +/- 1.3%, t2 7.6 +/- 1.6%; treatment B vs. treatment C; P = 0.73). There were also significant benefits in treatment B subjects compared with treatment A in further medical (body mass index and fasting blood glucose), psychological (control, irritability and hunger dependency of eating behaviour, and trait anxiety) and behavioural (exercise) variables. There were no significant benefits of the more individualized treatment C compared with group treatment B. No significant differences were found regarding triglyceride levels, high-density lipoprotein, diabetes-related knowledge, negative well-being, urine or blood glucose levels or foot care. CONCLUSION: Self-management training had a significantly higher medium-term efficacy than didactic diabetes education. The group sessions were more effective than a more individualized approach.     

护理干预对社区老年骨质疏松症病人生活质量的影响

[目的 ]探讨护理干预对社区老年骨质疏松症病人生活质量的影响。 [方法 ]评估15 2例老年骨质疏松症病人护理干预前后骨质疏松相关知识掌握情况 ,血钙、血磷、骨密度测定值以及疼痛程度、生活质量的变化。[结果 ]护理干预 1a后病人相关知识 ,血钙、血磷、骨密度测定值及疼痛程度、生活质量评分与干预前比较有统计学意义 (P <0 .0 1,P <0 .0 5 )。 [结论 ]针对性进行社区护理干预能有效促进骨质疏松症病人病情的良性转归 ,可明显提高生活质量。     

Performance measures for evaluating services for people with a first episode of psychosis

Aim: The purpose of this project was to operationalize and apply a previously identified set of performance measures designed to evaluate services for those experiencing a first episode of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Methods: Operational definitions were developed for previously identified measures through an iterative process of discussions between clinical experts and health‐care evaluators. Data were collected from existing sources including corporate databases, clinical databases and chart review. Results: Definitions were developed for 44 measures covering seven of eight domains recommended for service level evaluation by the Canadian Institute for Health Information domains. Forty measures could be calculated. Conclusions: The measures represent a comprehensive set of performance measures suitable for the evaluation of services for people with a first‐episode psychosis. The measures could be used by other services in order to establish standards and norms for routine clinical practice.     

Preference awareness education as stress management training for academic staff

This paper describes a response directed stress management intervention (SMI) in the form of a Jungian based preference awareness education (PAE). It uses the Insights System of personality types to increase awareness of behaviour and communication preferences of self and different others. Eighteen self‐recruited academic employees participated for 7 weeks and received feedback about work preferences and personality type. The aim was to reduce perceptions of stress and interpersonal stress and to increase feelings of job satisfaction and interpersonal satisfaction. The data were analysed using two‐tailed t‐tests. No significant findings were observed for the total sample after training, however, interesting results were found for certain sub‐sample groups. Extravert‐thinking types, reported decreased stress levels (p > 0.018), and participants suffering high stress/interpersonal stress pre‐PAE, reported decreased stress levels (p > 0.010–0.018). Participants suffering low job/interpersonal satisfaction pre‐PAE, reported increased job satisfaction (p > 0.015–0.016). These results suggest that individuals who report high levels of stress and dissatisfaction are most likely to benefit from this type of intervention. Future PAE research might: (a) use pilot studies to meet the intervention preferences of employees that are reluctant to participate in SMIs; (b) include a wait‐list control group; use: (c) a follow up education/measures; (d) and organizational level (stressor directed) SMIs at the same time as response directed initiatives. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

内乳动脉插管介入治疗胸部病变

目的 探讨内乳动脉在胸部疾病中的血管造影表现及其在介人治疗中的价值。方法 应用seldinger法，对3l例病灶为内乳动脉供血或参与主要供血的胸部疾病患者进行了内乳动脉造影及介人治疗。结果3l例患者中，20例肺癌患者进行单纯内乳动脉或与其他供血动脉共同灌注化疗，部分行明胶海绵颗粒栓塞治疗，疗效满意。4例中、晚期乳癌灌注化疗后肿块明显缩小。1例低度侵袭性胸腺瘤灌注化疗后明显缩小转放疗。6例大咯血经内乳动脉和其他出血动脉灌注止血药物及明胶海绵栓塞后完全止血。结论 内乳动脉在一些胸部疾病中为主要供血动脉，经该动脉进行介入治疗有重要价值。     

力月西干预前后臂丛神经阻滞效果的分析

目的 探讨病人的心理因素对臂从神经阻滞效果的影响。方法 对746例臂丛神经阻滞进行回顾性对比，分别对肌间沟进路、锁骨上进路、腋进路进行力月西干预前后的疼痛对比。结果 三种进路的臂丛神经阻滞在力月西干预前后的疼痛相关性非常明显，或干预前后的疼痛无明显差别。结论 病人的心理精神因素在臂丛神经阻滞过程中，对阻滞效果的影响非常小。     

Stenting of coronary bifurcation lesions by using modified crush technique with double kissing balloon inflation (sleeve technique): immediate procedure result and short-term clinical outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Sleeve technique is a modified version of crush technique. It is specifically designed to increase the success rate of final kissing balloon inflation, which used to be a major limitation of the latter. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility, safety, and early clinical outcomes of sleeve technique in stenting different types (de novo, in-stent restenotic or in-stent bifurcation) of coronary bifurcation lesions at different locations. METHODS: From August 2005 to May 2006, 41 consecutive patients with symptomatic, nonleft-main coronary bifurcation stenoses of diameter narrowing >or=50% were treated with two-stent strategy, using sleeve technique. RESULTS: The mean age was 63.6 +/- 11.6 years with male predominance (70.7%). High prevalence of diabetes mellitus (31.7%), total occlusion (22.0%), and multi-vessel disease (65.9%) was observed in this cohort. Intravenous abciximab was given in 35 (85.4%) patients. Final kissing balloon inflation was successfully performed in all patients. The minimal luminal diameter in main vessel and side branch was increased from 0.97 +/- 0.53 mm and 0.81 +/- 0.45 mm to 2.76 +/- 0.34 mm and 2.22 +/- 0.35 mm, respectively. The mean procedure time was only 66.6 +/- 24.6 min. There was one (2.4%) case of subacute stent thrombosis presented as non-Q-wave myocardial infarction at day 3 postprocedure. The resultant in-hospital and 30-day major adverse cardiac event rate were both 2.4%. CONCLUSIONS: Sleeve technique is a feasible and efficient approach in stenting of coronary bifurcation stenoses.     

心理干预对错[牙合]畸形治疗中合作行为及结果的影响

目的：观察心理干预对错[牙合]畸形患者正畸治疗中合作行为及结果的影响。方法：对门诊口腔科60例青少年[牙合]畸形患者随机分为干预组和对照组各30例。两组均由从事正畸工作5年以上的主治医师采用标准方丝弓技术进行矫正治疗，干预组同时实施心理干预等心理治疗。将两组治疗中的合作行为和结果进行比较分析。结果：心理干预组自律性、主动性、自觉性、矫治时间、满意度等均明显优于对照组，差异有显著性（P〈0．01）。结论：心理干预对青少年正畸患者治疗中合作行为和结果有明显影响，通过心理干预能提高矫治的效果，保证治疗的顺利完成。