An analysis of contextual information relevant to medical care unexpectedly volunteered to researchers by asthma patients.

Objective: To describe and categorize contextual information relevant to patients' medical care unexpectedly volunteered to research personnel as part of a patient advocate (PA) intervention to facilitate access health care, communication with medical personnel, and self-management of a chronic disease such as asthma.

Methods: We adapted a patient navigator intervention, to overcome barriers to access and communication for adults with moderate or severe asthma. Informed by focus groups of patients and providers, our PAs facilitated preparation for a visit with an asthma provider, attended the visit, confirmed understanding, and assisted with post-visit activities.

Safety of saxagliptin: rationale for and design of a series of postmarketing observational studies.

Purpose: To describe the design and rationale of a series of postmarketing studies to examine the safety of saxagliptin, an oral dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, in real-world settings.

Methods: We are conducting a series of retrospective cohort studies using two UK (General Practice Research Database, and The Health Improvement Network) and two US (Medicare, HealthCore Integrated Research Database(SM) ) data sources. The primary outcomes of interest will include (i) hospitalization with acute liver failure, (ii) hospitalization for acute kidney injury, (iii) hospitalization for severe hypersensitivity reactions, (iv) hospitalization for severe infections, (v) hospitalization with infections associated with T-lymphocyte dysfunction (i.

Prevalence of pathological internet use among adolescents in Europe: demographic and social factors.

Aims: To investigate the prevalence of pathological internet use (PIU) and maladaptive internet use (MIU) among adolescents in 11 European countries in relation to demographic, social factors and internet accessibility.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: The 7th Framework European Union (EU) funded project, Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE), is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating interventions for risk behaviours among adolescents in Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Spain, with Sweden serving as the coordinating centre.

The use of mental health services by adolescent smokers: a nationwide Israeli study.

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the utilization of mental health services by adolescent smokers, the presence of untreated mental disorders in this young population and the associated emotional and behavioral difficulties. We performed a nationwide survey study of an Israeli representative sample of 906 adolescents and their mothers. Mental disorders were assessed using the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) Inventory.

Attention bias modification treatment for pediatric anxiety disorders: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: While attention bias modification (ABM) is a promising novel treatment for anxiety disorders, clinical trial data remain restricted to adults. The authors examined whether ABM induces greater reductions in pediatric anxiety symptoms and symptom severity than multiple control training interventions.

Method: From a target sample of 186 treatment-seeking children at a hospital-based child anxiety clinic, 40 patients with an ongoing anxiety disorder who met all inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study.

Asthma outcomes: exacerbations.

Background: The goals of asthma treatment include preventing recurrent exacerbations. Yet there is no consensus about the terminology for describing or defining "exacerbation" or about how to characterize an episode's severity.

Objective: National Institutes of Health institutes and other federal agencies convened an expert group to propose how asthma exacerbation should be assessed as a standardized asthma outcome in future asthma clinical research studies.

Health literacy and asthma.

The report "Healthy people" from the US Department of Health and Human Services defines health literacy (HL) as follows: "The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions." The same report identifies asthma as a public health problem of high priority. Unfortunately, impaired HL is prevalent in our society, and patients with low HL and asthma face multiple challenges as they attempt to manage their disease.

Self-management programmes for COPD: moving forward.

Self-management is of increasing importance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) management. However, there is confusion over what processes are involved, how the value of self-management should be determined, and about the research priorities. To gain more insight into and agreement about the content of programmes, outcomes, and future directions of COPD self-management, a group of interested researchers and physicians, all of whom had previously published on this subject and who had previously collaborated on other projects, convened a workshop.

Involvement of immunologic and biochemical mechanisms in the pathogenesis of Tourette's syndrome.

Tourette's syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder clinically characterized by multiple motor and phonic tics. It is likely that a neurobiological susceptibility to the disorder is established during development by the interaction of genetic, biochemical, immunological, and environmental factors. This study sought to investigate the possible correlation of several immunological and biochemical markers with Tourette's syndrome.

Advances in adult asthma diagnosis and treatment and health outcomes, education, delivery, and quality in 2011: what goes around comes around.

Last year's review of research advances in adults with asthma emphasized the linear trajectory of translation: the initial studies translating bench findings to the first patients (T1) are connected to larger efficacy studies, including clinical trials studying subjects under tightly controlled conditions (T2), and these in turn are connected to research, including comparative effectiveness research, that tests how the efficacy findings of T2 research fare in the real world, diverse populations, and varied practice settings (T3). This year what was observed was a more interwoven relationship (rather than a linear one), in which each translational level informs the others and new approaches to answering old questions have led to new discoveries. Within this framework, the present review summarizes clinical research on asthma in adults that was reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in 2011, with emphasis on health outcomes, education, delivery, and quality in terms of discoveries related to mechanisms of disease, environmental exposures, and management.

Relationship between ICD-10 psychosocial categories and psychiatric diagnosis in Israeli adolescents.

Aim: The study examined the relationship between psychosocial categories obtained by WHO-developed semistructured interviews (ICD-10 Axis V) and clinical Axis I psychiatric diagnoses in psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents.

Methods: The sample included 71 consecutive patients admitted to an adolescent unit and their mothers. Mothers completed a semi-structured interview derived from the criteria for each psychosocial category (Axis V), and the adolescents were diagnosed by experienced psychiatrists using the Schedule for Affective Disorders for School Age Children (K-SADS-P).

Problem solving to improve adherence and asthma outcomes in urban adults with moderate or severe asthma: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Improving inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) adherence should improve asthma outcomes.

Objective: In a randomized controlled trial we tested whether an individualized problem-solving (PS) intervention improves ICS adherence and asthma outcomes.

Methods: Adults with moderate or severe asthma from clinics serving urban neighborhoods were randomized to PS (ie, defining specific barriers to adherence, proposing/weighing solutions, trying the best, assessing, and revising) or standard asthma education (AE) for 3 months and then observed for 3 months.

Timing, quantity and quality of stressful life events in childhood and preceding the first episode of bipolar disorder.

Background: A large body of evidence supports the importance of genetic risk factors in bipolar disorder (BPD), but less is known about the role of stressful life events (SLE). This study assessed the role of SLE in childhood, adulthood and one year prior to first episodes of both depression and mania in BPD.

Methods: Three groups of 50 matched subjects each were assessed: patients with BPD, with borderline personality disorder (BLPD) and healthy controls.