ImProving Outcomes after STroke (POST): results from the randomized clinical pilot trial.

Background: One in three patients experience depression after stroke. An effective strategy to prevent depression after stroke that could be economically delivered to most patients with a low likelihood of adverse events is needed.

Methods: In a randomized trial conducted in New South Wales, Australia, a postcard was sent monthly to participants (n = 100) for five-months following hospital discharge after stroke (plus usual care) and compared with usual care (n = 101).

Community interventions for preventing smoking in young people.

Background: Decisions to smoke are made within a broad social context. Community interventions use co-ordinated, widespread, multi-component programmes to try and influence behaviour.

Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of community interventions in preventing the uptake of smoking in young people.

Identifying industrial sites with potential for residential exposure to asbestos.

Background: Non-occupational exposure to asbestos has been of increasing interest, but residential exposure to asbestos often focuses on a few high-profile asbestos users. This study aimed to identify industrial sites producing asbestos goods in a given area and time period.

Methods: A search of trade directories was carried out for industrial sites in West Yorkshire, England, where asbestos may have been used this century.

Community interventions for preventing smoking in young people.

Background: Decisions to smoke are made within a broad social context. Community interventions use co-ordinated, widespread, multi-component programmes to try and influence behaviour.

Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of community interventions in preventing the uptake of smoking in young people.

Mass media interventions for preventing smoking in young people.

Background: The mass media have been used as a way of delivering preventive health messages. They have the potential to reach and to modify the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of a large proportion of the community.

Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of mass media campaigns in preventing the uptake of smoking in young people.

Mineral fibre analysis and routes of exposure to asbestos in the development of mesothelioma in an English region.

Objectives: To compare the concentrations of inorganic fibres in the lungs in cases of mesothelioma and controls: to determine whether concentrations of retained asbestos fibres differ with the different exposures identified from interview; and to investigate the existence of a cut off point in concentrations of asbestos fibres that indicates occupational exposure.

Methods: Case-control study; 147 confirmed cases of mesothelioma and 122 controls identified from deaths occurring in four districts of Yorkshire between 1979 and 1991. Surviving relatives were interviewed to determine lifetime exposure history to asbestos.

Routes of asbestos exposure and the development of mesothelioma in an English region.

Objectives: To investigate the contribution of exposure to asbestos through different routes in the development of mesothelioma.

Methods: Case-control study. 185 confirmed cases of mesothelioma and 160 controls were identified, when death had occurred between 1979 and 1991 in four health districts in Yorkshire.

A systematic review of the effectiveness of health service interventions aimed at reducing inequalities in health.

Objective: To review the available evidence in order to identify effective interventions which health services alone or in collaboration with other agencies could use to reduce inequalities in health.

Methods: A search of the literature was undertaken using a number of databases including Medline (from 1990), Applied Social Science Index and Abstracts (1987-1994), and the System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (1984-1994), on a large range of key words. Studies were included if they assessed interventions designed to reduce inequalities in health or improve the health of a population group relevant to the review, and could be carried out by a health service alone or in collaboration with other agencies.

Limb temperature and human tremors.

The changes in postural tremor of the hand produced by moderate cooling of the muscles of one forearm have been investigated in 16 normal subjects and in 16 patients with essential tremor. In both groups, cooling produced a profound long lasting decrease in tremor level of the ipsilateral hand. In normal subjects, although cooling reduced the tremor size, the EMG of the active muscle clearly increased.

A study of the early signs of drug induced parkinsonism.

Postural tremor was recorded from psychiatric patients who had been treated with phenothiazine or butyrophenone neuroleptic drugs. None of the patients had previously been diagnosed as having extrapyramidal dysfunction. A significant number of these patients had abnormally low tremor frequencies.

Effect of stereotactic thalamic lesion on essential tremor.

The cause of essential (low-frequency) tremor is unknown and its relation to physiological (high-frequency) tremor is unclear. We assessed essential tremor in one patient before and after a stereotactic thalamic lesion. The procedure changed the size of the tremor in the right hand but not in the left.