Critical concepts in elder abuse research.

Background: This paper identifies core elements in principal definitions of elder abuse or mistreatment of older adults (EA/MOA) and discusses the relevance of four crucial concepts: age, vulnerability, trust, and power balance in relationships.

Method: A critical analysis of selected literature in EA/MOA with a focus on works from the last 10 years.

Results: Current definitions of EA/MOA share commonalities regarding an understanding of elder abuse as a status offence, the inclusion of both acts and omissions, and the consideration of multiple levels of behavior and its effects.

Pharmaceutical sales representatives and patient safety: a comparative prospective study of information quality in Canada, France and the United States.

Introduction: The information provided by pharmaceutical sales representatives has been shown to influence prescribing. To enable safe prescribing, medicines information must include harm as well as benefits. Regulation supports this aim, but relative effectiveness of different approaches is not known.

The different breeding strategies of penguins: a review.

The 18 penguin species are exclusively and widely distributed in the Southern hemisphere, from the Equator to the Antarctic continent, and are thus submitted to various ecological constraints in their reproductive strategy. This results in a high variability in all aspects of the breeding biology of the different species. Although penguins appear primarily adapted for a marine existence, they remain dependent on land for breeding, rearing young, and moulting.

Pharmacogenomic predictors of citalopram treatment outcome in major depressive disorder.

Objectives: A significant proportion of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) do not improve following treatment with first-line antidepressants and, currently, there are no objective indicators of predictors of antidepressant response. The aim of this study was to investigate pre-treatment peripheral gene expression differences between future remitters and non-responders to citalopram treatment and identify potential pharmacogenomic predictors of response.

Methods: We conducted a gene expression study using Affymetrix HG-U133 Plus2 microarrays in peripheral blood samples from untreated individuals with MDD (N = 77), ascertained at a community outpatient clinic, prior to an 8-week treatment with citalopram.

Priming primary care physicians to treat osteoporosis after a fragility fracture: an integrated multidisciplinary approach.

Objective: To evaluate 2 incremental levels of intervention designed to increase initiation of osteoporosis treatment by primary care physicians (PCP) following fragility fractures (FF).

Methods: Women and men over age 50 years were screened for incident FF in fracture clinics, and eligible outpatients were randomly assigned to standard care (SC) or to either minimal (MIN) or intensive (INT) interventions. The MIN and INT interventions were intended to educate and motivate both patients and PCP, but differed in their frequency of contact and information content.

Vasopressin for the treatment of neonatal hypotension.

Vasopressin (pitressin), also known as arginine vasopressin (AVP), is an antidiuretic hormone formed in the hypothalamus and secreted from the posterior pituitary gland. Various forms of exogenous vasopressin exist and have been used in neonates to treat conditions such as diabetes insipidus. Vasopressin has also been studied on a limited basis for use in the treatment of catecholamine-resistant hypotension in vasodilatory shock.

Educating families about end-of-life care in advanced dementia: acceptability of a Canadian family booklet to nurses from Canada, France, and Japan.

Background: The families of people with late-stage dementia need to be informed about the course of the dementia and the comfort/palliative care option. A booklet was written for that purpose and can be provided to family members by physicians and nurses.

Methods: The acceptability of the booklet for nurses was tested in Canada (French and English version), France (French Canadian version) and Japan (translated and adapted version).

Real-time feedback on knee abduction moment does not improve frontal-plane knee mechanics during jump landings.

Excessive knee abduction loading is a contributing factor to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a double-leg landing training program with real-time visual feedback improves frontal-plane mechanics during double- and single-leg landings. Knee abduction angles and moments and vertical ground reaction forces (GRF) of 21 recreationally active women were quantified for double- and single-leg landings before and after the training program.

Partnership for fragility bone fracture care provision and prevention program (P4Bones): study protocol for a secondary fracture prevention pragmatic controlled trial.

Background: Fractures associated with bone fragility in older adults signal the potential for secondary fracture. Fragility fractures often precipitate further decline in health and loss of mobility, with high associated costs for patients, families, society and the healthcare system. Promptly initiating a coordinated, comprehensive pharmacological bone health and falls prevention program post-fracture may improve osteoporosis treatment compliance; and reduce rates of falls and secondary fractures, and associated morbidity, mortality and costs.

Linking the Fragile X mental retardation protein to the lipoxygenase pathway.

Fragile X mental retardation is caused by the absence of the FMRP (fragile X mental retardation protein) a RNA-binding protein encoded by the Fmr1 gene. Despite the large number of studies about this syndrome, it is still unclear how the absence of FMRP affects the physiology of the nervous system. It has been reported however that the brain of the Fmr1-KO mouse shows altered membrane protein and lipid oxidation.

Are neuroticism and extraversion associated with the antidepressant effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)? An exploratory 4-week trial.

Several randomized, controlled trials have found high frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) to be effective for treating major depressive disorder (MDD), but its antidepressant mechanisms have yet to be firmly understood. In this context, pre-treatment personality traits and subsequent changes in personality concomitant to treatment may be relevant for our understanding of these mechanisms. To investigate this issue we conducted a naturalistic trial in which 14 subjects with moderate to severe depression were treated with daily HF-rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 4 weeks.

Integrating oxidative ecology into conservation physiology.

Ecologists have recently shown great interest in using physiological markers as indicators of the health of animal populations. In this context, the measurement of markers of oxidative balance, such as antioxidant defences and oxidative damage, may be a valuable tool. Indeed, at the individual level, antioxidant defences are positively associated with fertility and survival probability, while elevated oxidative damage during reproduction or growth may negatively affect recruitment and survival.

Patients' experience of chronic illness care in a network of teaching settings.

Objective: To evaluate chronic illness care delivery from the patient's perspective and to examine its main correlates.

Design: Cross-sectional, descriptive study using questionnaires and medical chart review.

Setting: Nine teaching family practices in Quebec.

Critical hydrogen bond formation for activation of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor.

G protein-coupled receptors contain selectively important residues that play central roles in the conformational changes that occur during receptor activation. Asparagine 111 (N111(3.35)) is such a residue within the angiotensin II type 1 (AT(1)) receptor.

Respectfulness from the patient perspective: comparison of primary healthcare evaluation instruments.

Unlabelled: Respectfulness is one measurable and core element of healthcare responsiveness. The operational definition of respectfulness is "the extent to which health professionals and support staff meet users' expectations about interpersonal treatment, demonstrate respect for the dignity of patients and provide adequate privacy."

Objective: To examine how well respectfulness is captured in validated instruments that evaluate primary healthcare from the patient's perspective, whether or not their developers had envisaged these as representing respectfulness.

Comprehensiveness of care from the patient perspective: comparison of primary healthcare evaluation instruments.

Unlabelled: Comprehensiveness relates both to scope of services offered and to a whole-person clinical approach. Comprehensive services are defined as "the provision, either directly or indirectly, of a full range of services to meet most patients' healthcare needs"; whole-person care is "the extent to which a provider elicits and considers the physical, emotional and social aspects of a patient's health and considers the community context in their care." Among instruments that evaluate primary healthcare, two had subscales that mapped to comprehensive services and to the community component of whole-person care: the Primary Care Assessment Tool - Short Form (PCAT-S) and the Components of Primary Care Index (CPCI, a limited measure of whole-person care).

Management continuity from the patient perspective: comparison of primary healthcare evaluation instruments.

Unlabelled: Management continuity, operationally defined as "the extent to which services delivered by different providers are timely and complementary such that care is experienced as connected and coherent," is a core attribute of primary healthcare. Continuity, as experienced by the patient, is the result of good care coordination or integration.

Objective: To provide insight into how well management continuity is measured in validated coordination or integration subscales of primary healthcare instruments.

Relational continuity from the patient perspective: comparison of primary healthcare evaluation instruments.

Unlabelled: The operational definition of relational continuity is "a therapeutic relationship between a patient and one or more providers that spans various healthcare events and results in accumulated knowledge of the patient and care consistent with the patient's needs."

Objective: To examine how well relational continuity is measured in validated instruments that evaluate primary healthcare from the patient's perspective.

Method: 645 adults with at least one healthcare contact in the previous 12 months responded to six instruments that evaluate primary healthcare.