Capacity to provide informed consent among adults with bipolar disorder.

Background: Identifying correlates of capacity to provide informed consent among individuals with bipolar disorder is essential for patient protection. As part of a clinical trial involving approved, standard treatments, we investigated relationships between clinical characteristics and capacity to provide informed consent in adults with bipolar disorder using the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research (MacCAT-CR). After administering the MacCAT-CR, continuing participants in the trial were capable of and provided informed consent.

Impulsive aggression with irritability and responsive to divalproex: a pediatric bipolar spectrum disorder phenotype?

Background: The objective of this retrospective chart review was to evaluate the phenomenology and response to divalproex in a sub-population of children admitted to an inpatient setting with severe impairing symptoms of irritability and aggression. In addition, we examined whether the symptomatology of this group was consistent with a pediatric divalproex-responsive bipolar spectrum disorder.

Methods: The charts of 46 child and adolescent patients with prominent impulsive aggression with irritability admitted to a crisis stabilization center were assessed retrospectively.

Using models and data to support optimization of the Military Health System: a case study in an intensive care unit.

Optimizing healthcare delivery--improving processes to reduce impediments to care--is an important goal of the Military Health System. Models and data can be effective tools to assist managers in achieving this goal. This paper illustrates this utility with a case study of the intensive care unit (ICU) at the US Air Force's Wilford Hall Medical Center.