Perceived practice change in Australian doctors as a result of medicolegal concerns.

Objectives: To explore the perceived impact of medicolegal concerns on how Australian doctors practise medicine and to compare doctors who have experienced a medicolegal matter with those who have not.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional survey (posted in September 2007, with reminder 4 weeks later) of Australian doctors from all major specialty groups, trainees and a sample of general practitioners who were insured with a medical insurance company.

Participants: 2999 respondents of 8360 who were sent the survey.

Australian doctors' involvement in medicolegal matters: a cross-sectional self-report study.

Objective: To investigate the frequency of, and factors associated with, Australian doctors' involvement in medicolegal matters.

Design, Setting And Participants: Cross-sectional survey of Australian doctors (specialists, trainees and general practitioners) insured with the medical insurance company Avant. A self-report questionnaire was mailed to Avant members in September 2007 to gather data on their involvement in medicolegal matters.

The neuropsychology of cannabis and other substance use in schizophrenia: review of the literature and critical evaluation of methodological issues.

Research on the neuropsychology of substance use in schizophrenia has been steadily growing over the past decade. However, significant gaps remain in the knowledge of individual substances and their relationship to cognition in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Approximately 65 studies to date have directly examined this relationship.

The neuropsychological correlates of cannabis use in schizophrenia: lifetime abuse/dependence, frequency of use, and recency of use.

This study examined the relationship between neuropsychological performance and three different indices of cannabis use in schizophrenia. These indices were DSM-IV lifetime abuse/dependence, frequency of use, and recency of use. Sixty males with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and 17 healthy males were recruited.

Maternal attachment state of mind moderates the impact of postnatal depression on infant attachment.

Background: Empirical studies have revealed a significant, but modest association between maternal depression and insecure mother-child attachment. Across studies, however, a substantial number of mothers with depression are able to provide a sensitive caretaking environment for their children. This paper aimed to explore whether a mother's own state of mind regarding attachment moderated the association between postpartum depression and insecure mother-child attachment.

Burnout and psychiatric morbidity in new medical graduates.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and burnout in final-year medical students, and changes in these measures during the intern year.

Design: Prospective longitudinal cohort study over 18 months, with assessment of psychiatric morbidity and burnout on six occasions.

Participants: All 117 students in the first graduating cohort of the University of Sydney Graduate Medical Program were invited to participate in the study; 110 consented.

Embryo donation for medical research: attitudes and concerns of potential donors.

Background: The recent derivation of embryonic stem cell lines from human blastocysts and related implications for regenerative medicine has intensified a longstanding debate about the use of human embryos for research purposes. However, studies have shown that few couples with stored embryos opt to donate them for research. Herein, the attitudes and concerns of potential embryo donors to donation of surplus embryos for medical research were examined.

"Stress" and coronary heart disease: psychosocial risk factors.

An Expert Working Group of the National Heart Foundation of Australia undertook a review of systematic reviews of the evidence relating to major psychosocial risk factors to assess whether there are independent associations between any of the factors and the development and progression of coronary heart disease (CHD), or the occurrence of acute cardiac events. The expert group concluded that (i) there is strong and consistent evidence of an independent causal association between depression, social isolation and lack of quality social support and the causes and prognosis of CHD; and (ii) there is no strong or consistent evidence for a causal association between chronic life events, work-related stressors (job control, demands and strain), Type A behaviour patterns, hostility, anxiety disorders or panic disorders and CHD. The increased risk contributed by these psychosocial factors is of similar order to the more conventional CHD risk factors such as smoking, dyslipidaemia and hypertension.

Cocaine use and cardiovascular complications.

In Australia, the lifetime use of cocaine is rising, with 3% of the population aged over 14 using cocaine in 1991, increasing to 4.5% in 1998, and cocaine use accounting for 10% of all deaths secondary to illicit drug use in 1998. Cocaine is prepared from the leaves of the plant Erythroxylon coca, and is available as cocaine hydrochloride (a water-soluble powder or granule which can be taken orally, intravenously or intranasally) and as "freebase" or "crack" cocaine (heat stable, melting at high temperatures, thus allowing it to be smoked).