Complexity of Data Displays in Prescription Drug Advertisements for Healthcare Providers.

Background: Healthcare providers (HCPs) often encounter clinical trial results in the form of data displays in prescription drug promotions. Information conveyed in data displays vary in their presentation and complexity. This study describes characteristics of data displays in prescription drug advertising targeted to HCPs.

Zika and travel in the news: a content analysis of US news stories during the outbreak in 2016-2017.

Objectives: This study aimed to understand what information the US media communicated about Zika virus (ZIKV) and travel in 2016 and 2017.

Study Design: We conducted a content analysis of news coverage about ZIKV and travel from April 5, 2016 to March 31, 2017.

Methods: We obtained a stratified, random sample of English language, US print newspaper and television news coverage about ZIKV and travel.

Impact of messages about scientific uncertainty on risk perceptions and intentions to use electronic vaping products.

Background: The science surrounding e-cigarettes and other electronic vaping products (EVPs) is rapidly evolving, and the health effects of vaping are unclear. Little research has explored how individuals respond to information acknowledging scientific uncertainty. The aim of the present study was to understand the impact of messages about scientific uncertainty regarding the health effects of vaping on risk perceptions and behavioral intentions.

Making Decisions About Medication Use During Pregnancy: Implications for Communication Strategies.

Objective To explore women's perceptions of the risks and benefits associated with medication use during pregnancy and to better understand how women make decisions related to medication use in pregnancy. Methods We conducted online focus groups with 48 women who used medication during pregnancy or while planning a pregnancy, and 12 in-depth follow-up interviews with a subset of these women. Results We found that women were aware of general risks associated with medication use but were often unable to articulate specific negative outcomes.

Serious and actionable risks, plus disclosure: Investigating an alternative approach for presenting risk information in prescription drug television advertisements.

Background: Broadcast direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug ads that present product claims are required to also present the product's major risks. Debate exists regarding how much information should be included in these major risk statements. Some argue that such statements expose people to unnecessary amounts of information, while others argue that they leave out important information.

Direct-to-Consumer Promotion of Prescription Drugs on Mobile Devices: Content Analysis.

Background: US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations state that any prescription drug promotion that presents drug benefits to consumers must also disclose certain information about the drug's risks in a similar manner. Nearly three-quarters of all US mobile phone subscribers use a smartphone, and over half report receiving mobile advertisements on their device.

Objective: The objective of this project was to investigate how prescription drugs are being promoted to consumers using mobile technologies.

The SmokefreeTXT (SFTXT) Study: Web and Mobile Data Collection to Evaluate Smoking Cessation for Young Adults.

Background: Text messaging (short message service, SMS) has been shown to be effective in delivering interventions for various diseases and health conditions, including smoking cessation. While there are many published studies regarding smoking cessation text messaging interventions, most do not provide details about the study's operational methods. As a result, there is a gap in our understanding of how best to design studies of smoking cessation text messaging programs.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a pyridoxine-dependent condition: urinary diagnostic biomarkers.

The data obtained in children with different forms of epilepsy allowed us to consider epilepsy as an inborn error of pyridoxine (vitamin B6) metabolism (Dolina et al., 2012). Mutual interconnections between ADHD and epilepsy indicate that such an approach is reasonable for ADHD.

Prostate-specific antigen testing: men's responses to 2012 recommendation against screening.

Background: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released a draft recommendation advising against prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing in October 2011, a major shift from previous years of recommending neither for or against PSA testing due to insufficient evidence.

Consumers' perceptions of preconception health.

Purpose: To inform the development of a preconception health (PCH) social marketing plan, we conducted qualitative research with prospective consumers.

Approach: We present formative findings based on the four Ps of social marketing: product, price, promotion, and place.

Setting: We conducted focus groups with 10 groups of women in Atlanta, Georgia, in fall 2010.

Epilepsy as a pyridoxine-dependent condition: quantified urinary biomarkers for status evaluation and monitoring antiepileptic treatment.

The study testifies an assumption on epilepsy as an inborn error of pyridoxine metabolism and suggests non-invasive quantitative biomarkers for clarified evaluation of clinical status and monitoring an individual treatment by antiepileptic drugs. Urinary parameters of pyridoxal-phosphate (PLP)-dependent tryptophan degradation and the level of 4-pyridoxic acid, the end product of pyridoxine metabolism, were measured by HPLC method with simultaneous ultraviolet and fluorimetric detection in children with different forms of epilepsy and matched healthy controls. The concentrations of compounds formed or metabolized in the course of tryptophan degradation (kynurenines, indoxyl-sulfate) along with correlations between them turned out to be quantitative biomarkers useful for both clarifying patient's clinical state and monitoring antiepileptic treatment.

Person-to-person interventions targeted to parents and other caregivers to improve adolescent health: a community guide systematic review.

Context: Adolescence marks a time when many young people engage in risky behaviors with potential implications for long-term health. Interventions focused on adolescents' parents and other caregivers have the potential to affect adolescents across a variety of risk and health-outcome areas.

Evidence Acquisition: Community Guide methods were used to evaluate the effectiveness of caregiver-targeted interventions in addressing adolescent risk and protective behaviors and health outcomes.

The public's response to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's 2009 recommendations on mammography screening.

Background: On November 16, 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released new breast cancer screening recommendations, resulting in considerable controversy.

Perspectives from the front lines of tobacco control.

This research is designed to share valuable experiences and transferable principles from program staff of the Legacy/Community Voices initiative who have been involved in planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining tobacco control activities in underserved communities. Interviews were conducted with 13 front line staff from 9 sites: Alameda County, California; Detroit, Michigan; El Paso, Texas; Ingham County, Michigan; Miami, Florida; New Mexico; North Carolina; Northern Manhattan; and West Virginia. A model emerged from these interviews that places the life cycle of a program in a central position, with many of the identified themes (working with local champions, obtaining support from multiple partners, increasing organizational capacity) repeated throughout, albeit in different forms at different stages.

Preoperative open field behavior predicts levels of neuropathic pain-related behavior in mice.

Exploratory open field (OF) activity was assessed in seven different mouse strains and selection lines. We counted the number of beam interruptions made by three cagemate mice at a time. This assay tests reactivity to aversive stimuli, anxiety and emotionality.

Genomic imprinting and audiogenic seizures in mice.

Audiogenic seizure (AGS) susceptibility in mice is a multifactorial behavioral disorder that involves severe generalized convulsions in response to loud, high-frequency sound. The inheritance of AGS susceptibility was examined in crosses between AGS-susceptible DBA/2J (D2) mice and epilepsy-prone (EP) mice. The EP mice were selected for high AGS susceptibility in a BALB/c-derived line.

Role of norepinephrine in suppressed IgG production in epilepsy-prone mice.

The responses of two substrains of Balb/c mice (Epilepsy Prone and Epilepsy Resistant) to immunization with sheep red blood cells (SRBC) were examined to determine whether chronic neurochemical differences between the two strains could influence B cell function. Anti-SRBC IgG production in the Epilepsy Prone (EP) strain was reduced relative to the Epilepsy Resistant (ER) strain, while anti-SRBC IgM production was unaffected. No differences were found in in vitro antibody (Ab) production or T lymphocyte function between the EP and ER strains, suggesting that in vivo conditions rather than an intrinsic cellular defect are responsible for reduced IgG production by EP mice.

An inbred epilepsy-prone substrain of BALB/c mice shows absence of the corpus callosum, an abnormal projection to the basal forebrain, and bilateral projections to the thalamus.

BALB/c mice lack a corpus callosum in about 11% of the population. Two inbred substrains of BALB/c mice, epilepsy-prone (EP) and epilepsy-resistant (ER), have been examined to determine whether these substrains differ in regard to corpus callosum morphology. Further, this study addressed the issue of whether misrouted cortical axons form an aberrant pathway instead of the corpus callosum.

Effect of sustained pyridoxine treatment on seizure susceptibility and regional brain amino acid levels in genetically epilepsy-prone BALB/c mice.

Epilepsy-prone and epilepsy-resistant substrains were selectively bred from a strain of BALB/c mice; audiogenic-sensitive epilepsy-prone animals showed enhanced sensitivity to chemical convulsants. Treatment with pyridoxine (100 mg/L in drinking water) initiated at mating and continued throughout pregnancy and the life of the offspring abolished the enhanced sensitivity to chemical convulsants and reduced the severity of audiogenic seizures. Withdrawal of pyridoxine restored the enhanced seizure sensitivity.

Genetically determined predisposition to convulsions as the result of a generalized defect in the metabolism of catecholamines in the central nervous system.

The author compared the functional properties of the striatal system in KM rats sensitive to the convulsive effects of sound with those in Wistar rats, which are insensitive to these effects. It was shown that bulbocapnine (an antagonist of dopamine) administered to the Wistar rats at a dose of 40 mg/kg body weight caused catalepsy, depressed the motor cortex excitability, and raised the threshold of the generalized Jacksonian-type convulsions. The KM rats showed neither catalepsy nor a rise in the generalized convulsion threshold, and the depression of the motor cortex excitability in them was only slight.

[Modeling different regimes of bioelectrical activity in the brain in normal subjects and in "increased readiness" in a network of neuron-like elements].

Desynchronous (low voltage fast activity), synchronous (high voltage slow waves) as well as convulsive brain activities were stimulated by a computer model of neuronal population. Network excitatory and inhibitory elements possessed fundamental dynamic properties of real neurones. Being independent both of the excitability of elements and of external influence efficacy, synchronous (desynchronous) network activity resulted from the increase (decrease) of the average power of "neuronal" interconnections which imitated mutual and recurrent excitation and inhibition.

[Catecholamine levels in the striatum, hypothalamus, and adrenals of rats with genetic predisposition to epileptic seizures].

The content of catecholamines (CA) was studied in the basal ganglia, hypothalamus and adrenals of Krushinsky-Molodkina (KM) rats exhibiting the increased sensitivity to convulsants, and of non-audiogenic Wistar rats. It was found that in all the structures under test the content of CA was considerably higher in KM than in Wistar rats. At the same time the concentration of dopamine in the basal ganglia and hypothalamus was far greater than that of the subsequent reaction products (noradrenaline, homovanillic and dioxyphenyl acetic acids), and the concentration of dopamine in the adrenals exceeded that of noradrenaline and adrenaline.

[Genetically determined predisposition to convulsive seizures as a result of a generalized defect in catecholamine metabolism in the central nervous system].

The author compared the functional properties of the strial system in KM rats sensitive to the convulsive effects of sound and in Wistar rats which are insensitive to those effects. It was shown that bulbocapnine (an antagonist of dopamine) administered to the Wistar rats in a dose of 40 mg/kg body weight caused catalepsy, depressed the motor cortex excitability and raised the threshold of the generalized Jacksonian-type convulsions. The KM rats showed neither catalepsy, nor the rise of the generalized convulsion threshold, and the depression of the motor cortex excitability in them was but slight.