Group music therapy with songwriting for adult patients with long-term depression (SYNCHRONY study): a feasibility and acceptability study of the intervention and parallel randomised controlled trial design with wait-list control and nested process evaluation.

Background: Despite effective treatments, one fifth of patients develop chronic depression. Music therapy may offer a different approach. This study aimed to assess feasibility and acceptability of a music therapy intervention and trial methodology.

I know what I like, and I like what I know: Patient preferences and expectations when choosing an arts therapies group.

Patient preferences deserve consideration as they play a role in engagement with psychosocial interventions. This study sought to understand more about preferences and expectations of the arts therapies, in order to support informed decision-making. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 participants in a trial of group music therapy, art therapy and dance-movement therapy.

Preferences for group arts therapies: a cross-sectional survey of mental health patients and the general population.

Objectives: The arts therapies include music therapy, dance movement therapy, art therapy and dramatherapy. Preferences for art forms may play an important role in engagement with treatment. This survey was an initial exploration of who is interested in group arts therapies, what they would choose and why.

A risk stratifying tool to facilitate safe late-stage percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy in ALS.

Background: The safety of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) insertion in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients with significant respiratory compromise has been questioned.

Objectives: To review the characteristics of an ALS clinic patient cohort undergoing PEG, and the introduction of a risk stratification tool with procedural adaptations for higher-risk individuals.

Methods: Patients undergoing PEG insertion were analysed (n = 107).

Nutritional pathway for people with motor neurone disease.

This paper provides an overview of the nutritional management and care of people living with motor neurone disease (MND) in a specialist nutrition clinic. A specialist pathway of care has been developed to enable people living with MND to undergo a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) procedure in a safe way; the pathway incorporates attendance at a dedicated nutrition clinic, a stratification tool to identify patients with a high periprocedural risk and a PEG insertion team with significant experience in the MND population. Since this pathway has been in place, gastrostomies have been successfully placed in patients with a forced vital capacity (FVC) of less than 50%; previously, this would not have been possible.

Inhibition of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtypes by alpha-Conotoxin GID and analogues.

alpha-Conotoxins are small disulfide-rich peptides from the venom of the Conus species that target the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). They are valuable pharmacological tools and also have potential therapeutic applications particularly for the treatment of chronic pain. alpha-Conotoxin GID is isolated from the venom of Conus geographus and has an unusual N-terminal tail sequence that has been shown to be important for binding to the alpha4beta2 subtype of the nAChR.

Structure-activity relationships of alpha-conotoxins targeting neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.

alpha-Conotoxins that target the neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor have a range of potential therapeutic applications and are valuable probes for examining receptor subtype selectivity. The three-dimensional structures of about half of the known neuronal specific alpha-conotoxins have now been determined and have a consensus fold containing a helical region braced by two conserved disulfide bonds. These disulfide bonds define the two-loop framework characteristic for alpha-conotoxins, CCX(m)CX(n)C, where loop 1 comprises four residues (m = 4) and loop 2 between three and seven residues (n = 3, 6 or 7).

Isolation, structure, and activity of GID, a novel alpha 4/7-conotoxin with an extended N-terminal sequence.

Using assay-directed fractionation of Conus geographus crude venom, we isolated alpha-conotoxin GID, which acts selectively at neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Unlike other neuronally selective alpha-conotoxins, alpha-GID has a four amino acid N-terminal tail, gamma-carboxyglutamate (Gla), and hydroxyproline (O) residues, and lacks an amidated C terminus. GID inhibits alpha 7 and alpha 3 beta 2 nAChRs with IC(50) values of 5 and 3 nm, respectively and is at least 1000-fold less potent at the alpha 1 beta 1 gamma delta, alpha 3 beta 4, and alpha 4 beta 4 combinations.