Generating pathways to domestically sourced plasma-derived medicinal products: Report from a workshop by the International Plasma and Fractionation Association and the Working Party on Global Blood Safety of the International Society of Blood Transfusion.

Plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMPs) are recognized internationally as essential medicines required to treat various acute and chronic conditions including congenital deficiencies of plasma proteins in haemophilia and primary immune deficiency. Global provision of these medicines is dominated by a small number of commercial companies, influencing the price and availability of the products. Achieving a level of strategic independence from this dominance is now seen as a public health priority in many countries.

A randomised controlled trial of cognitive behaviour therapy vs treatment as usual in the treatment of mild to moderate late life depression.

Objectives: This study provides an empirical evaluation of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) alone vs Treatment as usual (TAU) alone (generally pharmacotherapy) for late life depression in a UK primary care setting.

Method: General Practitioners in Fife and Glasgow referred 114 Participants to the study with 44 meeting inclusion criteria and 40 participants providing data that permitted analysis. All participants had a diagnosis of mild to moderate Major Depressive Episode.

A model of personality change after traumatic brain injury and the development of the Brain Injury Personality Scales.

Objective: The aims of this study were to develop models of personality change after traumatic brain injury (TBI) based on information provided by the TBI survivor and a significant other (SO), and to compare the models generated from the two different sources of information.

Methods: Individuals with and without TBI and an SO were interviewed separately about their current personality. The SOs were also interviewed about the personality of the TBI survivor before the injury.

Report on a new type of trauma full-body digital X-ray machine.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic equivalence, radiation dose, clinical usefulness and radiographic aspects of a low-dose, full-body digital X-ray machine in a busy trauma unit. A digital trauma X-ray machine known as "LODOX" was compared with conventional radiography between June 1999 and November 2001 in the Groote Schuur Hospital Trauma Unit, Cape Town. Digital images of a variety of body regions commonly imaged in trauma were compared for diagnostic image quality in a number of categories with equivalent conventional radiographs.