Driven by need, shaped by access: Heterogeneity in patient profiles and patterns of service utilization in patients with alcohol use disorders.

Background: Patients with alcohol-use disorders (AUDs) are highly heterogenous and account for an increasing proportion of general medical hospital visits. However, many patients with AUDs do not present with severe medical or psychiatric needs requiring immediate attention. There may be a mismatch between some patients' needs and the available services, potentially driving re-admissions and re-encounters.

Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Food Consumption: Examination in Diverse Samples.

Background: Racial/ethnic discrimination has been linked to poor health outcomes. Effects of discrimination on health behaviors, including patterns of food consumption, may contribute to health outcomes.

Purpose: We examined relations of discrimination to consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods in two diverse samples.

Development and preliminary validation of a scale to assess physicians' emotional distress intolerance in end-of-life care communication.

Context: End-of-life care (EOLC) communication is beneficial but underutilized, particularly in conditions with a variable course such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure (CHF). Physicians' emotional distress intolerance has been identified as a barrier to EOLC communication. However, studies of emotional distress intolerance in EOLC have largely relied on anecdotal reports, qualitative data, or observational studies of physician-patient communication.

Racial discrimination and core executive functions.

Researchers have theorized that exposure to racial discrimination may impair executive functioning. The limited existing data broadly support this notion and suggest that discrimination may exert acute and persistent effects on executive functioning, potentially because of the cognitive demands associated with responding to discrimination. However, it is unclear if discrimination is differentially associated with different core executive functions.

Approach to the adult patient with fever of unknown origin.

Fever of unknown origin (FUO) in adults is defined as a temperature higher than 38.3 degrees C (100.9 degrees F) that lasts for more than three weeks with no obvious source despite appropriate investigation.