Cost effectiveness of computer tailored and non-tailored smoking cessation letters in general practice: randomised controlled trial.

Objectives: To develop and evaluate, in a primary care setting, a computerised system for generating tailored letters about smoking cessation.

Design: Randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Six general practices in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Lithium monitoring before and after the distribution of clinical practice guidelines.

Objective: To determine whether distribution of clinical practice guidelines improves lithium monitoring and whether standards of monitoring differed between patients in psychiatric contact and those seen only in primary care.

Method: Standards of monitoring were assessed for patients on lithium in northeast Scotland throughout 1995 and/or throughout 1996. Guidelines were circulated in January 1996 to all local general practitioners and psychiatrists.

Heterologous expression of wild type and deglycosylated human sex steroid-binding protein (SBP or SHBG) in the yeast, Pichia pastoris. Characterization of the recombinant proteins.

Wild type, partially and fully-deglycosylated human sex steroid-binding protein (SBP or SHBG) cDNAs lacking the native cucaryotic signal sequence were cloned into a yeast expression vector containing the Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-factor for extracellular secretion. Following transformation into Pichia pastoris, the wild type and all constructed mutants were successfully expressed. The levels were lower for the deglycosylated mutants indicating that oligosaccharide side chains may play a role in SBP secretion.

Doctors' retainer scheme in Scotland: time for change?

Objectives: To describe the present doctors' retainer scheme in Scotland and ascertain the need for change.

Design: Semistructured postal questionnaires to current and past members of the doctors' retainer scheme and general practitioner employers.

Setting: Scotland, October to December 1994.

Constructivist self-development theory: a theoretical framework for assessing and treating traumatized college students.

The authors present a new conceptual framework for assessing and treating traumatized college students. The framework, constructivist self-development theory (CSDT), blends object relations, self-psychology, and social cognition theories. It is founded upon a constructivist view of trauma in which the individual's unique history shapes his or her experience of traumatic events and defines the adaptation to trauma.