Career advancement insights from certified pharmacy technicians: Enhanced opportunities for the pharmacy technician workforce.

Background: Sustainable career advancement opportunities for pharmacy technicians will be a critical part of patient-centered community pharmacy environments as the role of the pharmacist provider expands.

Objective: (1) To determine the impact of a Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) pharmacy certification on career advancement and professional growth metrics; (2) To assess technicians' role in advanced pharmacy services before and after certification; and (3) To identify changes in pharmacist services when a certified pharmacy technician (CPhT) was added to the provider team.

Methods: A 73-question web-based survey was distributed to all PTCB CPhT in the United States, Washing DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands.

First evidence for a pharmacist-led anticoagulant clinic in a medicare part A long term care environment.

Anticoagulation risks in older adult, long-term care patients are known to be high, especially in those with frequent transitions between care environments. Introduction of collaborative practice agreements (CPA) in specific settings is encouraged in the United States and has provided an additional option for the care of medically challenging patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the time in therapeutic range (TTR) in a Medicare Part A sponsored long-term care environment managed by pharmacists through a collaborative practice agreement in South-Central Appalachia.

Advancing pharmacy technician training and practice models in the United States: Historical perspectives, workforce development needs, and future opportunities.

The United States healthcare system faces immense challenges related to cost, quality, and access. As the pharmacy profession addresses these challenges by shifting toward a practice model centered around direct patient care clinical services, a competent and capable technician workforce is needed to support the roles of pharmacists. Until recently, little focus has been paid to pharmacy technicians or their role as they relate to practice model change.

The use and misuse of prescription stimulants as "cognitive enhancers" by students at one academic health sciences center.

Purpose: Prescription stimulant use as "cognitive enhancers" has been described among undergraduate college students. However, the use of prescription stimulants among future health care professionals is not well characterized. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of prescription stimulant misuse among students at an academic health sciences center.

Prescription drug abuse: a comparison of prescriber and pharmacist perspectives.

This study compared perceptions of prescribers and pharmacists (N = 89) regarding multiple aspects of prescription drug abuse. Questionnaires were developed to assess perceptions regarding the prevalence of prescription drug abuse, self-perceived communication competence, and additional communication and prescription drug abuse domains. Pharmacists perceived a larger percentage of patients (41%) to be abusing opioid pain relievers as compared with their prescriber colleagues (17%).

pH-Dependent cis --> trans isomerization rates for azobenzene dyes in aqueous solution.

Azobenzenes can function as molecular switches driven by their unusual cis <--> trans photoisomerization properties. The stability of an azobenzene-based switch depends on its rate of thermal relaxation, which is known to depend on the solvent environment, but few kinetic studies in aqueous media have been reported. We use nanosecond UV laser flash photolysis-transient absorption spectroscopy to measure thermal cis --> trans isomerization rates for mono- and disubstituted p-aminoazobenzenes and p-hydroxyazobenzenes in water at 23 degrees C over the pH range of 4 to 11.

Temperature- and species-dependent quenching of NO A 2Sigma+(v'=0) probed by two-photon laser-induced fluorescence using a picosecond laser.

We report improved measurements of the temperature-dependent cross sections for the quenching of fluorescence from the A 2Sigma+(v'=0) state of NO. Cross sections were measured for gas temperatures ranging from 294 to 1300 K for quenching by NO(X (2)Pi), H(2)O, CO(2), O(2), CO, N(2), and C(2)H(2). The A 2Sigma+(v'=0) state was populated via two-photon excitation with a picosecond laser at 454 nm, and the decay rate of the fluorescence originating from A 2Sigma+(v'=0) was measured directly.

Evidence against functionalism from neuroimaging of the alien colour effect in synaesthesia.

Coloured hearing synaesthetes experience colours to heard words, as confirmed by reliability of self-report, psychophysical testing and functional neuroimaging data. Some also describe the 'alien colour effect' (ACE): in response to colour names, they experience colours different from those named. We have previously reported that the ACE slows colour naming in a Stroop task, reflecting cognitive interference from synaesthetically induced colours, which depends upon their being consciously experienced.

A behavioural and functional neuroimaging investigation into the effects of nicotine on sensorimotor gating in healthy subjects and persons with schizophrenia.

Rationale: Schizophrenia patients display an excessive rate of smoking compared to the general population. Nicotine increases acoustic prepulse inhibition (PPI) in animals as well as healthy humans, suggesting that smoking may provide a way of restoring deficient sensorimotor gating in schizophrenia. No previous study has examined the neural mechanisms of the effect of nicotine on PPI in humans.

Disruption of learned irrelevance in acute schizophrenia in a novel continuous within-subject paradigm suitable for fMRI.

Learned irrelevance (LIrr) is closely related to latent inhibition (LI). In LI a to-be-conditioned stimulus (CS) is prexposed alone prior to the opportunity to learn an association between the CS and an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). In LIrr preexposure consists of intermixed presentations of both CS and UCS in a random relationship to each other.

Personality predicts brain responses to cognitive demands.

Eysenck (1981) proposed that the personality dimension of introversion- extraversion (E) reflects individual differences in a cortical arousal system modulated by reticulothalamic- cortical pathways: it is chronically more active in introverts relative to extraverts and influences cognitive performance in interaction with task parameters. A circuit with connections to this system, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate (AC) cortex, has been identified in studies applying functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to a broad range of cognitive tasks. We examined the influence of E, assessed with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1991), in fMRI activity during an "n-back" task involving four memory loads (0-, 1-, 2-, and 3-back) and a rest condition in healthy men.

Genome-wide linkage analysis of a composite index of neuroticism and mood-related scales in extreme selected sibships.

There is considerable evidence to suggest that the genetic vulnerabilities to depression and anxiety substantially overlap and quantitatively act to alter risk to both disorders. Continuous scales can be used to index this shared liability and are a complementary approach to the use of clinical phenotypes in the genetic analysis of depression and anxiety. The aim of this study (Genetic and Environmental Nature of Emotional States in Siblings) was to identify genetic variants for the liability to depression and anxiety after the application of quantitative genetic methodology to a large community-based sample (n = 34,371), using four well-validated questionnaires of depression and anxiety.

Allocentric spatial memory activation of the hippocampal formation measured with fMRI.

Hippocampal activation was investigated, comparing allocentric and egocentric spatial memory. Healthy participants were immersed in a virtual reality circular arena, with pattern-rendered walls. In a viewpoint-independent task, they moved toward a pole, which was then removed.

Cost-effectiveness of computerised cognitive-behavioural therapy for anxiety and depression in primary care: randomised controlled trial.

Background: Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is effective for treating anxiety and depression in primary care, but there is a shortage of therapists. Computer-delivered treatment may be a viable alternative.

Aims: To assess the cost-effectiveness of computer-delivered CBT.

Clinical efficacy of computerised cognitive-behavioural therapy for anxiety and depression in primary care: randomised controlled trial.

Background: Preliminary results have demonstrated the clinical efficacy of computerised cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) in the treatment of anxiety and depression in primary care.

Aims: To determine, in an expanded sample, the dependence of the efficacy of this therapy upon clinical and demographic variables.

Method: A sample of 274 patients with anxiety and/or depression were randomly allocated to receive, with or without medication, computerised CBT or treatment as usual, with follow-up assessment at 6 months.

Differential neural responses to overt and covert presentations of facial expressions of fear and disgust.

There is debate in cognitive neuroscience whether conscious versus unconscious processing represents a categorical or a quantitative distinction. The purpose of the study was to explore this matter using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We first established objective thresholds of the critical temporal parameters for overt and covert presentations of fear and disgust.

Cognitive effects of nicotine in humans: an fMRI study.

To elucidate the neural correlates of cognitive effects of nicotine, we examined behavioral performance and blood oxygenation level-dependent regional brain activity, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, during a parametric "n-back" task in healthy nonsmoking males after the administration of nicotine (12 microg/kg body weight) or saline. Nicotine, compared to placebo, improved accuracy (P = 0.008) in all active conditions (2%-11%), and had a load-specific effect on latency (P = 0.

Fearfulness and sex in F2 Roman rats: males display more fear though both sexes share the same fearfulness traits.

The pattern of sex differences in a large sample (about 400 for each sex) of F2-generation rats, derived from inbred Roman high- and low-avoidance strains differing in fearfulness and brain functioning, was investigated. We obtained measures from responses to a battery of novel/threatening tests [open field (OF), plus maze (PM), hole board (HB), activity (A), and acoustic startle reflex (ASR)] as well as learned fear paradigms [classical fear conditioning (CFC) and shuttlebox avoidance conditioning (SAC)]. The results showed that almost all behaviors assessed fit with a pattern of unidirectional sex effects characterized by male rats as being more fearful than females: males defecated more than females in the OF, PM, HB, ASR, and CFC; ambulated less in the OF, PM, A, and SAC; showed more self-grooming in PM and HB; explored the open arms of the PM and the holes of the HB less; displayed enhanced ASR; and showed poorer performance in the SAC task.

Neural correlates of tactile prepulse inhibition: a functional MRI study in normal and schizophrenic subjects.

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle reflex refers to the ability of a weak prestimulus, the prepulse, to inhibit the response to a closely following strong sensory stimulus, the pulse. PPI is found to be deficient in a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders associated with abnormalities at some level in the limbic and cortico-pallido-striato-thalamic circuitry. We applied whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging to elucidate the neural correlates of PPI using airpuff stimuli as both the prepulse and the pulse in groups of (i) healthy subjects and (ii) schizophrenic patients.

The Transition from Automatic to Controlled Processing.

The transition from automatic (unconscious) to controlled (conscious) processing is described in terms of a neural network model of classical conditioning ([Schmajuk et al., 1996]). In the framework of the network, an environmental stimulus is processed in controlled or conscious mode when Novelty and attention to the stimulus are large, and in automatic or unconscious mode otherwise.

Task instructions modulate neural responses to fearful facial expressions.

Background: The amygdala, hippocampus, ventral, and dorsal prefrontal cortices have been demonstrated to be involved in the response to fearful facial expressions. Little is known, however, about the effect of task instructions upon the intensity of responses within these regions to fear-inducing stimuli.

Methods: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined neural responses to alternating, 30-sec blocks of fearful and neutral expressions in nine right-handed male volunteers during three different 5-min conditions: 1) passive viewing; 2) performance of a gender-decision task, with no explicit judgment of facial emotion; 3) performance of an emotionality judgment task - an explicitly emotional task.