Smartphone-Based Psychotherapeutic Interventions in Blended Care of Cancer Survivors: Nested Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Cancer is related to not only physical but also mental suffering. Notably, body image disturbances are highly relevant to cancer-related changes often persisting beyond recovery from cancer. Scalable and low-barrier interventions that can be blended with face-to-face psychotherapy for cancer survivors are highly warranted.

Group-based body psychotherapy improves appreciation of body awareness in post-treatment cancer patients: A non-randomized clinical trial.

Introduction: Cancer-related impairments often co-occur with bodily disturbances. Body psychotherapy (BPT) can improve bodily wellbeing, yet evidence in cancer survivors is scarce. Hence, we aimed to evaluate whether blended group BPT alleviates bodily disturbances in post-treatment cancer patients.

A clinical trial of group-based body psychotherapy to improve bodily disturbances in post-treatment cancer patients in combination with randomized controlled smartphone-triggered bodily interventions (KPTK): study protocol.

Background: Disturbances in bodily well-being represent one key source of suffering and impairment related to cancer. There is growing evidence that body psychotherapy (BPT) is efficacious for the treatment of various mental disorders. However, with regard to cancer patients, evidence is scarce.

Illness Beliefs, Treatment Beliefs and Information Needs as Starting Points for Patient Information: The Evaluation of an Intervention for Patients with Depression.

Patients with depression are often dissatisfied with disease- and therapy-related information. The objective of this study was to evaluate an intervention that applied the Common Sense Model to the provision of information during inpatient rehabilitation for patients with depression. The intervention was evaluated in a sequential control group design.

Effect of specialist palliative care services on quality of life in adults with advanced incurable illness in hospital, hospice, or community settings: systematic review and meta-analysis.

 To assess the effect of specialist palliative care on quality of life and additional outcomes relevant to patients in those with advanced illness. Systematic review with meta-analysis. Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PsycINFO, and trial registers searched up to July 2016.

[Quality of life and Potential Incriminating Factors Among Palliative Care Givers: A German Survey of the KOMPACT Working Group].

Aim Of The Study: Due to the aging population in Germany, the need for palliative care institutions will increase. Considering the lack of resources, work stress of palliative care nurses could increase significantly. It was the aim of this study to identify risk factors for job overload and work stress of palliative care nurses in the inpatient and outpatient setting.

Identification of hospital patients in need of palliative care--a predictive score.

Background: Palliative care was initially developed for patients with advanced cancer. Over the past years, however, palliative care has broadened its focus from terminal cancer patients to patients with other serious, life-limiting illnesses. Nevertheless, the identification of palliative care needs (PCNs) among hospital patients remains an insufficiently investigated topic of research.

["Good dying"--definition and current state of research].

The advances of modern medicine did not only result in prolongation of life expectancy, but also led to a shift from dying at home to dying in public institutions. In western countries most people die at advanced age in medical facilities. Hence, the question regarding the conditions, which should be provided by society and especially medicine, to allow terminally ill people to experience "good dying" is substantial.

Early Palliative Care-Health services research and implementation of sustainable changes: the study protocol of the EVI project.

Background: International medical organizations such as the American Society of Medical Oncology recommend early palliative care as the "gold standard" for palliative care in patients with advanced cancer. Nevertheless, even in Comprehensive Cancer Centers, early palliative care is not yet routine practice. The main goal of the EVI project is to evaluate whether early palliative care can be implemented-in the sense of "putting evidence into practice"-into the everyday clinical practice of Comprehensive Cancer Centers.

[Availability and integration of palliative medicine at certified lung cancer centers].

Background: It is the aim of the certification system for Organ Cancer Centers of the German Cancer Society to ensure that oncology patients receive therapy meeting high quality standards. Lung cancer patients require comprehensive palliative care due to their high symptom load. The purpose of the present study was to identify the existing palliative care structures at 39 certified lung cancer centers.

Perceptions of a good death among German medical students.

The purpose of our study was to examine the perceptions of a good death among medical students, who are future care providers. The authors identified 9 domains that contribute to a good death according to first- and fifth-year medical students (N=432). From their perspective, being free from pain and physical distress is only 1 important component of a good death, and other elements such as psychosocial issues should also be taken into account.

Illness and treatment perceptions of patients with chronic low back pain: characteristics and relation to individual, disease and interaction variables.

The significance of various cognitive and psychosocial factors in the development, progression and persistence of chronic low back pain (CLBP) is well demonstrated. However, only a few studies have addressed CLBP patients' cognitive representations or beliefs about their disease and its treatment. The present study aimed to: (1) describe the illness and treatment beliefs of patients with CLBP, e.

Measuring individual quality of life in patients receiving radiation therapy: the SEIQoL-Questionnaire.

Purpose: Quality of life (QoL) is one of the most important outcomes in cancer care. Although a number of instruments to measure health-related QoL (HRQoL) exist, there are few suitable instruments to measure individual QoL. The best established instrument is the Schedule for the Evaluation of Individual Quality of Life (SEIQoL).

[Work place health promotion programmes of the statutory German Pension Insurance].

Background: In 2009, the amendment of § 31 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 SGB VI gave the German Pension Insurance the opportunity to provide outpatient medical treatments for insured people who have an occupation with particularly high risk of health.

VCSEL-based, high-speed, in situ TDLAS for in-cylinder water vapor measurements in IC engines.

We report the first application of a vertical-cavity surfaceemitting laser (VCSEL) for calibration- and sampling-free, high-speed, in situ H2O concentration measurements in IC engines using direct TDLAS (tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy). Measurements were performed in a single-cylinder research engine operated under motored conditions with a time resolution down to 100 μs (i.e.

Illness beliefs and treatment beliefs as predictors of short-term and medium-term outcome in chronic back pain.

Objective: Patients' illness beliefs were shown to be more relevant than other psychosocial factors of influence for predicting outcome in back pain in primary care. The aim of this study was to determine whether illness beliefs and beliefs about rehabilitation are predictors of functioning, pain intensity, and coping with pain after rehabilitation in a population with longstanding chronic back pain.

Design And Patients: The study included 110 patients with longstanding chronic back pain in a longitudinal study design with 3 measurement points (before rehabilitation, end of rehabilitation, and 6 months follow-up).

[Empirically derived recommendations for measuring patient-reported change in rehabilitation studies].

Diverse methods are available for evaluation of (medical) interventions. In each case one has to decide on a specific method. Our aim was to analyze typical problems involved in the measurement of change.

[Use of trajectories for measuring change in medical rehabilitation: a contribution toward comparison of different methods of outcome measurement].

Objective: The question of which methods should be used to assess the effects of medical rehabilitation has a long and controversial history. With regard to this background the project "Outcome measurement in medical rehabilitation" aimed at developing a better understanding of the process of change and its assessment. We also looked into possible causes for discrepancies between the results of direct and indirect measures of change.

["Scores of Independence for Neurologic and Geriatric Rehabilitation (SINGER)" - development and validation of a new assessment instrument].

In the context of developing and testing a procedure for "Outcome-oriented payment for rehabilitation after stroke", we found that the instruments commonly used to measure the outcomes of rehabilitation after stroke (e. g., Barthel-Index or FIM) were not meeting the special requirements of the new payment system.

Illness beliefs and treatment beliefs as predictors of short and middle term outcome in depression.

The article investigates whether illness beliefs and beliefs about rehabilitation are predictors of short and middle term outcome in depression even when adjustments are made for variables, which are known to be predictors of the course of depression. Within the context of a non-controlled prospective study design, data were analyzed using forced entry hierarchical multiple regression analyses. The sample comprised N = 98 patients.

Illness beliefs, treatment beliefs and information needs as starting points for patient information--evaluation of an intervention for patients with chronic back pain.

Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate an intervention which applied the extended Common Sense Model to the provision of information about illness and treatment during inpatient rehabilitation for patients with chronic back pain.

Methods: The intervention was evaluated in a sequential control group design (control group N=105; intervention group N=96). Changes with respect to illness and treatment beliefs, satisfaction with information, and health status at the end of rehabilitation were selected as outcome measures.

[Rehabilitation from the patient perspective--a qualitative analysis of the treatment beliefs of patients in inpatient orthopedic and psychosomatic rehabilitation].

Purpose: As the common sense self-regulation model (CSM) was further developed in the late 1990s, its focus was, along with subjective illness perceptions, the treatment representations of patients, in particular medication-related perceptions. However until now, only few studies have dealt with subjective concepts regarding non-medication treatment. The objective of this study was to explore the core content areas of the treatment concept of rehabilitation patients as a basis for developing a questionnaire to survey rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs.

Program adherence and effectiveness of a commercial nutrition program: the metabolic balance study.

Objective. To assess the effectiveness of a commercial nutrition program in improving weight, blood lipids, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Methods.