Background: Calls have been made for paramedics to have some form of care pathway that they could use to safely divert adults with epilepsy away from emergency departments and instigate ambulatory care improvements. Different configurations are possible. To know which to prioritise for implementation/evaluation, there is a need to determine which are acceptable to service users and likely National Health Service-feasible.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: To identify service users' preferences for an alternative care pathway for adults with epilepsy presenting to the ambulance service.
Methods: Extensive formative work (qualitative, survey and knowledge exchange) informed the design of a stated preference discrete choice experiment (DCE). This hypothetical survey was hosted online and consisted of 12 binary choices of alternative care pathways described in terms of: the paramedic's access to medical records/ 'care plan', what happens next (described in terms of conveyance), time, availability of epilepsy specialists today, general practitioner (GP) notification and future contact with epilepsy specialists.
Introduction: Adults presenting to the ambulance service for diagnosed epilepsy are often transported to emergency departments (EDs) despite no clinical need. An alternative care pathway (CP) could allow paramedics to divert them from ED and instigate ambulatory care improvements. To identify the most promising CP configuration for subsequent testing, the COLLABORATE project surveyed people with epilepsy and family/friends who had recently used the English ambulance service to elicit preferences for 288 CP configurations for different seizures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To systematically review the literature investigating the links between stigma and the management of type 1 diabetes.
Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Both quantitative and qualitative data were considered.
This study explored the feasibility and acceptability of an experiential compassion-focused group intervention for mental health inpatient staff. Findings demonstrated that although participants found sessions enjoyable, and reported a number of benefits, the group attrition was high. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore issues related to group dropout.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: An 'ethnic' or 'group' density effect in psychosis has been observed, whereby the risk of psychosis in minority group individuals is inversely related to neighbourhood-level proportions of others belonging to the same group. However, there is conflicting evidence over whether this effect differs between minority groups and limited investigation into other moderators.
Aims: To conduct a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of the group density effect in psychosis and examine moderators.
Aim: To systematically review the literature concerning the psychosocial factors associated with repeat diabetic ketoacidosis for people living with type 1 diabetes.
Methods: PsycInfo, Web of Science, CINAHL, PubMed and ASSIA were searched according to a registered study protocol (PROSPERO CRD42020167381). Data were extracted into a coding spreadsheet, and findings were synthesised narratively.
Objectives: Psychosis, and in particular auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), are associated with adversity exposure. However, AVHs also occur in populations with no need for care or distress.
Aims: This study investigated whether adversity exposure would differentiate clinical and healthy voice-hearers within the context of a 'three-hit' model of vulnerability and stress exposure.
Behav Cogn Psychother
September 2020
Background: Evidence is emerging that beliefs about voices are influenced by broader schematic beliefs about the self and others. Similarly, studies indicate that the relationship an individual has with their voice may mirror wider patterns of relating observed in social relationships, which may be influenced by schematic beliefs.
Aims: This study examined associations between beliefs about voices and self and other schemas.
Purpose: Epilepsy is associated with costly unplanned health service use. The UK's National Audits of Seizure Management in Hospital found use was often clinically unnecessary, avoidable and typically led to little benefit for epilepsy management. We systematically identified how services have responded to reduce such use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Emergency department (ED) visits for epilepsy are common, costly, often clinically unnecessary and typically lead to little benefit for epilepsy management. An 'Alternative Care Pathway' (ACP) for epilepsy, which diverts people with epilepsy (PWE) away from ED when '999' is called and leads to care elsewhere, might generate savings and facilitate improved ambulatory care. It is unknown though what features it should incorporate to make it acceptable to persons from this particularly vulnerable target population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFine particulate matter (PM) air pollution varies spatially and temporally in concentration and composition and has been shown to cause or exacerbate adverse effects on human and ecological health. Biomonitoring using airborne tree leaf deposition as a proxy for particulate matter (PM) pollution has been explored using a variety of study designs, tree species, sampling strategies, and analytical methods. In the USA, relatively few have applied these methods using co-located fine particulate measurements for comparison and relying on one tree species with extensive spatial coverage, to capture spatial variation in ambient air pollution across an urban area.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Psychological models of voice-hearing propose that auditory-verbal hallucinations occur when inner speech is attributed to a source external to the self. Approximately half of the world's population is multilingual, and the extent to which they use a second language for inner speech depends on their experience and competency in it. Bilingualism therefore provides a natural window into the processes operating in auditory-verbal hallucinations, but no systematic study of voice-hearing in bilinguals has hitherto been conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Certain ways of responding to psychotic experiences (PEs) appear more commonly associated with clinical distress (e.g. avoidance) and other ways with benign or positive outcomes (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hearing voices can be a distressing and disabling experience for some, whilst it is a valued experience for others, so-called 'healthy voice-hearers'. Cognitive models of psychosis highlight the role of memory, appraisal and cognitive biases in determining emotional and behavioural responses to voices. A memory bias potentially associated with distressing voices is the overgeneral memory bias (OGM), namely the tendency to recall a summary of events rather than specific occasions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cognitive models of psychosis propose that appraisals (ie, the interpretation and meaning attributed to experiences) are central to the transition from anomalous experiences to psychotic symptoms. In the Unusual Experiences Enquiry (UNIQUE) study, we investigated the role of appraisals by comparing individuals with persistent psychotic experiences without a need for care with patients and people without psychotic experiences.
Method: Eligible participants were patients with diagnosed psychotic disorders (clinical group) and adults in the general population with persistent psychotic experiences (non-clinical group) and without psychotic experiences (controls).
miR-200b plays a role in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cancer. We recently reported abnormal expression of miR-200b in the context of human pulmonary hypoplasia in congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). Smaller lung size, a lower number of airway generations, and a thicker mesenchyme characterize pulmonary hypoplasia in CDH.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is evidence for a group of nonclinical individuals with full-blown, persistent psychotic experiences (PEs) but no need-for-care: they are of particular importance in identifying risk and protective factors for clinical psychosis. The aim of this study was to investigate whether reasoning biases are related to PEs or need-for-care.
Method: Two groups with persistent PEs (clinical; n = 74; nonclinical; n = 92) and a control group without PEs (n = 83) were compared on jumping-to-conclusions (JTC) and belief flexibility.
Objectives: The UK ambulance service is expected to now manage more patients in the community and avoid unnecessary transportations to hospital emergency departments (ED). Most people it attends who have experienced seizures have established epilepsy, have experienced uncomplicated seizures and so do not require the full facilities of an ED. Despite this, most are transported there.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrofacial clefting is amongst the most common of birth defects, with both genetic and environmental components. Although numerous studies have been undertaken to investigate the complexities of the genetic etiology of this heterogeneous condition, this factor remains incompletely understood. Here, we describe mutations in the HYAL2 gene as a cause of syndromic orofacial clefting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The UK ambulance service often attends to suspected seizures. Most persons attended to will not require the facilities of a hospital emergency department (ED) and so should be managed at scene or by using alternative care pathways. Most though are transported to ED.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndividuals reporting persistent psychotic experiences (PEs) in the general population, but without a "need for care", are a unique group of particular importance in identifying risk and protective factors for psychosis. We compared people with persistent PEs and no "need for care" (non-clinical, N=92) with patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (clinical, N=84) and controls without PEs (N=83), in terms of their phenomenological, socio-demographic and psychological features. The 259 participants were recruited from one urban and one rural area in the UK, as part of the UNIQUE (Unusual Experiences Enquiry) study.
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