Gap in Willingness and Access to Video Visit Use Among Older High-risk Veterans: Cross-sectional Study.

Background: The recent shift to video care has exacerbated disparities in health care access, especially among high-need, high-risk (HNHR) adults. Developing data-driven approaches to improve access to care necessitates a deeper understanding of HNHR adults' attitudes toward telemedicine and technology access.

Objective: This study aims to identify the willingness, access, and ability of HNHR veterans to use telemedicine for health care.

The cross-sectional association of frailty with past and current exposure to strong anticholinergic drugs.

Background: Anticholinergic drugs may contribute to frailty by impairing cognitive and physical functions. Strong anticholinergic drugs in particular may have adverse effects among older adults.

Objectives: Determine the association between frailty and the use of strong anticholinergic drugs among older US Veterans.

The Association of Ageist Attitudes With All-Cause Hospitalizations and Mortality.

Ageism is the systematic stereotyping and discrimination against older adults. Explicit ageism involves conscious control and implicit ageism involves unconscious processes. Studies have shown that ageist attitudes may be associated with poor clinical outcomes like hospitalizations and mortality.

Is there an association between ageist attitudes and frailty?

Background: Frailty is defined as a state of vulnerability to stressors that is associated with higher morbidity, mortality and healthcare utilization in older adults. Ageism is "a process of systematic stereotyping and discrimination against people because they are old." Explicit biases involve deliberate or conscious controls, while implicit bias involve unconscious processes.

Depression but not frailty contributed to a higher risk for all-cause hospitalizations in male older veterans.

Introduction: Frailty is a state of vulnerability to stressors resulting in higher morbidity, mortality, and utilization in older adults. Depression and frailty often coexist, suggesting a bidirectional relationship that may increase the effects of each individual condition on clinical outcomes and health-care utilization in older adults.

Objective: To determine the effects of concurrent frailty and depression on all-cause hospitalizations.

Working Memory Training for Adolescents With Cannabis Use Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Adolescent cannabis use is associated with working memory impairment. The present randomized controlled trial assigned adolescents ages 14 to 21 enrolled in cannabis use treatment to receive either working memory training (experimental group) or a control training (control group) as an adjunctive treatment. Cognitive function, drug use, and other outcomes were assessed before and after training.

Validation of an automatically generated screening score for frailty: the care assessment need (CAN) score.

Background: Frailty is a state of vulnerability to stressors that is prevalent in older adults and is associated with higher morbidity, mortality and healthcare utilization. Multiple instruments are used to measure frailty; most are time-consuming. The Care Assessment Need (CAN) score is automatically generated from electronic health record data using a statistical model.

Association of the CAN score with the FRAIL scale in community dwelling older adults.

Background: Frailty is a state of vulnerability to stressors which results in higher morbidity, mortality and healthcare utilization. The FRAIL scale is used as a validated screening for frailty. The Care Assessment Need (CAN) score is automatically generated from electronic health record data using a statistical model that includes data elements similar to the deficit accumulation model for frailty and predicts risk for hospitalization and/or mortality.

Dramatic Reduction in 30-Day Readmissions Through High-Risk Screening and Two-Phase Interdisciplinary Care.

Objectives: Thirty-day readmissions are common, serious, and costly. Most important, often they are preventable. The purpose of this quality improvement study was to evaluate an interdisciplinary, two-phase intervention to reduce 30-day readmissions among high-risk medical patients.

Initial feasibility and validity of a prospective memory training program in a substance use treatment population.

Individuals with substance use disorders have shown deficits in the ability to implement future intentions, called prospective memory. Deficits in prospective memory and working memory, a critical underlying component of prospective memory, likely contribute to substance use treatment failures. Thus, improvement of prospective memory and working memory in substance use patients is an innovative target for intervention.

A randomized controlled trial of the effects of working memory training in methadone maintenance patients.

Objective: Working memory impairment in individuals with chronic opioid dependence can play a major role in cognitive and treatment outcomes. Cognitive training targeting working memory shows promise for improved function in substance use disorders. To date, cognitive training has not been incorporated as an adjunctive treatment for opioid dependence.

p-Cyanophenylalanine and selenomethionine constitute a useful fluorophore-quencher pair for short distance measurements: application to polyproline peptides.

The C≡N stretching frequency and fluorescence quantum yield of p-cyanophenylalanine are sensitive to environment. As such, this unnatural amino acid has found broad applications, ranging from studying how proteins fold to determining the local electric field of membranes. Herein, we demonstrate that the fluorescence of p-cyanophenylalanine can be quenched by selenomethionine through an electron transfer process occurring at short distances, thus further expanding its spectroscopic utility.

Effects of methadone plus alcohol on cognitive performance in methadone-maintained volunteers.

Background: Methadone maintenance patients (MMP) often abuse other drugs, including alcohol. The combined use of methadone and alcohol could impair performance and daily functioning.

Objective: To examine the effects of methadone in combination with alcohol, as well as acute increases in methadone, on performance outcomes.

Topiramate impairs cognitive function in methadone-maintained individuals with concurrent cocaine dependence.

Topiramate is being investigated as a potential pharmacotherapy for the treatment of addictive disorders. However, its cognitive side effects raise concerns about its use, especially in populations with cognitive impairment, such as persons with chronic substance use disorders. This study investigated topiramate's cognitive effects in individuals dually dependent on cocaine and opioids as part of a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial of topiramate for cocaine dependence treatment.

Group-based differences in anti-aging bias among medical students.

Medical students (MS) may develop ageist attitudes early in their training that may predict their future avoidance of caring for the elderly. This study sought to determine MS' patterns of explicit and implicit anti-aging bias, intent to practice with older people and using the quad model, the role of gender, race, and motivation-based differences. One hundred and three MS completed an online survey that included explicit and implicit measures.

Working memory impairment in cannabis- and opioid-dependent adolescents.

Background: Cannabis and opioid use are associated with cognitive impairment, whether preexisting or substance-induced, but there have been few substance-specific assessments of cognitive functioning in adolescent substance users. Working memory impairment may be particularly important, as it has been linked to poorer performance in substance abuse treatment.

Methods: Working memory (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV or Adult Intelligence Scale-IV) and baseline substance use were assessed in 42 youth (mean age = 17.

Topiramate for cocaine dependence during methadone maintenance treatment: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Dual dependence on opiate and cocaine occurs in about 60% of patients admitted to methadone maintenance and negatively impacts prognosis (Kosten et al. 2003. Drug Alcohol Depend.

Cognitive performance in methadone maintenance patients: effects of time relative to dosing and maintenance dose level.

Given the long-term nature of methadone maintenance treatment, it is important to assess the extent of cognitive side effects. This study investigated cognitive and psychomotor performance in 51 methadone maintenance patients (MMP) as a function of time since last methadone dose and maintenance dose level. MMP maintained on doses ranging from 40 to 200 mg (mean = 97 mg) completed a battery of psychomotor and cognitive measures across 2 sessions, during peak and trough states, in a double-blind crossover design.

A double blind, within subject comparison of spontaneous opioid withdrawal from buprenorphine versus morphine.

Preliminary evidence suggests that there is minimal withdrawal after the cessation of chronically administered buprenorphine and that opioid withdrawal symptoms are delayed compared with those of other opioids. The present study compared the time course and magnitude of buprenorphine withdrawal with a prototypical μ-opioid agonist, morphine. Healthy, out-of-treatment opioid-dependent residential volunteers (N = 7) were stabilized on either buprenorphine (32 mg/day i.

An evidence-based systematic review of active hexose correlated compound (AHCC) by the Natural Standard Research Collaboration.

An evidence-based systematic review of active hexose correlated compound (AHCC) by the Natural Standard Research Collaboration consolidates the safety and efficacy data available in the scientific literature using a validated, reproducible grading rationale. This article includes written and statistical analysis of clinical trials, plus a compilation of expert opinion, folkloric precedent, history, pharmacology, kinetics/dynamics, interactions, adverse effects, toxicology, and dosing.

Effects on performance of individual versus dyadic practice during an avatar-based three-dimensional virtual home safety simulation.

This pilot study tests the effects on individual performance of dyadic versus individual practice in a 3D virtual world (VW) home safety assessment. Sixty medical students in three conditions (dyadic spatially separated with paired avatars DPA; individual with avatar IND; and dyadic spatially together with single avatar DSA) participated in a geriatric home safety simulation. The participants, via avatars, conducted an assessment of physical hazards.

Cognitive effects of intramuscular ketamine and oral triazolam in healthy volunteers.

Rationale: Several studies have documented impairments in memory processes as a result of ketamine administration; however, few studies have compared the profile of cognitive effects of ketamine to other drugs.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the cognitive effects of ketamine with those of triazolam in healthy volunteers.

Methods: Doses of ketamine (0.

Acute cognitive effects of high doses of dextromethorphan relative to triazolam in humans.

Background: Although concerns surrounding high-dose dextromethorphan (DXM) abuse have recently increased, few studies have examined the acute cognitive effects of high doses of DXM. The aim of this study was to compare the cognitive effects of DXM with those of triazolam and placebo.

Methods: Single, acute, oral doses of DXM (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800 mg/70 kg), triazolam (0.

The dose effects of short-term dronabinol (oral THC) maintenance in daily cannabis users.

Background: Prior studies have separately examined the effects of dronabinol (oral THC) on cannabis withdrawal, cognitive performance, and the acute effects of smoked cannabis. A single study examining these clinically relevant domains would benefit the continued evaluation of dronabinol as a potential medication for the treatment of cannabis use disorders.

Methods: Thirteen daily cannabis smokers completed a within-subject crossover study and received 0, 30, 60 and 120mg dronabinol per day for 5 consecutive days.

An evidence-based systematic review of vanadium by the Natural Standard Research Collaboration.

An evidence-based systematic review of vanadium by the Natural Standard Research Collaboration consolidates the safety and efficacy data available in the scientific literature using a validated, reproducible grading rationale. This article includes written and statistical analysis of clinical trials, plus a compilation of expert opinion, folkloric precedent, history, pharmacology, kinetics/dynamics, interactions, adverse effects, toxicology, and dosing.