Vaginal Myomectomy Using the Dührssen (Longitudinal Median Cervical) Incision: A Case Series of 19 Patients.

Study Objective: To examine demographics and outcome measures of women having undergone vaginal excision of myomas through the Dührssen (longitudinal median cervical) incision.

Design: Prospective case series (Canadian Task Force classification II-3).

Setting: A London teaching hospital.

Patients' Perspective on the Value of Medication Management Appointments.

Objectives: There is ongoing concern that psychiatric medication management appointments add little value to care. The present study attempted to address this concern by capturing depressed patients' views and opinions about the value of psychiatric medication management appointments.

Methods: Seventy-eight semi-structured interviews were performed with white and African American depressed patients post medication management appointments.

Appointment length, psychiatrists' communication behaviors, and medication management appointment adherence.

Objective: The authors explored the relationship between critical elements of medication management appointments (appointment length, patient-centered talk, and positive nonverbal affect among providers) and patient appointment adherence.

Methods: The authors used an exploratory, cross-sectional design employing quantitative analysis of 83 unique audio recordings of split treatment medication management appointments for 46 African-American and 37 white patients with 24 psychiatrists at four ambulatory mental health clinics. All patients had a diagnosis of depression.

Psychiatrist-patient verbal and nonverbal communications during split-treatment appointments.

Objective: This study characterized psychiatrist and patient communication behaviors and affective voice tones during pharmacotherapy appointments with depressed patients at four community-based mental health clinics where psychiatrists provided medication management and other mental health professionals provided therapy ("split treatment").

Methods: Audiorecordings of 84 unique pairs of psychiatrists and patients with a depressive disorder were analyzed with the Roter Interaction Analysis System, which identifies 41 discrete speech categories that can be grouped into composites representing broad conceptual communication domains. Cluster analysis identified psychiatrist communication patterns.

Speech-independent production of communicative gestures: evidence from patients with complete callosal disconnection.

Recent neuropsychological, psycholinguistic, and evolutionary theories on language and gesture associate communicative gesture production exclusively with left hemisphere language production. An argument for this approach is the finding that right-handers with left hemisphere language dominance prefer the right hand for communicative gestures. However, several studies have reported distinct patterns of hand preferences for different gesture types, such as deictics, batons, or physiographs, and this calls for an alternative hypothesis.

Effect of camera resolution and bandwidth on facial affect recognition.

This preliminary study explored the effect of camera resolution and bandwidth on facial affect recognition, an important process and clinical variable in mental health service delivery. Sixty medical students and mental health-care professionals were recruited and randomized to four different combinations of commonly used teleconferencing camera resolutions and bandwidths: (1) one chip charged coupling device (CCD) camera, commonly used for VHSgrade taping and in teleconferencing systems costing less than $4,000 with a resolution of 280 lines, and 128 kilobytes per second bandwidth (kbps); (2) VHS and 768 kbps; (3) three-chip CCD camera, commonly used for Betacam (Beta) grade taping and in teleconferencing systems costing more than $4,000 with a resolution of 480 lines, and 128 kbps; and (4) Betacam and 768 kbps. The subjects were asked to identify four facial affects dynamically presented on videotape by an actor and actress presented via a video monitor at 30 frames per second.

A longitudinal study of neuropsychological change in individuals with Parkinson's disease.

Objectives: Neuropsychological changes in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) were studied longitudinally.

Methods: Sixty-nine idiopathic PD patients, with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores falling within normal range, and 37 elderly control participants were given neuropsychological tests twice approximately two years apart.

Results: The PD group performed poorer than the control group on Semantic Fluency, Letter Fluency, Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, and Block Design at test time 1.

Hemispheric specialisation for imitation of hand-head positions and finger configurations: a controlled study in patients with complete callosotomy.

Several studies of patients with unilateral brain damage and a patient with spontaneous callosal disconnection [Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry 61 (1996) 176; Neuropsychologia 37 (1999) 559; Neuropsychologia 39 (2001) 1432] suggest that the imitation of positions of the hand relative to the head is a strongly lateralised left hemispheric function. In contrast, the imitation of finger configurations draws on resources of both hemispheres with a predominance of the right hemisphere. While these findings suggest a specific pattern of imitation impairment in split-brain patients, thus far, no imitation deficits have been reported in split-brain patients.

A longitudinal study of neuropsychological change in individuals with Parkinson's disease.

Neuropsychological changes in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) were studied longitudinally. Sixty-nine idiopathic PD patients, with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores falling within normal range, and 37 elderly control participants were given neuropsychological tests twice approximately two years apart. The PD group performed poorer than the control group on Semantic Fluency, Letter Fluency, Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, and Block Design at test time 1.

Pantomime to visual presentation of objects: left hand dyspraxia in patients with complete callosotomy.

Investigations of left hand praxis in imitation and object use in patients with callosal disconnection have yielded divergent results, inducing a debate between two theoretical positions. Whereas Liepmann suggested that the left hemisphere is motor dominant, others maintain that both hemispheres have equal motor competences and propose that left hand apraxia in patients with callosal disconnection is secondary to left hemispheric specialization for language or other task modalities. The present study aims to gain further insight into the motor competence of the right hemisphere by investigating pantomime of object use in split-brain patients.