Publications by authors named "Sharon Armstrong"

Objective: Children with amplified musculoskeletal pain (AMPS) experience significant functional disability, with impairment in their ability to participate in age-appropriate activities of daily living. Parental factors play an important role in a child's pain symptoms and treatment outcomes, with parental pain catastrophizing and protective behaviors linked to several maladaptive outcomes for children. Aims of the current study were to examine how parental pain catastrophizing, child pain catastrophizing, and parental protective behaviors longitudinally impacted functional disability for children with AMPS.

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Background: In patients who have had axillary nodal metastasis diagnosed prior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer, there is little consensus on how to manage the axilla subsequently. The aim of this study was to explore whether a combination of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessed response and primary tumour pathology factors could identify a subset of patients that might be spared axillary node clearance.

Methods: A retrospective data analysis was performed of patients with core biopsy-proven axillary nodal metastasis prior to commencement of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) who had subsequent axillary node clearance (ANC) at definitive breast surgery.

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This research assessed the feasibility of Social Communication Anxiety Treatment (S-CAT) developed by Elisa Shipon-Blum, a brief multimodal approach, to increase social communication in 40 children aged 5-12 years with selective mutism (SM). SM is a disorder in which children consistently fail to speak in specific situations although they have the ability to do so. Key features of this approach are the SM-Social Communication Comfort Scale (SCCS), transfer of control (ToC), a nonchalant therapeutic style, and cognitive-behavioral strategies over a brief time frame.

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Objective: To explore the perceived needs, obstacles to services, psychological distress and social problem-solving abilities of family members of persons with ABI at a post-acute community-based brain injury rehabilitation facility and offer suggestions for methods of assessment and providing support.

Participants: Twenty-nine family members who did not provide daily care, but were involved in the care process.

Design: Participants completed self-report questionnaires including the FNQ:R, SOS, DASS-21, WHO-QOL BREF and SPSI:R-S.

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We present a case of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in an otherwise healthy 18-year-old man who presented with melena. Endoscopy revealed an ulcerated mass in the stomach and pathology confirmed this to be a malignant, poorly differentiated choriocarcinoma. Further imaging showed a left testicular mass with evidence of pulmonary, gastric, and brain metastases, and blood tests revealed an hCG level of 32,219 U/L.

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Twenty children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and low IQs, who participated in a drug study, were followed up 4.5 years later, when their ages averaged 12.4 years (range: 8-20 years: SD = 2.

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