Iraq/Afghanistan-era Veterans with back pain: Characteristics and predictors of compensation and pension award.

Approximately 440,000 U.S. Veterans receive compensation for back and/or neck conditions.

A culture-brain link: Negative age stereotypes predict Alzheimer's disease biomarkers.

Although negative age stereotypes have been found to predict adverse outcomes among older individuals, it was unknown whether the influence of stereotypes extends to brain changes associated with Alzheimer's disease. To consider this possibility, we drew on dementia-free participants, in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, whose age stereotypes were assessed decades before yearly magnetic resonance images and brain autopsies were performed. Those holding more-negative age stereotypes earlier in life had significantly steeper hippocampal-volume loss and significantly greater accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques, adjusting for relevant covariates.

Empirical evidence about recovery and mental health.

Background: Two discourses exist in mental health research and practice. The first focuses on the limitations associated with disability arising from mental disorder. The second focuses on the possibilities for living well with mental health problems.

The relationship between clinical and recovery dimensions of outcome in mental health.

Background: Little is known about the empirical relationship between clinical and personal recovery.

Aims: To examine whether there are separate constructs of clinical recovery and personal recovery dimensions of outcome, how they change over time and how they can be assessed.

Method: Standardised outcome measures were administered at baseline and one-year follow-up to participants in the REFOCUS Trial (ISRCTN02507940).

Subjective distress in a representative sample of outpatients with psychotic disorders.

Background: The affective burden of psychotic disorder has been increasingly recognised. However, subjective reports of distress and its covariates, especially those related to service use, remain under-investigated in patients with psychosis.

Methods: This study investigated subjective distress and its covariates in a representative sample of 401 outpatients with a confirmed diagnosis of psychotic disorders in Brazil.

Development of the REFOCUS intervention to increase mental health team support for personal recovery.

Background: There is an emerging evidence base about best practice in supporting recovery. This is usually framed in relation to general principles, and specific pro-recovery interventions are lacking.

Aims: To develop a theoretically based and empirically defensible new pro-recovery manualised intervention--called the REFOCUS intervention.

Psychometric evaluation of the Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery (QPR).

Background: Supporting recovery is the aim of national mental health policy in many countries. However, only one measure of recovery has been developed in England: the Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery (QPR), which measures recovery from the perspective of adult mental health service users with a psychosis diagnosis.

Aims: To independently evaluate the psychometric properties of the 15- and 22-item versions of the QPR.

Simulation-Based Mastery Learning Improves Central Line Maintenance Skills of ICU Nurses.

Objective: This study evaluated the impact of a simulation-based mastery learning (SBML) curriculum on central line maintenance and care among a group of ICU nurses.

Methods: The intervention included 5 tasks: (a) medication administration, (b) injection cap (needleless connector) changes, (c) tubing changes, (d) blood drawing, and (e) dressing changes. All participants underwent a pretest, engaged in deliberate practice with directed feedback, and completed a posttest.

Supporting recovery in patients with psychosis through care by community-based adult mental health teams (REFOCUS): a multisite, cluster, randomised, controlled trial.

Background: Mental health policy in many countries is oriented around recovery, but the evidence base for service-level recovery-promotion interventions is lacking.

Methods: We did a cluster, randomised, controlled trial in two National Health Service Trusts in England. REFOCUS is a 1-year team-level intervention targeting staff behaviour to increase focus on values, preferences, strengths, and goals of patients with psychosis, and staff-patient relationships, through coaching and partnership.

Development and evaluation of an Individualized Outcome Measure (IOM) for randomized controlled trials in mental health.

Pre-defined, researcher-selected outcomes are routinely used as the clinical end-point in randomized controlled trials (RCTs); however, individualized approaches may be an effective way to assess outcome in mental health research. The present study describes the development and evaluation of the Individualized Outcome Measure (IOM), which is a patient-specific outcome measure to be used for RCTs of complex interventions. IOM was developed using a narrative review, expert consultation and piloting with mental health service users (n = 20).

Expert ratings of job demand and job control as predictors of injury and musculoskeletal disorder risk in a manufacturing cohort.

Objective: To examine associations between workplace injury and musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) risk and expert ratings of job-level psychosocial demand and job control, adjusting for job-level physical demand.

Methods: Among a cohort of 9260 aluminium manufacturing workers in jobs for which expert ratings of job-level physical and psychological demand and control were obtained during the 2 years following rating obtainment, multivariate mixed effects models were used to estimate relative risk (RR) of minor injury and minor MSD, serious injury and MSD, minor MSD only and serious MSD only by tertile of demand and control, adjusting for physical demand as well as other recognised risk factors.

Results: Compared with workers in jobs rated as having low psychological demand, workers in jobs with high psychological demand had 49% greater risk of serious injury and serious MSD requiring medical treatment, work restrictions or lost work time (RR=1.

Chitinase 3-like-1 and its receptors in Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome-associated lung disease.

Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS) comprises a group of inherited disorders caused by mutations that alter the function of lysosome-related organelles. Pulmonary fibrosis is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with subtypes HPS-1 and HPS-4, which both result from defects in biogenesis of lysosome-related organelle complex 3 (BLOC-3). The prototypic chitinase-like protein chitinase 3-like-1 (CHI3L1) plays a protective role in the lung by ameliorating cell death and stimulating fibroproliferative repair.

Risk factors for merchant seafarer repatriation due to injury or illness at sea.

Background: Repatriation represents a serious outcome of illness or injury among seafarers at sea. The aim of this study was to describe repatriation patterns due to injury and illness in a seafarer cohort, and determine risk factors for repatriation.

Materials And Methods: The study analysed a telemedicine database of 3,921 seafarer injury and illness cases over a 4 year period using descriptive statistics and logistic regression.

Early-Life State-of-Residence Characteristics and Later Life Hypertension, Diabetes, and Ischemic Heart Disease.

Objectives: We examined how state characteristics in early life are associated with individual chronic disease later in life.

Methods: We assessed early-life state of residence using the first 3 digits of social security numbers from blue- and white-collar workers from a US manufacturing company. Longitudinal data were available from 1997 to 2012, with 305 936 person-years of observation.

The feasibility of implementing recovery, psychosocial and pharmacological interventions for psychosis: comparison study.

Background: Clinical guidelines for the treatment of people experiencing psychosis have existed for over a decade, but implementation of recommended interventions is limited. Identifying influences on implementation may help to reduce this translational gap. The Structured Assessment of Feasibility (SAFE) measure is a standardised assessment of implementation blocks and enablers.

WELLFOCUS PPT: Modifying positive psychotherapy for psychosis.

Positive psychotherapy (PPT) is an established psychological intervention initially validated with people experiencing symptoms of depression. PPT is a positive psychology intervention, an academic discipline that has developed somewhat separately from psychotherapy and focuses on amplifying well-being rather than ameliorating deficit. The processes targeted in PPT (e.

"Injury, illness, and work restriction in merchant seafarers".

Background: Research on seafarer medical conditions at sea is limited. This study describes the frequency and distribution of seafarer injury and illness at sea, and explores potential risk factors for resultant lost work.

Materials And Methods: The study analyzed a telemedicine database of 3,921 seafarer medical cases between 2008 and 2011 using descriptive statistics and logistic regression.

Characteristics and outcomes of fall-related open-globe injuries in pseudophakic patients.

Aim: We aimed to identify the characteristics and prognostic indicators of poor visual and anatomic outcome in pseudophakic patients with fall-related open-globe (OG) injuries. We used a case series design, for a total of 26 patients.

Methods: Charts of consecutive pseudophakic patients with fall-related OG injury at a single institution were reviewed.

Complications Following Therapeutic Bronchoscopy for Malignant Central Airway Obstruction: Results of the AQuIRE Registry.

Background: There are significant variations in how therapeutic bronchoscopy for malignant airway obstruction is performed. Relatively few studies have compared how these approaches affect the incidence of complications.

Methods: We used the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) Quality Improvement Registry, Evaluation, and Education (AQuIRE) program registry to conduct a multicenter study of patients undergoing therapeutic bronchoscopy for malignant central airway obstruction.

Content and implementation of clinical decisions in the routine care of people with severe mental illness.

Background: Clinical decision making (CDM) in the treatment of people with severe mental illness relates to a wide range of life domains.

Aims: To examine content of CDM in mental health care from the perspectives of service users and staff and to investigate variation in implementation of decisions for differing content.

Method: As part of the European multicenter study clinical decision making and outcome in routine care for people with severe mental illness (ISRCTN75841675), 588 service users and their clinicians were asked to identify the decisions made during their last meeting.

Evaluation of a positive psychotherapy group intervention for people with psychosis: pilot randomised controlled trial.

Aims: Third-wave psychological interventions have gained relevance in mental health service provision but their application to people with psychosis is in its infancy and interventions targeting wellbeing in psychosis are scarce. This study tested the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of positive psychotherapy adapted for people with psychosis (WELLFOCUS PPT) to improve wellbeing.

Methods: WELLFOCUS PPT was tested as an 11-week group intervention in a convenience sample of people with psychosis in a single centre randomised controlled trial (ISRCTN04199273) involving 94 people with psychosis.