Impact of psychotic disorder on transplant eligibility and outcomes.

Purpose Of Review: Organ transplantation decisions are complex, and psychosocial assessment is an important part of the process. The impact of pretransplant psychotic disorder on posttransplant outcomes is unclear, but some guidelines cite psychosis as a relative contraindication to organ transplantation because of concerns about medication adherence and poor postoperative outcomes. This review explores the evidence for poorer solid organ transplant outcomes for people with preexisting psychotic disorders and discusses future directions for how research can contribute to a better understanding of how organ transplantation outcomes are affected by psychotic illness.

Effect of communicating DNA based risk assessments for Crohn's disease on smoking cessation: randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that communicating risk of developing Crohn's disease based on genotype and that stopping smoking can reduce this risk, motivates behaviour change among smokers at familial risk.

Design: Parallel group, cluster randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Families with Crohn's disease in the United Kingdom.

Why does genetic causal information alter perceived treatment effectiveness? An analogue study.

Objectives: When a health problem is perceived as having a genetic cause, this appears to increase the perceived effectiveness of pharmacological treatments and reduce perceived effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments. Potential mediators of this effect include causal attributions, perceived severity, and perceived control over the health problem. This study aimed to use experimental methods to establish which beliefs mediate the effect of genetic causal information on perceived effectiveness of treatments.

Trial Protocol: Communicating DNA-based risk assessments for Crohn's disease: a randomised controlled trial assessing impact upon stopping smoking.

Background: Estimates of the risk of developing Crohn's disease (CD) can be made using DNA testing for mutations in the NOD2 (CARD15) gene, family history, and smoking status. Smoking doubles the risk of CD, a risk that is reduced by stopping. CD therefore serves as a timely and novel paradigm within which to assess the utility of predictive genetic testing to motivate behaviour change to reduce the risk of disease.

Trial Protocol: Using genotype to tailor prescribing of nicotine replacement therapy: a randomised controlled trial assessing impact of communication upon adherence.

Background: The behavioural impact of pharmacogenomics is untested; informing smokers of genetic test results for responsiveness to smoking cessation medication may increase adherence to this medication. The objective of this trial is to estimate the impact upon adherence to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) of informing smokers that their oral dose of NRT has been tailored to a DNA analysis. Hypotheses to be tested are as follows: I Adherence to NRT is greater among smokers informed that their oral dose of NRT is tailored to an analysis of DNA (genotype), compared to one tailored to nicotine dependence questionnaire score (phenotype).

The impact of numeracy on reactions to different graphic risk presentation formats: An experimental analogue study.

Objectives: Numeracy, the ability to process basic mathematical concepts, may affect responses to graphical displays of health risk information. Displays of probabilistic risk information using grouped dots are easier to understand than displays using dispersed dots. However, dispersed dots may better convey the randomness with which health threats occur, so increasing perceived susceptibility.