Emotional Impact of Reduced Access to Assisted Reproductive Care.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of cessation of fertility services on patients with infertility.

Study Design: A cross-sectional, anonymous mail survey was conducted in a university hospital setting. A total of 281 female infertility patients treated from 2003-2006 were mailed surveys.

Treatment outcomes for methamphetamine users receiving outpatient counselling from the Stimulant Treatment Program in Australia.

Introduction And Aims: The purpose of this study was to document treatment outcomes for methamphetamine users receiving outpatient counselling from the Stimulant Treatment Program (STP) in Australia.

Design And Methods: Clients attending the STP for methamphetamine use (n = 105) were assessed on entry to the service and at 3 (n = 86) and 6 months (n = 83) after starting treatment. At each interview methamphetamine use (days of use, severity of dependence), other drug use and health and social functioning (HIV risk behaviour, crime, disability, psychotic symptoms and hostility) were assessed for the past month.

Are drug detection dogs and mass-media campaigns likely to be effective policy responses to psychostimulant use and related harm? Results from an agent-based simulation model.

Background: Agent-based simulation models can be used to explore the impact of policy and practice on drug use and related consequences. In a linked paper (Perez et al., 2011), we described SimAmph, an agent-based simulation model for exploring the use of psychostimulants and related harm amongst young Australians.

SimAmph: an agent-based simulation model for exploring the use of psychostimulants and related harm amongst young Australians.

Background: Computer simulations provide a useful tool for bringing together diverse sources of information in order to increase understanding of the complex aetiology of drug use and related harm, and to inform the development of effective policies. In this paper, we describe SimAmph, an agent-based simulation model for exploring how individual perceptions, peer influences and subcultural settings shape the use of psychostimulants and related harm amongst young Australians.

Methods: We present the conceptual architecture underpinning SimAmph, the assumptions we made in building it, the outcomes of sensitivity analysis of key model parameters and the results obtained when we modelled a baseline scenario.

Mental health symptoms among street-based psychostimulant injectors in Sydney's Kings Cross.

Urban frontline services have recorded increases in psychostimulant-related presentations. A convenience sample of 183 street-based psychostimulant injectors recruited in April 2006 was administered the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) to assess psychological distress. Homelessness, unemployment, and recent public injection, along with gender (female) and financial and relationship problems, best predicted clinically significant K10 scores.

High cumulative live births in oocyte donation cycles with cryopreservation of all embryos.

Background: Cryopreservation of all embryos in stimulated IVF cycles is occasionally necessary. Although it is known that frozen embryo transfer results in lower live birth rates per transfer, there is limited information regarding expected cumulative live birth rates for patients who are in this particular scenario.

Methods: The objective was to evaluate long-term outcomes in cycles undergoing pronuclear cryopreservation of all embryos utilizing a retrospective analysis of 154 consecutive recipients from 1995 to 2006.

Peroxides in mineral oil used for in vitro fertilization: defining limits of standard quality control assays.

Purpose: To determine the relative sensitivities of the 1 and 2-cell mouse embryo assays (MEA) and the human sperm motility assay (HSMA) for peroxides in mineral oil. The effect of peroxide on blastocyst cell number and apoptosis was also studied.

Methods: One and two-cell MEA and HSMA were performed using mineral oil containing cumene hydroperoxide (CH).

Pre- versus postmenopausal age, estradiol, and peptide-secretagogue type determine pulsatile growth hormone secretion in healthy women: studies using submaximal agonist drive and an estrogen clamp.

Context: GH-releasing peptide (GHRP), GHRH, and somatostatin are physiological regulators of pulsatile GH secretion.

Hypothesis: Age, independently of abdominal visceral fat (AVF) and basal (nonpulsatile) GH secretion, damps pulsatile GH secretion driven by physiological (rather than pharmacological) amounts of GHRP and GHRH in an experimentally controlled estradiol (E(2)) milieu.

Design And Setting: A prospectively randomized, double-blind parallel-cohort study was conducted at an academic medical center.

Extending drug ethno-epidemiology using agent-based modelling.

Aims: To show how the inclusion of agent-based modelling improved the integration of ethno-epidemiological data in a study of psychostimulant use and related harms among young Australians.

Methods: Agent-based modelling, ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews and epidemiological surveys.

Setting: Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, Australia.

Treatment of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome using a dopamine agonist and gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonist: a case series.

Objective: To describe an outpatient treatment protocol for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) that results in rapid normalization of symptoms with minimal side effects.

Design: Case series.

Setting: Midwestern academic reproductive endocrinology division.

Factors associated with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) and its effect on assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment and outcome.

Objective: To evaluate factors associated with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) and its effect on assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment and outcome.

Design: Historic cohort study.

Setting: Clinic-based data.

Regulation of basal, pulsatile, and entropic (patterned) modes of GH secretion in a putatively low-somatostatin milieu in women.

Somatostatin (SS) released by hypothalamic neurons inhibits GH exocytosis noncompetitively. Therefore, we postulated that attenuation of GH feedback-induced SS outflow would help to unmask covariates of endogenous secretagogue drive. To this end, 42 healthy pre- and postmenopausal women were randomly assigned to receive leuprolide plus estradiol (E(2)) or leuprolide plus placebo.

Relative effects of estrogen, age, and visceral fat on pulsatile growth hormone secretion in healthy women.

Growth hormone (GH) secretion is subject to complex regulation. How pre- and postmenopausal age (PRE, POST), estradiol (E(2)) availability, and abdominal visceral fat (AVF) jointly affect peptidyl-secretagogue drive of GH secretion is not known. To this end, healthy PRE (n = 20) and POST (n = 22) women underwent a low- vs.

Ovarian stromal hyperthecosis: sonographic features and histologic associations.

Objective: Ovarian stromal hyperthecosis (SH) has variable clinical importance but can cause hyperandrogenism, particularly in premenopausal women. Sonography is often used to evaluate the ovaries of women with hyperandrogenism, but there is little published regarding the sonographic appearance of SH. The primary purpose of this study was to describe the sonographic features of SH.

Preimplantation genetic screening in a case of recurrent trisomy 21 offspring.

Objective: To describe a unique case of recurrent aneuploidy and the use of preimplantation genetic screening (PGS).

Design: Case report.

Setting: Midwest academic medical center.

An investigation of school playground safety practices as reported by school nurses.

The purpose of this study was to investigate school playground safety practices. The study used a purposeful sample of school nurses who attended a playground safety workshop at the 2006 National Association of School Nurses annual conference. Seventy-five questionnaires were distributed, and 64 useable questionnaires were returned.

Developing a playground injury prevention plan.

Playgrounds are a major source of unintentional injuries in the school environment. In fact, 80% of all injuries on public playground equipment happen at school. Thus, the need for developing a playground injury prevention plan is critical to provide safe educational outdoor environments for children.

Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery.

Uterine leiomyomas pose a significant health issue to reproductive-age women. Many women desire uterine conservation, and previously safe and efficacious therapies have been limited. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery is a new noninvasive therapy that has been proven to be both safe and efficacious in the treatment of fibroids.

Protein-source tryptophan as an efficacious treatment for social anxiety disorder: a pilot study.

Until recently, intact protein that is rich in tryptophan was not seen as an alternative to pharmaceutical-grade tryptophan because protein also contains large neutral amino acids (LNAAs) that compete for transport sites across the blood-brain barrier. Recent evidence indicates that when deoiled gourd seed (a rich source of tryptophan with approximately 22 mg/g protein) is combined with glucose (a carbohydrate that reduces serum levels of competing LNAAs) a clinical effect similar to that of pharmaceutical-grade tryptophan is achieved. Objective and subjective measures of anxiety in those suffering from social phobia (also known as social anxiety disorder) were employed to measure changes in anxiety in response to a stimulus as part of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study with a wash-out period of 1 week between study sessions.

Protein source tryptophan versus pharmaceutical grade tryptophan as an efficacious treatment for chronic insomnia.

Background: Intact protein rich in tryptophan was not seen as an alternative to pharmaceutical grade tryptophan since protein also contains large neutral amino acids (LNAAs) that compete for transport sites across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Deoiled gourd seed (an extremely rich source of tryptophan-22 mg tryptophan/1 g protein) was combined with glucose, a carbohydrate that reduces serum levels of competing LNAAs which was then compared to pharmaceutical grade tryptophan with carbohydrate as well as carbohydrate alone.

Method: Objective and subjective measures of sleep were employed to measure changes in sleep as part of a double blind placebo controlled study where subjects were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) Protein source tryptophan (deoiled gourd seed) in combination with carbohydrate; (2) pharmaceutical grade tryptophan in combination with carbohydrate; (3) carbohydrate alone.

The health of poor women under welfare reform.

Objectives: We compared the health of single mothers affected by welfare reform with the health of a nationally representative sample of women to document the prevalence of poor health as single mothers experience the effects of welfare reform.

Methods: We compared risk factors and measures of health among women randomly sampled from the welfare rolls with similar data from a nationally representative sample of women.

Results: Women in our welfare recipient sample had higher rates of elevated glycosylated hemoglobin (> or = 6%; prevalence ratio [PR]=4.