Risk factors for developing prolonged grief during bereavement in family carers of cancer patients in palliative care: a longitudinal study.

Context: Family carers of palliative care patients report high levels of psychological distress throughout the caregiving phase and during bereavement. Palliative care providers are required to provide psychosocial support to family carers; however, determining which carers are more likely to develop prolonged grief (PG) is currently unclear.

Objectives: To ascertain whether family carers reporting high levels of PG symptoms and those who develop PG disorder (PGD) by six and 13 months postdeath can be predicted from predeath information.

Supporting family caregivers of hospitalised palliative care patients: a psychoeducational group intervention.

Background: Many family caregivers of palliative care patients experience poor health and have other unmet needs, requiring health professionals' support. However, there are few evidence-based supportive interventions to address these issues.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to undertake preliminary testing of a psychoeducational group education programme, delivered in an in-patient setting, designed to prepare family caregivers for the role of supporting a relative currently receiving hospital-based palliative care.

Integrating treatment for mental and physical disorders and substance misuse in Indigenous primary care settings.

Objective: Australian Indigenous peoples in remote and rural settings continue to have limited access to treatment for mental illness. Comorbid disorders complicate presentations in primary care where Indigenous youths and perinatal women are at particular risk. Despite this high comorbidity there are few examples of successful models of integrated treatment.

Recurrent postural vasovagal syncope: sympathetic nervous system phenotypes.

Background: The pathophysiology of vasovagal syncope is poorly understood, and the treatment usually ineffective. Our clinical experience is that patients with vasovagal syncope fall into 2 groups, based on their supine systolic blood pressure, which is either normal (>100 mm Hg) or low (70-100 mm Hg). We investigated neural circulatory control in these 2 phenotypes.

Psychological and social profile of family caregivers on commencement of palliative care.

Context: Palliative care services are required to support patients who have advanced, life-threatening, noncurable disease, and their family caregivers. Comprehensive psychological and social support for bereaved family members also is expected. However, recent systematic reviews have demonstrated significant gaps in evidence-based approaches for such support.

Prospective quality-of-life monitoring of simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant recipients using the 36-item short form health survey.

Background: Few risk factors for quality-of-life outcomes of simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant recipients are known because of a paucity of data from prospective studies.

Study Design: Pretransplant assessment and prospective 3-year follow-up.

Setting & Participants: Consecutive potential recipients at a university teaching hospital assessed by Liaison Psychiatry.

Prospective psychosocial monitoring of living kidney donors using the Short Form-36 health survey: results at 12 months.

Background: Lack of prospective psychosocial outcome studies on living kidney donors impedes identification of risk factors for poor outcome.

Methods: Psychiatric assessment of living kidney donors was performed preoperatively and at 4 and 12 months postoperatively using a semistructured interview, the Short Form (SF)-36 Health Survey, and Patient Health Questionnaire psychiatric assessment. A total of 48 of 51 consecutive donors (94%) over a 5-year period were available for follow-up and completed all assessments.

Prospective psychosocial monitoring of living kidney donors using the SF-36 health survey.

Background: Psychosocial assessment and monitoring of living kidney donors is not yet standard practice, despite calls for it in the literature.

Methods: Psychosocial assessment of living kidney donors was performed preoperatively and 4 months postoperatively, using the SF-36 Health Survey, the Patient Health Questionnaire psychiatric assessment, and semistructured interview.

Results: Assessment was acceptable to the majority of donors; 92% (44) of 48 consecutive donors completed both assessments.

Adverse reactions to antidepressants in consultation-liaison psychiatry inpatients.

In a practice-based, prospective study of 1,551 inpatients referred to a consultation-liaison psychiatry service and prescribed an antidepressant, an adverse drug reaction judged sufficient to warrant discontinuation of the drug was noted in 158 (10.2%). The factors associated were older age (P < 0.