Patient Voices: Lived Experiences of Decision-Making Process in Long-Term Antipsychotic Medication Treatment.

This research explores patients' perspectives on the decision-making process for long-term antipsychotic treatment. Twenty individuals on non-compulsory antipsychotic medications were interviewed, and their responses were analyzed using grounded theory. The analysis revealed three interconnected themes that suggest a cyclical process potentially eroding patient autonomy: According to participants' accounts, they often received limited information about dependence, withdrawal symptoms, or expected treatment duration before starting medication.

Using machine learning methods to identify trajectories of change and predict responders and non-responders to short-term dynamic therapy.

Objectives: Predicting therapy responders can significantly improve clinical outcomes. This study aims to identify predictors of response to short-term dynamic therapy.

Methods: Data from 95 patients who underwent 16-session therapy were analyzed using machine learning.

Consent to voluntary antipsychotic drug treatment-Is it free and informed?

Objective: The present research investigates the dynamics of consent in the context of antipsychotic drug therapy, with a particular emphasis on the essential attributes that constitute free and informed consent within medical treatment scenarios.

Method: Twenty individuals treated with antipsychotic drugs with consent underwent semistructured interviews.

Results: The following major themes were identified: (a) lack or total absence of information regarding the treatment, emphasizing side effects, risks, chances of success, and treatment alternatives.

Becoming Self Employed: Israeli Family Physicians' Push and Pull Factors.

Background: As primary care is an important infrastructure for the entire health system, the employment structure choices of family physicians-whether to work in a managed care organization or be self-employed, can impact all effectiveness parameters of healthcare: quality, access, health equity, patients' experiences, and cost-effectiveness. The aim of this study is to assess the push and pull factors influencing family physicians' employment choices.

Methods: This study employed a qualitative approach to explore the experiences of family physicians (FPs) who choose to work a self-employment practice.

Anti-diabetic drug use and reduced risk of Parkinson's disease: A community-based cohort study.

Background: Emerging evidence suggests a potential association between certain anti-diabetic drugs and a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease (PD). Limited population-based studies have investigated users of newer anti-diabetic drugs such as GLP-1 agonists or SGLT2 inhibitors.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the risk of PD among individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who were treated with various types of anti-diabetic drugs over time.

Impact of a polysidpersed fuel distribution on the ignition characteristic.

Determining the thermal profile of ignition is important because the desired ignition behavior varies with the objective. For example, extended ignition prolongs the time that the engine runs; however, fast ignition offers a higher power gain. The pollution caused by undesirable chemical reactions, as determined by the ignition profile, is another important aspect.

Patient racism toward nurses in a divided society: The case of Jews and Arabs in Israel.

Aim: This study examines whether racism exists among Jewish and Arab patients in Israel, as reflected in patient preference for receiving treatment from a nurse with the same ethnic background.

Background: We examine the relationship between racism and the level of trust in a nurse from a different ethnic group than the patient, as well as the preferred level of social distance, in the context of ongoing conflicts between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in Israel.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a unique study questionnaire that asked 534 Jewish and 478 Arab respondents to express their preference for an Arab and a Jewish nurse.

Who do you Prefer to Take Care of you: A Jewish or an Arab Nurse? Nationality and Religion Preferences in Israeli Hospitals.

Studies show that there are patients who refuse treatment or demand that treatment be provided by a professional belonging to their ethnic group. We investigated whether patients have preferences for nationality and religion of nurses (PFNR), and which factors impact these preferences. The study included 1012 Jews and Arabs.

Emotional expression and empathy in an online peer support platform.

Online peer groups are a popular channel for mental health support, but the evidence for their effectiveness is mixed. The present study focused on empathy to better identify which supporters' comments regulated seekers' distress. We also explored how seekers' emotions may shape supporters' empathy.

Empirical examination of long-term and intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy for severely disturbed patients.

This study examines the effectiveness and efficiency of intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy for severely impaired patients. 104 patients in four public mental health centers underwent intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy. The number and duration of psychiatric hospitalizations were monitored for these patients from one year before therapy to eight years after.

Incidence of cardiovascular morbidity among Parkinson's disease patients; a large-scale cohort study in a 16-year time window around disease onset.

Objectives: To examine the risk of any or specific types of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), in the 16 years around disease onset, and to compare it to that in the general population.

Methods: This is a large-scale population-based retrospective cohort study of newly diagnosed PD patients, members of Maccabi Health Services (MHS), who started taking anti-parkinsonian drugs (APD) between 1/1/2000-31/12/2019 (study period). We collected information about CVD incidence (Congestive heart failure-CHF, Myocardial infarction-MI, Stroke) from MHS-CVD registry.

The relationship between exercise addiction, eating disorders, and insecure attachment styles among recreational exercisers.

Background: Exercise addiction (EA) and eating disorders (ED) frequently co-occur in both professional and amateur athletes, with up to 48% of individuals with EA also exhibiting symptoms of ED. Furthermore, pathological attachment styles have been linked to both EA and ED. The current study aimed to explore the unique association between types of insecure attachment styles (i.

Changes in clients' relational patterns with parents and therapist during psychodynamic psychotherapy: Their association and relation to treatment outcome.

Objective: The study aimed to explore how changes in clients' relational patterns during psychodynamic psychotherapy relate to treatment outcomes and therapy effectiveness.

Method: Seventy clients receiving psychodynamic psychotherapy in a university counseling center were interviewed three times and filled out the OQ-45 questionnaire five times during therapy. We used the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) to study clients' relational patterns.

Trajectories of change among highly challenging patients in intensive long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Objectives: This study aimed to identify and describe trajectories of change in distress among highly challenging patients who had received long and intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Methods: The longitudinal version of the K-means algorithm was applied to the outcome measures data of 74 patients treated in four public mental health centers. The patients were measured five times at 6-month intervals for three outcome measures.

The association between risk perceptions, anxiety, and self-reported changes in tobacco and nicotine product use due to COVID-19 in May-June 2020 in Israel.

Background: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, reports about a possible protective effect of nicotine on COVID-19 conflicted with messaging by public health organizations about increased risks of COVID-19 due to smoking. The ambiguous information the public received, combined with COVID-19-induced anxiety, may have led to changes in tobacco or other nicotine product use. This study examined changes in use of combustible cigarettes (CCs), nargila (hookah/waterpipe), e-cigarettes, and IQOS and home-smoking behaviors.

Masking important information to assess the robustness of a multimodal classifier for emotion recognition.

Deep neural networks have been proven effective in classifying human interactions into emotions, especially by encoding multiple input modalities. In this work, we assess the robustness of a transformer-based multimodal audio-text classifier for emotion recognition, by perturbing the input at inference time using attacks which we design specifically to corrupt information deemed important for emotion recognition. To measure the impact of the attacks on the classifier, we compare between the accuracy of the classifier on the perturbed input and on the original, unperturbed input.

Tobacco Smoke Exposure According to Location of Home Smoking in Israel: Findings from the Project Zero Exposure Study.

Young children are particularly vulnerable to harms from tobacco smoke exposure (TSE). This study aimed to compare TSE: (1) between children who live in smoking families and those who do not; and (2) among children who live in smoking households with varying smoking locations. The data came from two studies that were conducted concurrently in Israel (2016-2018).

A Self-Determination Theory and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-based intervention aimed at increasing adherence to physical activity.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a physical activity (PA) intervention program designed to enhance levels of engagement in PA. Despite robust evidence supporting the beneficial effects of PA on overall health, only about 22% of individuals engage in the recommended minimum amount of PA. Recent surveys suggested that most individuals express intentions to be physically active, though the psychological state of amotivation dismissed these struggles.

Preparatory routines for emotional regulation in performance enhancement.

Preparatory routines (PR) are a necessary tool for achieving optimal emotional states and effective performance, especially in self-paced motor skills. Numerous studies in the area of applied sport psychology have found a positive effect of PR on blocking out distractions and regulating performance thoughts, actions, and emotions. PR contain behavioral and mental components that can be applied in different time periods before and after the event itself: pre-competitive activity routines (PCA-R), pre-performance routines (PP-R), and post-performance activity routines (PPA-R).

Association between objective measures and parent-reported measures of child tobacco smoke exposure: A secondary data analysis of four trials.

Introduction: Tobacco smoke exposure (TSE) harms children and adults. Studies of childhood TSE exposure often relies on parental reports, but may benefit from objective measures. The objective of our study was to study the relationship between reported and objective measures of TSE.