Trajectory of Depressive Symptoms in a Longitudinal Stroke Cohort.

Objectives: Knowledge of the trajectory of post-stroke depression is important to identify high-risk patients, develop precise management programs and enhance prognosis. We aimed to characterise the course of depressive symptoms within the first year post-stroke and to evaluate associations with time.

Materials And Methods: Depressive symptoms were measured using the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) within the first week, and at 3- and 12-months post-stroke.

Evaluating student understanding of pharmacodynamics core concepts.

Pharmacodynamics is an essential subdiscipline of pharmacology that underpins safe and effective prescribing and therapeutic decision-making, as well as drug discovery and development. The exponential increase in the number of therapeutic drugs has prompted members of the pharmacology educator community to question existing pharmacology curricula focused on individual drugs and move toward a curriculum focused on conceptual understanding. A first step towards conceptual understanding is to establish what students currently know about pharmacodynamic core concepts.

Local field potential phase modulates the evoked response to electrical stimulation in visual cortex.

Development of cortical visual prostheses requires optimization of evoked responses to electrical stimulation to reduce charge requirements and improve safety, efficiency, and efficacy. One promising approach is timing stimulation to the local field potential (LFP), where action potentials have been found to occur preferentially at specific phases. To assess the relationship between electrical stimulation and the phase of the LFP, we recorded action potentials from primary (V1) and secondary (V2) visual cortex in marmosets while delivering single-pulse electrical microstimulation at different phases of the local field potential.

ImpACT Project: Improving Access to Clinical Trials in Victoria, an Artificial Intelligence-Based Approach.

Purpose: Enhancing the speed and efficiency of clinical trial recruitment is a key objective across international health systems. This study aimed to use artificial intelligence (AI) applied in the Victorian Cancer Registry (VCR), a population-based cancer registry, to assess (1) if VCR received all relevant pathology reports for three clinical trials, (2) AI accuracy in auto-extracting information from pathology reports for recruitment, and (3) the number of participants approached for trial enrollment using the AI approach compared with standard hospital-based recruitment.

Methods: To verify pathology report accessibility for VCR trial enrollment, reports from the laboratory were cross-referenced.

Young people's preferences and motivations for STI partner notification: observational findings from the 2024 Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll survey.

Background Partner notification is an important step in the control of sexually transmissible infections (STIs). STIs remain at high rates among young people and can have serious reproductive consequences if left untreated. This study aimed to determine the preferences and motivations for partner notification among young people in Australia.

Ethics that Fails to Regulate War, Ethics that Enhances War.

This short perspective piece argues that wars are often conducted in settings where ethical injunctions are ignored or overridden and where ethical oversight is avoided or circumvented. This is particularly the case with intrastate conflicts and is exacerbated by novel military technologies. In these and other settings ethics is often invoked actually to promote or prolong war.

The General Acceptability and Use of Smartphone App-Delivered Interventions for Gambling in Australia.

Smartphones can extend the reach of evidence-based gambling treatment services, yet the general acceptability of app-delivered gambling interventions remains unknown. This study examined the general acceptability and use of app-delivered gambling interventions, and predictors of both, among 173 Australian adults with a lifetime gambling problem (48.5% male, M = 46.

Informing the Development of Telehealth Education in Physiotherapy Programs. Assessments and Interventions for Individuals Accessing Physiotherapy Care via Synchronous Telehealth. A Scoping Review.

Background: In order to develop contemporary telehealth curricula for entry-to-practice physiotherapy programs that develop the capabilities required to practice telehealth, it is important to evaluate the delivery of telehealth practices within the physiotherapy profession.

Objective: To assess the current literature to (i) determine what types of assessments and interventions have been delivered via synchronous forms of telehealth (videoconferencing and telephone) by physiotherapists (ii) determine which platforms were used for service delivery and which practice areas have delivered synchronous telehealth physiotherapy assessments and interventions.

Design: Scoping review adhering to Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines.

Cultivating cultural empathy among diabetes educators: A pre-post evaluation of a digital story intervention.

Indigenous Australians are disproportionately affected by diabetes, with a diagnosis rate nearly four times higher than people from a non-Indigenous background. This health disparity highlights the urgent need for healthcare providers to develop cultural empathy - a critical competency for delivering culturally safe and person-centered care. Cultural empathy is essential for building trust and effective communication in diabetes education and management within Indigenous people.

Metabolic bariatric surgery generates substantial, sustained weight loss and health improvement in a real-world setting.

Background: To determine if the positive outcomes from clinical trials regarding the safety and efficacy of metabolic bariatric surgery are reproducible at a national level.

Methods: A longitudinal registry-based observation study with data collected from all persons undergoing metabolic bariatric surgery in Australia from 28 February 2012-31 December 2021 including data from 122,567 index patients who underwent 134,625 completed bariatric procedures.

Main Outcomes And Measures: Defined adverse outcomes at 90-days (unplanned readmission, intensive care admission and re-operation; death), annual change in weight (percent total body weight loss (TBWL)), diabetes treatment and need for re-operation.

Is Brief Admission Effective for Individuals With Lived Experience of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) When Experiencing Crisis? A Mixed Systematic Review.

Brief admission has been widely used to support individuals with lived experience of borderline personality disorder (BPD) who are experiencing crisis. This study updates a previous 2014 systematic review of the effectiveness of brief admission for individuals with BPD. Following PRISMA guidelines, four databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychINFO and Cochrane library) were searched from 2011.

How Do Common Marmosets Maintain the Balance Between Response Execution and Action Inhibition?

Socio-dynamic situations require a balance between response execution and action inhibition. Nonadaptive imbalance between response inhibition and execution exists in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychological disorders. To investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of cognitive control and the related deficits, comparative studies in human and nonhuman primates are crucial.

Effects and mechanisms of computerized cognitive training in Huntington's disease: protocol for a pilot study.

Huntington's disease (HD) causes progressive cognitive decline, with no available treatments. Computerized cognitive training (CCT) has shown efficacy in other populations, but its effects in HD are largely unknown. This pilot study will explore the effects and neural mechanisms of CCT in HD.

Discussing Weight in Real World GP Consultations: A Video Recording Analysis Study.

Objective: GPs have a complex role in obesity management due to patients' individualized experience of living with obesity, coupled with the challenge to deliver healthcare messages in non-stigmatizing ways. This study aimed to explore who initiates the topic of weight and how weight was discussed in real-world GP-patient consultations.

Method: A multi-disciplinary team, including obesity lived experience experts, undertook a secondary data analysis of 43 Australian video recorded consultations and patient surveys from The Digital Library using descriptive content analysis.

Olanzapine versus quetiapine in critically ill patients with hyperactive delirium: Protocol for a multicentre, cluster-randomised, double-crossover, pragmatic clinical trial (CALM-ICU).

Background: Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) frequently develop hyperactive delirium, which may be accompanied by behaviour that increases clinical risks to themselves as well as other patients and staff. There is a paucity of evidence to inform the urgent enteral administration of antipsychotic drugs to treat such hyperactive delirium and behavioural disturbances.

Objective: The aim of this study is to test the efficacy and safety of administering enteral olanzapine when compared to quetiapine in critically ill patients with hyperactive delirium.

The epidemiology of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Objective: To describe the epidemiology and clinical features of pressure injury (PI) development in adult patients supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

Design: Retrospective, observational, cohort study from January 2018 to May 2023.

Setting: A single-centre high-volume ECMO specialist intensive care unit (ICU).

Efficacy and safety of guanfacine in hospitalized patients with delirium: A scoping review.

Objective: To assess current evidence regarding guanfacine use in hospitalized patients with delirium.

Introduction: Delirium is a common and important complication of critical illness. Central alpha-2 agonists are often used for symptomatic management.

Provision of continuous renal replacement therapy in children in intensive care in Australia and New Zealand.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe current use, clinical practice, and outcomes of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in children in the intensive care unit (ICU) in Australia and New Zealand.

Design: retrospective, binational registry-based cohort study and electronic survey of clinical practice.

Setting: ICUs that contribute to the Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Intensive Care Registry and a survey conducted in November 2021 including ICUs accredited for paediatric intensive care training that provide CRRT for children were part of this study.

Hospital-level volume in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation cases and death or disability at 6 months.

Objective: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a high-risk procedure with significant morbidity and mortality and there is an uncertain volume-outcome relationship, especially regarding long-term functional outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine the association between ECMO centre volume and long-term death and disability outcomes.

Design Setting And Participants: This is a registry-embedded observational cohort study.

Severe intensive care unit-acquired hypernatraemia: Prevalence, risk factors, trajectory, management, and outcome.

Background: Severe intensive care unit-acquired hypernatraemia (ICU-AH) is a serious complication of critical illness. However, there is no detailed information on how this condition develops.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to study the prevalence, risk factors, trajectory, management, and outcome of severe ICU-AH (≥155 mmol·L).

Timing of adjunctive vasopressin initiation for septic shock patients and hospital mortality: A multicentre observational study.

Objective: The optimal timing of vasopressin initiation as an adjunctive vasopressor remains unclear. We aimed to study the association between the timing of vasopressin commencement, pre-specified physiological parameters, and hospital mortality.

Design: We conducted a multicentre, retrospective, observational study.