What Patients Facing Cancer and Caregivers Want From Communication in Times of Crisis: A Qualitative Study in the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Interpersonal communication is a cornerstone of patient-centered care. We aimed to identify what patients with cancer and caregivers may want from communication during a public health crisis.

Methods: We interviewed 15 patients (8 Veteran, 7 non-Veteran) and caregivers from regionally, racially, and ethnically diverse backgrounds across the US about serious illness care and quality of care during the COVID-19 pandemic Using an iterative, inductive and deductive process, 2 coders analyzed content associated with the code "Communication," which appeared 71 times, and identified 5 themes.

Increasing Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder and Complementary and Integrative Health Services in Primary Care.

Objectives: Evidence-based therapies for opioid use disorder (OUD) and chronic pain, such as medications for OUD (MOUD) and complementary and integrative health (CIH; e.g., acupuncture and meditation) therapies, exist.

A Longitudinal Evidence-Based Medicine Curriculum and Its Impact on the Attitudes and Perceptions of Student Pharmacists.

To describe a longitudinal evidence-based medicine (EBM) curriculum and to evaluate its impact on the attitudes and perceptions of student pharmacists toward EBM. Western University of Health Sciences has had a structured, longitudinal, EBM curriculum for more than 10 years, spanning the first to third years, including the introductory experiential experiences. A survey was administered prior to the main EBM course and at the completion of the course at three time periods to assess student pharmacists' attitudes and perceptions of EBM and interactive pedagogical methods.

Cholinergic Receptor Binding in Alzheimer Disease and Healthy Aging: Assessment In Vivo with Positron Emission Tomography Imaging.

Objective: To compare regional nicotinic cholinergic receptor binding in older adults with Alzheimer disease (AD) and healthy older adults in vivo and to assess relationships between receptor binding and clinical symptoms.

Methods: Using cross-sectional positron emission tomography (PET) neuroimaging and structured clinical assessment, outpatients with mild to moderate AD (N = 24) and healthy older adults without cognitive complaints (C group; N = 22) were studied. PET imaging of α4β2* nicotinic cholinergic receptor binding using 2-[F]fluoro-3-(2(S)azetidinylmethoxy)pyridine (2FA) and clinical measures of global cognition, attention/processing speed, verbal memory, visuospatial memory, and neuropsychiatric symptoms were used.

Psychosocial and Physiological Predictors of Mortality in Patients of Heart Failure: Independent Effects of Marital Status and C-Reactive Protein.

Purpose: Few studies have examined the interplay between psychosocial and physiological variables in prediction of mortality in heart failure (HF) patients. This study investigated the prospective influence of marital status, social support, depression, and C-reactive protein (CRP) on the mortality of patients with chronic HF. In addition, it examined whether there was a mediating relationship between social support and marital status and whether depression and inflammation influenced one another to predict mortality of HF patients.

Evolving techniques for gastrointestinal endoscopic hemostasis treatment.

With mortality due to gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding remaining stable, the focus on endoscopic hemostasis has been on improving other outcomes such as rebleeding rate, need for transfusions, and need for angiographic embolization or surgery. Over the past few years, a number of devices have emerged to help endoscopically assess and treat bleeding GI lesions. These include the Doppler endoscopic probe, hemostatic powder, and over-the-scope clip.

Comparison of Three Risk Scores to Predict Outcomes of Severe Lower Gastrointestinal Bleeding.

Background And Aims: Improved medical decisions by using a score at the initial patient triage level may lead to improvements in patient management, outcomes, and resource utilization. There is no validated score for management of lower gastrointestinal bleeding (LGIB) unlike for upper gastrointestinal bleeding. The aim of our study was to compare the accuracies of 3 different prognostic scores [Center for Ulcer Research and Education Hemostasis prognosis score, Charlson index, and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score] for the prediction of 30-day rebleeding, surgery, and death in severe LGIB.

Practical steps for implementing quality measurement in practice.

All neurologists must begin incorporating quality measurement and quality improvement into their practice. Efforts to pay physicians based on the quality of their care and patient outcomes moves quality measurement beyond reporting to satisfy regulatory requirements and pushes physicians to select and use quality measures to improve patient outcomes and patient experience. This article provides practical steps and proposes considerations for neurologic practices advancing quality measurement and improvement.

Adapting social neuroscience measures for schizophrenia clinical trials, Part 2: trolling the depths of psychometric properties.

The psychometric properties of 4 paradigms adapted from the social neuroscience literature were evaluated to determine their suitability for use in clinical trials of schizophrenia. This 2-site study (University of California, Los Angeles and University of North Carolina) included 173 clinically stable schizophrenia outpatients and 88 healthy controls. The social cognition battery was administered twice to the schizophrenia group (baseline, 4-week retest) and once to the control group.

The spectrum of sociopathy in dementia.

Although well-known from head trauma and acute strokes, sociopathic behavior from dementia is less known and understood. This study reviewed 33 dementia patients who had been in trouble with the law. They were divided into two groups: 22 who committed impulsive sociopathic acts and 11 who committed non-impulsive acts.

Physical performance is associated with executive functioning in older african american women.

An older adult's ability to perform physical tasks is predictive of disability onset and is associated with declines in cognition. Risk factors for physical performance declines among African Americans, a group with the highest rates of disability, remain understudied. This study sought to identify demographic, health, and cognitive factors associated with lower-extremity physical performance in a sample of 106 African American women ages 56 to 91.

Incidence of ischemic colitis and serious complications of constipation among patients using alosetron: systematic review of clinical trials and post-marketing surveillance data.

Background: Ischemic colitis and serious complications of constipation have been reported in association with the use of alosetron, which is approved for women with severe diarrhea-predominant IBS who have failed conventional therapies. This systematic review calculated the incidence of these adverse events in alosetron-using patients in clinical trials and post-marketing surveillance.

Methods: A panel of experts in epidemiology and functional bowel disorders reviewed clinical trial report forms and FDA MedWatch forms of each reported case of ischemic colitis or serious complications of constipation.

Physiological and pathological aspects of the effect of human chorionic gonadotropin on the thyroid.

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a glycoprotein hormone that has structural similarity to TSH. At the time of the peak hCG levels in normal pregnancy, serum TSH levels fall and bear a mirror image to the hCG peak. This reduction in TSH suggests that hCG causes an increased secretion of T4 and T3.

Agnosia for familiar faces and odors in a patient with right temporal lobe dysfunction.

The authors studied a 53-year-old man with progressive prosopagnosia and inability to recognize his favorite foods by smell. He could not identify pictures of familiar faces, but he could match unfamiliar faces and distinguish them from familiar ones. He could not identify familiar odors, but he could detect them and could perceive them as pleasant or familiar.

Usefulness of coronary MR angiography prior to angioplasty.

The range of indications for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) has increased greatly since the procedure was initially introduced. The success rate depends on the anatomy and length of the occlusion and on the state of the distal vessel. We present a case where the use of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) allowed to evaluate the length of a subtotal occlusion prior to PTCA, and thus could have had an impact on therapeutic decisions.

Breathhold cine MRI of left ventricular function in patients with obstructive sleep apnea: work-in-progress.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep-related breathing disorder that can cause left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. In patients with OSA, the LV dysfunction is usually evaluated by echocardiography. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the use of breathhold cine MRI for the study of LV dysfunction would be feasible and well tolerated by patients with OSA.