Body, Mind & Spirit Articles and Latest News

The FDA and the California Department of Public Health are investigating Salmonella contamination in pistachio products sold by Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella inc, Calif. The company has stopped all distribution of processed pistachios and will issue a voluntary recall involving approximately 1 million pounds of its products.

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Teleconference

April 7, 2009

1:00 P.M.1:15 P.M. EST

877-719-9799 (toll-free); Passcode: 6064250

The first 15 minutes of the teleconference will be monitored by the Premiere Conferencing Operator. People who are calling on this line just listen only when Dr. Briggs speaks. This line will be closed at 1:15 P.M. EST.

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Mental disorders and quality of life in COPD patients and their spouses.

Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2008;3(4):727-36

Authors: Kühl K, Schürmann W, Rief W

In the current study, the prevalence of the most common psychological disorders in COPD patients and their spouses was assessed cross-sectionally. The influence of COPD patients’ and their spouses’ psychopathology on patient health-related quality of life was also examined. The following measurements were employed: Forced expiratory volume in 1 second expressed in percentage predicted (FEV1%), Shuttle-Walking-Test (SWT), International Diagnostic Checklists for ICD-10 (IDCL), questionnaires on generic and disease-specific health-related quality of life (St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), European Quality of Life Questionnaire (EuroQol), a modified version of a Disability-Index (CDI)), and a screening questionnaire for a broad range of psychological problems and symptoms of psychopathology (Symptom-Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R)). One hundred and forty-three stable COPD outpatients with a severity grade between 2 and 4 (according to the GOLD criteria) as well as 105 spouses took part in the study. The prevalence of anxiety and depression diagnoses was increased both in COPD patients and their spouses. In contrast, substance-related disorders were explicitly more frequent in COPD patients. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that depression (SCL-90-R), walking distance (SWT), somatization (SCL-90-R), male gender, FEV1%, and heart disease were independent predictors of COPD patients’ health-related quality of life. After including anxiousness of the spouses in the regression, medical variables (FEV1% and heart disease) no longer explained disability, thus highlighting the relevance of spouses’ well-being. The results underline the importance of depression and anxiousness for health-related quality of life in COPD patients and their spouses. Of special interest is the fact that the relation between emotional distress and quality of life is interactive within a couple.

PMID: 19281087 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Related Articles

[Long-term psychiatric consequences of carbon monoxide poisoning: a case report and literature review]

Rev Med Interne. 2009 Jan;30(1):43-8

Authors: Borras L, Constant E, De Timary P, Huguelet P, Khazaal Y

Carbon monoxide intoxication (COI) can result in severe neuropsychiatric lesions that are however granted little attention in literature. Following the description of affective and neurological symptoms in a 37-year-old female patient five years following COI, we will review, across the literature (Medline 1974–2006), the long-term neuropsychiatric consequences, etiopathogenic hypotheses, prognoses and treatments to apply. Subjective symptoms are reported by the quasi-totality of patients for over more than 30 years following COI. More than half of patients are diagnosed as suffering from cognitive impairments and other neurological symptoms after years following COI. Affective disorders are observed in almost three-fourths of patients and personality disorders in more than half. Numerous cerebral lesions and perfusion disorders can be observed through IRM, PET scan and SPECT and related to the clinical symptomatology of the patient. COI may constitute a risk factor in the waking of long-term neuropsychiatric disorders in a context of environmental and neurobiological complex factor interaction. A close follow-up must be envisaged with neuropsychiatric assessments and regular neuroimagery in order to adapt at best therapeutic interventions to the patient’s clinical status. First and foremost prevention and education remain the key solution to the reduction of morbidity and mortality of COI.

PMID: 18571295 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Related Articles

Adjuvant auricular electroacupuncture and autogenic training in rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized controlled trial. Auricular acupuncture and autogenic training in rheumatoid arthritis.

Forsch Komplementmed. 2008 Aug;15(4):187-93

Authors: Bernateck M, Becker M, Schwake C, Hoy L, Passie T, Parlesak A, Fischer MJ, Fink M, Karst M

BACKGROUND: In contrast to psychological interventions the usefulness of acupuncture as an adjuvant therapy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has not yet been demonstrated. OBJECTIVE: The efficacy of auricular electroacupuncture (EA) was directly compared with autogenic training (AT). METHODS: Patients with RA (n = 44) were randomized into EA or AT groups. EA and lessons in AT were performed once weekly for 6 weeks. Primary outcome measures were the mean weekly pain intensity and the disease activity score 28 (DAS 28); secondary outcome measures were the use of pain medication, the pain disability index (PDI), the clinical global impression (CGI) and pro-inflammatory cytokine levels, which were assessed during the study period and 3 months after the end of treatment. RESULTS: At the end of the treatment and at 3-month follow-up a clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvement (p < 0.05) could be observed in all outcome parameters and both groups. In contrast to the AT group, the onset of these effects in the EA group could already be observed after the 2nd treatment week. In the 4th treatment week the EA group reported significantly less pain than the AT group (p = 0.040). After the end of treatment (7th week) the EA group assessed their outcome as significantly more improved than the AT group (p = 0.035). The erythrocyte sedimentation rate in the EA group was significantly reduced (p = 0.010), and the serum concentration of tumor necrosis factor-alpha was significantly increased compared to the AT group (p = 0.020). CONCLUSIONS: The adjuvant use of both EA and AT in the treatment of RA resulted in significant short- and long-term treatment effects. The treatment effects of auricular EA were more pronounced.

PMID: 18787327 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Related Articles

[Biodance as process of existential renew for the elderly]

Rev Bras Enferm. 2008 Sep-Oct;61(5):608-14

Authors: D’Alencar BP, Mendes MM, Jorge MS, Guimarães JM

In this study, we searched, from the ethnographic method, to identify the effects of Biodance in elders that lived it. The study was done with eight elderly that integrate the group of Biodance of SESC from Fortaleza, Ceará. The data were collected through semi-structured interview and participant observation, analyzed by method of narrative analysis. In the search of meaning of Biodance to elders, it highlighted that it constitutes a mechanism of facing of difficulties with health, stimulating the change of behavior in relation to health conditions, due increase the vital impetus and will to live. In this sense, the Biodance promotes the rescue of health that grew older.

PMID: 18982225 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Emergency department waiting room stress: can music or aromatherapy improve anxiety scores?

Pediatr Emerg Care. 2008 Dec;24(12):836-8

Authors: Holm L, Fitzmaurice L

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of music alone, aromatherapy alone, and music in addition to aromatherapy on anxiety levels of adults accompanying children to a pediatricemergency department waiting area. METHODS: The study was conducted over 28 consecutive days, assigned to 1 of 4 groups: no intervention, music, aromatherapy, and both music and aromatherapy. Adults accompanying children to the emergency department of an urban pediatric tertiary care referral center were given a survey including a Spielberger state anxiety inventory with additional questions about whether they noticed an aroma or music and if so their response to it. The music was classic ingenre with a tempo of 60 to 70 beats per minute. The aromatherapyused the essential oil Neroli dispersed using 2 aromatherapydiffusers placed in strategic airflow ends of the emergency department. RESULTS: The 1104 surveys were completed. There was a statistically significant decrease in anxietylevel on those days when music was playing (36.3 vs. 39.2; P = 0.017). There was no difference in anxiety levels on those days when aromatherapy was present compared with the nonaromatherapy days (37.3 vs. 38.0; P = 0.347). CONCLUSIONS: Music is an easy and useful way to decrease the anxiety of visitors in an emergency department waiting area. Although no difference was detected for the aromatherapy group, this could be because of environmental conditions or imprecise application of the aromatherapy; further study is needed to either prove or disprove its effectiveness in this setting.

PMID: 19050663 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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[Effectiveness of a rehabilitation and occupational behavioral cognitive group intervention for chronic low back pain with low disability. Prospective study with a 6-month follow-up]

G Ital Med Lav Ergon. 2008 Apr-Jun;30(2):162-8

Authors: Monticone M, Montironi C, Tomba A, Righini C, Nido N, Giovanazzi E

BACKGROUND: Literature suggests a bio-psychosocial approach to chronic low back pain, heralding disability. A multidisciplinary combination of motor, occupational and cognitive behavioural therapies constitutes a rehabilitative approach provided with growing evidence in the clinic field of spinal chronic pain. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of a motor, occupational and cognitive behavioural approach, carried out in group, for subjects with low disability chronic low back pain. METHODS: Prospective trial, with a six-month follow-up. We selected patients with chronic low back pain considered at low disability (Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire, RMDQ, score lower than 12/24), in the absence of serious co-morbidities, consecutively admitted to a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Unit. The patients underwent ten sessions of a rehabilitative and cognitive behavioural treatment, made in group. We identified the following outcome measures, administered pre-treatment, posttreatment and during six-month follow-up: pain (VAS), disability (RMDQ), health status (SF-36). We performed a parametric analysis for repeated measures (Student t test, significance: p < 0.05); we also searched the clinical importance for pain and disability. RESULTS: Population: 37 subjects, 21 females, 16 males, mean age 52 +/- 11 years old, low back pain mean duration 10 +/- 4 months. The described approach was successful (VAS p = 0.001, RMDQ p = 0.001, SF-36 domains 0.001 < p < 0.014), with persistence of results at the six-month follow-up for Physical Role, Pain, Emotional Role and Mental Health SF-36 domains; further significance increase was achieved for Physical Activities (p = 0.009), General Health (p = 0.006), and Vitality SF-36 domains (p = 0.007). The Social Activities domain of the SF-36 questionnaire was not significant (p = 0.260) at the end of the trial, getting significance at the six-month follow-up (p = 0.001). Clinical significance was furthermore achieved for pain and disability outcome measures, unchanging six months later. CONCLUSIONS: The trial showed evidence in favour of a combined motor, occupational and cognitive-behavioural approach, carried out in group, for low disability chronic low back pain. Considering methodological biases of the study, we recommend confirmation of these results through randomized controlled trial.

PMID: 19068864 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Related Articles

Redemptive experience in relational family therapy: a Christian perspective.

J Relig Health. 2008 Sep;47(3):386-97

Authors: Gostecnik C, Repic T, Cvetek R

We all long for relationships with others, because only in connecting with others can we develop our intrapsychic structure and become functional adults. We are psychologically predisposed to have a constant connection with others and are driven toward relationships with others. Our deepest yearnings are therefore devoted to building solid dialogue as the means of becoming fully human. We, therefore, consciously or unconsciously, long for a relationship where we can experience happiness, satisfaction and, above all, redemption or salvation from our dreads, miseries and unhappiness. In this article we presuppose that a therapeutic relationship, demonstrated in a psychoanalytic setting, namely in relational family therapy, can contain redemptive dimensions in which the inextinguishable longing for salvation is always present.

PMID: 19105027 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Smoking cessation interventions and strategies.

Aust Nurs J. 2008 Dec-2009 Jan;16(6):29-32

Authors:

PMID: 19186463 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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