Body, Mind & Spirit Articles and Latest News

[Functional abdominal pain].

Ther Umsch. 2011 Aug;68(8):463-7

Authors: Sendensky A, Tutuian R

Functional abdominal pain is an inhomogeneous group of disorders concerning aetiology and clinical presentation. Support for classification is provided by the ROME-Foundation with its criteria catalogue, ROME-III being the most recent one. However, basic approach consists of exclusion of somatic or psychiatric as well as psychosomatic disorders that are sharply defined and readily diagnosable. This article outlines a pragmatic gastroenterological approach by exemplary means of dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome. Dyspepsia includes a broad complex of mainly epigastric located symptoms, whereas irritable bowel syndrome is symptomatic with altered bowel habits and mid-abdominal pain in the majority. Gastreoenterologic therapy modalities are mainly based on empirical and symptomatic grounds, more than on precisely explaining pathophysioligic understanding.

PMID: 21796599 [PubMed - in process]

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The meanings of craft to an occupational therapist.

Aust Occup Ther J. 2008 Jun;55(2):133-42

Authors: Harris E

Craft was the first therapeutic occupation of occupational therapy. Since the early days of the profession, the value of craft in practice is a topic that has been discussed with fluctuating interest. Recent discussions by occupational therapists have reinforced that although craft is relevant to occupational therapy, there are uncertainties about its place in contemporary practice. Presently, scholars have identified that occupation is both the center of human experience and the core of our profession. Therefore, this study aimed to begin to clarify the meaning of craft to practice today by gaining a deep understanding of the meanings that one occupational therapist attributes to craft.

PMID: 20887447 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Genetic findings in anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 2010;94:241-70

Authors: Hinney A, Scherag S, Hebebrand J

Anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) are complex disorders associated with disordered eating behavior. Heritability estimates derived from twin and family studies are high, so that substantial genetic influences on the etiology can be assumed for both. As the monoaminergic neurotransmitter systems are involved in eating disorders (EDs), candidate gene studies have centered on related genes; additionally, genes relevant for body weight regulation have been considered as candidates. Unfortunately, this approach has yielded very few positive results; confirmed associations or findings substantiated in meta-analyses are scant. None of these associations can be considered unequivocally validated. Systematic genome-wide approaches have been performed to identify genes with no a priori evidence for their relevance in EDs. Family-based scans revealed linkage peaks in single chromosomal regions for AN and BN. Analyses of candidate genes in one of these regions led to the identification of genetic variants associated with AN. Currently, an international consortium is conducting a genome-wide association study for AN, which will hopefully lead to the identification of the first genome-wide significant markers.

PMID: 21036328 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Marriage and family therapists’ comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients: the influence of religious practices and support for lesbian and gay male human rights.

J Homosex. 2010 Nov;57(10):1258-73

Authors: Green MS, Murphy MJ, Blumer ML

The purpose of this study was to explore potential influences on marriage and family therapists’ comfort level when working with lesbian and gay male clients, including sex, age, race, sexual orientation, political orientation, religious practices of the therapist, as well as the level of support for lesbian and gay male human rights. Participants in this study were 199 experienced therapists. Results indicated that higher levels of religious practices were related to lower levels of support for lesbian and gay male human rights and to lower levels of comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients. When support for lesbian and gay male human rights was considered, the level of religious practices was no longer predictive of comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients.

PMID: 21058146 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Embedding routine alcohol screening and brief interventions in a rural general hospital.

Drug Alcohol Rev. 2011 Jan;30(1):47-54

Authors: Fahy P, Croton G, Voogt S

Alcohol screening and brief intervention approaches (SBI) are strongly supported by evidence, but few health-care facilities have successfully introduced and sustained routine SBI.

PMID: 21219497 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Bibliotherapy: new evidence of effectiveness.

Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2011;32(4):191

Authors: Thomas Editor SP

PMID: 21355752 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Achieving equilibrium within a culture of stability? Cultural knowing in nursing care on psychiatric intensive care units.

Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2011;32(4):255-65

Authors: Salzmann-Erikson M, L Tz N K, Ivarsson AB, Eriksson H

This article presents intensive psychiatric nurses’ work and nursing care. The aim of the study was to describe expressions of cultural knowing in nursing care in psychiatric intensive care units (PICU). Spradley’s ethnographic methodology was applied. Six themes emerged as frames for nursing care in psychiatric intensive care: providing surveillance, soothing, being present, trading information, maintaining security and reducing. These themes are used to strike a balance between turbulence and stability and to achieve equilibrium. As the nursing care intervenes when turbulence emerges, the PICU becomes a sanctuary that offers tranquility, peace and rest.

PMID: 21355761 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Amyloid β (Aβ) and phospho-tau (p-tau) as diagnostic biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease.

Clin Chem Lab Med. 2011 Mar;49(3):367-74

Authors: Prvulovic D, Hampel H

A growing body of evidence suggests that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial disease resulting in the well-known, common neuropathological pathway characterized by extracellular fibrillar β amyloid (Aβ) deposits in the brain, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and neuronal as well as axonal degeneration. While fairly accurate, the clinical diagnosis of probable AD based on standard diagnostic criteria does not take into account the long preclinical and prodromal course of AD. AD-related pathophysiological changes can occur many years and even decades before the appearance of clinical dementia syndrome. Biomarkers that are related to the pathophysiology of AD may thus help detect the preclinical stages of disease, and improve early and differential diagnosis. Here, we provide an overview of current literature on the core AD biomarkers, Aβ and phosphor-tau (p-tau), on different methods and modalities of assessing them [e.g., cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis and PET imaging], and on their diagnostic and predictive value in preclinical and clinical stages of AD.

PMID: 21342022 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Revelations on the state of psychiatry today.

Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2011;32(4):266-8

Authors: Flaskerud J

PMID: 21355762 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Working hard to relax: improving engagement in leisure time activities for a healthier work-life balance.

Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2011;32(4):269-70

Authors: Buettner L, Shattell M, Reber M

PMID: 21355763 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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