COVID-19 is a severe infectious disease that has claimed >150,000 lives and infected millions in the United States thus far, especially the elderly population. Emerging evidence has shown the virus ...to cause hemorrhagic and immunologic responses, which impact all organs, including lungs, kidneys, and the brain, as well as extremities. SARS-CoV-2 also affects patients', families', and society's mental health at large. There is growing evidence of re-infection in some patients. The goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of SARS-CoV-2-induced disease, its mechanism of infection, diagnostics, therapeutics, and treatment strategies, while also focusing on less attended aspects by previous studies, including nutritional support, psychological, and rehabilitation of the pandemic and its management. We performed a systematic review of >1,000 articles and included 425 references from online databases, including, PubMed, Google Scholar, and California Baptist University's library. COVID-19 patients go through acute respiratory distress syndrome, cytokine storm, acute hypercoagulable state, and autonomic dysfunction, which must be managed by a multidisciplinary team including nursing, nutrition, and rehabilitation. The elderly population and those who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease and dementia related illnesses seem to be at the higher risk. There are 28 vaccines under development, and new treatment strategies/protocols are being investigated. The future management for COVID-19 should include B-cell and T-cell immunotherapy in combination with emerging prophylaxis. The mental health and illness aspect of COVID-19 are among the most important side effects of this pandemic which requires a national plan for prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
This study compared the severity of intimate partner violence (IPV) and the relationship between risk factors for IPV and overall risk judgments of future IPV in urban, rural, and remote areas. IPV ...risk assessments conducted by the Swedish police between 2010 and 2014 in urban (n = 564), rural (n = 456), and remote (n = 196) areas were examined. Rurality was associated with the severity of IPV reported, as well as the presence of risk factors and their relationship to overall risk judgments. Cases in remote areas included more severe IPV as well as more risk factors.
This study assessed the reliability and validity of the Guidelines for Stalking Assessment and Management (SAM), a structured professional judgment measure for assessing stalking risks. The SAM was ...completed retrospectively from file review for 146 adult stalkers (90.4% male) referred to a community-based forensic mental health service. Interrater reliability (IRR) was initially poor, but developing a strict definition of stalking currency and rescoring the SAM led to improvement. Based on the updated scoring, IRR was moderate for judgments about whether stalking was ongoing at the time of assessment, and fair to moderate for summary risk judgments. Both case prioritization (area under the curve AUC = .69) and risk for continued stalking (AUC = .76) ratings discriminated between groups, with high-risk stalkers 5−9 times as likely as low-risk stalkers to reoffend by stalking their original victims. Lifetime SAM total scores (AUC = .70) also featured moderate to good discrimination. Follow-up analyses suggested that this was driven mainly by the recent presence of risk markers and the nature of any ongoing stalking situation rather than historical or individual factors. Findings support the use of the SAM to structure risk judgments made by those with experience in assessing stalking. Current results also imply that IRR might be improved by introducing (a) a fixed definition of stalking currency and (b) usage guidelines for specific contexts.
Public Significance Statement
This study indicates that the Guidelines for Stalking Assessment and Management may be helpful for evaluating and communicating stalking risks. Given suboptimal agreement between raters, it is suggested that the instrument might be improved by adopting a fixed definition of what constitutes "current" stalking and developing specific guidelines for each usage context, for example, law enforcement or forensic mental health settings.
Ginkgo biloba (EGb761) is a widely used botanical drug. Several reports indicate that EGb761 confers preventive as well as anti-tumorigenic properties in a variety of tumors, including hepatocellular ...carcinoma (HCC). We here evaluate functional effects and molecular alterations induced by EGb761 in hepatoma cells and non-malignant hepatocytes. Hepatoma cell lines, primary human HCC cells and immortalized human hepatocytes (IH) were exposed to various concentrations (0-1000 μg/ml) of EGb761. Apoptosis and proliferation were evaluated after 72h of EGb761 exposure. Response to oxidative stress, tumorigenic properties and molecular changes were further investigated. While anti-oxidant effects were detected in all cell lines, EGb761 promoted anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects mainly in hepatoma cells. Consistently, EGb761 treatment caused a significant reduction in colony and sphere forming ability in hepatoma cells and no mentionable changes in IH. Transcriptomic changes involved oxidative stress response as well as key oncogenic pathways resembling Nrf2- and mTOR signaling pathway. Taken together, EGb761 induces differential effects in non-transformed and cancer cells. While treatment confers protective effects in non-malignant cells, EGb761 significantly impairs tumorigenic properties in cancer cells by affecting key oncogenic pathways. Results provide the rational for clinical testing of EGb761 in preventive and therapeutic strategies in human liver diseases.
Objective:
Individuals who stalk strangers and acquaintances are under-studied, although there is some evidence suggesting a greater prevalence of psychopathology than is present in those who stalk ...former partners. This study investigated the nature and prevalence of psychopathology in a sample of stranger and acquaintance stalkers and whether psychopathology was associated with increased duration or serial stalking in this group. It was hypothesised that mental illness, and specifically psychosis, would be more prevalent among strangers and acquaintances than among ex-intimate stalkers.
Method:
Two hundred and eleven stalkers (10% female; mean age = 35, SD = 10.8; 71 ex-intimates) were recruited between 2002 and 2007 from a specialist service in Melbourne, Australia. Each underwent psychiatric and psychological assessment and disorders were diagnosed according to DMS-IV-TR criteria. Non-parametric independent sample tests were used to examine associations between relationship type and psychopathology, and to identify individual and stalking-related characteristics associated with increased duration and serial stalking.
Results:
Axis I disorders were significantly more prevalent among strangers and acquaintances than ex-intimates (71% vs 48%, OR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.4 to 4.7), as were psychotic disorders (29% vs 9%, OR = 4.4, 95% CI = 1.8 to 10.9). Psychosis was significantly associated with increased duration of stalking behaviour (U = 3043, p < 0.001). Those with a personality disorder were twice as likely to have stalked multiple times (OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.2 to 5.0).
Conclusions:
Those who stalk strangers and acquaintances are often mentally ill and psychopathology is associated with more persistent and recurrent stalking behaviour. Although limited by the use of clinical interview rather than structured assessment, these findings strongly support the argument for routine mental health assessment of stranger and acquaintance stalkers who become involved with the criminal justice system.
This paper presents a prospective evaluation of the predictive validity of three risk assessment instruments in a sample of Australian women identified by police as intimate partner abuse (IPA) ...perpetrators. Using a subsample from Spivak et al. (2020), 410 female IPA perpetrators were screened using the Victoria Police Screening Assessment for Family Violence Risk (VP-SAFvR) and evaluated alongside two samples of 60 and 229 female IPA perpetrators assessed using the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (B-SAFER) and a modified version of the Lethality Screen respectively. Of the three instruments, the VP-SAFvR possessed indicators of effective discrimination (i.e. sensitivity, specificity, area under the curve) and predictive validity (i.e. positive predictive value, negative predictive value) on general IPA recidivism and its intended outcome of family or intimate partner abuse. The B-SAFER risk judgement similarly predicted its intended outcome of physical IPA recidivism, with notable indicators of discrimination and predictive validity. The results of the Modified Lethality Screen were conversely mixed on measures of discrimination and prediction for its intended outcome of severe IPA. The current findings suggest that these instruments function consistently for women and men who are identified by police as perpetrating family or intimate partner abuse.
Violence among female stalkers Strand, S; McEwan, T E
Psychological medicine,
03/2012, Volume:
42, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Female stalkers account for 10-25% of all stalking cases, yet little is known about risk factors for female stalking violence. This study identifies risk factors for female stalking violence and ...contrasts these with risk factors for male stalking violence.
Seventy-one female and 479 male stalkers presenting to police in Sweden and a specialist stalking clinic in Australia were investigated. Univariate comparisons of behaviour by gender, and comparisons between violent and non-violent female stalkers, were undertaken. Logistic regression was then used to develop a predictive model for stalking violence based on demographic, offence and clinical characteristics.
Rates of violence were not significantly different between genders (31% of males and 23% of females). For both men and women, violence was associated with a combination of a prior intimate relationship with the victim, threats and approach behaviour. This model produced receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves with area under the curve (AUC)=0.80 for female stalkers and AUC=0.78 for male stalkers. The most notable gender difference was significantly higher rates of personality disorder among women. High rates of psychotic disorder were found in both genders. Stalking violence was directly related to psychotic symptoms for a small number of women.
Similar risk factors generally predict stalking violence between genders, providing initial support for a similar approach to risk assessment for all stalkers. The most notable gender difference was the prevalence of personality and psychotic disorders among female stalkers, supporting an argument for routine psychiatric assessment of women charged with stalking.
Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate the performance of typically developing Swedish-speaking children on DYMTA (Dynamisk Motorisk Talbedömning), a Swedish dynamic motor speech assessment.
...Method: Participants were 94 children, 45 boys/49 girls (9/8 multilingual), with typical oral motor, speech, and language skills, between 37 and 106 months divided into five age-groups. They performed two speech motor assessments, DYMTA-A and DYMTA-B using dynamic assessment.
Result: Typically developing children show good motor speech performance on targeted speech characteristics already at the age of three. DYMTA median total score was high for all ages; 90% of maximum or above. A significant correlation with age was found for DYMTA-A (p = 0.000, r = 0.49) and DYMTA-B (p = 0.000, r = 0.77). No significant differences were found across gender or concerning being mono- or multilingual.
Conclusion: DYMTA is the first Swedish assessment tool designed to identify children with CAS. The results of this study demonstrate that typically developing Swedish children perform well on DYMTA and that the test has possible utility for both mono- and multilingual children.
Children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) have difficulties affecting different levels of speech production. For treatment to be beneficial, it is important to differentiate between Childhood ...Apraxia of Speech (CAS) - a motor speech disorder with deficits in speech praxis - and other SSDs (nonCAS-SSD). We have previously developed a motor speech examination Dynamisk motorisk talbedömning (DYMTA). We aimed to evaluate DYMTAs reliability and validity in a small-scale sample to estimate DYMTAs usability in diagnostic settings.
Speech, language, and oral motor abilities were assessed in 45 children between 40 and 106 months. Intra- and inter-rater reliability of DYMTA were analyzed. Further, DYMTAs ability to validly discriminate between children with CAS and nonCAS-SSD was assessed.
The intra-rater reliability for the scores of DYMTA was strong, with ICCs ranging from 0.97 to 1.0. DYMTA total score had strong inter-rater reliability as evidenced both by the agreement estimates (DYMTA-A: 0.91 and DYMTA-B: 0.87) and the ICCs (0.97 and 0.96). Inter-rater reliability was also strong for the separate subscores on agreement estimates and for all subscores on ICCs, except for the Prosody subscores. DYMTA accurately discriminated between children with CAS and nonCAS-SSD in this small sample with an AUC of 0.92 for DYMTA-A and 0.94 for DYMTA-B.
With its focus on speech movements, DYMTA could serve as a valuable addition to other tests when assessing children's speech motor performance. This first examination suggests that DYMTA may be both a reliable and valid tool in the diagnostic process of SSD.
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