Background The Aboriginal nations of Canada have higher incidences of chronic diseases, coinciding with profound changes in their environment, lifestyle and diet. Traditional foods can protect ...against the risks of chronic disease. However, their consumption is in decline, and little is known about the complex mechanisms underlying this trend. Objective To identify the factors involved in traditional food consumption by Cree Aboriginal people living in 3 communities in northern Quebec, Canada. Design A mixed methods explanatory design, including focus group interviews to interpret the results of logistic regression. Methods This study includes a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional survey of 3 Cree communities (n=374) and 4 focus group interviews (n=23). In the first, quantitative phase of the study, data were collected using a food-frequency questionnaire along with a structured questionnaire. Subsequently, the focus group interviews helped explain and build on the results of logistic regressions. Results People who consume traditional food 3 days or more weekly were more likely to be 40 years old and over, to walk 30 minutes or more per day, not to have completed their schooling, to live in Mistissini and to be a hunter (p<0.05 for all comparisons). The focus group participants provided explanations for the quantitative analysis results or completed them. For example, although no statistical association was found, focus group participants believed that employment acts as both a facilitator and a barrier to traditional food consumption, rendering the effect undetectable. In addition, focus group participants suggested that traditional food consumption is the result of multiple interconnected influences, including individual, family, community and environmental influences, rather than a single factor. Conclusions This study sheds light on a number of factors that are unique to traditional foods, factors that have been understudied to date. Efforts to promote and maintain traditional food consumption could improve the overall health and wellbeing of Cree communities.
The current study sought to identify the variables, derived from the self-medication hypothesis, which predicted substance abuse evolution during a homogeneous 3-month antipsychotic treatment. ...Twenty-four patients were diagnosed with schizophrenia and substance abuse (mainly cannabis and alcohol). Substance abuse, psychiatric symptoms, anhedonia, and social adjustment were assessed at baseline and study endpoint. Linear regression analyses were performed. Better social adaptation and worse anhedonia predicted substance abuse improvements. Conversely, greater psychoactive substance (PAS) use predicted endpoint positive and depressive symptoms. These results suggest that: (i) substance abuse interferes with psychiatric prognosis in schizophrenia; and (ii) dual diagnosis treatments leading patients to engage in alternative social activities may render substance abuse less appealing. Further studies are warranted to dissociate the causes and consequences of substance abuse in schizophrenia.
Neurological and psychiatric symptoms are consequences of substance abuse in schizophrenia and non-schizophrenia patients. The present case-control study examined changes in substance ...abuse/dependence, and neurological and psychiatric symptoms in substance abusers with dual diagnosis (DD) group, n = 26 and without schizophrenia substance use disorder (SUD) group, n = 24 and in non-abusing schizophrenia patients (SCZ group, n = 23) undergoing 12-week treatment with the atypical antipsychotic, quetiapine. Neurological and psychiatric symptoms were evaluated with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia, the Extrapyramidal Symptoms Rating Scale, and the Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale. At endpoint, DD and SCZ patients were receiving significantly higher doses of quetiapine (mean = 554 and 478 mg/day, respectively), relative to SUD patients (mean = 150 mg/day). We found that SUD patients showed greater improvement in weekly dollars spent on alcohol and drugs and SUD severity, compared to DD patients. At endpoint, there was no significant difference in dollars spent, but DD patients still had a higher mean SUD severity. Interestingly, DD patients had significantly higher parkinsonism and depression than SCZ patients at baseline and endpoint. On the other hand, we found that SUD patients had significantly more akathisia at baseline, improved more than SCZ patients, and this was related to cannabis abuse/dependence. Finally, SUD patients improved more in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale positive scores than DD and SCZ patients. Taken together, our results provide evidence for increased vulnerability to the adverse effects of alcohol and drugs in schizophrenia patients. They also suggest that substance abuse/withdrawal may mimic some symptoms of schizophrenia. Future studies will need to determine the role quetiapine played in these improvements.
Abstract Purpose Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is often performed to assess the severity of coronary artery stenoses. However, the usefulness of measuring FFR when a noninvasive test has been ...obtained prior to coronary angiography has not been studied. Methods and materials We retrospectively reviewed 122 patients who underwent noninvasive stress test with cardiac imaging (SPECT or stress echocardiography) prior to FFR assessment of a coronary lesion. The usefulness of FFR measurement was determined. FFR was judged useful if decision to revascularize the patient reflected the result of FFR rather than the result of the stress test. Results A total of 136 lesions were evaluated. Of these, 66 were associated with a positive noninvasive test and 70 had no ischemia present in the territory of the evaluated vessel. When FFR was negative (≥0.75) and the test positive (57 lesions), revascularization was deferred in 55. When FFR was positive (<0.75) and the functional test negative (8 lesions), revascularization was performed in 8. FFR measurement changed the clinical decision to revascularize the patient in 55 (83%) of the 66 lesions with ischemia documented on noninvasive tests compared to 8 (11%) of the 70 lesions without ischemia ( P <.0001). Conclusion FFR can be helpful in patients with coronary artery disease even when noninvasive testing is performed prior to coronarography. In this study, FFR measurement had the greatest impact in the evaluation of lesions with documented ischemia on noninvasive tests. In these patients, appropriate use of FFR based on the operator's judgment can prevent unnecessary revascularizations of intermediate lesions.
Pour son premier numéro, la revue Didactique explore les différentes déclinaisons du concept de Didactique à travers les contributions les plus importantes du champ et la publication d’articles ...préparés par des experts du domaine.
Focus: A Detective Game about Cognitive Distortions Potvin, Samuel; Auclair, Jérémie; Berthier, Julien ...
Extended Abstracts of the 2022 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play,
11/2022
Conference Proceeding
Cognitive distortions are biased perceptions, irrational thoughts that will affect individuals to a lesser or greater extent. In its worst form, it can lead to depression. Increasing awareness can ...help prevent this outcome. In this paper, we present Focus, a serious game, aimed at teenagers. Focus helps the player identify cognitive distortions. The environment illustrates the various effects of the distortion to provide a visual interpretation to the player. Exploring the world of his inner thoughts, the player is investigating and documenting strange artifacts present in his world and the reasons behind them. The investigation is providing a playground to discover the effects of cognitive distortion on the player’s world perception. Focus is built around one cognitive distortion: "All or Nothing", but the concept can be applied to other distortions.
Résumé
Contexte : Le tabagisme est élevé chez les personnes souffrant de schizophrénie ; certains patients réclament une aide au niveau de la médication qu’ils reçoivent afin de cesser de fumer. ...Objectif : Parmi les traitements pharmacologiques de la schizophrénie, la clozapine peut réduire la consommation de cigarettes. Les effets de la quétiapine, un autre antipsychotique atypique partageant plusieurs propriétés structurales et pharmacologiques avec la clozapine, ont été examinés chez un groupe de fumeurs atteints de schizophrénie dans une étude exploratoire. Méthode : Vingt-et-un individus fumeurs avec un diagnostic de schizophrénie, de trouble schizo-affectif ou de trouble schizophréniforme et recevant de la quétiapine ont été évalués à l’aide du questionnaire de Fagerström pour la dépendance à la nicotine. Ils ont de plus subi des analyses de monoxyde de carbone sanguin. Résultats : Le profil tabagique des sujets n’a pas été modifié significativement par l’administration de la quétiapine, malgré une amélioration de la symptomatologie psychiatrique. Conclusion : La quétiapine ne semble pas avoir d’effet significatif sur la consommation de cigarettes chez les fumeurs souffrant de schizophrénie.
The goal of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) field campaign is to develop a predictive understanding of the export, fate, and carbon cycle impacts of global ocean net ...primary production. To accomplish this goal, observations of export flux pathways, plankton community composition, food web processes, and optical, physical, and biogeochemical (BGC) properties are needed over a range of ecosystem states. Here we introduce the first EXPORTS field deployment to Ocean Station Papa in the Northeast Pacific Ocean during summer of 2018, providing context for other papers in this special collection. The experiment was conducted with two ships: a Process Ship, focused on ecological rates, BGC fluxes, temporal changes in food web, and BGC and optical properties, that followed an instrumented Lagrangian float; and a Survey Ship that sampled BGC and optical properties in spatial patterns around the Process Ship. An array of autonomous underwater assets provided measurements over a range of spatial and temporal scales, and partnering programs and remote sensing observations provided additional observational context. The oceanographic setting was typical of late-summer conditions at Ocean Station Papa: a shallow mixed layer, strong vertical and weak horizontal gradients in hydrographic properties, sluggish sub-inertial currents, elevated macronutrient concentrations and low phytoplankton abundances. Although nutrient concentrations were consistent with previous observations, mixed layer chlorophyll was lower than typically observed, resulting in a deeper euphotic zone. Analyses of surface layer temperature and salinity found three distinct surface water types, allowing for diagnosis of whether observed changes were spatial or temporal.The 2018 EXPORTS field deployment is among the most comprehensive biological pump studies ever conducted. A second deployment to the North Atlantic Ocean occurred in spring 2021, which will be followed by focused work on data synthesis and modeling using the entire EXPORTS data set.
Background: Preliminary evidence suggests that clozapine relieves the craving for psychoactive substances in schizophrenia patients. Quetiapine shares crucial pharmacological properties with ...clozapine. Promising results have been described with quetiapine therapy in patients with psychosis and substance use disorder.
Methods: Based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - fourth edition (DSM-IV) criteria, patients were diagnosed with comorbid schizophrenia-spectrum and substance use disorders. Patients were switched to quetiapine for a 12-week open-label trial. Craving, quantities used, days of consumption, and severity of substance abuse were assessed every 3 weeks. Alcohol and Drug Use Scales were administered on baseline and end-point. Psychiatric symptoms, depressive symptoms, extrapyramidal symptoms, and cognition were also assessed at baseline, week 6 and week 12.
Results: Twenty-four schizophrenia-spectrum patients were included in the last observation carried forward (LOCF) analyses, responding to one or more of the following substance use disorders: cannabis (15 patients), alcohol (10 patients), and other psychoactive substances (nine patients). Overall, severity of substance abuse improved during the study. Less weekly days were spent on drugs of abuse. A decrease in the weekly Canadian dollars spent on psychoactive substances was also observed. Cognition, psychiatric, depressive, and extrapyramidal symptoms also significantly improved ( p < 0.05).
Conclusions: In this open-label, uncontrolled trial, significant improvements were noted in substance abuse, psychiatric symptoms, extrapyramidal symptoms, and cognition during quetiapine therapy. The study suffered from three main limitations: (1) the open-label design of the study; (2) the patients' poor compliance; and (3) the small sample size involved. Controlled studies on the use of quetiapine in dual diagnosis schizophrenia are warranted to confirm that the effects are drug-related.
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