Experiences of trauma in childhood and adulthood are highly prevalent among service users accessing acute, crisis, emergency, and residential mental health services. These settings, and restraint and ...seclusion practices used, can be extremely traumatic, leading to a growing awareness for the need for trauma informed care (TIC). The aim of TIC is to acknowledge the prevalence and impact of trauma and create a safe environment to prevent re-traumatisation. This scoping review maps the TIC approaches delivered in these settings and reports related service user and staff experiences and attitudes, staff wellbeing, and service use outcomes.We searched seven databases (EMBASE; PsycINFO; MEDLINE; Web of Science; Social Policy and Practice; Maternity and Infant Care Database; Cochrane Library Trials Register) between 24/02/2022-10/03/2022, used backwards and forwards citation tracking, and consulted academic and lived experience experts, identifying 4244 potentially relevant studies. Thirty-one studies were included.Most studies (n = 23) were conducted in the USA and were based in acute mental health services (n = 16). We identified few trials, limiting inferences that can be drawn from the findings. The Six Core Strategies (n = 7) and the Sanctuary Model (n = 6) were the most commonly reported approaches. Rates of restraint and seclusion reportedly decreased. Some service users reported feeling trusted and cared for, while staff reported feeling empathy for service users and having a greater understanding of trauma. Staff reported needing training to deliver TIC effectively.TIC principles should be at the core of all mental health service delivery. Implementing TIC approaches may integrate best practice into mental health care, although significant time and financial resources are required to implement organisational change at scale. Most evidence is preliminary in nature, and confined to acute and residential services, with little evidence on community crisis or emergency services. Clinical and research developments should prioritise lived experience expertise in addressing these gaps.
Background:
An ageing prison population with complex health needs combined with punitive sentencing practices means palliative care for incarcerated individuals is increasingly important. However, ...there is limited evidence regarding the models of care delivery in high-income countries, and their associated challenges and benefits.
Aim:
To develop a typology of models of palliative care provision for incarcerated individuals, synthesise evidence of their outcomes and describe facilitators of and challenges in delivering different models of palliative and end-of-life care in prisons.
Design:
Scoping review following Arksey and O’Malley, with narrative synthesis. The protocol was registered prospectively (reviewregistry1260).
Data sources:
MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, the Social Sciences Citation Index and grey literature were searched on 15th March 2023. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used for quality appraisal.
Results:
A total of 16,865 records were screened; 22 peer-reviewed articles and 18 grey literature sources met the inclusion criteria. Three models were identified: Embedded Hospice, Outsourcing Care and Community Collaboration. The Embedded Hospice model shows potential benefits for patients and prisons. Outsourcing Care may miss opportunities for comprehensive care. Collaborative Care relies on proactive prison-community relationships that could be formalised for improvement. Psychosocial and bereavement needs of those dying in prison and their caregivers lack sufficient documentation.
Conclusion:
Further research is needed to evaluate prison hospice costs and examine how prison hospices impact compassionate release usage. Beyond the USA, policies might formalise care pathways and recognise best practices. Further investigation to address psychosocial needs of people in prison with life-limiting illnesses and post-death bereavement support is required.
Tics and Tourette syndrome are common comorbidities of patients diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). One of the mainstay pharmacologic therapies for ADHD has been ...stimulants. However, this class of drugs has been associated with tic exacerbations, thus limiting their utility in this patients subgroup. Atomoxetine has been explored as an alternative treatment as one of the few non-stimulants available to treat ADHD. Early data identifies atomoxetine's influence on Tourette symptomatology to be not merely equivocal but potentially suppressive in the manifestation of tics. There are, however, case studies describing patients experiencing recurrences of tics following treatment with atomoxetine. We present a unique case of a patient, without any prior history of a movement disorder, who developed tics following a single dose of atomoxetine that did not improve until interventional therapy was initiated.
When an orthogonal matrix is partitioned into a two-by-two block structure, its four blocks can be simultaneously bidiagonalized. This observation underlies numerically stable algorithms for the CS ...decomposition and the existence of CMV matrices for orthogonal polynomial recurrences. We discover a new matrix decomposition for simultaneous multidiagonalization, which reduces the blocks to any desired bandwidth. Its existence is proved, and a backward stable algorithm is developed. The resulting matrix with banded blocks is parameterized by a product of Givens rotations, guaranteeing orthogonality even on a finite-precision computer. The algorithm relies heavily on Level 3 BLAS routines and supports parallel computation.
A core challenge in global change biology is to predict how species will respond to future environmental change and to manage these responses. To make such predictions and management actions robust ...to novel futures, we need to accurately characterize how organisms experience their environments and the biological mechanisms by which they respond. All organisms are thermodynamically connected to their environments through the exchange of heat and water at fine spatial and temporal scales and this exchange can be captured with biophysical models. Although mechanistic models based on biophysical ecology have a long history of development and application, their use in global change biology remains limited despite their enormous promise and increasingly accessible software. We contend that greater understanding and training in the theory and methods of biophysical ecology is vital to expand their application. Our review shows how biophysical models can be implemented to understand and predict climate change impacts on species' behavior, phenology, survival, distribution, and abundance. It also illustrates the types of outputs that can be generated, and the data inputs required for different implementations. Examples range from simple calculations of body temperature at a particular site and time, to more complex analyses of species' distribution limits based on projected energy and water balances, accounting for behavior and phenology. We outline challenges that currently limit the widespread application of biophysical models relating to data availability, training, and the lack of common software ecosystems. We also discuss progress and future developments that could allow these models to be applied to many species across large spatial extents and timeframes. Finally, we highlight how biophysical models are uniquely suited to solve global change biology problems that involve predicting and interpreting responses to environmental variability and extremes, multiple or shifting constraints, and novel abiotic or biotic environments.
Predictions of how species respond to climate and other global changes should ideally be based explicitly on known processes. Here we review the field of biophysical ecology, which addresses the most fundamental thermodynamic processes by which organisms respond to environmental change. We contend that greater understanding and training in the theory and methods of biophysical models is vital to expand their application.
Environmental factors clearly affect colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence, but the mechanisms through which these factors function are unknown. One prime candidate is an altered colonic microbiota. Here ...we show that the mucosal microbiota organization is a critical factor associated with a subset of CRC. We identified invasive polymicrobial bacterial biofilms (bacterial aggregates), structures previously associated with nonmalignant intestinal pathology, nearly universally (89%) on right-sided tumors (13 of 15 CRCs, 4 of 4 adenomas) but on only 12% of left-sided tumors (2 of 15 CRCs, 0 of 2 adenomas). Surprisingly, patients with biofilm-positive tumors, whether cancers or adenomas, all had biofilms on their tumor-free mucosa far distant from their tumors. Bacterial biofilms were associated with diminished colonic epithelial cell E-cadherin and enhanced epithelial cell IL-6 and Stat3 activation, as well as increased crypt epithelial cell proliferation in normal colon mucosa. High-throughput sequencing revealed no consistent bacterial genus associated with tumors, regardless of biofilm status. However, principal coordinates analysis revealed that biofilm communities on paired normal mucosa, distant from the tumor itself, cluster with tumor microbiomes as opposed to biofilm-negative normal mucosa bacterial communities also from the tumor host. Colon mucosal biofilm detection may predict increased risk for development of sporadic CRC.
Significance We demonstrate, to our knowledge for the first time, that bacterial biofilms are associated with colorectal cancers, one of the leading malignancies in the United States and abroad. Colon biofilms, dense communities of bacteria encased in a likely complex matrix that contact the colon epithelial cells, are nearly universal on right colon tumors. Most remarkably, biofilm presence correlates with bacterial tissue invasion and changes in tissue biology with enhanced cellular proliferation, a basic feature of oncogenic transformation occurring even in colons without evidence of cancer. Microbiome profiling revealed that biofilm communities on paired normal mucosa cluster with tumor microbiomes but lack distinct taxa differences. This work introduces a previously unidentified concept whereby microbial community structural organization exhibits the potential to contribute to disease progression.
Although environmental impacts on the host microbiome have been well studied, it is less certain whether and how host genetics impact the microbiome. This commentary discusses current literature ...supporting host genetic influences on resident species and pathogenic microbes. Mechanistic experimental studies are warranted to understand host gene-microbiome interplay.
There is a pressing need to identify therapeutic targets in tumors with low mutation rates such as the malignant pediatric brain tumor medulloblastoma. To address this challenge, we quantitatively ...profiled global proteomes and phospho-proteomes of 45 medulloblastoma samples. Integrated analyses revealed that tumors with similar RNA expression vary extensively at the post-transcriptional and post-translational levels. We identified distinct pathways associated with two subsets of SHH tumors, and found post-translational modifications of MYC that are associated with poor outcomes in group 3 tumors. We found kinases associated with subtypes and showed that inhibiting PRKDC sensitizes MYC-driven cells to radiation. Our study shows that proteomics enables a more comprehensive, functional readout, providing a foundation for future therapeutic strategies.
•Deep proteomic profiling reveals mechanistic differences among medulloblastomas•Proteomic-defined SHH subtypes do not differ in RNA expression•MYC phosphorylation events define a higher risk subset of group 3 patients•Inhibiting PRKDC may sensitize MYC-activated medulloblastoma tumors to radiation
Archer et al. quantitatively profile global proteomes of medulloblastomas (MB). They identify different pathways associated with subsets of SHH MB and post-translational modifications of MYC associated with poor outcomes in group 3 MB. Inhibition of PRKDC sensitizes MYC-driven cells to radiation.