Effects of fixed compared to automatic CPAP on sleep in Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Automatic CPAP has been developed to improve CPAP efficiency and compliance. Continually matching the effective pressure may be associated to more frequent arousals that could disturb sleep. The aim of the present study was to compare sleep architecture after one month's home therapy with CPAP or with an AutoCPAP device. METHODS: Twenty OSAS patients (18 M / 2 F) after polysomnographic study with CPAP titration received either an automatic (AutoSet T, ResMed, Sydney, Australia) or a fixed level CPAP machine in a random, single blind fashion for one month. At the end of the home treatment period polysomnography was repeated while CPAP was administered by the same machine used at home. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between groups in terms of age (50.0 vs 45.5, NS), sex, BMI (38.3 vs 35.1, NS), RDI (45.4 vs 48.0, NS), and CPAP effective level (9.8 vs 10.8, NS). After one month of therapy the correction of sleep respiratory disturbances and of sleep structure was satisfactory in both groups. No difference in any polysomnographic variable or in subjective sleepiness was found at re-evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrate that on average CPAP administered by a fixed CPAP machine and by the AutoSet T autoCPAP device has similar effects in improving respiratory function during sleep, nocturnal sleep architecture, and subjective daytime sleepiness after a one-month therapy. As autoCPAP devices are more expensive than fixed CPAP machines, their prescription should be considered only after a clear demonstration of an increase in compliance to treatment by these devices.

Delivering home-based case management to families with children with mental retardation and developmental disabilities.

To meet the needs of individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MR/DD) and their families living in urban setting, a noncenter-based model of case management was implemented. In contrast to traditional case management in which families and consumers come to the case manager and most service coordination is done by telephone or in meetings at the case manager/social worker's worksite, the case manager in a noncenter-based model is mobile and able to meet the consumer and family in their domains. In this model, case management is provided in conjunction with in-home residential habilitation and funded by Medicaid under the Home and Community Based Services Waiver. This funding stream provides monies for nontraditional services delivered in noncertified settings. Case managers used the Family Resource Scale to get an immediate indication of the resources and needs of each family. The scale highlights the adequacy of a person's basic and caregiving resources, as well as financial needs. The findings from this study suggest that an understanding of both disability and entitlements is essential for case managers who may have to help advocate for consumers around services and benefits. Moreover, to build and maintain an egalitarian and supportive relationship with families, the importance of caregiver-specified resources and needs must be recognized by case managers. Access to resource information and the ability to engage the family in problem-solving depends on a well-trained staff with the ability to respond to individuals with different needs and from a variety of circumstances. These essential skills prepare a case manager to assist families with their immediate requirements as well as to mobilize them to plan for future needs.

["Body psychosis": an interpretative hypothesis about some psychiatric disorders]. / Le "psicosi del corpo": una ipotesi di lettura per alcune realtà cliniche.

The authors propose to group some clinical entities as Delusional hypochondria, Dysmorphophobia, Nervous Anorexia, under the term of Body Psychosis. These are considered as psychoses endowed in the body (naturally we are speaking not about the anatomical body, but the phenomenological one, the personal experienced body). The specific clinical frame is justified by the following considerations: 1) in a psychopathological light all the disorders imply an altered relationship with the personal experienced body; 2) in a prognostic light the "experienced body" involvement given specific and common features; 3) clinically a one-other manifestation change is always possible; 4) relationally the human contact (and the medical one too) with this kind of patient got very specific features that often provoke dramatic and perverse changes in the same relation, especially in a sadomasochistic sense. The personal nosological frame is stressed within the actual psychiatric diagnostic classification (ICD 10, DSM IV).