Efficacy of compulsory community treatment and use in minority ethnic populations: A statewide cohort study.

BACKGROUND: There is conflicting and equivocal evidence for the efficacy of compulsory community treatment within Australia and overseas, but no study from Queensland. In addition, although people from Indigenous or culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are over-represented in compulsory admissions to hospital, little is known about whether this also applies to compulsory community treatment. AIMS: We initially investigated whether people from Indigenous or culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in terms of country of birth, or preferred language, were more likely to be on compulsory community treatment using statewide databases from Queensland. We then assessed the impact of compulsory community treatment on health service use over the following 12 months. Compulsory community treatment included both community treatment orders and forensic orders. METHODS: Cases and controls from administrative health data were matched on age, sex, diagnosis and time of hospital discharge (the index date). Multivariate analyses were used to examine potential predictors of compulsory community treatment, as well as impact on bed-days, time to readmission or contacts with public mental health services in the subsequent year. RESULTS: We identified 7432 cases and controls from January 2013 to February 2017 (total n = 14,864). Compulsory community treatment was more likely in Indigenous Queenslanders (adjusted odds ratio = 1.45; 95% confidence interval = [1.28, 1.65]) subjects coming from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (adjusted odds ratio = 1.54; 95% confidence interval = [1.37, 1.72]), or those who had a preferred language other than English (adjusted odds ratio = 1.66; 95% confidence interval = [1.30, 2.11]). While community contacts were significantly greater in patients on compulsory community treatment, there was no difference in bed-days while time to readmission was shorter. Restricting the analyses to just community treatment orders did not alter these results. CONCLUSION: In common with other coercive treatments, Indigenous Australians and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are more likely to be placed on compulsory community treatment. The evidence for effectiveness remains inconclusive.

Child maltreatment and attentional problems: A longitudinal birth cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether child maltreatment is associated with attentional problems in adolescence (14 years) and young adulthood (21 years), and whether outcomes depend on the type of maltreatment (sexual vs non-sexual). METHODS: Data from a population based cohort study involving 3778 mother-child pairs were linked with data from the state child protection agency to examine associations between child abuse and neglect and attention problems, measured using the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and the Achenbach Young Adult Self Report (YASR). RESULTS: 245 (6.5%) participants had been the subject of notification for non-sexual maltreatment (one or more of neglect, emotional or physical abuse) compared with only 54 (1.4%) who had been subject of notification for suspected sexual abuse. After adjusting for potential confounding variables including maternal, participant and sociodemographic factors, we found those exposed to non sexual maltreatment were likely to experience attentional problems at 14 years (p < .001) and 21 years of age (p = .044), compared with those participants who had not experienced non sexual maltreatment. By contrast, at age 14 years, sexual abuse was associated with attentional problems only as reported by the participant, not their carer. Results at 21 years of age for those exposed to sexual child maltreatment (p=.655) were again in contrast to the observed association between attentional problems and non sexual child maltreatment (p = .035). CONCLUSION: In this study, non-sexual maltreatment in childhood is associated with attentional problems at both 14 years and 21 years of age. These findings highlight the need for targeted research to better understand the longer term mental health outcomes for children exposed to non-sexual maltreatment. Potential implications for mental health services include the need for broader screening at presentation and importantly, greater collaboration with schools, general practitioners and paediatricians, given the greatest impact would arguably be within these settings.

Characteristics and Drivers of the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist's Sustained Involvement in Clinical Research Activities: A Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: Research contributions by registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) are important for enhancing the use of nutrition-related evidence-based guidelines in dietetics practice. Involvement of RDNs in research activities has been studied previously, but little is known about the drivers (motivators) of sustaining research involvement by RDNs who work in clinical practice. OBJECTIVE: To identify key characteristics of established RDN clinician researchers and drivers that contributed to their sustained research involvement. DESIGN: We used a convergent parallel mixed methods study design utilizing the clinician career research trajectory as a framework. Research involvement was examined using the Practice-Based Dietitian Research Involvement Survey (PBDRIS). Workplace support was assessed using the Research Capacity and Culture (RCC) survey. Semistructured interviews were used to investigate key themes in established RDN clinician researchers. PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: We identified 450 RDNs involved with research activities in the United States through hand-searching clinically relevant nutrition journals and contacted them to participate in an online survey. A total of 29 RDNs met criteria and completed (6.4%) the quantitative survey, then a subsample (n=10) participated in semistructured interviews to explore drivers for continued research involvement. RESULTS: Research involvement scores (n=29) from the PBDRIS ranged from 60.0% to 97.5%, indicating involvement in higher-level research-related tasks by our sample participants. RCC results revealed the importance of workplace support and mentorship. Interviews with established RDN clinician researchers identified exposure, curiosity, and dedication as three overarching themes with eight subthemes driving continued research involvement. CONCLUSION: Based on the experiences of select RDN clinician researchers who have demonstrated success in sustaining their research involvement, we found that having an available mentor, support from their workplace environment, and personal drive were integral to their success.

The clinical utility of structural neuroimaging in first-episode psychosis: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Australian and US guidelines recommend routine brain imaging, either computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, to exclude structural lesions in presentations for first-episode psychosis. The aim of this review was to examine the evidence for the appropriateness and clinical utility of this recommendation by assessing the frequency of abnormal radiological findings in computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans among patients with first-episode psychosis. METHODS: PubMed and Embase database were searched from inception to April 2018 using appropriate MeSH or Emtree terms. Studies were included in the review if they reported data on computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging scan findings of individuals with first-episode psychosis. No restriction on the geographical location of the study or the age of participants was applied. We calculated the percentage of abnormal radiological findings in each study, separately by the two diagnostic methods. RESULTS: There were 16 suitable studies published between 1988 and 2017, reporting data on an overall 2312 patients with first-episode psychosis. Most were observational studies with a retrospective design and the majority examined patients with computed tomography. While structural abnormalities were a relatively common finding, these rarely required clinical intervention (range across studies: 0-60.7%; median: 3.5%) and were very rarely the cause of the psychotic symptoms (range: 0-3.3%; median: 0%). Only 2 of the 16 studies concluded that brain imaging should be routinely ordered in first-episode psychosis. CONCLUSION: There is insufficient evidence to suggest that brain imaging should be routinely ordered for patients presenting with first-episode psychosis without associated neurological or cognitive impairment. The appropriate screening procedure for structural brain lesions is conventional history-taking, mental status and neurological examination. If intracranial pathology is suspected clinically, a magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography scan should be performed depending on the clinical signs, the acuity and the suspected pathology. National guidelines should reflect evidence-based data.

Delivery of cosmetic covers to persons with transtibial and transfemoral amputations in an outpatient prosthetic practice.

BACKGROUND: Limb loss negatively impacts body image to the extent that functional activity and societal participation are affected. Scientific literature is lacking on the subject of cosmetic covering for prostheses and the rate of cosmetic cover utilization by cover type, gender, amputation level, and type of healthcare reimbursement. OBJECTIVES: To describe the delivery of cosmetic covers in lower limb prostheses in a sample of people with lower extremity amputation. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional design METHODS: Patient records from an outpatient practice were reviewed for people who received a transtibial or transfemoral prosthesis within a selected 2-year period. RESULTS: A total of 294 records were reviewed. Regardless of the amputation level, females were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) more likely to receive a cover. Type of insurance did not affect whether or not a cover was used, but Medicare reimbursed more pull-up skin covers. CONCLUSION: There were differences regarding cosmetic cover delivery based on gender, and Medicare reimbursed for more pull-up skin covers at the transtibial level than other reimbursors did. This analysis was conducted in a warm, tropical geographic region of the United States. Results may differ in other parts of the world based on many factors including climate and local views of body image and disability. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Cosmetic covering rates are clinically relevant because they provide insight into which gender is utilizing more cosmetic covers. Furthermore, it can be determined which type of covers are being utilized with greater frequency and which insurance type is providing more coverage for them.

Comparison of API 50 CH strips to whole-chromosomal DNA probes for identification of Lactobacillus species.

The API 50 CH identification system was evaluated for the identification of 97 strains of commensal lactobacilli. This system agreed with the species-level identifications for none of the 7 reference strains and only 4 of 90 vaginal isolates identified using whole-chromosomal DNA probes.