From recovery-oriented care to public health: Case studies of participatory public art as a pathway to wellness for persons with behavioral health challenges.

The objective of this study is to identify individual mechanisms of change that result from engaging in an innovative participatory public art project for persons with significant behavioral health challenges. We present two case studies that examine how participatory public art promotes recovery and wellness. This research is part of a larger, multilevel comparative outcome trial on the impact of participatory public art on the health and well-being of adults in recovery from mental illness and addiction and on the distressed city neighborhoods in which they live. The case studies describe the unique ways in which participatory public art contributed to key recovery domains of growth in friendship, self-discovery, giving back, and hope. The two cases indicate that the development of a strengths-based sense of self through art was accompanied by a growth in personal social responsibility. The two cases also indicate that participatory public art may have a profound impact on the internalization of stigma. The findings support the value of participatory public art as a strategy for blending recovery and public health perspectives to promote both individual and community wellness.

A community's response to suicide through public art: stakeholder perspectives from the Finding the Light Within project.

Suicide is a preventable public health problem and a leading cause of death in the United States. Despite recognized need for community-based strategies for suicide prevention, most suicide prevention programs focus on individual-level change. This article presents seven first person accounts of Finding the Light Within, a community mobilization initiative to reduce the stigma associated with suicide through public arts participation that took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 2011 through 2012. The stigma associated with suicide is a major challenge to suicide prevention, erecting social barriers to effective prevention and treatment and enhancing risk factors for people struggling with suicidal ideation and recovery after losing a loved one to suicide. This project engaged a large and diverse audience and built a new community around suicide prevention through participatory public art, including community design and production of a large public mural about suicide, storytelling and art workshops, and a storytelling website. We present this project as a model for how arts participation can address suicide on multiple fronts-from raising awareness and reducing stigma, to promoting community recovery, to providing healing for people and communities in need.

Recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2: a randomized trial in open tibial fractures treated with reamed nail fixation.

BACKGROUND: Recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) improves healing of open tibial fractures treated with unreamed intramedullary nail fixation. We evaluated the use of rhBMP-2 in the treatment of acute open tibial fractures treated with reamed intramedullary nail fixation. METHODS: Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive the standard of care consisting of intramedullary nail fixation and routine soft-tissue management (the SOC group) or the standard of care plus an absorbable collagen sponge implant containing 1.5 mg/mL of rhBMP-2 (total, 12.0 mg) (the rhBMP-2/ACS group). Randomization was stratified by fracture severity. The absorbable collagen sponge was placed over the fracture at wound closure. The primary efficacy end point was the proportion of subjects with a healed fracture as demonstrated by radiographic and clinical assessment thirteen and twenty weeks after definitive wound closure. RESULTS: Two hundred and seventy-seven patients were randomized and were the subjects of the intent-to-treat analysis. Thirteen percent of the fractures were Gustilo-Anderson Type IIIB. The proportions of patients with fracture-healing were 60% and 48% at week 13 (p = 0.0541) and 68% and 67% at week 20 in the rhBMP-2/ACS and SOC groups, respectively. Twelve percent of the subjects underwent secondary procedures in each group; more invasive procedures (e.g., exchange nailing) accounted for 30% of the procedures in the rhBMP-2/ACS group and 57% in the SOC group (p = 0.1271). Infection was seen in twenty-seven (19%) of the patients in the rhBMP-2/ACS group and fifteen (11%) in the SOC group (p = 0.0645; difference in infection risk = 0.09 [95% confidence interval, 0.0 to 0.17]). The adverse event incidence was otherwise similar between the treatment groups. CONCLUSIONS: The healing of open tibial fractures treated with reamed intramedullary nail fixation was not significantly accelerated by the addition of an absorbable collagen sponge containing rhBMP-2.

Recombinant human BMP-2 and allograft compared with autogenous bone graft for reconstruction of diaphyseal tibial fractures with cortical defects. A randomized, controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Currently, the treatment of diaphyseal tibial fractures associated with substantial bone loss often involves autogenous bone-grafting as part of a staged reconstruction. Although this technique results in high healing rates, the donor-site morbidity and potentially limited supply of suitable autogenous bone in some patients are commonly recognized drawbacks. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the benefit and safety of the osteoinductive protein recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) when implanted on an absorbable collagen sponge in combination with freeze-dried cancellous allograft. METHODS: Adult patients with a tibial diaphyseal fracture and a residual cortical defect were randomly assigned to receive either autogenous bone graft or allograft (cancellous bone chips) for staged reconstruction of the tibial defect. Patients in the allograft group also received an onlay application of rhBMP-2 on an absorbable collagen sponge. The clinical evaluation of fracture-healing included an assessment of pain with full weight-bearing and fracture-site tenderness. The Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment (SMFA) was administered before and after treatment. Radiographs were used to document union, the presence of extracortical bridging callus, and incorporation of the bone-graft material. RESULTS: Fifteen patients were enrolled in each group. The mean length of the defect was 4 cm (range, 1 to 7 cm). Ten patients in the autograft group and thirteen patients in the rhBMP-2/allograft group had healing without further intervention. The mean estimated blood loss was significantly less in the rhBMP-2/allograft group. Improvement in the SMFA scores was comparable between the groups. No patient in the rhBMP-2/allograft group had development of antibodies to BMP-2; one patient had development of transient antibodies to bovine type-I collagen. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that rhBMP-2/allograft is safe and as effective as traditional autogenous bone-grafting for the treatment of tibial fractures associated with extensive traumatic diaphyseal bone loss. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level II. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

High-dose radioimmunotherapy versus conventional high-dose therapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for relapsed follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma: a multivariable cohort analysis.

We performed a multivariable comparison of 125 consecutive patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) treated at our centers with either high-dose radioimmunotherapy (HD-RIT) using 131I-anti-CD20 (n = 27) or conventional high-dose therapy (C-HDT) (n = 98) and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The groups were similar, although more patients treated with HD-RIT had an elevated pretransplantation level of lactate dehydrogenase (41% versus 20%, P =.03) and elevated international prognostic score (41% versus 19%, P =.02). Patients treated with HD-RIT received individualized therapeutic doses of 131I-tositumomab (median, 19.7 GBq [531 mCi]) to deliver 17 to 31 Gy (median, 27 Gy) to critical organs. Patients treated with C-HDT received total body irradiation plus chemotherapy (70%) or chemotherapy alone (30%). Patients treated with HD-RIT experienced improved overall survival (OS) (unadjusted hazard ratio [HR] for death = 0.4 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.2-0.9], P =.02; adjusted HR, 0.3, P =.004) and progression-free survival (PFS) (unadjusted HR =.6 [95% C.I., 0.3-1.0], P =.06; adjusted HR, 0.5, P =.03) versus patients treated with C-HDT. The estimated 5-year OS and PFS were 67% and 48%, respectively, for HD-RIT and 53% and 29%, respectively, for C-HDT. One hundred-day treatment-related mortality was 3.7% in the HD-RIT group and 11% in the C-HDT group. The probability of secondary myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myeloid leukemia (MDS/AML) was estimated to be.076 at 8 years in the HD-RIT group and.086 at 7 years in the C-HDT group. HD-RIT may improve outcomes versus C-HDT in patients with relapsed FL.