Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease 2015 (AAIC 2015) (July 18-23, 2015 - Washington, D.C., USA).

The Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) was held in Washington, D.C. this year. It is the world's largest meeting of the dementia research community, connecting care providers, clinicians and investigators. The extent of efforts being made in the field of Alzheimer's research was demonstrated by the wide and varied program at the conference. This report focuses on some of the therapeutic highlights from the first two poster sessions.

A measure for quality of life assessment in chronic pain: preliminary properties of the WHOQOL-pain.

Chronic pain has a considerable impact on patient-reported outcomes such as quality of life (QoL). To assess QoL in people with chronic pain, a pain and discomfort module (PDM) was developed for use with the WHOQOL-100 and its psychometric properties assessed. Sixteen items covered four facets on pain relief; anger and frustration; vulnerability, fear and worry; and uncertainty. Chronic low back pain patients (n = 133) (age 56; pain duration 85 months; 65% female) completed the WHOQOL-100 and PDM, McGill Pain Questionnaire, and SF-12. The PDM showed good internal consistency reliability (alpha = .88) (alphas .66-.81). Except for anger, all facets associated most strongly with their 'parent' domain. Pain and poorer QoL were strongly associated, supporting construct validity. The SF-12 physical health component associated strongly with pain relief, and the mental health score with other facets, indicating good concurrent validity. Discriminant validity tests showed that PDM scores distinguished between ill and well patients, and between those reporting different health statuses. The PDM has fair to good psychometric properties indicating its value as a patient-reported outcome measure for clinical trials.

The quality of life of people in chronic pain: developing a pain and discomfort module for use with the WHOQOL.

This article reports the development of a pain and discomfort module (PDM) designed to assess the full impact of quality of life (QoL) relating to chronic pain, which could be used with the generic World Health Organisation Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL). First, cognitive interviewing was completed with nine participants with chronic pain, for 108 items representing 10 pain-specific facets of QoL. Sixty-eight QoL items and 16 importance questions on pain were relevant, comprehensive, comprehensible and acceptable to users, and were confirmed to assess their purported concepts. Secondly, these items were pilot tested using a cross-sectional survey of 216 people with chronic pain, to investigate the preliminary psychometric properties of the PDM, and reduce its items statistically. All new facets were important to those with chronic pain. Sixteen items within four facets of pain relief, anger and frustration, vulnerability/fear/worry, and uncertainty were retained, and demonstrated acceptable to good internal consistency reliability (α = 0.77-0.85). The PDM is a self-administered, multidimensional subjective assessment of pain-related QoL, with potential to evaluate pain-relieving interventions, identify sufferer's needs, and for survey use.

GPs' experiences of primary care mental health research: a qualitative study of the barriers to recruitment.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the perceived barriers among GPs towards introducing participation in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to patients presenting with depression during consultations. METHODS: Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. Interviews were recorded using a digital voice recorder, transcribed verbatim and analysed using the Framework Approach. The participants were 41 GPs from five primary care trusts in the South West who were collaborating with the University of Bristol on an RCT recruiting patients with depression. RESULTS: Three themes were identified: (i) concern about protecting the vulnerable patient and the impact on the doctor-patient relationship; (ii) the perceived lack of skill and confidence of GPs to introduce a request for research participation within a potentially sensitive consultation; and (iii) the priority given to clinical and administrative issues over research participation. These themes were underpinned by GPs' observations that consultations with people about depression differed in content, style and perceived difficulty compared to other types of consultations. CONCLUSION: Depressed patients were often viewed as vulnerable and in need of protection and it was seen as difficult and intrusive to introduce research. Patients were not always given the choice to participate in research in the same way that they are encouraged to participate in treatment decision making. A lack of skills in introducing research could be addressed with training through the new Primary Care Research Network. A more radical change in clinician attitudes and policy may be needed in order to give research a higher priority within primary care.