Building a Screen for Cancer Survivorship-Occupational Therapy Services (SOCS-OTS): a classical Delphi study.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate items for the Screen of Cancer. Survivorship - Occupational Therapy Services (SOCS-OTS), a patient-driven screening tool to be used by frontline workers and filled out by cancer survivors that can indicate a need for appropriate occupational therapy (OT) referral. METHODS: Five rounds of a classical Delphi study were conducted to determine item inclusion. Expert panelists in rounds 1 and 2 consisted of adults LWBC who verified proposed items relevant to issues in activities of daily living (ADLs). Expert panelists in rounds 3-5 consisted of expert OTs who determined item relevance through consensus and item modification. RESULTS: Forty-five adults living with and beyond cancer (LWBC) and 14 expert oncology occupational  therapists and researchers participated in five rounds of surveys. A total of 20 items reached consensus at 80% with a "check all that apply" format. Items included address ADLs meaningful to adults LWBC. CONCLUSIONS: The SOCS-OTS is an innovative content-valid screening tool designed to identify problems with ADLs relevant to OT referral. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: The SOCS-OTS can empower cancer survivors and cancer care teams by indicating when daily activities are impacted enough to refer to OT services. This could ensure that cancer survivors receive the rehabilitation services they need.

Efficacy of the tobacco tax policy in the presence of product heterogeneity: A pseudo-panel approach applied to Spain.

This paper focuses on the substitution effects between different comercial presentations of tobacco in Spain. Concretely, on cigarettes, cigars and RYO. When taxing policies increase tobacco prices these effects might lead changes from more expensive to cheaper products instead of reducing tobacco consumption. We use micro-data for the years 2006 -2012. We estimate a complete model of demand. The own-price, the income and the cross elasticity of each good are estimated. The results show that the own-price elasticity of cigarettes is low and the income elasticity of cigarettes' demand is very low. Thus in Spain smokers continue to buy cigarettes when the price of cigarettes increases and when cigarette consumers income declines. Moreover the substitutability relationship of cigarettes for cigars and RYO is weak. Thus, cigarettes smokers in Spain are loyal to this product and consider it a normal good. Moreover, cigar consumption presents high own-price and income elasticities, so cigars are luxury goods. Thus unlike cigarettes, cigar sales fall when cigar prices rise or cigar consumers income falls. Finally, RYO and cigarettes are substitutes goods and RYO and cigars are not substitute ones. That means that RYO and cigarettes can satisfy the same need; then to satisfy it the consumers can use almost indistinctibly the one or the other. This is not the case between RYO and cigars.

Acute withdrawal but not long-term withdrawal from methamphetamine affects sexual behavior in female rats.

The present study was designed to investigate the long-term effects of repeated methamphetamine (MA) exposure on sexual motivation in female rats tested after a period of drug abstinence. In Experiment 1, female subjects received three injections of MA (1.0mg/kg/day, every other day) or saline and were tested for paced mating behavior (where females could control the receipt of sexual stimulation from one male rat) 21 days after their last injection. In Experiment 2, female subjects received 12 consecutive injections of MA (1.0mg/kg/day) or saline and were tested for mate choice (where females could control the receipt of sexual stimulation from two male rats simultaneously) 6 days after their last injection. Experiment 3 was identical to Experiment 2 except that female subjects received no baseline mating test and were tested for mate choice 24h and 6 days after their last injection. Open field tests were conducted in each experiment to measure locomotor activity after repeated exposure to MA. Although repeated MA exposure increased locomotor activity, mating behavior was not facilitated after either a short (6 days) or long (21 days) period of drug abstinence. Nevertheless, sexual behavior was disrupted during the 24h acute withdrawal period. Therefore, although the present study found no evidence of cross-sensitization between female sexual behavior and MA after either a short or a long period of drug abstinence, sexual behavior in sexually naïve female rats is sensitive to the depressive state associated with acute withdrawal from MA. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggest that MA acts differently from other psychomotor stimulants, and that the effects of MA withdrawal on sexual behavior differ between male and female rats.