'A big nebulous, multifaceted concept': reflections from Victorian personal injury lawyers on wellbeing, burnout and vicarious trauma.

There is a spotlight on mental health, with government initiatives in Australia highlighting the importance of, and need for, greater focus on psychological wellbeing and on addressing psychosocial hazards at work. The growing body of evidence in Australia and internationally suggests that the mental health and wellbeing of lawyers is adversely affected by their work. This cross-disciplinary evidence highlights the need for mental health concerns to be addressed systemically to prevent psychosocial injury and for tailored, proactive psychological support services in the legal environment. In this article we present evidence derived from qualitative interviews with Victorian personal injury lawyers, which form part of a broader study of lawyers and mediators engaged in emotion-laden work. This study aimed to ascertain to what extent the legal system considers the emotional wellbeing and mental health needs of personal injury disputants, lawyers and mediators, identify ways to reduce stigma associated with help seeking and inform proactive prevention initiatives and tailored support services. Findings from this build on past research and continue to highlight themes around stigma, vicarious trauma and collegial support and call attention to the psychological impact of legal practice on Australian lawyers. From this, preventative measures can be developed and implemented to avoid psychosocial injury and provide much-needed specialised support services.

Different current intensities of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation do not differentially modulate motor cortex plasticity.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive technique that modulates the excitability of neurons within the motor cortex (M1). Although the aftereffects of anodal tDCS on modulating cortical excitability have been described, there is limited data describing the outcomes of different tDCS intensities on intracortical circuits. To further elucidate the mechanisms underlying the aftereffects of M1 excitability following anodal tDCS, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine the effect of different intensities on cortical excitability and short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI). Using a randomized, counterbalanced, crossover design, with a one-week wash-out period, 14 participants (6 females and 8 males, 22-45 years) were exposed to 10 minutes of anodal tDCS at 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2 mA. TMS was used to measure M1 excitability and SICI of the contralateral wrist extensor muscle at baseline, immediately after and 15 and 30 minutes following cessation of anodal tDCS. Cortical excitability increased, whilst SICI was reduced at all time points following anodal tDCS. Interestingly, there were no differences between the three intensities of anodal tDCS on modulating cortical excitability or SICI. These results suggest that the aftereffect of anodal tDCS on facilitating cortical excitability is due to the modulation of synaptic mechanisms associated with long-term potentiation and is not influenced by different tDCS intensities.

Corticomotor responses to attentionally demanding motor performance: a mini-review.

Increased attentional demand has been shown to reduce motor performance, leading to increases in accidents, particularly in elderly populations. While these deficits have been well documented behaviorally, their cortical correlates are less well known. Increased attention has been shown to affect activity in prefrontal regions of the cortex. However there have been varying results within past research investigating corticomotor regions, mediating motor performance. This mini-review initially discusses past behavioral research, before moving to studies investigating corticomotor areas in response to changes in attention. Recent dual task studies have revealed a possible decline in the ability of older, but not younger, adults to activate inhibitory processes within the motor cortex, which may be correlated with poor motor performance, and thus accidents. A reduction in cortical inhibition may be caused by neurodegeneration within prefrontal regions of the cortex with age, rendering older adults less able to allocate attention to corticomotor regions.