An evaluation of a mass spectrograph

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1958 C35Master of Scienc

Association of treatment satisfaction and psychopathological sub-syndromes among involuntary patients with psychotic disorders

Publisher's version: http://www.springerlink.com/content/rx24036274667t10

Block Grants, Entitlements, and Federalism: A Conceptual Map of Contested Terrain

The popular press is currently filled with articles in which words like block grant, entitlement, federalism, and devolution figure prominently. The general plot line of these stories goes something like this: For many years the federal government has created more and more entitlements programs. Some of these programs are cooperative arrangements with the states, e.g., AFDC and Medicaid, but they are not very cooperative. Indeed, the general image of an entitlement program seems to be of a federal statute that imposes detailed and rigid standards of beneficiary eligibility in return for a federal contribution to state financing of transfers of cash, goods, or services. In the popular image, such programs empower beneficiaries and the central government at the expense of the states. Indeed, in more elaborate forms of this narrative the states are seen as powerless to change policies in programs that they substantially fund, not because the federal government is particularly good at enforcing programmatic requirements, but because the entitled beneficiaries can enforce full compliance in federal courts

How the World Ends

A list of ways the world might end

Medicare’s Acute Care Episode Demonstration: Effects of Bundled Payments on Costs and Quality of Surgical Care

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142942/1/hesr12681.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142942/2/hesr12681-sup-0001-AuthorMatrix.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142942/3/hesr12681_am.pd

Motivation and treatment engagement intervention trial (MotivaTe-IT): The effects of motivation feedback to clinicians on treatment engagement in patients with severe mental illness

Background: Treatment disengagement and non-completion poses a major problem for the successful treatment of patients with severe mental illness. Motivation for treatment has long been proposed as a major determinant of treatment engagement, but exact mechanisms remain unclear. This current study serves three purposes: 1) to determine whether a feedback intervention based on the patients' motivation for treatment is effective at improving treatment engagement (TE) of severe mentally ill patients in outpatient psychiatric treatment, 2) to gather insight into motivational processes and pos

Predictors and moderators of outcomes of HIV/STD sex risk reduction interventions in substance abuse treatment programs: a pooled analysis of two randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: The objective of the current study was to examine predictors and moderators of response to two HIV sexual risk interventions of different content and duration for individuals in substance abuse treatment programs. METHODS: Participants were recruited from community drug treatment programs participating in the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network (CTN). Data were pooled from two parallel randomized controlled CTN studies (one with men and one with women) each examining the impact of a multi-session motivational and skills training program, in comparison to a single-session HIV education intervention, on the degree of reduction in unprotected sex from baseline to 3- and 6- month follow-ups. The findings were analyzed using a zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model. RESULTS: Severity of drug use (p < .01), gender (p < .001), and age (p < .001) were significant main effect predictors of number of unprotected sexual occasions (USOs) at follow-up in the non-zero portion of the ZINB model (men, younger participants, and those with greater severity of drug/alcohol abuse have more USOs). Monogamous relationship status (p < .001) and race/ethnicity (p < .001) were significant predictors of having at least one USO vs. none (monogamous individuals and African Americans were more likely to have at least one USO). Significant moderators of intervention effectiveness included recent sex under the influence of drugs/alcohol (p < .01 in non-zero portion of model), duration of abuse of primary drug (p < .05 in non-zero portion of model), and Hispanic ethnicity (p < .01 in the zero portion, p < .05 in the non-zero portion of model). CONCLUSION: These predictor and moderator findings point to ways in which patients may be selected for the different HIV sexual risk reduction interventions and suggest potential avenues for further development of the interventions for increasing their effectiveness within certain subgroups

Standardised assessment of personality – a study of validity and reliability in substance abusers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Brief screening instruments for co-morbid personality disorders could potentially have great value in substance abuse treatment settings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We assessed the psychometric properties of the 8-item Standardised Assessment of Personality – Abbreviated Scale (SAPAS) in a sample of 58 methadone maintenance patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Internal consistency was modest, but similar to the original value (alpha = 0.62), and test-retest correlation at four months follow-up was moderately encouraging for a short instrument such as this (n = 31, test retest intraclass correlation = 0.58), and change at the mean level was minimal, but marginally significant (from an average of 3.3 to 3.8, p = 0.06). Analyses of nurse ratings of patients' behaviour at the clinic showed that SAPAS was significantly correlated with nurse ratings of externalizing behaviour (r = 0.42, p = 0.001), and Global Assessment of Functioning (r = -0.36, p = 0.006), but unrelated to intoxication (r = 0.02, NS), or withdrawal (r = 0.20, NS).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is evidence that the SAPAS is a modestly valid and relatively reliable brief screening measure of personality disorders in patients with ongoing substance abuse undergoing methadone maintenance. It can be used in situations where limited resources are available, and researchers or others wish to get an impression of the degree of personality pathology in a clinical population, as well as for screening purposes.</p