A randomised controlled trial of the Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) for childhood Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): a protocol

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An abundance of literature is dedicated to research for the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Most, is in the area of pharmacological therapies with less emphasis in psychotherapy and psychosocial interventions and even less in the area of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).</p> <p>The use of CAM has increased over the years, especially for developmental and behavioral disorders, such as ADHD. 60–65% of parents with children with ADHD have used CAM. Medical evidence supports a multidisciplinary approach (i.e. pharmacological and psychosocial) for the best clinical outcomes. The Neuro Emotional Technique (NET), a branch of Chiropractic, was designed to address the biopsychosocial aspects of acute and chronic conditions including non-musculoskeletal conditions. Anecdotally, it has been suggested that ADHD may be managed effectively by NET.</p> <p>Design/methods</p> <p>A placebo controlled, double blind randomised clinical trial was designed to assess the effectiveness of NET on a cohort of children with medically diagnosed ADHD.</p> <p>Children aged 5–12 years who met the inclusion criteria were randomised to one of three groups. The control group continued on their existing medical regimen and the intervention and placebo groups had the addition of the NET and sham NET protocols added to their regimen respectively. These two groups attended a clinical facility twice a week for the first month and then once a month for six months.</p> <p>The Conners' Parent and Teacher Rating Scales (CRS) were used at the start of the study to establish baseline data and then in one month and in seven months time, at the conclusion of the study. The primary outcome measures chosen were the Conners' ADHD Index and Conners' Global Index. The secondary outcome measures chosen were the DSM-IV: Inattentive, the DSM-IV:Hyperactive-Impulsive, and the DSM-IV:Total subscales from the Conners' Rating Scales, monitoring changes in inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.</p> <p>Calculations for the sample size were set with a significance level of 0.05 and the power of 80%, yielding a sample size of 93.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The present study should provide information as to whether the addition of NET to an existing medical regimen can improve outcomes for children with ADHD.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registration Number: ANZCTRN 012606000332527</p

Evaluating the Psychometric Quality of Social Skills Measures: A Systematic Review

Introduction - Impairments in social functioning are associated with an array of adverse outcomes. Social skills measures are commonly used by health professionals to assess and plan the treatment of social skills difficulties. There is a need to comprehensively evaluate the quality of psychometric properties reported across these measures to guide assessment and treatment planning. Objective - To conduct a systematic review of the literature on the psychometric properties of social skills and behaviours measures for both children and adults. Methods - A systematic search was performed using four electronic databases: CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase and Pubmed; the Health and Psychosocial Instruments database; and grey literature using PsycExtra and Google Scholar. The psychometric properties of the social skills measures were evaluated against the COSMIN taxonomy of measurement properties using pre-set psychometric criteria. Results - Thirty-Six studies and nine manuals were included to assess the psychometric properties of thirteen social skills measures that met the inclusion criteria. Most measures obtained excellent overall methodological quality scores for internal consistency and reliability. However, eight measures did not report measurement error, nine measures did not report cross-cultural validity and eleven measures did not report criterion validity. Conclusions - The overall quality of the psychometric properties of most measures was satisfactory. The SSBS-2, HCSBS and PKBS-2 were the three measures with the most robust evidence of sound psychometric quality in at least seven of the eight psychometric properties that were appraised. A universal working definition of social functioning as an overarching construct is recommended. There is a need for ongoing research in the area of the psychometric properties of social skills and behaviours instruments

Longitudinal associations of social-cognitive and moral correlates with defending in bullying

Defending in bullying is a complex, yet important behavior that is likely associated with individual characteristics and group factors that operate simultaneously in the classroom microsystem. However, little research has longitudinally analyzed the role of multiple promoting factors at both the individual and classroom level. Drawing on the social-ecological theory and social-cognitive theory, the present study examined the prospective associations between Fall defending self-efficacy, moral disengagement, moral identity, and moral distress and Spring defending behavior. Participants were 1163 adolescents (48.7% females; Mage = 13.6, SD = 1.1) attending 67 classrooms in Italian public schools. Defending showed moderate stability over one school year. At the individual level, multilevel analyses showed that T1 self-efficacy for all students, and moral distress for male students, positively predicted T2 defending. Moreover, high moral disengagement negatively predicted T2 defending only when students also reported high levels of moral identity. At the class-level, T1 class defending and class moral identity explained between-class variability in T2 defending. The findings have multiple implications for interventions that aim to increase defending behavior

THE SEEDED SUPERSONIC MOLECULAR BEAM/MULTIPHOTON IONIZATION SPECTRUM OF THE 1B2u^{1}B_{2u} STATE OF BENZENE

$^{1}$ L. Wunsch, F. Metz, H.J. Neusser, and E.W. Schlag, J. Chem. Phys. 66, 386 (1977).Author Institution:The multiphoton ionization spectrum of benzene was taken in a seeded supersonic beam in the region of the two-photon resonances with the $A^{1}B_{2u}$ state. Ionization data was obtained beyond the fluorescence limit at $41,300 cm^{-1}$. Due to the almost complete rotational and vibrational cooling in the beam expansion the linewidths of the vibronic levels were able to be monitored directly from the spectra as a function of energy above the electronic origin $T_{00}$ without interference from hot rotational contours. This two-photon data has important implications to the understanding of the channel 3 non-radiative process in benzene. In addition to following the variations in the vibronic level line-widths, new bands were seen $6-8 cm^{-1}$ from the dominant $14^{1}_{0}1^{n}_{0}$ progression. In addition, at the high resolution of this experiment splitting was found in the previously $seen^{1}$ unidentified $Y^{1}_{0}$ bands in benzene-$d_{6}$