Diazepam, alcohol use and violence among male young offenders: 'the devil's mixture’

Citation for published version (APA): Forsyth, A., Khan, F., & McKinlay, W. (2011). Diazepam, alcohol use and violence among male young offenders: 'the devil's mixture’. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 18(6), 468-476. 10.3109/09687637.2011.563762 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the ResearchOnline@GCU portal Take down polic

Decomposition Rules for Quantum Rényi Mutual Information with an Application to Information Exclusion Relations

We prove decomposition rules for quantum R\'enyi mutual information, generalising the relation $I(A:B) = H(A) - H(A|B)$ to inequalities between R\'enyi mutual information and R\'enyi entropy of different orders. The proof uses Beigi's generalisation of Reisz-Thorin interpolation to operator norms, and a variation of the argument employed by Dupuis which was used to show chain rules for conditional R\'enyi entropies. The resulting decomposition rule is then applied to establish an information exclusion relation for R\'enyi mutual information, generalising the original relation by Hall

Country differences in the diagnosis and management of coronary heart disease : a comparison between the US, the UK and Germany

Background The way patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) are treated is partly determined by non-medical factors. There is a solid body of evidence that patient and physician characteristics influence doctors' management decisions. Relatively little is known about the role of structural issues in the decision making process. This study focuses on the question whether doctors' diagnostic and therapeutic decisions are influenced by the health care system in which they take place. This non-medical determinant of medical decision-making was investigated in an international research project in the US, the UK and Germany. Methods Videotaped patients within an experimental study design were used. Experienced actors played the role of patients with symptoms of CHD. Several alternative versions were taped featuring the same script with patients of different sex, age and social status. The videotapes were shown to 384 randomly selected primary care physicians in the three countries under study. The sample was stratified on gender and duration of professional experience. Physicians were asked how they would diagnose and manage the patient after watching the video vignette using a questionnaire with standardised and open-ended questions. Results Results show only small differences in decision making between British and American physicians in essential aspects of care. About 90% of the UK and US doctors identified CHD as one of the possible diagnoses. Further similarities were found in test ordering and lifestyle advice. Some differences between the US and UK were found in the certainty of the diagnoses, prescribed medications and referral behaviour. There are numerous significant differences between Germany and the other two countries. German physicians would ask fewer questions, they would order fewer tests, prescribe fewer medications and give less lifestyle advice. Conclusion Although all physicians in the three countries under study were presented exactly the same patient, some disparities in the diagnostic and patient management decisions were evident. Since other possible influences on doctors treatment decisions are controlled within the experimental design, characteristics of the health care system seem to be a crucial factor within the decision making process

A Match Made in Heaven: Exploring Views of Medicine Students, Pharmacy Interns and Facilitators in an Interprofessional Medicines Pilot Study

Purpose: To date, few interprofessional education initiatives have included just medicine and pharmacy learners. This research sought to explore learners’ and facilitators’ views of an interprofessional education medicines pilot study involving medical students and pharmacy interns. Methods: Qualitative feedback was gathered from the participating learners and a facilitator focus group was undertaken. Results: Medical student and pharmacy intern learners reported enjoying taking part and found the simulation and overall initiative to be authentic. They described learning most about each other’s roles and responsibilities and about teamwork, collaborative management, and collaboration. Some logistical improvements were suggested. The facilitators judged that the topic of medicines, with medical and pharmacy learners taking part, to be a match made in heaven. Conclusions: Medical student and pharmacy intern learners found the medicines topic and discipline grouping facilitated their learning. Some topics and groups of disciplines are ideally matched for IPE and such a nexus should be capitalised upon

Antenatal corticosteroids for fetal lung maturation: an overview of Cochrane reviews

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: The objective is to summarise the available evidence from Cochrane systematic reviews for the effectiveness and safety of antenatal corticosteroid therapy to improve infant outcomes

Sources of Variation in Physician Adherence with Clinical Guidelines: Results from a Factorial Experiment

BACKGROUND: Health services research has documented the magnitude of health care variations. Few studies focus on provider level sources of variation in clinical decision making-for example, which primary care providers are likely to follow clinical guidelines, with which types of patient. OBJECTIVES: To estimate: (1) the extent of primary care provider adherence to practice guidelines and the unconfounded influence of (2) patient attributes and (3) physician characteristics on adherence with clinical practice guidelines. DESIGN: In a factorial experiment, primary care providers were shown clinically authentic video vignettes with actors portrayed different “patients” with identical signs of coronary heart disease (CHD). Different types of providers were asked how they would manage the different “patients” with identical CHD symptoms. Measures were taken to protect external validity. RESULTS: Adherence to some guidelines is high (over 50% of physicians would follow a third of the recommended actions), yet there is low adherence to many of them (less than 20% would follow another third). Female patients are less likely than males to receive 4 of 5 types of physical examination (p < .03); older patients are less likely to be advised to stop smoking (p < .03). Race and SES of patients had no effect on provider adherence to guidelines. A physicians’ level of experience (age) appears to be important with certain patients. CONCLUSIONS: Physician adherence with guidelines varies with different types of “patient” and with the length of clinical experience. With this evidence it is possible to appropriately target interventions to reduce health care variations by improving physician adherence with clinical guidelines

Bibliometrics of systematic reviews : analysis of citation rates and journal impact factors

Background: Systematic reviews are important for informing clinical practice and health policy. The aim of this study was to examine the bibliometrics of systematic reviews and to determine the amount of variance in citations predicted by the journal impact factor (JIF) alone and combined with several other characteristics. Methods: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of 1,261 systematic reviews published in 2008 and the citations to them in the Scopus database from 2008 to June 2012. Potential predictors of the citation impact of the reviews were examined using descriptive, univariate and multiple regression analysis. Results: The mean number of citations per review over four years was 26.5 (SD +/-29.9) or 6.6 citations per review per year. The mean JIF of the journals in which the reviews were published was 4.3 (SD +/-4.2). We found that 17% of the reviews accounted for 50% of the total citations and 1.6% of the reviews were not cited. The number of authors was correlated with the number of citations (r = 0.215, P =5.16) received citations in the bottom quartile (eight or fewer), whereas 9% of reviews published in the lowest JIF quartile (<=2.06) received citations in the top quartile (34 or more). Six percent of reviews in journals with no JIF were also in the first quartile of citations. Conclusions: The JIF predicted over half of the variation in citations to the systematic reviews. However, the distribution of citations was markedly skewed. Some reviews in journals with low JIFs were well-cited and others in higher JIF journals received relatively few citations; hence the JIF did not accurately represent the number of citations to individual systematic reviews