Designing for Reflection on Shared HIV Health Information

People living with chronic conditions are increasingly turning to digital technologies to track their health, coupled with reaching out to their peers to make sense of fluctuations in their health. However, there is a lack of appropriate technologies to support reflecting on shared personal health information. This paper reports on a study investigating how technology could be designed to support people living with HIV in reflecting on shared personal health information. Participants used two design provocations to reflect on changes in their health. Results showed that the design provocations encouraged reflection, with higher levels of reflection appearing to require greater use of peer information. We contribute a new understanding of how reflection on shared health information takes place and consider the next generation of digital technologies for people living with HIV

The “systems approach” to treating the brain: opportunities in developmental psychopharmacology

The significance of early life for the long-term programming of mental health is increasingly being recognized. However, most psychotropic medications are currently intended for adult patients, and early psychopharmacological approaches aimed at reverting aberrant neurodevelopmental trajectories are missing. Psychopharmacologic intervention at an early age faces the challenge of operating in a highly plastic system and requires a comprehensive knowledge of neurodevelopmental mechanisms. Recently the systems biology approach has contributed to the understanding of neuroplasticity mechanisms from a new perspective that interprets them as the result of complex and dynamic networks of signals from different systems. This approach is creating opportunities for developmental psychopharmacology, suggesting novel targets that can modulate the course of development by interfering with neuroplasticity at an early age. We will discuss two interconnected systems—the immune and gut microbiota—that regulate neurodevelopment and that have been implicated in preclinical research as new targets in the prevention of aberrant brain development

The use of online forums by people living with HIV for help in understanding personal health information

Purpose: Effective self-management of the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency virus (HIV/AIDS) requires constant vigilance over personal health information. Little is known about the contribution of online communities to this endeavour. This paper reports a study to investigate how people living with HIV/AIDS use an online community to try to understand their personal health information by analysing how health information is shared and asked about, and how the community responds to questions. Methods: A webscraper was used to gather all messages in the 200 most recently active threads in an online forum for people living with HIV/AIDS, resulting in a total of 2455 messages. These were filtered for all instances of individuals sharing their personal health information and asking the community for help in understanding it. Thematic analysis was used to determine the types of questions asked, the personal health information shared and the information that was asked about. Messages from the community aiming to address the questions were analysed using a framework of social support. Results: Approximately 10% of the 2455 messages were found to be involved in this activity: 60 messages contained questions, and 192 messages responded to address the questions. The most frequent type of question was about causation. While users shared a wide variety of information about their health, they most commonly asked about reactions, lab results, and other conditions. Nearly all the messages from the community that aimed to answer the questions provided informational support, which is a type of social support, and the community shared their own personal experiences in these responses. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that online forums are used by people living with HIV to ask specific questions as a means of understanding their personal health information. The analysis provides a better understanding of the questions that people living with HIV have about their health information, and the types of support they receive from the community. The results provide a basis for further research into community support and self-management and will enable improved tools to support self-management

"It feels like I'm managing myself": HIV+ people tracking their personal health information

Nearly 37 million people live with HIV globally and recent advances in medicine have transformed HIV to a chronic disease, if managed. Previous research in Personal Health Informatics has investigated how people self-manage other chronic conditions, such as diabetes, by tracking and reflecting on their health information but there is little knowledge of how people do so for complex and socially stigmatized diseases like HIV. A better understanding of their specialized needs could lead to the development of more appropriate tools to self-manage their condition. Our paper introduces an iterative process model of Personal Health Informatics. We then describe the results of an empirical study involving HIV+ adults aimed at understanding their issues, concerns and actions in each of the stages of this process model. We provide implications for the design of personal informatics tools and open research directions that can lead to better self-management for people living with HIV

Mass of the b-quark and B-decay constants from Nf=2+1+1 twisted-mass Lattice QCD

We present precise lattice computations for the b-quark mass, the quark mass ratios mb/mc and mb/ms as well as the leptonic B-decay constants. We employ gauge configurations with four dynamical quark flavors, up/down, strange and charm, at three values of the lattice spacing (a ~ 0.06 - 0.09 fm) and for pion masses as low as 210 MeV. Interpolation in the heavy quark mass to the bottom quark point is performed using ratios of physical quantities computed at nearby quark masses exploiting the fact that these ratios are exactly known in the static quark mass limit. Our results are also extrapolated to the physical pion mass and to the continuum limit and read: mb(MSbar, mb) = 4.26(10) GeV, mb/mc = 4.42(8), mb/ms = 51.4(1.4), fBs = 229(5) MeV, fB = 193(6) MeV, fBs/fB = 1.184(25) and (fBs/fB)/(fK/fpi) = 0.997(17).Comment: Version to appear in PRD. Added comments to simulation setup and error budget discussion. 1+20 pages, 9 figure

Topiramat w profilaktyce migreny: dane uzyskane na podstawie analizy zbiorczej i otwartego badania obserwacyjnego

Topiramat zarejestrowano do profilaktycznego leczenia migreny w kilku krajach na podstawie wyników trzech dużych badań randomizowanych, przeprowadzonych metodą podwójnie ślepej próby, w których wykazano, że skuteczność tego leku była znacząco większa niż placebo. Autorzy dokonali przeglądu wyników dwóch badań. W jednym z nich wykorzystano połączone dane z trzech badań kontrolowanych, przeprowadzonych metodą podwójnie ślepej próby, w których stosowano topiramat w dawce 100 mg, natomiast drugie stanowi kontynuację dwóch z wymienionych badań, w formie otwartego badania obserwacyjnego, w którym pacjenci otrzymywali różne dawki topiramatu przez 8 miesięcy w ramach leczenia podtrzymującego. Uzyskane wyniki potwierdzają, że topiramat skutecznie zmniejsza częstość migrenowych bólów głowy i wykazuje korzystny profil bezpieczeństwa

Trust, Identity, Privacy, and Security Considerations For Designing a Peer Data Sharing Platform Between People Living With HIV

Resulting from treatment advances, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV) is now a long-term condition, and digital solutions are being developed to support people living with HIV in self-management. Sharing their health data with their peers may support self-management, but the trust, identity, privacy and security (TIPS) considerations of people living with HIV remain underexplored. Working with a peer researcher who is expert in the lived experience of HIV, we interviewed 26 people living with HIV in the United Kingdom (UK) to investigate how to design a peer data sharing platform. We also conducted rating activities with participants to capture their atitudes towards sharing personal data. Our mixed methods study showed that participants were highly sophisticated in their understanding of trust and in their requirements for robust privacy and security. Tey indicated willingness to share digital identity atributes, including gender, age, medical history, health and well-being data, but not details that could reveal their personal identity. Participants called for TIPS measures to foster and to sustain responsible data sharing within their community. Tese findings can inform the development of trustworthy and secure digital platforms that enable people living with HIV to share data with their peers and provide insights for researchers who wish to facilitate data sharing in other communities with stigmatised health conditions

Trust, Identity, Privacy, and Security Considerations for Designing a Peer Data Sharing Platform Between People Living With HIV

Resulting from treatment advances, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is now a long-term condition, and digital solutions are being developed to support people living with HIV in self-management. Sharing their health data with their peers may support self-management, but the trust, identity, privacy and security (TIPS) considerations of people living with HIV remain underexplored. Working with a peer researcher who is expert in the lived experience of HIV, we interviewed 26 people living with HIV in the United Kingdom (UK) to investigate how to design a peer data sharing platform. We also conducted rating activities with participants to capture their attitudes towards sharing personal data. Our mixed methods study showed that participants were highly sophisticated in their understanding of trust and in their requirements for robust privacy and security. They indicated willingness to share digital identity attributes, including gender, age, medical history, health and well-being data, but not details that could reveal their personal identity. Participants called for TIPS measures to foster and to sustain responsible data sharing within their community. These findings can inform the development of trustworthy and secure digital platforms that enable people living with HIV to share data with their peers and provide insights for researchers who wish to facilitate data sharing in other communities with stigmatised health conditions

Psychiatric screening for migraine patients

Psychiatric disorders in migraine patients have a higher prevalence than general population. The presence of psychiatric comorbidities may influence the complexity of the migraine pictures and be related to medication overuse. Severely impaired chronic migraineurs presenting with medication overuse are a challenge for headache clinics. Psychiatric comorbities, such as dependency-like behaviors, anxiety and mood symptoms, might account for headache-related disability and recurrent relapses into medication overuse after a successful detoxification. Within a sample of 63 chronic migraineurs with medication overuse and severe disability, we investigated to which extent clinical severity, affective states and attitudes about medication impact the overall functioning at time of detoxification. To unravel whether some of these factors could predict their long-term outcome, we followed and retest them 1 year after withdrawal. We hypothesized that the detoxification would have led to a partial improvement and not modified the attitudes toward medication and dependence. Detoxification improves most of the clinical and affective measures, but does not free from significant levels of pain intensity and headache-related disability. The partial benefit from detoxification, the severity bias and the maladaptive cognitive profile led us to believe that subgroups of chronic-relapsing migraineurs deserve a multidisciplinary approach that addresses not only the reduction of clinical severity but also specific cognitive and behavioral impairments