352 research outputs found
Impact of supported employment on service costs and income of people with mental health needs
Background: A 12-month study of UK supported employment providers found that 77 (54.6%) of the participants in the study remained unemployed, 32 (22.7%) got jobs and 32 (22.7%) retained the jobs they held at the outset.
Aims: To explore the impact of moving into employment on service use, earnings, benefits and tax allowances claimed.
Methods: Service use and frequency were measured at baseline and 12 months. Comparisons paid particular attention to the differences between people entering work and those who remained unemployed. Costs were analysed from a government perspective (excluding earnings) and a societal perspective (excluding welfare benefits and taxes).
Results: People who entered work reduced their consumption of mental health services (p<0.001). However, use of supported employment increased (p=0.04), in contrast to falling use by people who remained unemployed (p<0.001) and those who had been working for more than one year (p=0.002). The increase in earnings for those entering work (p=0.02) was not offset by a similar reduction in benefits.
Conclusion: This indicates that mental health services may make savings as a result of their clients engaging in paid work. It raises questions about the optimal nature and organization of employment support for this service user group
Atypical and Severe Nonsuicidal Self-Injury as an Indicator of Severe Psychopathology: Findings From a Sample of High-Risk Community Mental Health Clients
This study examined whether atypical/severe nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI; e.g., foreign body ingestion, cutting necessitating sutures) serves as a marker of severe psychopathology among 467 adult community mental health clients (n = 33 with an atypical/severe NSSI history). Information regarding psychiatric risk indicators was extracted from participants’ psychiatric records. Generalized linear models with negative binomial distribution and log link function, as well as chi-square tests, were used to address study aims. Clients with a lifetime atypical/severe NSSI history met criteria for a significantly greater number of psychiatric risk indicators than clients with a lifetime history of common NSSI only; however, these clients were not significantly more likely to report recent suicidal actions. Individuals with an atypical/severe NSSI history may demonstrate more severe psychopathology than those with a history of common NSSI only. Thus, it may be clinically useful to consider individuals with an atypical/severe NSSI history as a high-risk subgroup
Transforming ESL/bilingual teachers through action research and teamwork
Page 104-126In many professional development efforts, the experts are the outsiders who are called in to share research findings
produced far away from the school or district involved. Charged with developing a grant-funded program to provide
support to English as a second language and bilingual teachers in Wisconsin, we wanted to offer teachers an
opportunity to build on and share their expertise to meet the educational needs of increasing numbers of English
Language Learners throughout our state. Working first as individuals and later in professional teams, participating
teachers developed action research projects, which served both as entry points for the program mentor into the
teachers’ classrooms and as tools for understanding how to more effectively support teachers’ growth as
professionals. Through active mentoring and professional teamwork, the participants realized the potential for action
research projects and professional teamwork to enhance their understanding and critique of their own practice
The F238L point mutation in the cannabinoid type 1 receptor enhances basal endocytosis via lipid rafts
Defining functional domains and amino acid residues in G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) represents an important way to improve rational drug design for this major class of drug targets. The cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor is one of the most abundant GPCRs in the central nervous system and is involved in many physiological and pathophysiological processes. Interestingly, mutagenesis of phenylalanine 238 to a leucine (CB1F238L) has been already linked to a number of both in vitro and in vivo alterations. While CB1F238L causes significantly reduced presynaptic neurotransmitter release at the cellular level, behaviorally this mutation induces increased risk taking, social play behavior and reward sensitivity in rats. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these changes are not fully understood. In this study, we tested whether the F238L mutation affects trafficking and axonal/presynaptic polarization of the CB1 receptor in vitro. Steady state or ligand modulated surface expression and lipid raft association was analyzed in HEK293 cells stably expressing either CB1wt or CB1F238L receptor. Axonal/presynaptic polarization of the CB1F238L receptor was assessed in transfected primary hippocampal neurons. We show that in vitro the CB1F238L receptor displays increased association with lipid rafts, which coincides with increased lipid raft mediated constitutive endocytosis, leading to a reduction in steady state surface expression of the CB1F238L receptor. Furthermore, the CB1F238L receptor showed increased axonal polarization in primary hippocampal neurons. These data demonstrate that endocytosis of the CB1 receptor is an important mediator of axonal/presynaptic polarization and that phenylalanine 238 plays a key role in CB1 receptor trafficking and axonal polarization
The F238L Point Mutation in the Cannabinoid Type 1 Receptor Enhances Basal Endocytosis via Lipid Rafts
Defining functional domains and amino acid residues in G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent an important way to improve rational drug design for this major class of drug targets. The cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor is one of the most abundant GPCRs in the central nervous system and is involved in many physiological and pathophysiological processes. Interestingly, cannabinoid type 1 receptor with a phenylalanine 238 to leucine mutation (CB1F238L) has been already linked to a number of both in vitro and in vivo alterations. While CB1F238L causes significantly reduced presynaptic neurotransmitter release at the cellular level, behaviorally this mutation induces increased risk taking, social play behavior and reward sensitivity in rats. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these changes are not fully understood. In this study, we tested whether the F238L mutation affects trafficking and axonal/presynaptic polarization of the CB1 receptor in vitro. Steady state or ligand modulated surface expression and lipid raft association was analyzed in human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells stably expressing either wild-type cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1wt) or CB1F238L receptor. Axonal/presynaptic polarization of the CB1F238L receptor was assessed in transfected primary hippocampal neurons. We show that in vitro the CB1F238L receptor displays increased association with lipid rafts, which coincides with increased lipid raft mediated constitutive endocytosis, leading to a reduction in steady state surface expression of the CB1F238L receptor. Furthermore, the CB1F238L receptor showed increased axonal polarization in primary hippocampal neurons. These data demonstrate that endocytosis of the CB1 receptor is an important mediator of axonal/presynaptic polarization and that phenylalanine 238 plays a key role in CB1 receptor trafficking and axonal polarization
The Optimal Study: Describing the Key Components of Optimal Health Care Delivery to UK Care Home Residents: A Research Protocol
Long-term institutional care in the United Kingdom is provided by care homes. Residents have prevalent cognitive impairment and disability, have multiple diagnoses, and are subject to polypharmacy. Prevailing models of health care provision (ad hoc, reactive, and coordinated by general practitioners) result in unacceptable variability of care. A number of innovative responses to improve health care for care homes have been commissioned. The organization of health and social care in the United Kingdom is such that it is unlikely that a single solution to the problem of providing quality health care for care homes will be identified that can be used nationwide. Realist evaluation is a methodology that uses both qualitative and quantitative data to establish an in-depth understanding of what works, for whom, and in what settings. In this article we describe a protocol for using realist evaluation to understand the context, mechanisms, and outcomes that shape effective health care delivery to care home residents in the United Kingdom. By describing this novel approach, we hope to inform international discourse about research methodologies in long-term care settings internationally
Results from a Large, Multinational Sample Using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire
Childhood maltreatment has diverse, lifelong impact on morbidity and
mortality. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) is one of the most
commonly used scales to assess and quantify these experiences and their
impact. Curiously, despite very widespread use of the CTQ, scores on its
Minimization-Denial (MD) subscale—originally designed to assess a positive
response bias—are rarely reported. Hence, little is known about this measure.
If response biases are either common or consequential, current practices of
ignoring the MD scale deserve revision. Therewith, we designed a study to
investigate 3 aspects of minimization, as defined by the CTQ’s MD scale: 1)
its prevalence; 2) its latent structure; and finally 3) whether minimization
moderates the CTQ’s discriminative validity in terms of distinguishing between
psychiatric patients and community volunteers. Archival, item-level CTQ data
from 24 multinational samples were combined for a total of 19,652
participants. Analyses indicated: 1) minimization is common; 2) minimization
functions as a continuous construct; and 3) high MD scores attenuate the
ability of the CTQ to distinguish between psychiatric patients and community
volunteers. Overall, results suggest that a minimizing response bias—as
detected by the MD subscale—has a small but significant moderating effect on
the CTQ’s discriminative validity. Results also may suggest that some prior
analyses of maltreatment rates or the effects of early maltreatment that have
used the CTQ may have underestimated its incidence and impact. We caution
researchers and clinicians about the widespread practice of using the CTQ
without the MD or collecting MD data but failing to assess and control for its
effects on outcomes or dependent variables
Predicting olfactory receptor neuron responses from odorant structure
Background Olfactory receptors work at the interface between the chemical world of volatile molecules and the perception of scent in the brain. Their main purpose is to translate chemical space into information that can be processed by neural circuits. Assuming that these receptors have evolved to cope with this task, the analysis of their coding strategy promises to yield valuable insight in how to encode chemical information in an efficient way. Results We mimicked olfactory coding by modeling responses of primary olfactory neurons to small molecules using a large set of physicochemical molecular descriptors and artificial neural networks. We then tested these models by recording in vivo receptor neuron responses to a new set of odorants and successfully predicted the responses of five out of seven receptor neurons. Correlation coefficients ranged from 0.66 to 0.85, demonstrating the applicability of our approach for the analysis of olfactory receptor activation data. The molecular descriptors that are best-suited for response prediction vary for different receptor neurons, implying that each receptor neuron detects a different aspect of chemical space. Finally, we demonstrate that receptor responses themselves can be used as descriptors in a predictive model of neuron activation. Conclusions The chemical meaning of molecular descriptors helps understand structure-response relationships for olfactory receptors and their 'receptive fields'. Moreover, it is possible to predict receptor neuron activation from chemical structure using machine-learning techniques, although this is still complicated by a lack of training data
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