What\u27s More Persuasive? How the Internet and Newspaper Change Opinions

The Internet has become an integral part of society. While people have been turning to the Internet for their news, newspapers are still a powerful source of information. This study investigates whether the newspaper or Internet is more effective at altering people’s opinions. Participants included people ranging from 18-78 years old. After reading a political endorsement that appeared to come from either a printed newspaper or a news website, participants rated their opinions on this candidate. When the message included strong arguments, the source of the article did not have an effect on how well the articles were able to change people’s opinions. Conversely, when the message contained relatively weak arguments, people were significantly more persuaded by the newspaper article than the website article. These effects were not moderated by age, income or average time on a computer or reading a newspaper. This shows the overall untrustworthy nature of the Internet despite its growing popularity

The Burden of Sleep Problems

Introduction: Sleep disorders affect up to 1 in 4 adults and can adversely affect a variety of health conditions. However, little is known about detection of sleep disorders in ethnically diverse urban primary care settings. Methods: Patients in urban primary care settings completed surveys to screen for sleep problems and identify comorbid conditions. Providers were given screening results, and provided feedback regarding their clinical utility. Results: Participants (n = 95) were predominantly women (76.8%) and black, non-Hispanic (46.3%), or Hispanic (38.9%). High proportion of participants screened positive for insomnia (31.6%) and screened high risk for sleep apnea (42.1%). Only one-third (32.6%) of participants reported sleeping the recommended 7 to 9 hours per night. The presence of chronic pain (χ 2 = 4.97, P = .03) was associated with clinically significant insomnia. Obesity was associated with fewer hours of sleep per night, t = 2.19(87), P = .03, and risk for sleep apnea (OR = 3.11, 95% CI = 1.28-7.50). Participants were interested in receiving help for sleep issues during their primary care visits (40%), and providers found the screening at least somewhat useful (74.4%). Discussion: Results highlight the potentially high unmet need for screening and treatment of sleep problems in ethnically diverse urban primary care settings

The Utility of the Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Status in Patients with Temporal and Non-temporal Lobe Epilepsy

OBJECTIVE: The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) is a brief neuropsychological battery that has been validated in the assessment of dementia and other clinical populations. The current study examines the utility of the RBANS in patients with epilepsy. METHODS: Ninety-eight patients with epilepsy completed the RBANS as part of a more comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. Performance on the RBANS was evaluated for patients with a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE; n = 51) and other epilepsy patients (non-TLE, n = 47) in comparison to published norms. Multivariate analysis of variance compared group performances on RBANS indices. Rates of impairment were also compared across groups using cutoff scores of ≤1.0 and ≤1.5 standard deviations below the normative mean. Exploratory hierarchical regressions were used to examine the relations between epilepsy severity factors (i.e., age of onset, disease duration, and number of antiepileptic drugs [AEDs]) and RBANS performance. RESULTS: TLE and non-TLE patients performed below the normative sample across all RBANS indices. Those with TLE performed worse than non-TLE patients on the Immediate and Delayed Memory indices and exhibited higher rates of general cognitive impairment. Number of AEDs was the only epilepsy severity factor that significantly predicted RBANS total performance, accounting for 14% of the variance. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the RBANS has utility in evaluating cognition in patients with epilepsy and can differentiate TLE and non-TLE patients. Additionally, number of AEDs appears to be associated with global cognitive performance in adults with epilepsy