ARSR: Committed to Quality and Breaking New Ground

EditorialAs the incoming editor of the Annual Review of Sex Research (ARSR), I was asked to state my goals for the forthcoming series of issues, and I gladly take this opportunity. From the early years of my own work in sex research, the ARSR has been one of my most important resources. Its contributions always brought me comprehensiveness and scholarly excellence, whatever the topic of the article. Thus, it may not come as a surprise that I am dedicated to maintain this high standard of quality and comprehensiveness of the reviews that make it into ARSR. Below, I highlight some of the quality criteria that color my view of what are good and worthwhile review articles

Videoconferencing Psychotherapy in an App Environment for Trauma-Related Psychopathology

The theoretical background of the life-span sequelae of exposure to interpersonal psychological trauma (emotional or physical neglect or abuse or sexual abuse) in childhood, particularly when a primary caretaker is involved, and its assessment and treatment possibilities in a 100% online environment are outlined. These sequelae may be understood as a complex variant of PTSD (CPTSD) or a complicated array of overlapping mental and personality disorders or as trans-diagnostic symptoms. However, disorders of extreme stress not otherwise specified (DESNOS) constitute a distinct syndrome of potential clinical utility. In childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood (YA), these symptoms seem encompassed by developmental trauma disorder (DTD). Affect dysregulation, identity alterations, and relational impairment are central features of DESNOS/DTD/CPTSD and can also be understood as trans-diagnostic symptom clusters. More and more people use smartphone apps in daily life. Therefore we started our 100% online treatments in patients’ environments and at their convenience (need driven). Our digitally enriched outpatient clinics (DOCs) using smartphone apps for videoconferencing psychotherapy (VCP) and personal data monitoring aim to augment established evidence-based treatment protocols. Also, they facilitate continuously gathering real-time sensor- and self-reported data that improve ecological validity of self-reports and monitoring for course of treatment and relapse prevention

Prevalence and consequences of patient safety incidents in general practice in the Netherlands: a retrospective medical record review study

BACKGROUND Patient safety can be at stake in both hospital and general practice settings. While severe patient safety incidents have been described, quantitative studies in large samples of patients in general practice are rare. This study aimed to assess patient safety in general practice, and to show areas where potential improvements could be implemented. METHODS We conducted a retrospective review of patient records in Dutch general practice. A random sample of 1,000 patients from 20 general practices was obtained. The number of patient safety incidents that occurred in a one-year period, their perceived underlying causes, and impact on patients' health were recorded. RESULTS We identified 211 patient safety incidents across a period of one year (95% CI: 185 until 241). A variety of types of incidents, perceived causes and consequences were found. A total of 58 patient safety incidents affected patients; seven were associated with hospital admission; none resulted in permanent disability or death. CONCLUSIONS Although this large audit of medical records in general practices identified many patient safety incidents, only a few had a major impact on patients' health. Improving patient safety in this low-risk environment poses specific challenges, given the high numbers of patients and contacts in general practice.The Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) initiated the project and supported the project financially (without restrictions on the scientific work; grant number 313741)

Bootstrapped CNNs for Building Segmentation on RGB-D Aerial Imagery

Detection of buildings and other objects from aerial images has various applications in urban planning and map making. Automated building detection from aerial imagery is a challenging task, as it is prone to varying lighting conditions, shadows and occlusions. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are robust against some of these variations, although they fail to distinguish easy and difficult examples. We train a detection algorithm from RGB-D images to obtain a segmented mask by using the CNN architecture DenseNet.First, we improve the performance of the model by applying a statistical re-sampling technique called Bootstrapping and demonstrate that more informative examples are retained. Second, the proposed method outperforms the non-bootstrapped version by utilizing only one-sixth of the original training data and it obtains a precision-recall break-even of 95.10% on our aerial imagery dataset.Comment: Published at ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Science

Herziening Besluit Psychotherapeut: kans voor sprong voorwaarts.

Het Besluit Psychotherapeut (bp) 1998 regelt de toegang tot het beroep van psychotherapeut in het big-register. Er klinken geluiden om de definitie van het beroep psychotherapeut opnieuw onder de loep te nemen via een herziening van het bp. Een herziening van dit besluit binnen afzienbare tijd is nuttig en noodzakelijk. De bijdrage van psychotherapieonderzoekers aan de herziening is essentieel, omdat de kwaliteitseisen moeten stoelen op onderzoeksgegevens over de werkzaamheid en kosten)effectiviteit van therapieën in plaats van op theoretische stromingen. Van herziening van het besluit valt een belangrijk effect op de praktijk van de psychotherapeutische hulpverlening te verwachten

Understanding sexual pain: A cognitive-motivational account

Article in press: Dewitte M et al. Understanding sexual pain: A cognitive-motivational account. PAIN (2010), doi:10.1016/j.pain.2010.10.051Sexual pain or dyspareunia is a prevalent and disabling health problem in women. It is generally defined as a recurrent or persistent pain during sexual activities, involving vaginal penetration or tactile stimulation of the vulva and vestibule. In many patients, the pain is also elicited by nonsexual activities and is comparable to other pain syndromes in terms of severity, sensory characteristics, and neurological processes. As yet, little is known about the etiology of sexual pain because current research is complicated by a number of factors. First, dyspareunia encompasses multiple pain conditions with varying etiologies, causing nosological confusion. Second, evidence on causal factors is inconclusive because there are no controlled experimental studies that allow discerning cause and effect. Third, research has put more emphasis on physical markers – including neurogenic pelvic inflammation, neurochemical influences, central and peripheral sensitization, and increased vulva–vaginal innervations – rather than considering psychosocial variables that may exacerbate and maintain sexual pain problems. Pain is, however, a multidimensional experience that needs to be addressed in all its dimensions, including biomedical as well as psychosocial aspects. Because much less is known about the psychological and relational determinants of sexual pain, this review focuses specifically on the role of cognitive-motivational factors in relation to pain. Such cognitive-motivational perspective is likely to inform both research and clinical practice

Sexual distress in relation to pelvic floor dysfunction-related distress

Background: Sexual distress is seen as an essential component of female sexual dysfunction. Sexual distress originates from problems with sexual desire, sexual arousal, lubrication, orgasm, or painful intercourse, for which women could and do seek help, for example, in a pelvic physical therapy (PPT) practice. In PPT practice, sexual dysfunction is often presented as a main reason to seek help, besides commonly treated complaints, such as urinary and fecal incontinence, micturition and defecation problems, pelvic organ prolapses, and pelvic pain. However, it is not clear if sexual dysfunction and distress is the main reason to seek help. In this study, women’s help-seeking behavior in PPT practice was investigated, focusing on sexual distress in relation to pelvic floor complaints. Method: Pelvic floor dysfunction-related distress was assessed with the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory, pelvic pain-related distress with a question from the Four-Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire, and painful intercourse with a question from the Female Sexual Functioning Index. Sexual distress was assessed with the Female Sexual Distress Scale. Women with PPT experience were compared to women without PPT experience. Results: Women with PPT experience scored higher on the Female Sexual Distress Scale in comparison to women without PPT experience. However, when corrected for the distress scores, this effect disappeared. Pelvic floor dysfunction-related distress completely mediated the relationship between help-seeking and sexual distress. Reversed mediation analysis did not show such an effect. That is, no effect of sexual distress was found on the relationship between help-seeking and pelvic floor dysfunction-related distress. Conclusion: In the current study, pelvic floor dysfunction-related distress was the main reason for seeking help in a PPT practice, not sexual distress