Happiness is more a cause than a consequence of career success

Is happiness a consequence or a cause of career success? Lisa C. Walsh, Julia K. Boehm, and Sonja Lyubomirsky find evidence to the latter. However, they warn that hiring visibly cheerful people or pressuring employees to act happy is not the soultion: employers should instead create environments that authentically increase workers' happiness

Predictors of Community Therapists\u27 Use of Therapy Techniques in a Large Public Mental Health System

Importance Few studies have examined the effects of individual and organizational characteristics on the use of evidence-based practices in mental health care. Improved understanding of these factors could guide future implementation efforts to ensure effective adoption, implementation, and sustainment of evidence-based practices. Objective To estimate the relative contribution of individual and organizational factors on therapist self-reported use of cognitive-behavioral, family, and psychodynamic therapy techniques within the context of a large-scale effort to increase use of evidence-based practices in an urban public mental health system serving youth and families. Design, Setting, and Participants In this observational, cross-sectional study of 23 organizations, data were collected from March 1 through July 25, 2013. We used purposive sampling to recruit the 29 largest child-serving agencies, which together serve approximately 80% of youth receiving publically funded mental health care. The final sample included 19 agencies with 23 sites, 130 therapists, 36 supervisors, and 22 executive administrators. Main Outcomes and Measures Therapist self-reported use of cognitive-behavioral, family, and psychodynamic therapy techniques, as measured by the Therapist Procedures Checklist–Family Revised. Results Individual factors accounted for the following percentages of the overall variation: cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, 16%; family therapy techniques, 7%; and psychodynamic therapy techniques, 20%. Organizational factors accounted for the following percentages of the overall variation: cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, 23%; family therapy techniques, 19%; and psychodynamic therapy techniques, 7%. Older therapists and therapists with more open attitudes were more likely to endorse use of cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, as were those in organizations that had spent fewer years participating in evidence-based practice initiatives, had more resistant cultures, and had more functional climates. Women were more likely to endorse use of family therapy techniques, as were those in organizations employing more fee-for-service staff and with more stressful climates. Therapists with more divergent attitudes and less knowledge about evidence-based practices were more likely to use psychodynamic therapy techniques. Conclusions and Relevance This study suggests that individual and organizational factors are important in explaining therapist behavior and use of evidence-based practices, but the relative importance varies by therapeutic technique

Characteristics and trends in required home care by GPs in Austria: diseases and functional status of patients

BACKGROUND: Almost all societies carry responsibility towards patients who require continuous medical care at home. In many health systems the general practitioner cooperates with community based services of home care and coordinates all medical and non medical activities. In Austria the general practitioner together and in cooperation with relatives of the patient and professional organisations usually takes on this task by visiting his patients. This study was carried out to identify diseases that need home care and to describe the functional profile of home care patients in eastern Austria. METHODS: Cross sectional observational study with 17 GP practices participating during 2 study periods in 1997 and in 2004 in eastern Austria. Each GP identified patients requiring home care and assessed their underlying diseases and functional status by filling in a questionnaire personally after an encounter. Patients in nursing homes were excluded. Statistical tests used were t-tests, contingency tables, nonparametric Wilcoxon signed rank sum test and Fisher-combination test. RESULTS: Patients with degenerative diseases of the central nervous system (65%) caused by Alzheimer's disease and cerebrovascular occlusive disease and patients with degenerative diseases of the skeletal system (53%) were the largest groups among the 198 (1997) and 261 (2004) home care cases of the 11 (1997) and 13 (2004) practices. Malignant diseases in a terminal state constituted only 5% of the cases. More than two thirds of all cases were female with an average age of 80 years. Slightly more than 70% of the patients were at least partially mobile. CONCLUSION: Home care and home visits for patients with degenerative diseases of the central nervous and skeletal system are important elements of GP's work. Further research should therefore focus on effective methods of training and rehabilitation to better the mental and physical status of patients living in their private homes

Linkage to chromosome 2q32.2-q33.3 in familial serrated neoplasia (Jass syndrome)

Causative genetic variants have to date been identified for only a small proportion of familial colorectal cancer (CRC). While conditions such as Familial Adenomatous Polyposis and Lynch syndrome have well defined genetic causes, the search for variants underlying the remainder of familial CRC is plagued by genetic heterogeneity. The recent identification of families with a heritable predisposition to malignancies arising through the serrated pathway (familial serrated neoplasia or Jass syndrome) provides an opportunity to study a subset of familial CRC in which heterogeneity may be greatly reduced. A genome-wide linkage screen was performed on a large family displaying a dominantly-inherited predisposition to serrated neoplasia genotyped using the Affymetrix GeneChip Human Mapping 10 K SNP Array. Parametric and nonparametric analyses were performed and resulting regions of interest, as well as previously reported CRC susceptibility loci at 3q22, 7q31 and 9q22, were followed up by finemapping in 10 serrated neoplasia families. Genome-wide linkage analysis revealed regions of interest at 2p25.2-p25.1, 2q24.3-q37.1 and 8p21.2-q12.1. Finemapping linkage and haplotype analyses identified 2q32.2-q33.3 as the region most likely to harbour linkage, with heterogeneity logarithm of the odds (HLOD) 2.09 and nonparametric linkage (NPL) score 2.36 (P = 0.004). Five primary candidate genes (CFLAR, CASP10, CASP8, FZD7 and BMPR2) were sequenced and no segregating variants identified. There was no evidence of linkage to previously reported loci on chromosomes 3, 7 and 9