Risk factors for PTSD after birth in a normal population: A meta-analysis

Evidence suggests that a proportion of women report posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after childbirth, with between 1 and 3% of women developing the disorder as a direct result of birth (Alcorn, O'Donovan, Patrick, Creedy, & Devilly). A range of factors are associated with postpartum PTSD, including prepartum, birth and postpartum factors. This meta-analysis synthesizes research on posttraumatic stress symptoms after childbirth in order to identify key vulnerability and risk factors. Method: A systematic search was carried out on databases (PsychInfo, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) using PTSD terms (posttraumatic stress, post-traumatic stress, trauma*, PTSD) crossed with childbirth-related terms (birth, pregnancy, partum, postpartum, prenatal, postnatal, stillbirth, miscarriage, gestation, partus, labour). Studies were included if they reported primary research examining factors associated with birth-related PTSD symptoms. PTSD had to be measured at least one month after birth to avoid confusion with acute stress disorder symptoms. Research on specific populations was excluded e.g. teenagers, pregnancy loss or stillbirth. Results: Of the 792 records screened, 48 papers reporting results of 43 research studies fulfilled inclusion criteria (N=20,372). Key vulnerability and risk factors were subjective birth experience, particularly negative emotions during birth, a fear of childbirth, and a history of PTSD or depression. Postpartum PTSD was highly comorbid with concurrent symptoms of depression. Conclusion: Identification of vulnerability and risk factors for postpartum PTSD is critical for appropriate screening and prevention. Future research needs to examine the interaction between vulnerability and risk factors, as proposed by theoretical frameworks of postpartum PTSD (Ayers 2004; Slade 2006)

An improvement of the Berry--Esseen inequality with applications to Poisson and mixed Poisson random sums

By a modification of the method that was applied in (Korolev and Shevtsova, 2009), here the inequalities $$\rho(F_n,\Phi)\le\frac{0.335789(\beta^3+0.425)}{\sqrt{n}}$$ and $$\rho(F_n,\Phi)\le \frac{0.3051(\beta^3+1)}{\sqrt{n}}$$ are proved for the uniform distance $\rho(F_n,\Phi)$ between the standard normal distribution function $\Phi$ and the distribution function $F_n$ of the normalized sum of an arbitrary number $n\ge1$ of independent identically distributed random variables with zero mean, unit variance and finite third absolute moment $\beta^3$. The first of these inequalities sharpens the best known version of the classical Berry--Esseen inequality since $0.335789(\beta^3+0.425)\le0.335789(1+0.425)\beta^3<0.4785\beta^3$ by virtue of the condition $\beta^3\ge1$, and 0.4785 is the best known upper estimate of the absolute constant in the classical Berry--Esseen inequality. The second inequality is applied to lowering the upper estimate of the absolute constant in the analog of the Berry--Esseen inequality for Poisson random sums to 0.3051 which is strictly less than the least possible value of the absolute constant in the classical Berry--Esseen inequality. As a corollary, the estimates of the rate of convergence in limit theorems for compound mixed Poisson distributions are refined.Comment: 33 page

Publication Bias in Reports of Animal Stroke Studies Leads to Major Overstatement of Efficacy

Publication bias confounds attempts to use systematic reviews to assess the efficacy of various interventions tested in experiments modelling acute ischaemic stroke, leading to a 30% overstatement of efficacy of interventions tested in animals

'Drowning in here in his bloody sea' : exploring TV cop drama's representations of the impact of stress in modern policing

The Criminal Justice System is a part of society that is both familiar and hidden. It is familiar in that a large part of daily news and television drama is devoted to it (Carrabine, 2008; Jewkes, 2011). It is hidden in the sense that the majority of the population have little, if any, direct contact with the Criminal Justice System, meaning that the media may be a major force in shaping their views on crime and policing (Carrabine, 2008). As Reiner (2000) notes, the debate about the relationship between the media, policing, and crime has been a key feature of wider societal concerns about crime since the establishment of the modern police force. He outlines the recurring themes in post-war debates in this field. For Conservatives there has been an ongoing concern that the media is criminongenic, as it serves to undermine traditional institutions, including the police. From the viewpoint of radical criminology, the impact of the media is two-fold: it exaggerates legitimate concerns about crime and emphasises the bureaucratic and other restrictions under which the police operate (Reiner, 2000). This is seen as undermining due process and legitimatising what can be termed a ‘maverick’ approach to policing. An early example of this can be seen in Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry movies (Siegel, 1971) where Harry Callaghan acts as a one-man law enforcement system outside of the formal legal process, a process portrayed as corrupt, inefficient, and concerned with offenders’ rights rather than protecting victims. From a policing perspective, Reiner (2000) argues that film and TV drama creates a simplistic narrative of crime solving that is almost completely divorced from the reality of modern police work, a finding consistent with more recent work by Cummins et al., (2014)

Can Animal Models of Disease Reliably Inform Human Studies?

H. Bart van der Worp and colleagues discuss the controversies and possibilities of translating the results of animal experiments into human clinical trials