The development and validation of the Cluster Headache Quality of life scale (CHQ)

BACKGROUND: Cluster headache (CH) is a rare, excruciating and highly disabling primary headache disorder. Using non cluster headache specific measures, previous studies have shown that CH has a significant negative impact on patients’ quality of life (QoL), but a CH-specific QoL scale is currently unavailable. Thus, the objective of this study was to develop and validate a CH-specific QoL scale. METHODS: Based on a literature review, semi-structured patient interviews and expert panel consultation, we produced a 54-item questionnaire, which was pre-tested in a sample of CH patients and subsequently reduced to 47 items. The revised scale was then administered to CH sufferers attending a tertiary headache clinic and those registered with a patient group. A total of 406 completed questionnaires were received. To assess test-retest reliability, a subsample (N = 56) completed the scale on a second occasion, two weeks after the first. Standard statistical methods were used to analyse the data for validity and reliability. RESULTS: Item reduction and exploratory factor analysis led to 28-items, grouped into four subscales labelled “restriction of activities of daily living”, “impact on mood and interpersonal relationships”, “pain and anxiety”, and “lack of vitality”. The final CH-specific QoL scale, the CHQ, demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.9) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.8), with good internal construct validity between subscales (range 0.52–0.75) and convergent validity with other QoL measures. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed and validated the first patient-reported outcome measure of QoL specifically for CH sufferers, which may be used to monitor QoL in clinical care and research

Development and testing of a checklist to assess compliance with the faculty of pain medicine’s core standards for pain management services: experience in a new national tertiary pain service

Introduction: The Faculty of Pain Medicine recently published the first UK-focused Core Standards for Pain Management Services (CSPMS). We present an audit checklist tool developed to map compliance to the CSPMS, which offers a practical method of auditing any pain management service against the standards. Methods: The checklist tool was developed and its utility was field-tested in the Scottish National Residential Pain Management Programme (SNRPMP), a newly established service offering residential service to people in Scotland. Results: The checklist tool developed provides an easy and practical approach to evaluating any pain service against the national standards. Its application to evaluate the SNRPMP indicates that the service meets the majority of CSPMS standards and highlights aspects of the service requiring improvement. Conclusion: The layout of the developed checklist tool offers an alternative format for the structuring of the national standards in possible future revisions. The audit checklist tool enables evaluation of services with a numerical score, enabling monitoring of their compliance with national standards as well as comparisons between pain services

Development and Validation of a Daily Habit Scale

Habits are defined as automatic behaviours triggered by cues and performed without awareness. They are difficult to control and mentally efficient, which contrasts with goal-directed behaviour, which is characterised by active thought, high computational effort, and the ability to modify this behaviour in response to a changing environment and contextual demands. Habits are not only defined by the frequency with which a behaviour is performed but represent a complex construct that also includes the strength and automaticity of the habitual behaviour. We report here the development and validation of a Daily Habit Scale (DHS) to assess the frequency, automaticity, and strength of daily habits in healthy individuals. Item reduction based on factor analysis resulted in a scale with 38 items grouped into eight factors explaining 52.91% of the variance. The DHS showed very good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.738) and test-retest reliability (Intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.892, p<0.001) as well as convergent and divergent reliability compared to other scales measuring habits. We found a significant effect of age, gender, anxiety, and depression on the DHS. Considering certain limitations of the DHS, such as not considering the context of performance of habits, and the absence of certain items, such as transportation use, the results of this study suggest that DHS is a reliable and valid measure of daily habits that can be used by both clinicians and researchers as a measure of daily habits

Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation induces impulsive action when patients with Parkinson's disease act under speed pressure

The subthalamic nucleus (STN) is proposed to modulate response thresholds and speed-accuracy trade-offs. In situations of conflict, the STN is considered to raise response thresholds, allowing time for the accumulation of information to occur before a response is selected. Conversely, speed pressure is thought to reduce the activity of the STN and lower response thresholds, resulting in fast, errorful responses. In Parkinson's disease (PD), subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) reduces the activity of the nucleus and improves motor symptoms. We predicted that the combined effects of STN stimulation and speed pressure would lower STN activity and lead to fast, errorful responses, hence resulting in impulsive action. We used the motion discrimination 'moving-dots' task to assess speed-accuracy trade-offs, under both speed and accuracy instructions. We assessed 12 patients with PD and bilateral STN-DBS and 12 age-matched healthy controls. Participants completed the task twice, and the patients completed it once with STN-DBS on and once with STN-DBS off, with order counterbalanced. We found that STN stimulation was associated with significantly faster reaction times but more errors under speed instructions. Application of the drift diffusion model showed that stimulation resulted in lower response thresholds when acting under speed pressure. These findings support the involvement of the STN in the modulation of speed-accuracy trade-offs and establish for the first time that speed pressure alone, even in the absence of conflict, can result in STN stimulation inducing impulsive action in PD

The neuropsychology of cluster headache: cognition, mood, disability, and quality of life of patients with chronic and episodic cluster headache.

Cluster headache (CH) is commonly regarded as one of the most disabling headache conditions, and referred to as one of the most painful conditions known to humankind. Although there has been some research indicating the severe impact of CH, there is little comprehensive evidence of its impact on quality of life, disability, mood, and cognitive function in both its episodic (ECH) and chronic (CCH) variants

A Classifier-based approach to identify genetic similarities between diseases

Motivation: Genome-wide association studies are commonly used to identify possible associations between genetic variations and diseases. These studies mainly focus on identifying individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) potentially linked with one disease of interest. In this work, we introduce a novel methodology that identifies similarities between diseases using information from a large number of SNPs. We separate the diseases for which we have individual genotype data into one reference disease and several query diseases. We train a classifier that distinguishes between individuals that have the reference disease and a set of control individuals. This classifier is then used to classify the individuals that have the query diseases. We can then rank query diseases according to the average classification of the individuals in each disease set, and identify which of the query diseases are more similar to the reference disease. We repeat these classification and comparison steps so that each disease is used once as reference disease

Comparing Acute and Chronic Effects of 1-(3-Chlorophenyl) Piperazine and Mianserin Injection on Yawning and Penile Erection in Rats

Aims: Yawning is a phylogenetic and contagious behavior that occurs with the stretching or penile erection in mammals, birds, and reptiles under different conditions. This study aimed at determining the acute and chronic effects of the injection of 1-(3-chlorophenyl) Piperazine and Mianserin on yawning and penile erection of adult male rats. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 30 male Wistar rats (250-300g) were randomly divided to 3 groups (n=10), including the control group that received saline subcutaneous injection, the group that received 0.5mg/kg 1-(3-chlorophenyl) Piperazine subcutaneous injection, and the group that received 0.2mg/kg Mianserin subcutaneous injection. After the subcutaneous injections in acute phase (day1) and chronic phase (day14), the number of yawning and penile erection was observed for 60 minutes and it was recorded. The data were analyzed by SPSS 13 software using one-way analysis of variance, Tukey post-hoc, and paired t-test. Findings: Compared with the control group, Mianserin group showed a significant increase in the number of yawning (p<0.01) and penile erection (p<0.05) in the acute phase. Compared with the acute phase, the chronic group of Mianserin showed a significant decrease in the number of yawning (p<0.01) and penile erection (p<0.05). Compared with the acute group, 1-(3-Chlorophenyl) Piperazine showed a significant increase in the number of yawning (p<0.05) only in the chronic phase. Conclusion: The acute injection of Mianserin increases the number of yawning and penile erection of adult male rats and its chronic injection decreases them. 1-(3-Chlorophenyl) Piperazine increases the number of yawning only in the chronic phase

ProKinO: An Ontology for Integrative Analysis of Protein Kinases in Cancer

Protein kinases are a large and diverse family of enzymes that are genomically altered in many human cancers. Targeted cancer genome sequencing efforts have unveiled the mutational profiles of protein kinase genes from many different cancer types. While mutational data on protein kinases is currently catalogued in various databases, integration of mutation data with other forms of data on protein kinases such as sequence, structure, function and pathway is necessary to identify and characterize key cancer causing mutations. Integrative analysis of protein kinase data, however, is a challenge because of the disparate nature of protein kinase data sources and data formats., where the mutations are spread over 82 distinct kinases. We also provide examples of how ontology-based data analysis can be used to generate testable hypotheses regarding cancer mutations.

MoKCa database - mutations of kinases in cancer

Members of the protein kinase family are amongst the most commonly mutated genes in human cancer, and both mutated and activated protein kinases have proved to be tractable targets for the development of new anticancer therapies The MoKCa database (Mutations of Kinases in Cancer, http://strubiol.icr.ac.uk/extra/mokca) has been developed to structurally and functionally annotate, and where possible predict, the phenotypic consequences of mutations in protein kinases implicated in cancer. Somatic mutation data from tumours and tumour cell lines have been mapped onto the crystal structures of the affected protein domains. Positions of the mutated amino-acids are highlighted on a sequence-based domain pictogram, as well as a 3D-image of the protein structure, and in a molecular graphics package, integrated for interactive viewing. The data associated with each mutation is presented in the Web interface, along with expert annotation of the detailed molecular functional implications of the mutation. Proteins are linked to functional annotation resources and are annotated with structural and functional features such as domains and phosphorylation sites. MoKCa aims to provide assessments available from multiple sources and algorithms for each potential cancer-associated mutation, and present these together in a consistent and coherent fashion to facilitate authoritative annotation by cancer biologists and structural biologists, directly involved in the generation and analysis of new mutational data

Comparing Effect of Safranal and Diazepam in Reducing Preoperative Anxiety and Improving Vital Symptoms

Aim: Preoperative anxiety is an unpleasant manner created by fear of surgery. The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of diazepam pill with Safranal in reducing preoperative anxiety and improving vital symptoms. Material and Methods: In this double blind randomized clinical trial, 54 patients who were candidates of urology surgery (varicocele) in 15th Khordad Hospital, Gonabad, Iran, were selected by purposive sampling method, using a randomized numbers table; they were divided into intervention (n=29) and control group (n=25). The patients in intervention group received 15mg Safranal and the patients in control group received 5mg oral diazepam 3 hours before surgery. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaire was completed by the patients prior to the intervention and just at the entrance to the surgery room, and the vital symptoms of the patient were evaluated. The data were analyzed by SPSS 11.5 software, using of Chi-square and independent sample t-test. Findings: After intervention, the trait anxiety in the Safranal group was significantly lower than diazepam group (p=0.007) and before the intervention (p=0.002). Also, diastolic blood pressure decreased significantly in the Safranal group compared with the diazepam group (p=0.049). Conclusion: Saffranal consumption before surgery is more effective than diazepam consumption in reducing the trait anxiety, but it does not affect state anxiety. Also, compared to diazepam, Saffranal consumption leads to a more reduction in diastolic blood pressure, while it does not affect systolic blood pressure and heart rate