Rothman and Thomas' intervention research (IR) paradigm provides an alternative, developmental research method that is appropriate for practice research, especially at the early stages. It is more flexible than conventional experimental designs, capitalizes on the availability of small samples, accommodates the dynamism and variation in practice…

Chronic hepatitis C infection (CHCI) is an increasingly common problem, affecting about 2% of the US population. The cost and complexity of treatment and difficulties in communicating with the infected population are of concern to insurers and health planners. Purpose: To describe the clinical features of patients with CHCI in a rural…

In this article, the authors present a case study based on the daily activities, challenges, coping strategies, and relationship dynamics of a heterosexual, HIV-serodiscordant (mixed HIV status) couple in which the male partner has AIDS and the female partner is his primary caregiver. Rather than looking for specific determinants of behavior, the…

Impaired quality of life is associated with increased mortality in patients with advanced lung disease. Using a randomized controlled trial with allocation concealment and blinded outcome assessment at 2 tertiary care teaching hospitals, the authors randomly assigned 328 patients with end-stage lung disease awaiting lung transplantation to 12…

All chronic illnesses represent assaults on multiple areas of functioning, not just the body. To examine the association between painful chronic illnesses and depression from a cognitive-behavioral perspective, 100 patients of the Pain Management Program at the West Haven, Connecticut Veterans Administration Hospital (78% males) completed a…

Evaluated the emotional consequences of using wish-fulfilling fantasy (palliative) and information-seeking (instrumental) coping strategies among patients (N=151) faced with chronic illness. Results showed information-seeking to have positive effects on adjustment and wish-fulfilling fantasy to have deleterious consequences. (LLL)

The development of pain clinics for the treatment of chronic pain is discussed. A variety of treatments offered are outlined. (JMF)

Swedish nurse trainees (n=18) each followed a dementia patient through their training period. Themes emerged related to trainees' role as a personal guide. Creating a relationship with the patient and seeing the patient as a teacher were instructive experiences. (SK)

Reports on linguistic features and patterns of coherence in mild and advanced levels of discourse of Alzheimer's patients. Argues and demonstrates that, as the disease progresses, patients' discourse becomes "pregrammatical"--vocabulary-driven and reliant on meaning-based discourse features rather than grammatically based features.…

ds to growing evidence that active cognitive stimulation may slow the rate of verbal and functional decline and decrease negative emotional symptoms in AD when combined with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, indicating a need to advance research in the area of cognitive treatments. The fact that AD is a progressive brain disease should not preclude…

Delirium is a serious neuropsychiatric disorder frequently seen in severely ill adult and geriatric patients. The clinical picture in adults is well known, as are the negative prognostic implications of delirium on length of hospital stay, morbidity, and mortality (American Psychiatric Association, 1999); however, it is less appreciated that…

Sickle cell disease was first reported in 1910 by J. Herrick, and since then, various associated conditions and complications have been described. Sickle cell disease is a hereditary disorder characterized by abnormality of the hemoglobin in the red blood cell. During periods of decreased oxygen tension in the red blood cell's environment, the…

The aim of the study was to investigate the utility of the Tower of London-Drexel (TOL DX ) in assessing the executive deficits associated with Parkinsons disease (PD). We sought to determine whether the TOL DX would differentiate between (a) patients with PD and healthy control participants (HCP), (b) demented and nondemented patients, and (c)…

This study examined the nature of verb deficits in 14 individuals with probable Alzheimer's Disease (PrAD) and nine with agrammatic aphasia. Production was tested, controlling both semantic and syntactic features of verbs, using noun and verb naming, sentence completion, and narrative tasks. Noun and verb comprehension and a grammaticality…

In Parkinson's disease, impaired motor preparation has been related to an increased latency in the appearance of movement-related desynchronization (MRD) throughout the contralateral primary sensorimotor (PSM) cortex. Internal globus pallidus (GPi) stimulation improved movement desynchronization over the PSM cortex during movement execution but…