scholarly journals Benzodiazepine resistant alcohol withdrawal: What is the clinician's preferred definition?

CJEM ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Langlois ◽  
Monique Cormier ◽  
Eric Villeneuve ◽  
Robert S. Hoffman ◽  
Cristina Longo ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTObjectivesAlthough alcohol withdrawal is common, the recognition of benzodiazepine-resistant alcohol withdrawal is a relatively new concept. To provide a framework for both literature review and future research, we assessed clinicians’ personal definition of resistant alcohol withdrawal.MethodWe developed a cross-sectional web-based survey. Administrators from collaborating toxicology and emergency medicine associations deployed the survey directly to their respective memberships. Only physicians, pharmacists, and other clinicians routinely treating alcohol withdrawal were eligible to participate. Respondents selected their preferred definition among the three most common author sources – JB Hack, NJ Benedict, D Hughes – or provided their own. Additional criteria to define resistant alcohol withdrawal were explored.Results384 individuals answered the survey. Respondents were mostly attending physicians (79%), in full-time practice (90%), in emergency medicine (70%), and from North America (90%). The majority (64%) described resistant alcohol withdrawal as a high benzodiazepine dosage. Seizures (26%) and persistent tachycardia (16%) were also main characteristics. The median dose to describe high benzodiazepine dose (n = 146) was 40 mg per hour of diazepam equivalents (IQR 20–50). Available definitions were ranked equally as the preferred one: Hack (27%); Benedict (28%); Hughes (28%).ConclusionOur results did not identify one single preferred definition for resistant alcohol withdrawal even though a high total dose of benzodiazepine is a major component. Hourly requirements of 40 mg of diazepam equivalents or more emerged as a possible threshold. These findings serve as a base to explore consensus guidelines or future research.

2008 ◽  
pp. 2500-2504
Author(s):  
Eun G. Park

Trust is one of the key factors that emerged as a significant concept in virtual communities. Trust is so complicated that it is hard to define in one standardized way. Trust issues have evolved into two major ways in the fields of virtual community and security. Among a huge literature concerning trust in virtual communities, a majority of literature addresses technical solutions on trust-building by providing new Web-based applications. They range from human users authorization, semantic Web, agent technologies and access control of network to W3C standardization for content trust and security. Some examples include AT&T’s Policymaker or IBM’s Trust Establishment Module (Blaze, Feigenbaum, & Lacy, 1996; Herzberg, 2000). Only a minority deals with understanding the concept of trust and sources of trust-building from social and cultural aspects. It appears to miss the essence of trust in virtual communities, although an integrated approach is needed for building trust in communication and the use of virtual communities. This article aims to present the definition of trust and relevant concepts for recognizing sources of trust-building in virtual communities. This article also presents future research implications for further development on trust and trust-building in virtual communities.


Author(s):  
Eun G. Park

Trust is one of the key factors that emerged as a significant concept in virtual communities. Trust is so complicated that it is hard to define in one standardized way. Trust issues have evolved into two major ways in the fields of virtual community and security. Among a huge literature concerning trust in virtual communities, a majority of literature addresses technical solutions on trust-building by providing new Web-based applications. They range from human users authorization, semantic Web, agent technologies and access control of network to W3C standardization for content trust and security. Some examples include AT&T’s Policymaker or IBM’s Trust Establishment Module (Blaze, Feigenbaum, & Lacy, 1996; Herzberg, 2000). Only a minority deals with understanding the concept of trust and sources of trust-building from social and cultural aspects. It appears to miss the essence of trust in virtual communities, although an integrated approach is needed for building trust in communication and the use of virtual communities. This article aims to present the definition of trust and relevant concepts for recognizing sources of trust-building in virtual communities. This article also presents future research implications for further development on trust and trust-building in virtual communities.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. McQueen ◽  
Zhaowen Yin

Purpose – This research aims to examine zero employee web-enabled businesses (ZEWEs) in a New Zealand context. A definition of ZEWEs is conceived and presented, synthesized from gaps in previous SME, micro business and web-based business literature. ZEWEs are an emerging and important new subcategory of web-enabled SMEs that have previously been not well covered by published research. Enablers and barriers to the successful establishment of a ZEWE are identified and compared to previous SME research. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 20 entrepreneurs in New Zealand were interviewed about their perceptions of enablers and barriers to a successful ZEWE, and the components of business strategies that would help them achieve success in the web-based market. Qualitative thematic analysis methods were used to extract factors. Findings – It was found that competitive advantage of products, adopting electronic commerce websites, motivation to become a business owner, and having a good reputation of both entrepreneurs and their businesses are significant enablers of success, while online competition, commercial disputes, capital requirements, deficits in management and technical capabilities, and taxation issues are barriers for the development and future success of ZEWEs. Research limitations/implications – This is exploratory research. The data was gathered in a New Zealand context of entrepreneurs using auction websites to found and operate their ZEWE businesses, and the findings may be useful in understanding other geographic and cultural environments. Originality/value – A new category of zero employee web-enabled enterprises (ZEWE) has been investigated, and found to exist. Enabling factors and barriers particular to this class have been uncovered and compared to previous SME research. This new enterprise category may become important in future research about internet-based small enterprises and the entrepreneurs that start them.


10.28945/4467 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 057-074
Author(s):  
Hyrine Mueni Matheka ◽  
Ellen E.P.W.A. Jansen ◽  
Adriaan W.H.A Hofman

Aim/Purpose: Kenya plans to be a middle-income country by the year 2030. To achieve this development target, the country has rapidly expanded its university sub-sector in order to produce the requisite skilled professionals. This has put a strain on the available PhD holders thus heightening the pressure on universities to produce more PhD graduates to meet the required larger pool of highly qualified professionals to service the academia and other sectors of the economy. However, the PhD graduation rate per year is very low and unexplained. This study sought to explain the factors influencing PhD success rates in Kenyan universities. Background: This cross-sectional study set out to establish how PhD students’ background and program characteristics are related to their success. This knowledge will inform policies and strategies to enhance PhD training and success in Kenya. Methodology: Data on 1,992 PhD students was collected from 10 universities by using the Microsoft Excel data tool to collect administrative data. The researchers utilized the data collection to construct a quantitative research design. The PhD students were enrolled in the following program domains/clusters: Humanities and Social Sciences, Business and Economics, Physical and Life Sciences, Applied Sciences and Medical Sciences. Contribution: PhD success factors have been extensively studied in developed countries. This paper builds on this body of knowledge with a specific focus on developing countries like Kenya. Findings: Students’ background characteristics (age, nationality, gender, financial support and marital statuses) were not related to PhD students’ success, however, full-time employed PhD students had better progression than their part-time colleagues. Program characteristics (program cluster and mode of study) were significantly related to students’ success. Students who had delayed for two years or more years had limited chance to graduate. Recommendations for Practitioners: To improve the PhD education system, practitioners should endeavor to monitor and track the progress of their PhD students. To do this, the researchers recommend that the universities collect and keep good records of these types of data. Universities should come up with strategies to build on or mitigate against the factors that have been identified to influence PhD success. Recommendation for Researchers: The researchers recommend further research, especially in developing countries, to understand the PhD study systems and inform effective interventions. Impact on Society: To identify, conceptualize or mitigate against the factors which influence PhD success lead to higher success in PhD training in order to enhance knowledge to solve societal problems. Future Research: Further research is recommended especially in the context of developing countries to establish how supervisor–student interactions, availability of infrastructural resources, and students’ motivation, efficacy and well-being relate to PhD success in Kenyan universities


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Luke Fenimore Cooper ◽  
Natalie D Crawford ◽  
Regine Haardöerfer ◽  
Nadya Prood ◽  
Carla Jones-Harrell ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Epicenters of harmful drug use are expanding to US rural areas, with rural young adults bearing a disproportionate burden. A large body of work suggests that place characteristics (eg, spatial access to health services) shape vulnerability to drug-related harms among urban residents. Research on the role of place characteristics in shaping these harms among rural residents is nascent, as are methods of gathering place-based data. OBJECTIVE We (1) analyzed whether young rural adults who used drugs answered self-administered Web-based mapping items about locations where they engaged in risk behaviors and (2) determined the precision of mapped locations. METHODS Eligible individuals had to report recently using opioids to get high; be aged between 18 and 35 years; and live in the 5-county rural Appalachian Kentucky study area. We used targeted outreach and peer-referral methods to recruit participants. The survey asked participants to drop a pin in interactive maps to mark where they completed the survey, and where they had slept most; used drugs most; and had sex most in the past 6 months. Precision was assessed by (1) determining whether mapped locations were within 100 m of a structure and (2) calculating the Euclidean distance between the pin-drop home location and the street address where participants reported sleeping most often. Measures of central tendency and dispersion were calculated for all variables; distributions of missingness for mapping items and for the Euclidean distance variable were explored across participant characteristics. RESULTS Of the 151 participants, 88.7% (134/151) completed all mapping items, and ≥92.1% (>139/151) dropped a pin at each of the 4 locations queried. Missingness did not vary across most participant characteristics, except that lower percentages of full-time workers and peer-recruited participants mapped some locations. Two-thirds of the pin-drop sex and drug use locations were less than 100 m from a structure, as were 92.1% (139/151) of pin-drop home locations. The median distance between the pin-drop and street-address home locations was 2.0 miles (25th percentile=0.8 miles; 75th percentile=5.5 miles); distances were shorter for high-school graduates, staff-recruited participants, and participants reporting no technical difficulties completing the survey. CONCLUSIONS Missingness for mapping items was low and unlikely to introduce bias, given that it varied across few participant characteristics. Precision results were mixed. In a rural study area of 1378 square miles, most pin-drop home addresses were near a structure; it is unsurprising that fewer drug and sex locations were near structures because most participants reported engaging in these activities outside at times. The error in pin-drop home locations, however, might be too large for some purposes. We offer several recommendations to strengthen future research, including gathering metadata on the extent to which participants zoom in on each map and recruiting participants via trusted staff.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. e61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber D DeJohn ◽  
Emily English Schulz ◽  
Amber L Pearson ◽  
E Megan Lachmar ◽  
Andrea K Wittenborn

Background Depression is the leading cause of diseases globally and is often characterized by a lack of social connection. With the rise of social media, it is seen that Twitter users are seeking Web-based connections for depression. Objective This study aimed to identify communities where Twitter users tweeted using the hashtag #MyDepressionLooksLike to connect about depression. Once identified, we wanted to understand which community characteristics correlated to Twitter users turning to a Web-based community to connect about depression. Methods Tweets were collected using NCapture software from May 25 to June 1, 2016 during the Mental Health Month (n=104) in the northeastern United States and Washington DC. After mapping tweets, we used a Poisson multilevel regression model to predict tweets per community (county) offset by the population and adjusted for percent female, percent population aged 15-44 years, percent white, percent below poverty, and percent single-person households. We then compared predicted versus observed counts and calculated tweeting index values (TIVs) to represent undertweeting and overtweeting. Last, we examined trends in community characteristics by TIV using Pearson correlation. Results We found significant associations between tweet counts and area-level proportions of females, single-person households, and population aged 15-44 years. TIVs were lower than expected (TIV 1) in eastern, seaboard areas of the study region. There were communities tweeting as expected in the western, inland areas (TIV 2). Counties tweeting more than expected were generally scattered throughout the study region with a small cluster at the base of Maine. When examining community characteristics and overtweeting and undertweeting by county, we observed a clear upward gradient in several types of nonprofits and TIV values. However, we also observed U-shaped relationships for many community factors, suggesting that the same characteristics were correlated with both overtweeting and undertweeting. Conclusions Our findings suggest that Web-based communities, rather than replacing physical connection, may complement or serve as proxies for offline social communities, as seen through the consistent correlations between higher levels of tweeting and abundant nonprofits. Future research could expand the spatiotemporal scope to confirm these findings.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. e81-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Hughes ◽  
Jose Cepeda Brito ◽  
Rami Ahmed

Background: Coupled with the expansion of simulation has been the development and growth of medical simulation fellowships. These non-accredited fellowships do not have a standardized curriculum and there are currently no studies investigating the simulation fellowship experience. The purpose of this study was to explore the simulation fellowship experience of graduates throughout North America and how it prepared them for their post-fellowship career.Methods: A web-based survey was developed by Emergency Medicine attending physicians both of whom completed one-year fellowships in medical simulation. Prior to distribution, the survey was reviewed and tested by three simulation fellowship graduates and a PhD researcher. Feedback was integrated into the survey prior to distribution. The survey consisted of a maximum of 29 multiple choice questions including two step-logic questions and two open response questions. The survey was distributed to simulation fellowship directors in multiple disciplines and the directors were asked to forward the survey to graduates. Additionally, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Simulation Academy list-serve was utilized for distribution of the survey.Results: The survey had 35 responses. The majority of respondents completed fellowship within the last two years (66%, 23/35). Fellowship graduates strongly agreed or agreed that their fellowship adequately prepared them for their post-fellowship simulation career (88%). Graduates report that research design/reporting (53%) and administration (18%) were areas of their fellowship curriculum that needed the most improvement.Conclusion: The majority of simulation fellowship graduates agreed that their fellowship experience adequately prepared them for their post-fellowship simulation career. Graduates also felt that training in research and administration are areas that could be improved.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber D. DeJohn ◽  
Emily English Schulz ◽  
Amber L Pearson ◽  
E Megan Lachmar ◽  
Andrea K Wittenborn

BACKGROUND Depression is the leading cause of diseases globally and is often characterized by a lack of social connection. With the rise of social media, it is seen that Twitter users are seeking Web-based connections for depression. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to identify communities where Twitter users tweeted using the hashtag #MyDepressionLooksLike to connect about depression. Once identified, we wanted to understand which community characteristics correlated to Twitter users turning to a Web-based community to connect about depression. METHODS Tweets were collected using NCapture software from May 25 to June 1, 2016 during the Mental Health Month (n=104) in the northeastern United States and Washington DC. After mapping tweets, we used a Poisson multilevel regression model to predict tweets per community (county) offset by the population and adjusted for percent female, percent population aged 15-44 years, percent white, percent below poverty, and percent single-person households. We then compared predicted versus observed counts and calculated tweeting index values (TIVs) to represent undertweeting and overtweeting. Last, we examined trends in community characteristics by TIV using Pearson correlation. RESULTS We found significant associations between tweet counts and area-level proportions of females, single-person households, and population aged 15-44 years. TIVs were lower than expected (TIV 1) in eastern, seaboard areas of the study region. There were communities tweeting as expected in the western, inland areas (TIV 2). Counties tweeting more than expected were generally scattered throughout the study region with a small cluster at the base of Maine. When examining community characteristics and overtweeting and undertweeting by county, we observed a clear upward gradient in several types of nonprofits and TIV values. However, we also observed U-shaped relationships for many community factors, suggesting that the same characteristics were correlated with both overtweeting and undertweeting. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that Web-based communities, rather than replacing physical connection, may complement or serve as proxies for offline social communities, as seen through the consistent correlations between higher levels of tweeting and abundant nonprofits. Future research could expand the spatiotemporal scope to confirm these findings.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 674-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin S. Raj

ABSTRACT Background  Rates of physician burnout have increased in recent years, and high burnout levels are reported by physicians in training. Objective  This review of the research on resident well-being seeks to identify factors associated with well-being, summarize well-being promotion interventions, and provide a framework for future research efforts. Methods  Keywords were used to search PubMed, PsycINFO, and MEDLINE. Studies included were conducted between 1989 and 2014. The search yielded 82 articles, 26 which met inclusion criteria, and were assessed using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument. Results  Articles measured resident well-being and associated factors, predictors, effects, barriers, as well as interventions to improve well-being. Factors identified in psychological well-being research—autonomy, building of competence, and strong social relatedness—are associated with resident well-being. Sleep and time away from work are associated with greater resident well-being. Perseverance is predictive of well-being, and greater well-being is associated with increased empathy. Interventions focused on health and coping skills appear to improve well-being, although the 3 studies that examined interventions were limited by small samples and single site administration. Conclusions  An important step in evolving research in this area entails the development of a clear definition of resident well-being and a scale for measuring the construct. The majority (n = 17, 65%) of existing studies are cross-sectional analyses of factors associated with well-being. The literature summarized in this review suggests future research should focus on factors identified in cross-sectional studies, including sleep, coping mechanisms, resident autonomy, building competence, and enhanced social relatedness.


Author(s):  
Hanchao Hou ◽  
Tan-Chyuan Chin ◽  
Gavin R. Slemp ◽  
Lindsay G. Oades

Aims: Wellbeing literacy is the intentional use of wellbeing relevant vocabulary, knowledge and language skills to maintain or improve the wellbeing of oneself, others and the world. In this study, we operationalize the human aspects of the concept of wellbeing literacy and empirically test its relationship with wellbeing and illbeing. We also assess its incremental variance in wellbeing and illbeing, after controlling for existing and well-established predictors of these constructs within education settings. Methods: We developed and empirically tested the Wellbeing literacy 6-item (Well-Lit 6) scale to assess the concept of wellbeing literacy in the education context. The scale was developed based on a working definition of wellbeing literacy, in combination with the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)’s definition of literacy. The Well-Lit 6 was administered via a cross-sectional survey to three Australian samples that comprise different elements of Australian education systems: students (N = 1392), parents (N = 584) and school staff (N = 317). Results: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) suggested the six items of the Well-Lit 6 form an independent construct, empirically distinguishable from other wellbeing-related constructs (e.g., general wellbeing, resilience, and emotion regulation). Convergent analyses showed wellbeing literacy was positively related to wellbeing and negatively related to illbeing. Incremental validity analyses showed wellbeing literacy predicted variance in wellbeing and illbeing after controlling for participant demographics, resilience, and emotion regulation, showing initial evidence of incremental validity. Conclusions: Our results provide preliminary evidence that wellbeing literacy is a distinct construct from wellbeing and illbeing, and it also demonstrates significant unique variance in these constructs over and above resilience and emotion regulation. The Well-Lit 6 is a useful provisional measure of wellbeing literacy, although we suggest a fruitful avenue for future research is to develop a more comprehensive scale of wellbeing literacy that denotes specific facets of communication, allowing a fuller exploration wellbeing literacy, its components, and their antecedents and consequences. We offer further recommendations for future research and discuss limitations with our approach.


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