scholarly journals Facial affect processing deficits in schizophrenia: A meta-analysis of antipsychotic treatment effects

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony S Gabay ◽  
Matthew J Kempton ◽  
Mitul A Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Emotion Processing ◽  
Facial Affect ◽  
Cognitive Domain ◽  
Antipsychotic Treatment ◽  
Emotion Identification ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Affect Processing ◽  
Small Positive Effect

Social cognition, including emotion processing, is a recognised deficit observed in patients with schizophrenia. It is one cognitive domain which has been emphasised as requiring further investigation, with the efficacy of antipsychotic treatment on this deficit remaining unclear. Nine studies met our criteria for entry into a meta-analysis of the effects of medication on facial affect processing, including data from 1162 patients and six antipsychotics. Overall we found a small, positive effect (Hedge’s g = 0.13, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.21, p = 0.002). In a subgroup analysis this was statistically significant for atypical, but not typical, antipsychotics. It should be noted that the pooled sample size of the typical subgroup was significantly lower than the atypical. Meta-regression analyses revealed that age, gender and changes in symptom severity were not moderating factors. For the small, positive effect on facial affect processing, the clinical significance is questionable in terms of treating deficits in emotion identification in schizophrenia. We show that antipsychotic medications are poor at improving facial affect processing compared to reducing symptoms. This highlights the need for further investigation into the neuropharmacological mechanisms associated with accurate emotion processing, to inform treatment options for these deficits in schizophrenia.

Lessons from Thailand: universal healthcare achievements and challenges

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-401
Author(s):  
Ravikan Nonkhuntod ◽  
Suchuan Yu
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare System ◽  
Healthcare Utilization ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Selection Criterion ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Universal Healthcare ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Small Positive Effect

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the successes of Thailand’s healthcare system along with challenges it is facing, examining documents and policies used by those charged with developing and implementing health services. Design/methodology/approach The search pool comprised PubMed and Google Scholar from the period 2001-2015. Selection criterion for inclusion was sources dealing with out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure and healthcare utilization in Thailand. In total, 33 studies met the criterion of containing sufficient data to be included in the meta-analysis. Findings The authors found a small positive effect size on OOP expenditure and healthcare utilization, obtaining values of 0.1604 (95% CI 0.1320-0.1888, p<0.0001) and 0.2788 (95% CI 0.0917-0.4659, p=0.0035), respectively. Originality/value To review and meta-analyze the literature dealing with the outcomes of Thailand’s healthcare system to understand whether Thailand’s healthcare system is achieving its mandate or not. The results of this paper can help policy makers to understand and evaluate Thailand’s healthcare system.

scholarly journals Impact of Electronic Monitoring on Employees: A Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolf Siegel ◽  
Cornelius J. König ◽  
Veronika Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Electronic Monitoring ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Small Positive Effect

Electronic monitoring is more and more widespread and affects many employees around the globe. The current meta analysis collected data of 59 independent samples (with 223 effect sizes) to estimate the effect of electronic monitoring on job satisfaction, stress, and performance. A random-effects model indicated a small negative effect of monitoring on job satisfaction, r=-.09, and a small positive effect on stress, r=.12. There was no relationship with performance, r=-.01. Even if the effects of monitoring on job satisfaction and stress are small, taking the large number of employees who are monitored for several hours a day into account, these effects may have a severe and negative impact on employees’ well-being. Performance maintenance is the main justification for the use of electronic monitoring, but the non-existing relationship of monitoring with performance questions the validity of this justification.

scholarly journals Effects of Yoga Interventions on Fatigue: A Meta-Analysis

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Boehm ◽  
Thomas Ostermann ◽  
Stefania Milazzo ◽  
Arndt Büssing
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Studies ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Jadad Score ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Moderate Effect ◽  
Cancer Multiple ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Small Positive Effect

Background. Researchers aimed at systematically reviewing and meta-analyzing the effectiveness of yoga interventions for fatigue.Methods. PubMed/Medline was searched until January 2012 for controlled clinical studies. Two reviewers independently extracted the data. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed. A meta-analysis was performed.Results. Nineteen clinical studies (total ) were included in this review. Investigated yoga styles included Hatha, Iyengar, Asanas, Patanjali, Sahaja, and Tibetan yoga. Participants were suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis, dialysis, chronic pancreatitis, fibromyalgia, asthma, or were healthy. Yoga had a small positive effect on fatigue (SMD = 0.27, 59% CI = 0.23–0.31). Seven studies received 4 points on the Jadad score. There were baseline differences in at least 5 studies.Conclusion. Overall, the effects of yoga interventions on fatigue were only small, particularly in cancer patients. Although yoga is generally a safe therapeutic intervention and effective to attenuate other health-related symptoms, this meta-analysis was not able to define the powerful effect of yoga on patients suffering from fatigue. Treatment effects of yoga could be improved in well-designed future studies. According to the GRADE recommendations assessing the overall quality of evidence, there is a moderate effect of the confidence placed in the estimates of the effects discussed here.

Evidence of diagnostic specificity in the neural correlates of facial affect processing in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of functional imaging studies

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Delvecchio ◽  
G. Sugranyes ◽  
S. Frangou
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Likelihood Estimation ◽  
Facial Affect ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Processing Network ◽  
Affect Processing

BackgroundSchizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) may overlap in etiology and phenomenology but differ with regard to emotional processing. We used facial affect as a probe for emotional processing to determine whether there are diagnosis-related differences between SZ and BD in the function of the underlying neural circuitry.MethodFunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies published up to 30 April 2012 investigating facial affect processing in patients with SZ or BD were identified through computerized and manual literature searches. Activation foci from 29 studies encompassing 483 healthy individuals, 268 patients with SZ and 267 patients with BD were subjected to voxel-based quantitative meta-analysis using activation likelihood estimation (ALE).ResultsCompared to healthy individuals, when emotional facial stimuli were contrasted to neutral stimuli, patients with BD showed overactivation within the parahippocampus/amygdala and thalamus and reduced engagement within the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) whereas patients with SZ showed underactivation throughout the entire facial affect processing network and increased activation in visual processing regions within the cuneus. Patients with BD showed greater thalamic engagement compared to patients with SZ; in the reverse comparison, patients with SZ showed greater engagement in posterior associative visual cortices.ConclusionsDuring facial affect processing, patients with BD show overactivation in subcortical regions and underactivation in prefrontal regions of the facial affect processing network, consistent with the notion of reduced emotional regulation. By contrast, overactivation within visual processing regions coupled with reduced engagement of facial affect processing regions points to abnormal visual integration as the core underlying deficit in SZ.

The Effect of Telehealth Interventions on Function and Quality of Life for Older Adults with Pre-Frailty or Frailty: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 073346482098363
Author(s):  
Elham Esfandiari ◽  
William C. Miller ◽  
Maureen C. Ashe
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Standard Mean Difference ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Small Positive Effect ◽  
Improve Health

Telehealth interventions improve health outcomes by increasing access to care. We conducted a systematic review to synthesize evidence on the effect of telehealth interventions compared with no intervention or usual care for older adults with pre-frailty or frailty for physical function, quality of life (QOL), and frailty. We searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane, PsycINFO, and SPORTDiscus. Two authors reviewed records and assessed risk of bias. A narrative synthesis of findings was conducted. When appropriate, the standard mean difference (SMD) was used to compare telehealth interventions with control conditions. We used GRADE to determine the certainty of the evidence. Twelve RCTs were included. Low certainty evidence highlighted positive effects for the function and mental component of QOL favoring telehealth interventions (SMD = 0.31, 95% CI = [0.15, 0.47]; and SMD = 0.43, 95% CI = [0.22, 0.64], respectively). Despite a small positive effect of telehealth interventions, insufficient, and low certainty evidence precludes making definitive recommendations.

Effects of Exposure to COVID-19 News and Information: A Meta-Analysis of Media Use and Uncertainty-Related Responses During the Pandemic

2022 ◽  
pp. 107769902110688
Author(s):  
Tsz Hang Chu ◽  
Tien Ee Dominic Yeo ◽  
Youzhen Su
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Media Exposure ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Psychological Reactions ◽  
Healthcare Profession ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Small Positive Effect

This meta-analysis integrates 47 empirical studies, comprising 89,826 participants from 21 countries, to examine the cumulative effects and potential moderators of exposure to COVID-19 news and information on attendant emotions, appraisals, and behaviors. Overall media exposure indicated only small positive effect sizes on adverse psychological reactions, though it was moderately and positively associated with disease concern and preventive measures. Social media exposure was associated with all these responses, but traditional news media exposure was only associated with disease concern. The associations between overall media exposure and adverse psychological reactions were moderated by COVID-19 experience, healthcare profession, and country type.

scholarly journals Alprazolam modulates persistence energy during emotion processing in first-degree relatives of individuals with schizophrenia: a network control study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun S. Mahadevan ◽  
Eli J. Cornblath ◽  
David M. Lydon-Staley ◽  
Dale Zhou ◽  
Linden Parkes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Emotion Processing ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Facial Affect ◽  
Network Control ◽  
State Transitions ◽  
Compensatory Mechanism ◽  
Pharmacological Modulation ◽  
First Degree Relatives ◽  
Affect Processing

AbstractSchizophrenia is marked by deficits in facial affect processing associated with abnormalities in GABAergic circuitry, deficits also found in first-degree relatives. Facial affect processing involves a distributed network of brain regions including limbic regions like amygdala and visual processing areas like fusiform cortex. Pharmacological modulation of GABAergic circuitry using benzodiazepines like alprazolam can be useful for studying this facial affect processing network and associated GABAergic abnormalities in schizophrenia. Here, we use pharmacological modulation and computational modeling to study the contribution of GABAergic abnormalities toward emotion processing deficits in schizophrenia. Specifically, we apply principles from network control theory to model persistence energy – the control energy required to maintain brain activation states – during emotion identification and recall tasks, with and without administration of alprazolam, in a sample of first-degree relatives and healthy controls. Here, persistence energy quantifies the magnitude of theoretical external inputs during the task. We find that alprazolam increases persistence energy in relatives but not in controls during threatening face processing, suggesting a compensatory mechanism given the relative absence of behavioral abnormalities in this sample of unaffected relatives. Further, we demonstrate that regions in the fusiform and occipital cortices are important for facilitating state transitions during facial affect processing. Finally, we uncover spatial relationships (i) between regional variation in differential control energy (alprazolam versus placebo) and (ii) both serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitter systems, indicating that alprazolam may exert its effects by altering neuromodulatory systems. Together, these findings reveal differences in emotion-processing circuitry associated with genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia.

scholarly journals The Influence of Physical Fitness and Exercise upon Cognitive Functioning: A Meta-Analysis

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Etnier ◽  
Walter Salazar ◽  
Daniel M. Landers ◽  
Steven J. Petruzzello ◽  
Myungwoo Han ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Effect Size ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Analytic Review ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Small Positive Effect

Nearly 200 studies have examined the impact that either acute or long-term exercise has upon cognition. Subsets of these studies have been reviewed using the traditional narrative method, and the common conclusion has been that the results are mixed. Therefore, a more comprehensive review is needed that includes all available studies and that provides a more objective and reproducible review process. Thus, a meta-analytic review was conducted that included all relevant studies with sufficient information for the calculation of effect size (N = 134). The overall effect size was 0.25, suggesting that exercise has a small positive effect on cognition. Examination of the moderator variables indicated that characteristics related to the exercise paradigm, the participants, the cognitive tests, and the quality of the study influence effect size. However, the most important finding was that as experimental rigor decreased, effect size increased. Therefore, more studies need to be conducted that emphasize experimental rigor.

scholarly journals Indications and outcomes of enterovesical and colovesical fistulas: systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis of prevalence

BMC Surgery ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Granieri ◽  
Francesco Sessa ◽  
Alessandro Bonomi ◽  
Sissi Paleino ◽  
Federica Bruno ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Rare Complication ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Palliative Surgery ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Colovesical Fistula ◽  
Level Of Evidence ◽  
Meta Analyses

Abstract Background Entero-colovesical fistula is a rare complication of various benign and malignant diseases. The diagnosis is prominently based on clinical symptoms; imaging studies are necessary not only to confirm the presence of the fistula, but more importantly to demonstrate the extent and the nature of the fistula. There is still a lack of consensus regarding the if, when and how to repair the fistula. The aim of the study is to review the different surgical treatment options, focus on surgical indications, and explore cumulative recurrence, morbidity, and mortality rates of entero-vesical and colo-vesical fistula patients. Methods A systematic review of the literature was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Random effects meta-analyses of proportions were developed to assess primary and secondary endpoints. I2 statistic and Cochran’s Q test were computed to assess inter-studies’ heterogeneity. Results Twenty-two studies were included in the analysis with a total of 861 patients. Meta-analyses of proportions pointed out 5, 22.2, and 4.9% rates for recurrence, complications, and mortality respectively. A single-stage procedure was performed in 75.5% of the cases, whereas a multi-stage operation in 15.5% of patients. Palliative surgery was performed in 6.2% of the cases. In 2.3% of the cases, the surgical procedure was not specified. Simple and advanced repair of the bladder was performed in 84.3% and 15.6% of the cases respectively. Conclusions Although burdened by a non-negligible rate of complications, surgical repair of entero-colovesical fistula leads to excellent results in terms of primary healing. Our review offers opportunities for significant further research in this field. Level of Evidence Level III according to ELIS (SR/MA with up to two negative criteria).

scholarly journals IPR Law Protection and Enforcement and the Effect on Horizontal Productivity Spillovers from Inward FDI to Domestic Firms: A Meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danai Christopoulou ◽  
Nikolaos Papageorgiadis ◽  
Chengang Wang ◽  
Georgios Magkonis
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Productivity Spillovers ◽  
Domestic Firms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractWe study the role of the strength of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) law protection and enforcement in influencing horizontal productivity spillovers from inward FDI to domestic firms in host countries. While most WTO countries adopted strong IPR legislation due to exogenous pressure resulting from the signing of the Trade-Related Aspects of IPR (TRIPS) agreement, public IPR enforcement strength continues to vary significantly between countries. We meta-analyse 49 studies and find that public IPR enforcement strength has a direct positive effect on horizontal productivity spillovers from inward FDI to domestic firms and a negative moderating effect on the relationship between IPR law protection strength and horizontal productivity spillovers from inward FDI to domestic firms.

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