A Controlled Trial of Social Intervention in the Families of Schizophrenic Patients

1982 ◽  
Vol 141 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Leff ◽  
Liz Kuipers ◽  
Ruth Berkowitz ◽  
Rosemarie Eberlein-Vries ◽  
David Sturgeon

SummaryA study is reported of a controlled trial of social intervention in the families of schizophrenic patients at high risk of relapse. The patients were selected for being in high contact with high Expressed Emotion relatives. All patients were maintained on neuroleptic drugs. One half of the 24 families were randomly assigned to routine out-patient care, while the other half received a package of social interventions. This comprised a programme of education about schizophrenia, a group for the relatives, and family sessions for relatives and patients.The relapse rate in the control group was 50 per cent compared with nine per cent in the experimental group (P = 0.04). The stated aims of the therapeutic interventions were achieved in 73 per cent of experimental families. In these families, no patient relapsed. The results provide evidence for the causal role of relatives' expressed emotion (EE) in schizophrenic relapse, as well as for the therapeutic effectiveness of social intervention combined with drug treatment.

1984 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Sturgeon ◽  
Graham Turpin ◽  
Liz Kuipers ◽  
Ruth Berkowitz ◽  
Julian Leff

SummaryMeasurements of skin conductance response frequencies (SCRf) were obtained from 30 acutely ill schizophrenic patients during a standardised videotaped interview, conducted with the patient's key relative present. Significant differences in SCRf's were demonstrated between patients whose relatives had high and low Expressed Emotion (EE) respectively. Patients at high risk of relapse were allocated either to a control or an experimental group, the latter being offered a number of social interventions in order to reduce the relative's EE and/or contact with the patient. Follow-up measurements were obtained on 19 patients nine months after discharge. Although social intervention was highly successful in reducing relapse rates, its effects did not appear to be directly mediated via SCRf, which was found to be independently related to relapse.


1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jair De Jesus Mari ◽  
David L. Streiner

SynopsisThe purpose of this overview is to appraise the studies on the efficacy and effectiveness of family interventions in decreasing relapse in schizophrenic patients. The studies were identified by means of a computerized MEDLINE search, and the scanning of review articles and the reference lists of the primary articles identified. More than 300 citations were reviewed, and the potentially relevant articles revealed six randomized controlled trials that were included in this meta-analysis. The criteria for selecting potential studies as well as for the meta-analysis were tested by means of an inter-rater reliability check that showed a good agreement between two independent raters (K = 0·83, and K = 0·82, respectively). There were independent assessments of the quality of the studies selected, and data extraction comprised a descriptive information of the study population, the types of interventions, and the relevant outcome measurements. The total number of patients included in the six trials was 350 (181 in the control group and 169 in the experimental group). Regarding the decrease of relapse in the experimental group, the pooled odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were: 0·30 (0·06, 0·71) for six months; 0·22 (0·09, 0·37) for nine months; and 0·17 (0·10, 0·35) for the 2-year follow-up. Two to five patients needed to be treated to avert one episode of relapse in a nine-month follow-up. The changes in Expressed Emotion status between experimental and control group combining nine months and one year follow-ups were shown to be marginally significant (P < 0·06), in favour of the experimental group. Emotional over-involvement was also marginally significant (P < 0·07), and there was no statistical difference in the distribution of criticism and hostility. In addition, the experimental group showed a significant increase with drug compliance and a reduction in hospitalization over time. These findings are discussed in light of the potential ingredients in the efficacy of family interventions by focusing on the limitations of using relapse as primary outcome in the assessment of efficacy trials with schizophrenic patients.


1985 ◽  
Vol 146 (6) ◽  
pp. 594-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Leff ◽  
Liz Kuipers ◽  
Ruth Berkowitz ◽  
David Sturgeon

SummaryThe two-year follow-up results are reported of a trial of social intervention in families of schizophrenic patients in high social contact with high-expressed emotion (EE) relatives. For those patients who remained on antipsychotic medication throughout the two years, the social intervention significantly reduced the relapse rate. In those experimental families where relatives' EE and/or face-to-face contact was lowered, the relapse rate was 14%, compared with 78% for control patients on regular medication (P = 0.02).


2021 ◽  
pp. 037957212110254
Author(s):  
Harleen Kaur ◽  
Neerja Singla ◽  
Rohini Jain

Objective: India is the second country after China having the highest population prevalence of diabetes. Several research studies investigating diabetes have been done, but not much work has been done on prediabetes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of nutrition and lifestyle modification on prediabetic females. Methods: A total of 120 prediabetic females from Ludhiana city were divided into 2 matched groups: control group (n = 60) and experimental group (n = 60). Impact of nutrition intervention for dietary and lifestyle modification (for 3 months) was assessed on the anthropometric, dietary, biochemical parameters, and diabetes risk score of the experimental group and control group (no intervention). Results: All the selected 120 subjects completed the study (experimental group = 60; control group = 60). There was significant difference in the changes between the 2 groups throughout the study. The fasting blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin A1c levels of the experimental group subjects reduced significantly ( P ≤ .01). However, no change was observed among the control group subjects. The lipid profile of the experimental group showed a significant improvement ( P ≤ .01). Conclusion: Nutrition counselling of the prediabetics regarding dietary and lifestyle modification is recommended so as to improve their metabolic control, thus preventing them from being diabetics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shamekh Mohamed El-Shamy ◽  
Ehab Mohamed Abd El Kafy

Abstract Background TheraTogs promotes proprioceptive sense of a child with cerebral palsy and improves abnormal muscle tone, posture alignment, balance, and gait. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of TheraTogs orthotic undergarment on gait pattern in children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy. Thirty children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy were selected for this randomized controlled study. They were randomly assigned to (1) an experimental group that received TheraTogs orthotic undergarment (12 h/day, 3 days/week) plus traditional physical therapy for 3 successive months and (2) a control group that received only traditional physical therapy program for the same time period. Gait parameters were measured at baseline and after 3 months of intervention using Pro-Reflex motion analysis. Results Children in both groups showed significant improvements in the gait parameters (P < 0.05), with significantly greater improvements in the experimental group than in the control group. Conclusions The use of TheraTogs may have a positive effect to improve gait pattern in children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy. Trial registration This trial was registered in the ClinicalTrial.gov PRS (NCT03037697).


Author(s):  
Shibili Nuhmani

AbstractObjectivesObjective of the study is to investigate whether Soft tissue mobilization (STM) can assist with static stretching to improve hamstring flexibly.MethodsThe design of the study was repeated measure design. The study was conducted at the physical therapy laboratory of Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi. Participants included 78 healthy males with hamstring tightness, randomly assigned to either the control group (static stretching) or the experimental group (STM and static stretching). The experimental group received five sets of four different STM techniques, followed by two sets of 30-s static stretches 3 days per week over the course of 12 weeks. The control group received 5 min of sham ultrasound with an inactive probe prior to static stretching. Active knee extension test (AKE) was the outcome measure.ResultsBoth groups showed significant improvement in AKE compared with the baseline measurements. With ingroup analysis showed a significant difference in AKE across all measured time periods (weeks 4, 8, and 12) with pre-test in both groups (p<0.05). No significant difference in AKE improvement was found between groups (p>0.05).ConclusionThe results of this study show that STM prior to static stretching does not significantly improve hamstring flexibility among healthy individuals. Although this study cannot be generalized, the results may be useful for evidence-based practice in the management of hamstring tightness.


Medicina ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 491
Author(s):  
Donghyun Yi ◽  
Hwanyong Lim ◽  
Jongeun Yim

Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of microcurrent stimulation on pain, shoulder function, and grip strength in patients with rotator cuff repair. Materials and Methods: This randomized single-blind controlled trial was conducted on inpatients of the rehabilitation department, and included 28 patients who underwent rotator cuff repair. Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n = 14), treated with microcurrent stimulation, and the control group (n = 14), treated with false microcurrent stimulation. The microcurrent stimulation administered to the experimental group underwent general physical therapy and microcurrent stimulation three times a week for 4 weeks. Results: Changes in pain, range of motion in shoulder, simple shoulder test, and grip strength were assessed before and after the intervention. Both groups showed a significant decrease in pain and shoulder function (t = 27.412, 22.079, 19.079, and 18.561; p < 0.001), and grip strength showed a significant increase (t = −8.251 and −9.946; p < 0.001). The experimental group that underwent microcurrent stimulation exhibited a significant effect on pain, shoulder function, and grip strength compared with the control group that underwent false microcurrent stimulation (t = −2.17, −2.22, and 2.213; p = 0.039, 0.035, and 0.036). Conclusions: This study confirmed that microcurrent stimulation is effective for the treatment of rotator cuff repair patients.


2020 ◽  
pp. 102986492097472
Author(s):  
Katherine O’Neill ◽  
Hauke Egermann

Recent research has explored the role of empathy in the context of music listening. Here, through an empathy priming paradigm, situational empathy was shown to act as a causal mechanism in inducing emotion, although the way empathy was primed had low levels of ecological validity. We therefore conducted an online experiment to explore the extent to which information about a composer’s expressive intentions when writing a piece of music would significantly affect the degree to which participants reportedly empathise with the composer and in turn influence emotional responses to expressive music. A total of 229 participants were randomly assigned to three groups. The experimental group read short texts describing the emotions felt by the composer during the process of composition. To control for the effect of text regardless of its content, one control group read texts describing the characteristics of the music they were to hear, and a second control group was not given any textual information. Participants listened to 30-second excerpts of four pieces of music, selected to express emotions from the four quadrants of the circumplex theory of emotion. Having heard each music excerpt, participants rated the valence and arousal they experienced and completed a measure of situational empathy. Results show that situational empathy in response to music is significantly associated with trait empathy. As opposed to those in the control conditions, participants in the experimental group responded with significantly higher levels of situational empathy. Receiving this text significantly moderated the effect of the expressiveness of stimuli on induced emotion, indicating that it induced empathy. We conclude that empathy can be induced during music listening through the provision of information about the specific emotions of a person relating to the music. These findings contribute to an understanding of the psychological mechanisms that underlie emotional responses to music.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Njogu ◽  
Si Qin ◽  
Yujie Chen ◽  
Lizhen Hu ◽  
Yang Luo

Abstract Background Labor pain during childbirth can have devastating effects on the progress of labor, mother, and fetus. Consequently, the management of labor pain is crucial for the well-being of the mother and fetus. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a non -pharmacological analgesic technique. It uses a low-voltage electrical current to activate descending inhibitory systems in the central nervous system to relieve pain. This study aimed to determine the effects of TENS therapy in the first stage of labor. Methods In this single-blind randomized controlled trial, we screened low-risk pregnant women who anticipated spontaneous vaginal delivery. Women were assigned (1:1) to either the experimental group (received TENS therapy in the first stage of labor) or the control group (received routine obstetric care). The women, midwives, and researchers working in the gynecology and obstetric department were aware of the treatment group, but statisticians analysis the data were blinded. The primary outcome was labor pain intensity, assessed by visual analog scale (VAS) immediately after the randomization, at 30, 60, and 120 min after TENS therapy, and 2–24 h post-delivery. We used SPSS 21.0 software in data analysis. An independent sample t-test compared the mean VAS scores and labor duration between groups. A Chi-square test was employed to compare categorical variables between the groups. A significant level of ≤0.05 was statistically significant. Results A total of 326 pregnant women were eligible: experimental group (n = 161) and control group (n = 165). The experimental group had statistically significantly lower mean VAS scores at a different time (30, 60, and 120 min post-intervention and 2–24 h post-delivery) than the control group (p < 0.001). The experimental group demonstrated a statistically significant shorter duration of the active labor phase than the control group (p < 0.001). Conclusion This study indicates that TENS can be used as a non-pharmacological therapy to reduce pain and shorten the active labor phase. Trial registration ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN23857995. Registered on 11/12/2020, ‘retrospectively registered.


Author(s):  
Chris Papadopoulos ◽  
Nina Castro ◽  
Abiha Nigath ◽  
Rosemary Davidson ◽  
Nicholas Faulkes ◽  
...  

AbstractThis trial represents the final stage of the CARESSES project which aimed to develop and evaluate a culturally competent artificial intelligent system embedded into social robots to support older adult wellbeing. A parallel group, single-blind randomised controlled trial was conducted across older adult care homes in England and Japan. Participants randomly allocated to the Experimental Group or Control Group 1 received a Pepper robot for up 18 h across 2 weeks. Two versions of the CARESSES artificial intelligence were tested: a fully culturally competent system (Experimental Group) and a more limited version (Control Group 1). Control Group 2 (Care As Usual) participants did not receive a robot. Quantitative outcomes of interest reported in the current paper were health-related quality of life (SF-36), loneliness (ULS-8), and perceptions of robotic cultural competence (CCATool-Robotics). Thirty-three residents completed all procedures. The difference in SF-36 Emotional Wellbeing scores between Experimental Group and Care As Usual participants over time was significant (F[1] = 6.614, sig = .019, ηp2 = .258), as was the comparison between Any Robot used and Care As Usual (F[1] = 5.128, sig = .031, ηp2 = .146). There were no significant changes in SF-36 physical health subscales. ULS-8 loneliness scores slightly improved among Experimental and Control Group 1 participants compared to Care As Usual participants, but this was not significant. This study brings new evidence which cautiously supports the value of culturally competent socially assistive robots in improving the psychological wellbeing of older adults residing in care settings.


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