Unimanual Intensive Therapy with or without Unaffected Hand Containment in Children with Hemiplegia. A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study

Children with hemiplegia have lower spontaneous use and quality of movement in the affected upper limb. The modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT) is applied to improve the affected upper limb function. The objective of this study was to study the efficacy of unaffected hand containment to obtain changes in the function of the affected upper limb after applying two unimanual therapies. A randomized controlled pilot study was performed with 16 children diagnosed with congenital infantile hemiplegia, with eight children randomized in each group (average age: 5.54 years; SD: 1.55). mCIMT and unimanual therapy without containment (UTWC) were applied, with a total of 50 h distributed in five weeks (two h/per day). Two assessments were performed (pre- and post-treatment) to evaluate the affected upper limb spontaneous use, measured with the Shiners Hospital Upper Extremity Evaluation (SHUEE), and the quality of movement, measured with the Quality of Upper Extremity Skills Test (QUEST scale). The progression of the variables was different in both groups. The results are expressed in the median of the improvement percent and interquartile range (IQR). The spontaneous use analysis showed an improvement percent of 31.65 (IQR: 2.33, 110.42) in the mCIMT group with respect to 0.00 (IQR: 0.00, 0.00) in the UTWC group. The quality of movement increased in the mCIMT and UTWC groups, 24.21 (IQR: 13.44, 50.39), 1.34 (IQR: 0.00, 4.75), respectively and the greatest increase was obtained in the grasp variable for both groups. The use of unaffected hand containment in mCIMT would produce improvements in the affected upper limb functionality in children with hemiplegia (4–8 years old) compared to the same protocol without containment (UTWC).

Application of Low-Intensity Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy to Improve the Affecter Upper Limb Functionality in Infantile Hemiplegia with Moderate Manual Ability. Case Series

Objective: To assess the functionality of the affected upper limb in children diagnosed with hemiplegia aged between 4 and 8 years after applying low-intensity modified constraint-induced movement therapy(mCIMT). Methods: Prospective case series study. A mCIMT protocol was applied for five weeks, with two hours of containment per day. The study variables were: quality of movement of the upper limb, spontaneous use, participation of the affected upper limb in activities of daily living, dynamic joint position, grasp-release action, grasp strength, supination and extension elbow movements. Four measurements were performed, using the QUEST scale, the SHUEE Evaluation, a hand dynamometer and a goniometer. Results: The sample was composed of 8 children with moderate manual ability. Statistically significant differences were detected in all the studied variables (p<0.05). The greatest increase occurred in spontaneous use from assessment 1-4 (p = 0.01), reaching 88.87% active participation in bimanual tasks. The quality of movement of the upper limb obtained a significant value due to the increase in dissociated movements and grasp (p = 0.01). Conclusion: A low dose (50 hours) of mCIMT increased the functionality of children diagnosed with congenital hemiplegia between 4 and 8 years of age with moderate manual ability.

Comparison of Different Measures of Religiousness and Spirituality: Implications for Neurotheological Research

The neuroscientific study of religious and spiritual phenomena requires the development of methodologies that can target both the biological as well as the subjective dimensions of such phenomena. The purpose of the current study was to compare various subjective questionnaires evaluating neuropsychological dimensions of religiosity. Many scales and questionnaires have been developed over the years, but they have rarely been compared to each other. As part of an online survey of peoples’ spiritual experiences, we had individuals complete several questionnaires including the Quest Scale, the Religiousness Measure, the INSPIRIT, the Death Anxiety Measure, and the Intrinsic Motivation Scale. Some of these scales also have subcomponents which can be evaluated separately. We compared these scales to each other, and also to a variety of demographic variables such as age, gender, religion, and socioeconomic status. Importantly, these scales have neurological correlates that can be the targets of future studies in the field of neurotheology. The evaluation of such qualitative data has important implications for methodological challenges in future neurotheological research.

The Religious Orientation Scale Revised among Spanish Catholic People: Structural Validity and Internal Consistency of a 21-item Model

The personal religious orientation understood as the motivation behind religious behaviors must be considered as the process that manages and organizes the behavior of those who are religious. Thus, identifying the dimensionality of religiosity is important (Francis, 2007; Kirkpatrick & Hood, 1990). This paper analyzed the structural validity and internal consistency of the 31-item Batson and Ventis Religious Orientation Scale. Participants were 529 Spanish Catholic undergraduates aged between 18 and 55 years, M = 21.55, SD = 4.39. A Principal Component Analysis with Equamax rotation method was performed on the ROS-31 with the randomized 50% of the sample, obtaining a 21-item three-component model (intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest religious orientations). Then, a CFA carried out with the other 50% of the sample showed an adequate fit of the obtained model, SBχ2(186) = 352.45, p < 0.01, CFI = 0.93, IFI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.059 (CI 90% [0.049, 0.067]). The intrinsic scale showed an excellent internal consistency, the quest scale showed good internal consistency, and the extrinsic scale showed an acceptable internal consistency. Future lines of research are suggested in order to clarify the relationship between the religious orientation scales and some psychosocial variables.

Análise qualitativa do efeito da terapia por contensão induzida em crianças com paralisia cerebral

This study describes the results of four children with hemiparetic cerebral palsy, age between four and eleven years (6.50± 3.32) who had performed a Constraint-induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) protocol. The purpose was to analyze qualitatively the effects of the CIMT protocol on the use of the affected upper limb. The protocol was performed for three weeks, with restriction of the nonaffected upper limb and functional activities were performed with the transfer of gains during treatment to the real environment. A qualitativeanalysis of the upper limb movement was performed through the Quality of Upper Skills Test (QUEST) scale and the assessment of distal adjustments. Improvements on the QUEST scale score and on the distal adjustments were observed in all four participants after the training protocol. The constraint-induced movement therapy may be an effective intervention aiming to improve the quality of the upper limb movement in children with hemiparetic cerebral palsy.

Change in Religious Beliefs, Parental Pressure, and Attitudes of College Students toward Higher Education as Related to Religious Fundamentalism

Men ( n = 55) and women ( n = 99) college students ( M age = 22.3 yr., SD = 6.1, range 18 to 58 years), from a moderate-sized midwestern university reported attitudes toward the goals and purposes of higher education, perceptions of parental pressure and support, and change in religious beliefs. The Religious Fundamentalist Scale, the Quest Scale, Faith-keeping, and Obedience to Parents Scales were also administered. Students classified as religious fundamentalists had more negative attitudes toward the goals and purposes of higher education goals and toward faculty. An interaction of Sex X Fundamentalist Classification indicated that nonfundamentalist college men reported greater change in their religious beliefs, relative to other groups. Perceptions of parental pressure or support were unrelated to scores on fundamentalism. The implications of students' religious backgrounds in relation to academic success were discussed.

Quest and Identity within a Religious Ideological Surround

Current controversies over religious orientation center on issues that appear to be partially nonempirical, normative, and sociological. These issues, in other words, may be ideological. In exploring this possibility, the present study had different religious orientation types evaluate items from the Quest Scale. For a group with an intrinsic commitment, a number of items proved to be antireligious in their implications while one was proreligious. This intrinsic interpretation of Quest also predicted relative mental health, including superior identity formation; and this was especially true for intrinsic subjects themselves. For no other type was the self-definition of Quest as robustly or as discriminatively linked to psychological well-being. The original Quest Scale was tied to poorer self-functioning. Overall, these data demonstrated the importance of measuring not just personal beliefs, but the personal meaning of those beliefs as well.