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Introduction: Emotional variability has been identified as a risk factor for adolescent psychopathology. This study explored the cross-sectional and prospective associations between emotional variability and suicidal ideation and examined the moderating role of parent-adolescent connectedness., Methods: Participants included 108 Taiwanese late adolescents (Mage = 18.53, SDage = 0.39; 64% female) who completed ecological momentary assessment (EMA) over 14 days, and baseline and follow-up assessments over 6 months., Results: Results indicated that while negative emotional (NE) and positive emotional (PE) variability were not associated with suicidal ideation at baseline, both predicted increased suicidal ideation 6 months later. Furthermore, parent-adolescent connectedness moderated the relationship between NE variability and suicidal ideation, with high connectedness mitigating the adverse effects of NE variability., Conclusions: These findings suggest that emotional variability is a key predictor for the development of suicidal ideation and highlight the protective role of parent-adolescent connectedness. Interventions promoting family connectedness may be effective in reducing suicidal risk among emotionally variable youth., (© 2024 American Association of Suicidology.)

Prior research suggests that feeling needed and useful plays a central role in adolescent psychosocial development and well-being. However, little is known about whether feeling needed and useful benefits adolescents' well-being in daily life, especially for those with suicidal ideation. The current study examined the daily association between feeling needed and useful and emotional and social well-being in a daily diary sample of adolescents (N = 122; M age  = 12.64) with and without suicidal ideation. Results from multilevel modeling showed that on days when youth experienced higher levels of feeling needed and useful, they reported lower negative emotions, higher positive emotions, and increased family connectedness. Furthermore, significant moderation effects indicated that daily feelings of being needed and useful were associated with higher positive emotions and peer connectedness only for youth with suicidal ideation. The findings support the importance of feeling needed and useful in adolescent development and highlight its beneficial effects among adolescents at risk for suicide., (© 2025 Society for Research on Adolescence.)

Emotion contagion between parents and adolescents is crucial for understanding adolescents' emotional experiences. However, little is known about how emotion contagion unfolds in daily life and the unique contributions of parent-adolescent relationships. This study examines the associations between parent and adolescent positive and negative emotions, and the moderating role of daily parent-adolescent connectedness. Participants were 191 Taiwanese adolescents (M age  = 12.93; SD age  = 0.75; 53% female) and their parents who completed 10-day diary reports of emotions and parent-adolescent connectedness. Results indicate that higher daily parent negative emotions were associated with more adolescent negative emotions, and higher average parent negative emotions were associated with greater average negative emotions and fewer positive emotions in adolescents. Similar bidirectional effects were also found in adolescent-to-parent emotion contagion. Moreover, on days when connectedness was high, parent negative emotions were not associated with adolescent negative emotions but were related to increased positive emotions. Parent positive emotions were related to more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions when connectedness was low. The findings provide important insights into daily parent-adolescent emotion contagion and highlight parent-adolescent connectedness as a modifying factor in shaping dyadic emotional processes., (© 2024 Society for Research on Adolescence.)

Although the sensitization hypothesis posits that heightened reactivity to interparental conflict is linked to adolescent psychopathology, limited studies tested whether sensitization would emerge in parent-adolescent conflict and across ethnicity or culture. This study revisits the sensitization hypothesis by examining adolescent emotional reactivity to interparental and parent-adolescent conflicts on a daily timescale. The sample included 163 adolescents (55% girls; M age  = 12.79) and their parents (78% females; M age  = 45.46) who completed a 10-day reports in Taiwan. Multilevel modeling results showed that, instead of interparental conflict, adolescents with greater histories of parent-adolescent conflict exhibited higher emotional reactivity when parent-adolescent conflict was higher. The findings underscore the importance of parent-adolescent conflict in evaluating adolescent developmental risk., (© 2022 Society for Research on Adolescence.)

Rationale, Aim and Objective: The beneficial effects of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) prophylaxis on reducing the risk of chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia (CIFN) were well documented throughout the literature. However, existing data regarding its cost-effectiveness were conflicting. We estimated the cost-effectiveness of G-CSF prophylaxis in CIFN under Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) system., Methods: Data on clinical outcomes and direct medical costs were derived for 5179 newly diagnosed breast cancer and 629 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients from the NHI claims database. Patients were further categorized into three subgroups as "primary-", "secondary-" and "no -" prophylaxis based on their patterns of G-CSF use. Generalized estimating equations were applied to estimate the impact of G-CSF use on the incidence of CIFN. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of primary and secondary prophylactic G-CSF use were calculated and sensitivity analyses were performed., Results: Primary prophylaxis of G-CSF decreased the incidence of CIFN by 27% and 83%, while secondary prophylaxis by 34% and 22% in breast cancer and NHL patients, respectively. Compared with those with no prophylaxis, the incremental cost per CIFN reduced in primary prophylaxis is $931 and $52 among patients with breast cancer and NHL, respectively. In contrast, secondary prophylaxis is dominated by no prophylaxis and primary prophylaxis in both cancer patients., Conclusion: Primary but not secondary prophylactic use of G-CSF was cost-effective in CIFN in breast cancer and NHL patients under Taiwan's NHI system., (© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Recent reports suggest that CAG triplet expansions of spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 and 3 (SCA2 and SCA3) genes are the cause of typical levodopa-responsive Parkinson's disease (PD) in familial cases, several of which were ethnic Chinese. To investigate the role of SCA2 and SCA3 mutations in Chinese familial and early-onset PD patients, we analyzed CAG triplet repeat expansions of SCA2 and SCA3 genes in a cohort of 73 Taiwanese/Ethnic Chinese familial and early-onset PD patients [mean age at onset 42.70 +/- 7.17 years (mean +/- SD)]. Thirteen of them (17.8%) had positive family history. All patients received comprehensive clinical evaluation including a thorough neurological examination, laboratory tests, and neuroimaging studies to exclude secondary causes and atypical parkinsonism. The CAG repeat length in these genes was determined using polymerase chain reaction polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. SCA2 gene CAG repeats ranged from 15 to 26 repeats with a median of 20, and SCA3 gene CAG repeats ranged from 15 to 40 with a median of 15. No long pathogenic repeats were found in either SCA2 or SCA3, although borderline CAG repeat number was detected in the SCA3 gene of four patients. Thus, mutations of SCA2 or SCA3 did not play a major role in familial or early-onset PD in our study cohort. PD patients without autosomal dominant family history or obvious cerebellar ataxia should not be candidates for routine screening of SCA2 or SCA3 mutations for cost-effectiveness., ((c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

This study examines differences in psychosocial characteristics, substance use history, and psychiatric comorbidity in relation to heroin use among youths aged 15 to 22 incarcerated in 2003 for illicit drug use in northern Taiwan. Factors associated with heroin use included experiences of child abuse, having friends with illicit drug use, poor school attendance, polydrug use, and early age of drug initiation. Heroin users were found to have more severe clinical manifestation and experiences of conduct and anxiety disorders than non-heroin users; injection users tended to have a longer heroin history. This information may help guide future prevention programs to reduce heroin problems in youth.

1. To determine the effectiveness of ongoing immediate concurrent feedback (ICF) in minimizing 'inappropriate' sultamicillin or co-amoxiclav prescribing via the parenteral route (i.e. when the oral route was accessible and not contraindicated), a prospective controlled audit was carried out on hospital inpatients over a 20 month period. 2. After an education programme to promote oral rather than unnecessary intravenous (i.v.) use of sultamicillin, co-amoxiclav and certain other drugs, an ongoing ICF strategy was instituted. 3. ICF entailed issue of memos on the following day to prescribers of i.v. sultamicillin or co-amoxiclav for inpatients in whom this route was deemed 'inappropriate', by a specially trained nurse using strict objective criteria. The memos recommended oral prescribing (particularly of co-amoxiclav, currently the less expensive alternative). 4. After starting ICF, there were consistent, clinically and statistically significant reductions in the monthly proportions of (i) admissions prescribed i.v. sultamicillin or co-amoxiclav (38% P < 0.001), (ii) those in whom the route was 'inappropriate' (75%, P < 0.001), and (iii) corresponding ratios of i.v./oral usage and expenditure, oral sultamicillin/co-amoxiclav usage and expenditure, as well as total and per admission expenditure on i.v. forms (> or = 43%, P < 0.01). 5. For i.v. cefuroxime (for which there was no ICF) and its oral counterpart cefuroxime-axetil, there were no comparable changes in usage or expenditure. 6. This simple, ongoing ICF strategy was effective and well accepted; estimated net monthly savings being HK$26-30,000.