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The article presents the discussion on month's Division of Counselling Psychology (DCoP) Conference taking place from 15–16 July 2022 showing the Edge of Awareness. Topics include facilitating connection and aspects inherently dehumanising and manipulating the exploitation; and process of exploration and meaning-making inviting subjective participation and facilitation.

The article presents research which focused on the randomized controlled trials of clinical prediction rules used by medical professionals in treating low back pain (LBP). Researchers mentioned that LBP is one of the most common conditions that are hard to treat as interventions have moderate mean beneficial outcomes. They found that a lack of high quality trials aimed at assessing clinical prediction rule effects on patients with LBP.

A theoretical model is proposed for the explanation of discomfort and pain in the eye induced by light, based on known facts about the functioning of the nervous system and on experimental work reported in the literature. It is suggested that the iris, lens, facial muscles and extraocular muscles act as a linked servo-system in responding to lighting conditions. When the latter are excessive relative to retinal processing ability, strain is imposed on the system and this initiates activity in the trigeminal nucleus. Use is made of the gate control theory of pain in suggesting a modulation process at the trigeminal nucleus on the incoming discomfort or pain message which ultimately receives interpretation and control at a higher level of the brain. The model embraces discomfort glare and photophobia within the same framework and provides potential explanations for the wide ranging conditions in which photophobia and sensitivity to light are observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To report the psychometric properties of an alternative instrument to the cognitive subscale of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale, a neuropsychological test battery (NTB) for measuring drug efficacy in Alzheimer disease clinical trials. Design: The NTB was evaluated in a randomized, doubleblind, placebo-controlled trial of AN1792(QS-21) (synthetic-amyloid plus an adjuvant) (300 patients) and isotonic sodium chloride solution (72 patients). The testretest reliability of the NTB was examined, and the NTB was correlated with other cognitive (cognitive subscale of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale and Mini-Mental State Examination) and functional (Disability Assessment Scale for Dementia and Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes) measures. In addition, a factor analysis was performed on NTB components. Finally, the sensitivity of the NTB to change was assessed as a function of Mini-Mental State Examination performance. Results: The NTB had high test-retest reliability at 6 (Pearson product moment correlation [r]=0.92) and 12 (r=0.88) months. Internal consistency was high (Cronbach =0.84). The correlations between the NTB z score and scores on traditional measures of cognition and function were significantly different from 0 (P.001). A factor analysis yielded "memory" and "executive function" factors. The NTB z score declined linearly over 1 year in patients receiving placebo and, in contrast to the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale cognitive subscale, demonstrated similar declines in patients with high (21-26) and low (15-20) Mini-Mental State Examination scores at baseline. Conclusions: The NTB exhibits excellent psychometric properties and seems to be a reliable and sensitive measure of cognitive change in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease. The psychometric properties of the NTB suggest that it may have particular utility in evaluating drug efficacy in clinical trials in which patients with mild Alzheimer disease are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Previous validation of the HIV Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire status version (HIVTSQs) found that nine of the 10 items performed well, but the demands item needed revision. This study investigated the psychometric properties of the revised HIVTSQs and new change version (HIVTSQc). Methods: English-speaking Americans completed the HIVTSQs at baseline and Week 48 of a clinical trial of HIV treatments, and the HIVTSQc at Week 48. Demographic and viral load information was collected. Psychometric validation used item frequency distributions, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), item-total correlations, Cronbach’s alpha, Spearman’s rank correlation, Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests. Results: At baseline, 126 of the 152 patients completed the HIVTSQs fully (100 of 106 at Week 48). The negatively skewed distribution of the revised demands item resembled that of the other nine, with comparable missing data. CFA (baseline and Week 48) supported the general satisfaction/clinical subscale (alpha 0.83; 0.85), lifestyle/ease subscale including demands (alpha 0.82; 0.85), and 10-item treatment satisfaction scale (alpha 0.89; 0.91). Subscale and scale scores differed significantly between ethnic groups. Viral load was not significantly related to subscale or scale scores. At Week 48, 97 of 106 patients completed the HIVTSQc fully. All items had negatively skewed distributions. CFA supported two subscales ( general satisfaction/clinical change alpha 0.85; lifestyle/ease change alpha 0.88) and 10-item treatment satisfaction change scale (alpha 0.92). Viral load change between baseline and Week 48 correlated significantly with patients’ perceptions of change in HIV control ( control( c) item), but not with scale or subscale scores. Conclusion: The excellent psychometric properties of the HIVTSQs and HIVTSQc support their use in clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To facilitate reflective practice with students of complementary therapy clinical tutors themselves require an understanding and experience of reflective practice. The aim of this study was to implement and evaluate a clinical supervision framework for clinical tutors teaching on the complementary therapy undergraduate program. Clinical supervision was conducted in small groups with a skilled clinical supervisor, and focused on issues arising in the teaching clinic. The evaluation consisted of questionnaires, interviews and focus groups with participants (clinical tutors and clinical supervision facilitators). There is strong evidence that clinical supervision groups offered a supportive learning framework for the clinical tutors, and that this was likely to impact on work with students and patients in a positive way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The syndrome of burnout has been the focus of much research in the caring professions. Maslach and Jackson operationally defined the syndrome as comprising high levels of emotional exhaustion, high depersonalization and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. They argued that the syndrome could be reliably measured using the 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory. The present authors gave this scale to 648 ward-based mental health nurses along with a range of other standardized scales. The total sample was then divided into a high burnout group (high scores on all three subscales, N = 37 or 5.7 percent) and a low burnout group (low scores on all subscales, N = 66 or 10.2 percent). The findings show that burnout is a much less significant problem for mental health nurses than other researchers have indicated. There was, however, clear evidence for the construct validity of the burnout concept. Future directions for burnout research with mental health nurses are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses several interventions in reducing patient stress and pain during the wound care process. It notes that patients with wounds need to have an individual pain management plan and cites a research which demonstrated how comprehensive assessments improve clinical outcomes in patients with foot and leg ulcers. It stresses that an approach in eradicating pain needs a combination of pharmacological, physical, and psychological components according to each patient's needs.

Police officers are often the first responders to intimate partner violence. The aim of the study was to examine the association between structured police assessments on-site in cases of intimate partner violence, and decisions about immediate arrest of the perpetrator and/or relocation of the victim. Data were extracted from police reports on 124 emergency visits in cases of intimate partner violence perpetrated by men toward women. Six out of totally 15 items of the intimate partner violence risk assessment measure B-SAFER were used by the front line police officers as the basis for decisions on whether or not to arrest the perpetrator or relocate the victim. The six items: perpetrator violent acts, violent threats or thoughts, escalation of violence, substance use problems, mental health problems, and breach of no-contact order, were selected on the basis of their utility in emergency situations. There were increased odds of arrest on-site if the perpetrator was physically violent (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.0-7.7) or had substance problems (AOR = 2.3, 95% CI = [1.0- 5.2]). There were increased odds of victim relocation if the perpetrator had mental health problems (AOR = 7.4, 95% CI = [2.4-23.1]) or if children were present on-site (AOR = 3.1, 95% CI = [1.1- 8.6]). In contrast, escalation of violence was associated with reduced odds of the perpetrator being arrested (AOR = 0.4, 95% CI = [0.1- 0.9]) or the victim being relocated (AOR = 0.4, 95% CI = [0.1- 1.3]). The finding that the police did not immediately respond to escalation, potentially signaling lethal violence needs to be addressed.

Explanations of individual differences in susceptibility to learning of anticipatory nausea and/or vomiting (AN/V) in cancer patients have focused mainly on the patients who develop AN/V. On the basis of conditioning theory, however, one would expect that all patients who experience post-treatment nausea and/or vomiting (PN/V) should develop AN/V. Consistent with findings demonstrating that conditioned responses are more easily established in autonomic-reactive individuals, we have previously reported that patients who do not develop AN/V (noAN/V) are less autonomic reactive than the AN/V patients. Thus, we hypothesized that the noAN/V patients might not show classical conditioning to the same degree and extent as the AN/V patients and that conditioning may be the mediating mechanism in AN/V. This study presents data from 36 patients. Among the 28 patients who experienced PN/V, 16 developed AN/V. We found no systematic group differences in severity of PN/V or antiemetic treatment. Before chemotherapy, all patients were tested in a signaled reaction-time paradigm. We used two different tones (CSs), one of which was always followed by a noise (UCS) as a button-press signal. The patients who later developed AN/V demonstrated significantly shorter reaction times, and also showed enhanced cardiovascular reactivity to the tone followed by the UCS (CS+) in comparison with the nonsignal tone (CS-). The noAN/V patients did not show differential cardiovascular responses to the CS+ and CS-.

Spasticity is a common problem following spinal cord injury. The drug of choice to control spasms is baclofen. There would appear to be no reported studies which have evaluated the psychological and emotional effect of this drug. This preliminary study investigated a number of such effects, including depression, anxiety and general mood state. First, we examined 10 subjects before and during the administration of baclofen. They were then compared to a control group of 12 subjects. A second cohort of 12 subjects taking baclofen were compared to a control group of nine subjects at a specific time after injury. Results indicated that whilst some significant differences were found, suggesting an increase in fatigue with use of baclofen, no major adverse psychological effects were noted. The implications of these results were discussed and suggestions for further research were highlighted.