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Biomedical subjects

Claire M Kelly

Publications and source records attributed to Claire M Kelly.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2007

Participant distress in psychiatric research: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: There has been ethical concern that participants in psychiatric research will become distressed and their mental state might worsen. METHOD: A systematic search was carried out for studies that examined distress following participation in research that involved the assessment of psychiatric state or associated risk factors. There were 46 relevant studies. RESULTS: A minority of participants become distressed immediately after participation, with distress more likely in studies of traumatic experiences. There is limited evidence on longer-term effects, but what there is suggests no adverse impact. Positive reactions to participation show little association with distress and these are more common than negative reactions. Very few studies of distress in research have used control groups to establish causal associations. However, what evidence there is suggests no causal role, including for research on suicidality. Researchers in this area have made a range of suggestions about ethical practice. CONCLUSIONS: A minority of participants in psychiatric research become distressed, but there is no evidence of longer-term harm. Nevertheless, researchers need to take account of ethical concerns in designing studies. Future research in the area needs to be carried out with stronger designs involving control groups.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2007

Stigma and mood disorders.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To update the reader on current research on stigmatizing attitudes towards people suffering from mood disorders and to describe recent interventions in this area. RECENT FINDINGS: The public generally feels their own attitudes are more favourable to people with depression than 'most other people's' attitudes are. Among those with depressive symptoms, self-stigma in relation to depression is higher than perceived stigma from others, including professionals, thus hindering help seeking. The main factor that seems to improve the attitudes towards people with any mental illness is personal contact. Moderate improvements in attitudes have been achieved with an online intervention. Caution must be taken when ensuring that improvements in knowledge about mental disorders do not lead to increased social distance. SUMMARY: There exists little research on stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mood disorders. Most of the literature on the stigma towards people with mental illness relates to people with more severe disorders such as schizophrenia. When research has been done on mood disorders, the focus has been on perceived stigma and self-stigma. No up-to-date research exists on discrimination experienced by people with mood disorders, and very little research exists on interventions designed to decrease stigmatizing attitudes towards them.

Humans↗
PubMed2006

Belief in dealing with depression alone: results from community surveys of adolescents and adults.

BACKGROUND: Community surveys have found that some people believe that it is better to deal with depression alone rather than seek help. However, there has been little research into the characteristics of this group. METHODS: Data were drawn from three Australian surveys: (1) a national survey of 1001 adults aged 18+ years; (2) a school survey of 552 students aged 14-16 years from two regions; (3) a survey of 577 young people aged 12-17 years from the Melbourne region. In all three surveys, participants who believed it would be helpful to deal with depression alone were contrasted with those who believed it would be harmful in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, recognition of depression in a vignette, contact with people who experienced depression, beliefs about treatments, beliefs about using substances, beliefs about long-term outcomes, and beliefs about causes. RESULTS: In both adolescents and adults, belief in dealing with depression alone was associated with male gender, less favourable views about mental health professionals, more favourable views about using substances to deal with depression, and a more positive expectation about the outcome if treatment is not sought. Adolescents believing in dealing with depression alone had more favourable views about some potential helpers, such as church workers and pharmacists. In adults, but not adolescents, there was an association with the belief that depression is caused by personal weakness. LIMITATIONS: The surveys did not directly ask about reasons for believing that dealing with depression alone would be helpful and did not assess actual help-seeking. CONCLUSIONS: Factors encouraging dealing with depression alone are a belief that it is a self-limiting disorder, that substances are an effective way to deal with it and, in adults, that depression is due to personal weakness. Consistent with previous research, males are an important target group for encouraging seeking help to deal with depression.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Adolescents' responses to peers with depression or conduct disorder.

OBJECTIVE: To determine how young people are likely to respond to a peer with mental illness, or who has severe behavioural problems. METHOD: A mental health literacy survey was conducted with 1137 adolescents in years 8, 9 and 10 in South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. Respondents were presented with a vignette of either a 16-year-old boy meeting criteria for conduct disorder or a 16-year-old girl meeting criteria for major depression. As part of the survey, respondents were asked to write in words what they would do if the person in the vignette was a friend of theirs and they wished to help. Responses were coded into categories. RESULTS: Over half the sample (53%) described positive social support as the only action they would take to help. A further 23% said they would engage an adult such as a parent, teacher or school counsellor to help with the situation. Those responding to the conduct disorder vignette were more likely to describe engaging an adult to help and males were more likely to say they would do nothing. Female students tended to answer differently to the conduct disorder and depression vignettes, while male students responded similarly to the two vignettes. CONCLUSIONS: Many adolescents do not respond to friends' distress in ways which are likely to facilitate appropriate help. Mental health education in schools should include skills for offering help and encouraging peers to seek help.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

EGF and FGF-2 responsiveness of rat and mouse neural precursors derived from the embryonic CNS.

EGF and FGF-2 induce the proliferation of embryonic neural precursors (ENPs) in vitro from a number of different species. In this study, we demonstrate that embryonic age is a crucial determinant of the number and differentiation potential of rat embryonic neural precursor cells responding to either EGF and/or FGF-2, in that (i) there is a differential response to the two growth factors (both alone and in combination) according to the gestational age of isolation and (ii) when allowed to differentiate, there are temporal changes in the ability of these cells to produce neurons. Furthermore, for cultures of all gestational ages, there is a defined pattern of senescence, with cultures expanding longest when cells are isolated earlier in gestation. The suggestion is that rat ENPs in this study consist predominantly of neural progenitor cells with limited division potential rather than self-renewing multipotential neural stem cells. In contrast, mouse ENPs appeared to expand indefinitely and thus allow for longer studies to be carried out looking at the effects of growth factor concentrations. The effect of varying the concentration of EGF was assessed using mouse ENPs.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

The effects of various concentrations of FGF-2 on the proliferation and neuronal yield of murine embryonic neural precursor cells in vitro.

Embryonic neural precursors (ENPs), also termed neural stem cells or "neurospheres," are an attractive potential source of tissue for neural transplantation, because of their capacity to expand in number in vitro while retaining the ability to develop into the major phenotypes of the CNS. ENPs are isolated from the developing brain and proliferate in the presence of mitogens such as FGF-2 and EGF. Subsequent withdrawal of these mitogens and exposure to a suitable substrate results in differentiation into the major cell types of the CNS. As well as its role in precursor cell expansion, FGF-2 also plays a key role in the division of astrocytes, and in neuronal differentiation. Thus, it is important to establish the optimal concentrations of this factor for expansion and differentiation of neuronal phenotypes. Here we explore the effect of FGF-2 concentrations ranging from 1 to 20 ng/ml on the expansion and differentiation capacity of ENPs isolated from the cortex and striatum of E14 mice. ENP expansion was seen under all conditions, but was greatest at 10 and 20 ng/ml and least at 1 ng/ml. The numbers of neurons (as a proportion of total cell number) differentiating from these ENP populations appeared to be greatest at 1 ng/ml. However, once adjustments were made for the amount of expansion at each dose, final neuronal yield was maximum at the highest concentration of FGF-2 used (20 ng/ml).

Animals↗