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Biomedical subjects

J Sandford

Publications and source records attributed to J Sandford.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

A model for cystic endometrial hyperplasia/pyometra complex in the bitch.

The objective of this study was to develop a reliable model for the study of the cystic endometrial hyperplasia and pyometra complex (CEH/P) in the bitch. Greyhound bitches (n = 15) were ovariectomised and allocated into three groups (Group 1, n = 5; Group 2, n = 5; Group 3, n = 10, including 5 used from Group 1). Simulated proestrus, estrus and diestrus were induced by treatment with estradiol benzoate and megestrol acetate. The duration of cervical opening during estrus was determined by the intra-vaginal infusion of radio-opaque medium and subsequent radiography of the uterus (Group 1). One milliliter of a culture of Escherichia coli (with five uro-pathogenic virulence factors as identified by PCR: pap, sfa, hlyA, cnf1 and fim) was inoculated intra-vaginally daily throughout the simulated estrus (Group 2). One milliliter of the culture (n = 6) or sterile Luria-Bertani broth (n = 4) was introduced directly into the uterus on simulated diestrus Days 8 or 12 (Group 3). Necropsies were performed 12 and 7-14 days after the inoculation (Groups 2 and 3). The cervix remained open throughout the duration of simulated estrus (5-6 days) in four out of five bitches, and for a shorter duration (3 days of a 6-day estrus period) in one bitch (Group 1). CEH/P was induced by inoculation of bacteria into the uterus (10/10 bitches) but not into the vagina (0/5 bitches), (P = 0.003). A model for the study of CEH/P has been validated.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Written and verbal information versus verbal information only for patients being discharged from acute hospital settings to home: systematic review.

This article presents the results of a Cochrane review which was conducted to determine the effectiveness of providing written and verbal health information compared with verbal information only to patients being discharged from acute hospital settings to home. Only two trials met the review inclusion criteria. In both trials the participants were parents of children being discharged from hospital to home. The two outcomes measured in both trials were knowledge and satisfaction. The review confirms that providing written and verbal health information is more effective in improving knowledge and satisfaction than providing verbal information only for parents of children being discharged from hospital to home. There is no evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention in adults who provide their own care after discharge from hospital. Further research is required which involves adult patients being discharged from hospital to home, and research which measures a range of outcomes which include readmission rates, recovery times, patient/carer knowledge, complication rates, service utilization and costs (community, outpatient and inpatient), confidence in one's own care management, stress and anxiety levels, satisfaction with services provided prior to discharge, and adherence to recommended care.

Aftercare↗
PubMed2003

Written and verbal information versus verbal information only for patients being discharged from acute hospital settings to home.

BACKGROUND: It is becoming commonplace for patients to be discharged earlier from acute hospital settings to their own homes and be required to manage various aspects of their own care. This has increased the need for detailed information to be given to patients and/or significant others to enable them to effectively manage care at home. It has been suggested that providing written health information can assist in this self management. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness of providing written health information in addition to verbal information for patients and/or significant others being discharged from acute hospital settings to home. SEARCH STRATEGY: Computerised searches from 1990 to June 2002 of the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group Specialised Register and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE (OVID), EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC, OVID (including Ageline, EBM Reviews, DARE, Best Evidence, Pre-MEDLINE and PsycARTICLES), Sociological abstracts, Austhealth and bibliographies in articles that met inclusion criteria. SELECTION CRITERIA: Articles were selected if they were randomised control trials or controlled clinical trials; included patients discharged from acute hospital settings to home; the patient and/or significant others received written health information and verbal information in the intervention group, and verbal information only in the control group; and the intervention (written health information and verbal information) was provided at discharge. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two reviewers independently screened abstracts to determine relevance. Relevant full paper copies were then reviewed against the inclusion criteria. The findings were extracted by one reviewer and confirmed by the other reviewer. The two trials that met the inclusion criteria were too disparate to warrant meta-analysis. MAIN RESULTS: The participants in the two trials were parents of children who were discharged from children's hospitals, one in the United States (n=197) the other in Canada (n=123). Provision of verbal and written health information significantly increased knowledge and satisfaction scores. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: This review recommends the use of both verbal and written health information when communicating about care issues with patients and/or significant others on discharge from hospital to home. The combination of verbal and written health information enables the provision of standardised care information to patients and/or significant others, which appears to improve knowledge and satisfaction. Many of our objectives could not be addressed in this review due to lack of trials which met the review's inclusion criteria. There is therefore scope for future research to investigate the effects of providing verbal and written health information on readmission rates, recovery time, complication rates, costs of health care, consumers' confidence level, stress and anxiety and adherence to recommended treatment and staff training in the delivery of verbal and written information. In addition there are other factors which impact on the effectiveness of information provided that were not considered in this review but are worthy of a separate systematic review, such as the impact of the patient and/or significant others being involved in the development of the written information, and cultural issues around development and provision of information. Due to concerns about literacy levels for some population groups, other systematic reviews should also focus on other modes of delivery of information besides the written format.

Aftercare↗
PubMed2001

Modal attention asymmetry in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

This cross-sectional study examined modal attention asymmetries in patients with schizophrenia (n = 47) and bipolar disorder (n = 42), as contrasted to a matched-sample comparison group of normal participants (n = 89). A test of continuous auditory and visual attention was the primary measure. The data were analyzed from 2 experimental conditions: simple modal responses (auditory and visual) and modal switching responses (ipsimodal and cross-modal switching). In the simple modal condition, patients with schizophrenia demonstrated a visual over auditory asymmetry; patients with bipolar disorder showed no differences. In modal switching conditions, however, patients with bipolar disorder displayed a significant auditory over visual asymmetry. No main effect was detected between medications and attention functioning. Results are discussed in light of differentiating these 2 populations on the basis of modal specificity of attention functioning.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

A CAT-derived one to three session intervention for repeated deliberate self-harm: a description of the model and initial experience of trainee psychiatrists in using it.

We describe a new Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)-based intervention for those who repeatedly self-harm. It is specifically designed to be deliverable by staff with no training in psychotherapy. The intervention is simply manualized into sequential tasks that are mediated by new CAT-style standardized tools. A particular feature of this intervention is the deliberate use of feelings elicited in the therapist ('counter-transference') as (a) a guide to how professional poise is being threatened or lost and (b) an indicator of the appropriate focus for this very brief therapy. The psychiatrists' reflection on their elicited feelings is mediated by a new CAT tool, the 'Assessor's Response File' developed in this project. Audiotape analysis suggested that following a very brief learning period, trainee psychiatrists were able to adhere to the structure of the model and arrive at an appropriate reformulation in the first session but tended to be collusive in reciprocating the patients' dysfunctional coping styles.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

Mechanisms of action of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have demonstrated efficacy in depression and anxiety disorders. This raises the question of how the single action of serotonin reuptake inhibition can improve several psychiatric conditions. In order to understand this apparent paradox it is necessary to consider where SSRIs act in the pathogenic process underlying depression or anxiety disorders. Tryptophan depletion has been used extensively in research into depression and has shown that, in patients receiving an SSRI whose depression is in remission, depleting serotonin leads to recurrence of the disorder. Similar results have been found for panic disorder. This suggests that increased levels of serotonin are necessary in the synapse for the SSRI to be effective in the treatment of depression and panic disorder. In obsessive compulsive disorder, depletion of serotonin in patients recovered on an SSRI does not cause relapse; receptor adaptation may be more important. Variations within the SSRI drug class, such as the selectivity ratios for serotonin versus noradrenaline uptake, elimination half-life, and affinity for the 5-HT2 receptor have been identified and may be important determinants of efficacy, side effects and clinical use.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMed1993

Personal development planning.

Since the introduction of general management into the NHS in 1985, greater emphasis has been placed on managing the service through clearly defined objectives. Jill Sandford and Christine Rollin describe Lifespan Healthcare's personal development plan for managers, and report on some of the benefits it has brought the organisation.

Education, Continuing↗
PubMed1984

Crossbreeding cattle in beef production programmes in Kenya. I. Comparison of purebred Boran and Boran crossed with the Charolais, Ayrshire and Santa Gertrudis breeds.

Data collected on a privately owned ranch located in the Machakos District of Kenya at approximately 2 degrees latitude south of the equator at an elevation varying from 1,675 to 2,000 m were analysed on five breed groups of cows: (1) purebred Boran, (2) 1/2 Charolais-1/2 Boran (1/2 C-1/2 B), (3) 3/4 Boran-1/4 Charolais (3/4 B-1/4 C), (4) 1/2 Ayrshire-1/2 Boran (1/2 A-1/2 B) and (5) 1/2 Santa Gertrudis-1/2 Boran (1/2 SG-1/2 B). The maternal traits evaluated included age at first calving, calving interval, calf weight at weaning and cow productivity index (calf weight weaned annually per cow calving). Mean cow productivity index for all cows was 192 kg; for purebred Boran, 174 kg; for 1/2 C-1/2 B, 200 kg; for 3/4 B-1/4 C, 191 kg; for 1/2 A-1/2 B, 210 kg; and for 1/2 SG-1/2 B, 185 kg. Cow breed groups 1/2 C-1/2 B, 3/4 B-1/4 C, 1/2 A-1/2 B and 1/2 SG-1/2 B exceeded (P less than 0.01) purebred Boran by 14.9, 9.8, 20.7 and 6.3%, respectively, in cow productivity index.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1984

Crossbreeding cattle in beef production programmes in Kenya. II. Comparison of purebred Boran and Boran crossed with the Red Poll and Santa Gertrudis breeds.

Two series of breed group comparisons for maternal traits were conducted at one location in Kenya. Data were collected on breed group series I for three years (Boran, 1/2 Red Poll-1/2 Boran (1/2 RP-1/2 B), 1/3 Red Poll-2/3 Boran (1/3 RP-2/3 B) and 2/3 Red Poll-1/3 Boran (2/3 RP-1/3 B) and on breed group series II for five years (Boran, 1/2 Santa Gertrudis-1/2 Boran (1/2 SG-1/2 B) and 1/2 Red Poll-1/2 Boran (1/2 RP-1/2 B]. The advantage in calf weight weaned per year per cow calving of 15.4% for the mean of three Red Poll-Boran crossbred groups over the purebred Boran in breed group series I can probably be accounted for by maternal heterosis. Thus the Red Poll breed probably does not exceed the Boran breed in additive maternal genetic effects in the environment where these data were collected. But the results suggest that the Red Poll breed exceeds the Boran breed in additive direct genetic effects for size while the Boran breed exceeds the Red Poll breed in additive maternal genetic effects as expressed by calf weight weaned per year per cow calving. Breed group series II comparisons show the Boran and the 1/2 SG-1/2 B breed groups do not differ (P greater than 0.05) in calf weight weaned per year per cow calving. The 1/2 SG-1/2 B breed group has maximum expected maternal heterosis; thus, it is indicated that the Boran breed exceeds the Santa Gertrudis breed in additive maternal genetic effects but the Santa Gertrudis breed exceeds the Boran breed in additive direct genetic effects for size.

Analysis of Variance↗