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Biomedical subjects

M Battersby

Publications and source records attributed to M Battersby.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

The changing attitudes of health professionals and consumers towards a coordinated care trial--SA HealthPlus.

The national coordinated care trials have been a vehicle for health reform in Australia, driven by escalating health care costs and projections of an ageing population. The first round of trials conducted between 1997 and 1999 set the trials a challenge to reduce financial and system barriers to enable health professionals in all sectors and consumers to develop service delivery models which would give better outcomes for patients within existing resources. As part of a change management strategy, the developers of the SA HealthPlus trial assessed the attitudes of health professionals and consumers involved in designing the projects which made up the larger trial, prior to trial development and twelve months later. This paper reports on the results of the survey and how initial enthusiasm gave way to appropriate anxiety as the complexities of creating a new system of care from reactive to prospective patient centred care planning, became a reality. The survey enabled trial developers to show evidence of acceptability for the new model of care and identify areas of concern and appropriate strategies for the project teams. This type of survey and the issues identified may be of benefit to the second round coordinated care trials and health regions aiming to initiate coordinated care programs.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed2000

Nurse behavioural psychotherapy and pathological gambling: an Australian perspective.

Nurses have been employed as behavioural psychotherapists for over 25 years. The first training in this field was established at The Maudsley Hospital (Marks et al. 1977). Since then there have been a number of courses producing many specialist nurse behavioural psychotherapists (NBTs) (Duggan et al. 1993). Nurse behavioural therapy is taken to mean nurses working as behavioural psychotherapists. This title does not mean they are practising a separate form of therapy from other professionals such as psychologists. In Australia there is no such training, with nurse behavioural psychotherapists working here having trained first in UK. Initially NBTs were trained to treat people with anxiety disorders. Over the past 25 years this emphasis has remained, but many NBTs have gone on to provide help to people with other problems. This paper will demonstrate the practical application of behavioural psychotherapy with problem gamblers, and how specialist trained nurses can provide such treatment. The paper will look briefly at nurse behavioural psychotherapy from its initial inception to its current status in Australia. The outcomes of the treatment programme carried out at Flinders Medical Centre for Problem Gamblers will be discussed with a view to nurses carrying out therapy. Finally, the future of nurse behavioural psychotherapy in Australia and how nurses can apply such skills across a wide range of problems, including gambling, will be reviewed. Aspects of this paper were first presented to the 7th NAGS conference, Adelaide 1996.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Behavioural psychotherapy training for nurses in Australia: a pilot program.

This paper describes a pilot program that examined the feasibility of training for qualified mental health nurses in behavioural psychotherapy in response to the perceived need for improved client access to services. A 6-month course was conducted with four nurses from the in-patient mental health unit at Flinders Medical Centre, South Australia. They received a combination of workshop training and supervised practice by qualified and experienced nurse behavioural psychotherapists and were assessed throughout the period for clinical competency and level of knowledge in the subject. All four nurses completed the training satisfactorily. Each trainee treated four clients who presented with a range of anxiety disorders. The implications for further training of suitably qualified mental health professionals in the area are discussed.

Australia↗
PubMed1996

Enlarged frontal P300 to stimulus change in panic disorder.

This study investigated event-related potential (ERP) indices of information processing in sufferers of panic disorder (PD). ERPs were recorded from 14 PD patients and 15 controls during an auditory target detection task. The task required subjects to discriminate infrequent target tones (p = .14; 2000 Hz) from frequent (p = .72; 1000 Hz) and infrequent (p = .14; 500 Hz) distractor tones. A frontal P300 (P3a) identified in the PD group was characteristic of activity that would be expected to novel, task-irrelevant stimuli and is consistent with junctional pathology involving the prefrontal-limbic pathways. This study provides psychophysiological evidence of an abnormality in PD of the brain's processing of physical changes in the stimulus field that occurs even under conditions of low stimulus load. It may assist in helping to understand the breakdown in information processing that occurs in PD under high load conditions such as crowds and supermarkets.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Distinct phenotype in maternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 14.

We report on the occurrence of maternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 14 (mUPD14) in a 4-year-old girl with a de novo Robertsonian translocation, 45,XX,t (13q,14q). The child has arrested hydrocephalus, short stature, minor anomalies, small hands with hyperextensible joints, and mild to moderate developmental delay. Comparison of her phenotype with those of three previously described individuals show some common distinct traits which suggest a mUPD14 syndrome.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗
PubMed1993

Electroconvulsive therapy: a study of attitudes and attitude change after seeing an educational video.

Despite the proven efficacy of Electroconvulsive Therapy [ECT], negative attitudes occur in some patients towards its use. However, research into attitudes of patients and public towards ECT, and the influence of the media on these attitudes, is limited and often contradictory. The aims of this study were: to develop a self-administered questionnaire to assess attitudes; to assess the effect of an educational video on attitudes; and to assess the effect of the media on attitudes. The questionnaire was administered to psychiatric and non-psychiatric patients of a Veterans' hospital and to a group of general hospital patients. A video was shown to a randomly assigned group of the Veteran hospital psychiatric patients. Their attitudes were assessed before and after the video. An overall positive attitude towards ECT was demonstrated in all three groups. Showing a video to the Veteran psychiatric patients produced an improvement in some attitudes, but no reduction in fear. For the psychiatric patients, the effect of the media was negative.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

'Horse trading': prescribing injectable opiates to opiate addicts. A descriptive study.

The clinical audit of 40 opiate-dependent individuals who were prescribed injectable drugs (heroin or methadone) between June 1987 and June 1989 is described. These subjects were characterized by the chronicity of their injecting and dependent opiate use, and by their refusal to comply with a treatment programme involving oral-only prescribing. The key aim was to attract entrenched injectors into contact with treatment services and to promote movement away from injecting drug use and reduce HIV risk behaviour. On review 35 of the original 40 were either still receiving an injectable prescription or injecting illicit drugs. Despite this 14 (35%) were rated as making positive life changes. Nine (22.5%) had been admitted to the in-patient unit and became drug free during their stay. The stability of the lives of eight (20%) had deteriorated. The benefits and drawbacks of this form of intervention are discussed with comparison to the other studies of injectable drug prescribing.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1992

Rapid tranquillisation. A survey of emergency prescribing in a general psychiatric hospital.

Rapid tranquillisation--giving a psychotropic to control behavioural disturbances--is common in medical practice, yet few surveys describe its use in psychiatric populations. Over five months, 102 incidents, involving 60 patients, were retrospectively surveyed. Patients most often involved were young white men. The commonest diagnosis was affective disorder (manic phase) (39%) followed by schizophrenia (33%). Fifteen patients were involved in 57% of the incidents. The majority of incidents involved injury to people or damage to property. The most frequently used drugs were diazepam and haloperidol, alone or in combination. Droperidol, chlorpromazine, sodium amytal and paraldehyde were rarely used. Diazepam alone or in combination with haloperidol delivered intravenously was most rapidly effective and was associated with greatest staff satisfaction. Serious side-effects were rare.

Aggression↗
PubMed1991

Self-detoxification by opiate addicts. A preliminary investigation.

A study of 50 opiate addicts attending a London service for treatment of drug dependence found that 47 subjects had previously made at least one attempt at self-detoxification. These subjects reported 212 previous attempts. Although 30 subjects reported having managed to complete at least one attempt, the success rate per episode was low (24%). One of the most commonly reported methods, used by 28 subjects, involved an abrupt cessation of opiates ('cold turkey'). Of the drugs used in their attempts at self-detoxification, benzodiazepines were reported by 24 subjects and opiates by 20. Practical strategies such as distraction and avoidance were also used. Self-help detoxification materials for opiate addicts might be useful.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Screening for hepatitis B and vaccination of injecting drug users in NHS drug treatment services.

Hepatitis B vaccines are now available for people at high risk of infection. Injecting drug users are at particular risk. A UK national survey of statutory drug treatment facilities was conducted to assess what screening and vaccination procedures were offered to drug takers. Of the respondents 64% did not screen for hepatitis B and 71% did not offer vaccination to hepatitis B negative individuals. However, 63% respondents said they would advise vaccination for injecting drug users who continued to share. Fifty-eight per cent thought that the partners of hepatitis B positive clients should be screened and 50% thought that vaccination of partners was advisable. A policy of screening and vaccination for hepatitis B is recommended.

Hepatitis B↗
PubMed1986

gamma-Aminobutyric acid receptor complex of insect CNS: characterization of a benzodiazepine binding site.

The specific binding of [N-methyl-3H]flunitrazepam ([3H]FNZP) to a membrane fraction from the supraoesophageal ganglion of the locust (Schistocerca gregaria) has been measured. The ligand binds reversibly with a KD of 47 nM. The binding is Ca2+-dependent, a property not found for the equivalent binding site in vertebrate brain. The pharmacological characteristics of the locust binding site show similarities to both central and peripheral benzodiazepine receptors in mammals. Thus binding is enhanced by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a feature of mammalian central receptors, whereas the ligand Ro 5-4864 was more effective in displacing [3H]FNZP than was clonazepam, which is the pattern seen in mammalian peripheral receptors. The locust benzodiazepine binding site was photoaffinity-labelled by [3H]FNZP, and two major proteins of Mr 45K and 59K were specifically labelled. In parallel experiments with rat brain membranes a single major protein of Mr 49K was labelled, a finding in keeping with many reports in the literature. We suggest that the FNZP binding site described here is part of the GABA receptor complex of locust ganglia. The insect receptor appears to have the same general organization as its mammalian counterpart but differs significantly in its detailed properties.

Affinity Labels↗