TALLAHASSEE -- Slot machine look-alike games operated by Internet cafes, amusement arcades and Miami's maquinitas will be officially outlawed under a bill passed Thursday by the Florida Senate.
Gov. Rick Scott will sign the bill into law, according to his spokeswoman, and it will immediately take effect, giving law enforcement the authority to shut down games that fit into the newly-crafted definitions.
"What we're doing today is doing nothing more than giving law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they
need when they find illegal gambling to shut it down,'' said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the sponsor of the Senate bill. The Senate voted 36-4 for HB 155, which had been overwhelmingly approved two weeks ago by the Florida House,108-7
The measure moved swiftly through Tallahassee in reaction to a federal and state investigation into Allied Veterans of the World three weeks ago that led to the arrests of 57 people charged with illegal gambling, money laundering and racketeering. The investigation prompted Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who had once worked for Allied Veterans, to resign.
Police allege that that the sham veterans' group made $300 million in profits by operating the illegal machines, but donated only about $6 million to charity. The investigation is continuing and law enforcement say they are targeting other operators.
Legislators collectively concluded that it was time to clarify an outdated and vague state law to target the illegal games that operated under loopholes. They insisted their goal was not to shut down senior amusements centers that operate legally.
"Nobody's out there trying to put anybody out of business that's doing legitimate business,'' Thrasher said after the vote. "We've been talking about banning Internet cafes for a number of years. We just haven't had either the political will or the ability to do it.''
Adult arcade operators, who have stocked their centers with the computerized games that look and feel like slot-machines, warned that the new law will be the death knell for their amusement centers.
"Today's action means amusement arcades, which have been operating legally for almost 30 years, will be forced to shut down," said Gale Fontaine, president of the Florida Arcade Association, in a statement. She operates numerous senior arcades in South Florida, and owns Internet cafes in Florida and other states.
"Seniors are being punished despite following the rules and providing a safe place for entertainment," she said.
The Senate rejected three last-minute amendments by Miami Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla and Rene Garcia, both Miami Republicans, that would have shielded adult arcades from the new rules.
Diaz de la Portilla blasted the legislation even as he voted in favor of it, saying it was an over-reaction to the "mass hysteria" over the Allied Veterans investigation and will hurt adult arcades. "A good crisis shouldn't go to waste but we're basically lumping them in and impeding legal businesses,'' he said.
But Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, chairman of the Senate Gaming Committee, said the bill was intended to clarify the law, not hurt law-abiding companies.
"This bill is not intended in any shape manner or form to shut down any legitimate business model,'' said Richter, who said he will launch a statewide tour this summer to study gambling in Florida and make recommendations for updating the state's gaming laws.
The bill clarifies that only skill-based games may be allowed at the amusements centers and truck stops that currently operate the slot-machines. It specifically bars any game that is "part of a scheme requiring consideration and awarding anything of value." Prizes are limited to 75 cents. Gift cards and cards of cash equivalence are specifically banned.
The change effectively allows only pari-mutuels and the tribal casinos to operate casino-style games and bans any "casino-style game in which the outcome is determined by factors unpredicted by the players or games in which the player may not control the outcome of the game through skill."
Voting against the bill were Democratic Sens. Joe Abruzzo of West Palm Beach, Maria Sachs of Delray Beach, Jeff Clemens of Lake Worth and Jeremy Ring of Margate.
Ring, whose district includes many senior arcades, blamed the Internet cafe industry for opposing regulation in the past.
"The truth is, the industry has fought regulation and the industry has not been proactive to work with the Legislature,'' Ring said. "I don't think it had to come to this."
Legislators also have quickly attempted to distance themselves from Allied Veterans, an organization that authorities say operated as a fake charity. Allied Vets and its affiliated Internet cafe owners and operators made more than $1.4 million in campaign contributions to state and federal candidates between 2008-2012, according to a Herald/Times analysis.
A Pennsylvania state trooper not only survived being hit by a pickup truck, she also managed to physically chase down the driver.
WTAE Pittsburgh reports that Trooper Heather Gonglik was helping direct traffic through a sobriety checkpoint when she stopped a Ford pickup to talk to the driver. After speaking briefly, the driver put his foot on the gas, hitting Gonglick, and sped away.
(A report from the Associated Press says Gonglik was dragged for 20 feet by the truck before being sent into the air and hitting her head on the ground; other reports note she was knocked right over.)
"The victim (Gonglik) eventually managed to stop the vehicle and approached the driver's side to speak to the accused,? Trooper Matthew Gavrish wrote in a report, according to WTAE. ?After speaking for a short time, the accused began to drive away, ignoring the victim's commands to stop. As the vehicle accelerated, the victim was struck by the vehicle and thrown to the ground."
Gonglik then reportedly pursued the truck in her patrol car for about a half-mile before taking the driver into custody at a stop light. She was then brought to a local hospital where she was treated for her injuries, which a police report described as being ?minor/moderate.? She has since been released.
"This is my 18th year in law enforcement. I've never seen a police officer get struck by a car and get back up," Southwest Regional Police Sgt. Joseph Pocsatko told the station. "The sound when she hit the ground was frightening for me."
The truck driver, Arnold J. Frankie, 62, was arraigned before a district judge and is being held on $150,000 bail.
Incarceration, marijuana use and suicide attempts may hinder liver transplant eligibilityPublic release date: 4-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dawn Peters sciencenewsroom@wiley.com 781-388-8408 Wiley
Results from an anonymous survey of U.S. transplant providers report that incarceration, marijuana use, and psychiatric diagnoses, particularly suicide attempts, may lower patients' eligibility for liver transplantation. The study published in the April issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society, also found that most providers would not offer transplants to patients with advanced age, those severely obese, or with lifetime imprisonment.
"For patients with end-stage liver disease, transplantation is the only treatment option to extend life," explains lead investigator Dr. Josh Levitsky from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Ill. "With donated livers in such short supply, selecting candidates becomes an ethical exercise for transplant specialists who must balance equal access to transplantation with graft and patient survival."
Currently, the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) is used to measure the severity of liver disease. The MELD score provides transplant providers with standardized criteria to allocate donated livers. However, the authors point out that subjective assessment of the candidates' medical and psychosocial characteristics could influence the providers' selection process. Medical evidence shows that controversial characteristics such as alcohol abuse, HIV status, obesity, or advanced age may impact allocation, leading to an inequity among patients being waitlisted.
To further understand the ethics involved in selecting transplant candidates, Dr. Levitsky and colleagues sent an online survey to hepatologists, surgeons, psychiatrists and social workers at 102 liver transplant centers across the U.S. Responses were received from 251 providers who answered questions regarding their opinions of characteristics that could prevent patients from receiving a liver transplant.
The majority of responders were male (71%), between 41 and 60 years of age (68%) and mainly white (77%). The three characteristics ranked most controversial were incarceration, marijuana use, and psychiatric diagnoses. Responses from transplant providers indicate that 63% would not waitlist patients 80 years or older, 57% would not transplant patients with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 45 kg/m2, and 55% specified incarceration with lifetime sentence a contraindication to liver transplantation.
Furthermore, less than half of the providers reported their centers had written policies regarding controversial characteristics that would prevent some patients from receiving liver transplants. "We found significant variation in provider opinions of criteria that are contraindications for liver transplantation, which may be why many centers do not have formal policies for selecting candidates with questionable characteristics," concludes Dr. Levitsky. "Standardized eligibility criteria, supported by evidence-based data of outcomes, are necessary to develop formal policies for selecting controversial candidates for liver transplantation."
###
This study is published in Liver Transplantation. Media wishing to receive a PDF of the articles may contact sciencenewsroom@wiley.com.
Full citation: "A National Survey of Provider Opinions on Controversial Characteristics of Liver Transplant Candidates." Katharine Secunda, Elisa J. Gordon, Min W. Sohn, Laura A. Shinkunas, Lauris C. Kaldjian, Michael D. Voigt and Josh Levitsky. Liver Transplantation; (DOI: 10.1002/lt.23581) Print Issue Date: April, 2013.
URL: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1022/lt.23581
Author Contact: Media wishing to speak with Dr. Levitsky may contact Colleen Sheehan with Northwestern Memorial Hospital at csheehan@nmh.org or at +1-312-926-7769.
About the Journal
Liver Transplantation is published by Wiley on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society. Since the first application of liver transplantation in a clinical situation was reported more than twenty years ago, there has been a great deal of growth in this field and more is anticipated. As an official publication of the AASLD and the ILTS, Liver Transplantation delivers current, peer-reviewed articles on surgical techniques, clinical investigations and drug research the information necessary to keep abreast of this evolving specialty. For more information, please visit http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/livertransplantation
About Wiley
Wiley is a global provider of content-enabled solutions that improve outcomes in research, education, and professional practice. Our core businesses produce scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, reference works, books, database services, and advertising; professional books, subscription products, certification and training services and online applications; and education content and services including integrated online teaching and learning resources for undergraduate and graduate students and lifelong learners.
Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa, JWb), has been a valued source of information and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations. Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Peace. Wiley's global headquarters are located in Hoboken, New Jersey, with operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia. The Company's website can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com.
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Incarceration, marijuana use and suicide attempts may hinder liver transplant eligibilityPublic release date: 4-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dawn Peters sciencenewsroom@wiley.com 781-388-8408 Wiley
Results from an anonymous survey of U.S. transplant providers report that incarceration, marijuana use, and psychiatric diagnoses, particularly suicide attempts, may lower patients' eligibility for liver transplantation. The study published in the April issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society, also found that most providers would not offer transplants to patients with advanced age, those severely obese, or with lifetime imprisonment.
"For patients with end-stage liver disease, transplantation is the only treatment option to extend life," explains lead investigator Dr. Josh Levitsky from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Ill. "With donated livers in such short supply, selecting candidates becomes an ethical exercise for transplant specialists who must balance equal access to transplantation with graft and patient survival."
Currently, the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) is used to measure the severity of liver disease. The MELD score provides transplant providers with standardized criteria to allocate donated livers. However, the authors point out that subjective assessment of the candidates' medical and psychosocial characteristics could influence the providers' selection process. Medical evidence shows that controversial characteristics such as alcohol abuse, HIV status, obesity, or advanced age may impact allocation, leading to an inequity among patients being waitlisted.
To further understand the ethics involved in selecting transplant candidates, Dr. Levitsky and colleagues sent an online survey to hepatologists, surgeons, psychiatrists and social workers at 102 liver transplant centers across the U.S. Responses were received from 251 providers who answered questions regarding their opinions of characteristics that could prevent patients from receiving a liver transplant.
The majority of responders were male (71%), between 41 and 60 years of age (68%) and mainly white (77%). The three characteristics ranked most controversial were incarceration, marijuana use, and psychiatric diagnoses. Responses from transplant providers indicate that 63% would not waitlist patients 80 years or older, 57% would not transplant patients with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 45 kg/m2, and 55% specified incarceration with lifetime sentence a contraindication to liver transplantation.
Furthermore, less than half of the providers reported their centers had written policies regarding controversial characteristics that would prevent some patients from receiving liver transplants. "We found significant variation in provider opinions of criteria that are contraindications for liver transplantation, which may be why many centers do not have formal policies for selecting candidates with questionable characteristics," concludes Dr. Levitsky. "Standardized eligibility criteria, supported by evidence-based data of outcomes, are necessary to develop formal policies for selecting controversial candidates for liver transplantation."
###
This study is published in Liver Transplantation. Media wishing to receive a PDF of the articles may contact sciencenewsroom@wiley.com.
Full citation: "A National Survey of Provider Opinions on Controversial Characteristics of Liver Transplant Candidates." Katharine Secunda, Elisa J. Gordon, Min W. Sohn, Laura A. Shinkunas, Lauris C. Kaldjian, Michael D. Voigt and Josh Levitsky. Liver Transplantation; (DOI: 10.1002/lt.23581) Print Issue Date: April, 2013.
URL: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1022/lt.23581
Author Contact: Media wishing to speak with Dr. Levitsky may contact Colleen Sheehan with Northwestern Memorial Hospital at csheehan@nmh.org or at +1-312-926-7769.
About the Journal
Liver Transplantation is published by Wiley on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society. Since the first application of liver transplantation in a clinical situation was reported more than twenty years ago, there has been a great deal of growth in this field and more is anticipated. As an official publication of the AASLD and the ILTS, Liver Transplantation delivers current, peer-reviewed articles on surgical techniques, clinical investigations and drug research the information necessary to keep abreast of this evolving specialty. For more information, please visit http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/livertransplantation
About Wiley
Wiley is a global provider of content-enabled solutions that improve outcomes in research, education, and professional practice. Our core businesses produce scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, reference works, books, database services, and advertising; professional books, subscription products, certification and training services and online applications; and education content and services including integrated online teaching and learning resources for undergraduate and graduate students and lifelong learners.
Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa, JWb), has been a valued source of information and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations. Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Peace. Wiley's global headquarters are located in Hoboken, New Jersey, with operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia. The Company's website can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Impact Fashion Strategies For The Fashion Maven In Everyone
Is fashion your thing? Or are you currently a bit behind in this particular aspect of your life? In either case, there will almost always be more to learn about fashion. Carry on reading to get more excellent fashion advice.
Develop a style that is your own. It is possible to follow what you learn, or you can create your own style. Consider the leap, and you will be glad you probably did.
Don?t forget the necessity of accessorizing. Dated outfits may be updated by using accessories. Belts, hats, jewelry, purses, shoes and socks are common important areas of creating a special outfit that really works to your style. Ensure that you keep in mind overall picture while dressing yourself.
Expres your own personality using the clothes you wear. It is rather common for anyone to try to wear trendy fashions even if they don?t compliment the patient. Entice your attributes to check your very best during the day. It makes no difference when your particular style is classic or grunge, be genuine.
Foundation garments are the basis of all the good fashion. Pick a quality bra that offers support and matches your personal style. Underwear is supposed to provide you with support and create a smooth fit. There are a few great undergarments offered to slim you and disguise problems, so you can look good.
Carry along a small sewing kit inside your purse therefore you will always be prepared for an emergency. When you have a minor wardrobe malfunction, you?ll have the ability to repair it on the spot. In case you are prepared for problems, you are able to avoid having any embarrassing moments and correct minor problems when they arise.
You could be fashionable and quirky at the same time. Ruffle the hair, wear an open shirt or wear mismatched shoes. Nobody looks perfect, so if your style features a little chaos, your specific style can make you stand out.
Can you wear glasses? Lots of people splurge on the wardrobe, however get cheap glasses. When it is required to wear glasses, you might have another opportunity to showcase your fashion knowledge. Try variations and frames to accentuate the face, and you will soon love having glasses.
In case you are dealing with a trouble with frizzy hair, never rub it by using a towel after washing it. This can damage the hair to make it quite likely going to frizz. You need to hold it in the towel and press into it to have the water out. Afterwards, brush your hair gently.
Don?t thrust your mascara brush into and from the container. This may not bring about more mascara around the brush, rather it eventually ends up trapping more air in the container. This ups the odds of bacteria growing within it. Instead, move the wand around in the container when you?re trying to coat it.
Establish a monthly budget simply for clothing and products. This helps you build up your wardrobe without having to spend excessive. It?s possible to obtain numerous amounts of clothes while within a strict budget. You only need to be smart.
Research new the latest fashions online. You can find a lot of information by doing some research online. Should you be skeptical of the assisting you, try it out anyway.
Haircare products which offer moisturizer are the most useful to utilize on hair which goes frizzy with a humid day. This provides your own hair cuticles a protective layer and seals it off from excess moisture. Additionally, do not buy volumizing shampoo because this can deteriorate the standard of your own hair.
Whether you consider fashion a hobby or perhaps you are certainly not very knowledgeable about it, there will always be more to discover. Take advantage of the tips in the article above to take care of fashion and search great.
Thanks for reading. For more on online ladies fashion and cheap online fashion please see our website
Scientists say they have found a way to get a glimpse of people's dreams.
"Our results show that we can predict what a person's seeing during dreams," says Yukiyasu Kamitani, a researcher at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan.
Philosophers, poets and psychologists have long shared a fascination with dreams. But Jack Gallant, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley says solving the mystery of our dreams is one tough problem.
"In psychology and neuroscience there's been 100 years of argument about whether dreams are important or unimportant," says Jack Gallant, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley. "We don't really know, because we haven't had very good access to peoples' dreams."
Scientists don't have very good access, because they have to rely on how people talk about their dreams, often as those images are already slipping away.
"Because of the nature of dreams we find it very difficult to remember our dreams and to sort of describe them well," Gallant says. "So the idea is you could perhaps build a dream decoder that would allow you to inspect your dreams after you had them and sort of interrogate them and figure out what you were dreaming about."
Now Kamitani and his colleagues have come up with a decoding program that analyzes brain activity while people sleep.
To do it, Kamitani's team repeatedly scanned the brains of three volunteers just as they were starting to drift into dreams. "We focused on dream experience which can be detected just a few minutes after the sleep onset," Kamitani says.
The researchers awakened the study subjects more than 200 times to ask them to describe their dreams in detail so they could gather data on which patterns of brain activity meant what.
A decoded dream reconstructed in a video: "What I was just looking at was some kind of characters," the volunteer said. "There was something like a writing paper for composing an essay, and I was looking at the characters from the essay or whatever it was."
"Many of them were just about daily life in the office," Kamitani says. Others were bizarre or humorous, he says. One man dreamed he was having dinner with a famous Japanese movie star.
The scientists then did more brain scans while the volunteers were awake so they could tweak their program to characterize various patterns of brain activity. "We used that to train the decoder," Kamitani says.
In a paper being published in this week's issue of the journal Science, the researchers then showed they could often predict at least parts of what the subjects were dreaming.
"The results suggest that it may be possible to read out dream contents even when you don't remember just by looking at brain activity," Kamitani says.
Other scientists called the research a technological tour de force, and potentially a milestone toward starting to understand our dreams.
"In this field of dream decoding no one has managed to successfully do this before," Gallant says. "So this is not the final step down this road, it's the first step."
The ultimate goal would be a tool that could provide vivid, detailed representations of our dreams.
"If you could build the perfect dream decoder it would create a movie on your television screen and it would just replay your dreams," Gallant says. "It would replay all the actions that happened, the actors, the people involved and it would replay the sound."
We're nowhere near that yet. But the research reported in Science represents at least a small step toward revealing what we dream and perhaps someday why.
NEW YORK PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIETY & INSTITUTE: CHILD & ADOLESCENT ANALYSIS DIVISION DIALOGUES ON CHILDHOOD Marianne and Nicholas Young Auditorium 247 East 82nd St., between 2nd & 3rd, NY, NY 10028 212-879-6900 www.psychoanalysis.org www.nypsi.org
Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 8 ? 9:15 p.m.
Children at Every Stage:Healthy Eating or Eating Disorders?
Susan P. Sherkow, M.D.
Because there is nothing more intrinsic to development than eating, parents can become pre-occupied from the moment their child is born with how, what, and when to feed their baby. Often, the concerns about how, what, and when to feed their children persist throughout the developmental stages of toddlerhood, the grammar school years, and adolescence. What can experts teach us about how much control parents have in promoting healthy eating habits and avoid eating disturbances?
Q&A to follow.
?Dialogues on?? events are geared towards professionals and parents who are involved with the care of children in the school and home environments. Educators, school administrators, community leaders, grandparents and parents are welcome.
RSVP www.nypsi.org under Events and Lectures
Susan Sherkow serves on the child psychiatry faculties of both Mount Sinai College of Medicine and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In addition, she is a Training and Supervising Analyst at Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute as well as a Supervising Analyst and an Instructor in courses on Child and Adolescent Development at New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. For a number of years, Dr. Sherkow managed an Eating Disorders Developmental Nursery as part of her private practice of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. She has presented and published widely on the topics of ?normal eating,? ?feeding disorders,? and ?the intergenerational transmission of eating disorders from mothers to children?.
The ?Dialogues on?? series is made possible by a generous donation to NYPSI from The Poses Family Foundation. Additional funding was received from The James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation in honor of Ms. Themis Dimon.
Stay tuned for these upcoming Dialogues on:
Wednesday, May 8, 2013 8 ? 9:15 p.m. ?Dialogues on?the Impact of Learning Disorders on Psychological Development? with Josephine Wright, M.D.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013 8 ? 9:15 p.m. ?Dialogues on?Children?s Concepts about Death and Dying? with Pat Nachman, Ph.D.
For information about NYPSI training programs please visit us at
www.psychoanalysis.org or www.nypsi.org
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Review: Few effective, evidence-based interventions to prevent posttraumatic stress disorderPublic release date: 2-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tom Hughes tahughes@unch.unc.edu 919-966-6047 University of North Carolina Health Care
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. Millions of adults are exposed to traumatic events each year. Shortly after exposure many experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such as flashbacks, emotional numbing and difficulty sleeping.
Despite this high rate of exposure, little is known about the effectiveness of treatments aimed at preventing and relieving posttraumatic stress symptoms that adults may experience after such events, according to researchers at the RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center.
The article, published online today by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, summarizes the results of a systematic review of clinical interventions for adults exposed to at least one traumatic event such as war, a natural or manmade disaster, motor vehicle accidents, community violence, sexual assault or domestic violence. The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded the review.
After reviewing 2,563 abstracts, the investigators found 19 studies that met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Only two psychotherapeutic treatments showed possible benefits for adults exposed to trauma. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in particular was found to be more effective than another type of therapy called supportive counseling for individuals exposed to a traumatic event and who meet the diagnostic criteria for another trauma-related syndrome, Acute Stress Disorder. In addition, a type of therapy called collaborative care (care management, evidence-based pharmacologic interventions, and components of CBT) showed promise to reduce severity of symptoms based on one study.
"Unfortunately, because this body of evidence is so small, the generalizability of these findings is not known," said Catherine A. Forneris, PhD, ABPP, professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine. "Much more research is needed before we can make definitive conclusions.
Gerald Gartlehner, MD, MPH, of RTI International and Danube University, agrees, "Clinicians and patients should know have to be aware that while there are many treatments offered for the prevention of PTSD, many lack sufficient scientific evidence. not based on scientific evidence. Without sound studies, there is great uncertainty whether traumatized people actually receive the best care."
The authors recommend immediate attention from funding agencies, clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and other public health authorities to support further, well-designed research that can broaden the evidence base. They suggest that future studies expand their examination of the impact of trauma interventions to a wider range of outcomes such as risk-taking behaviors and suicidality and focus on longer-term indicators of development and functioning.
###
Media contacts:
Tom Hughes
Lisa Bistreich-Wolfe
919-316-3596 lbistreich@rti.org
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Review: Few effective, evidence-based interventions to prevent posttraumatic stress disorderPublic release date: 2-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tom Hughes tahughes@unch.unc.edu 919-966-6047 University of North Carolina Health Care
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. Millions of adults are exposed to traumatic events each year. Shortly after exposure many experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such as flashbacks, emotional numbing and difficulty sleeping.
Despite this high rate of exposure, little is known about the effectiveness of treatments aimed at preventing and relieving posttraumatic stress symptoms that adults may experience after such events, according to researchers at the RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center.
The article, published online today by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, summarizes the results of a systematic review of clinical interventions for adults exposed to at least one traumatic event such as war, a natural or manmade disaster, motor vehicle accidents, community violence, sexual assault or domestic violence. The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded the review.
After reviewing 2,563 abstracts, the investigators found 19 studies that met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Only two psychotherapeutic treatments showed possible benefits for adults exposed to trauma. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in particular was found to be more effective than another type of therapy called supportive counseling for individuals exposed to a traumatic event and who meet the diagnostic criteria for another trauma-related syndrome, Acute Stress Disorder. In addition, a type of therapy called collaborative care (care management, evidence-based pharmacologic interventions, and components of CBT) showed promise to reduce severity of symptoms based on one study.
"Unfortunately, because this body of evidence is so small, the generalizability of these findings is not known," said Catherine A. Forneris, PhD, ABPP, professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine. "Much more research is needed before we can make definitive conclusions.
Gerald Gartlehner, MD, MPH, of RTI International and Danube University, agrees, "Clinicians and patients should know have to be aware that while there are many treatments offered for the prevention of PTSD, many lack sufficient scientific evidence. not based on scientific evidence. Without sound studies, there is great uncertainty whether traumatized people actually receive the best care."
The authors recommend immediate attention from funding agencies, clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and other public health authorities to support further, well-designed research that can broaden the evidence base. They suggest that future studies expand their examination of the impact of trauma interventions to a wider range of outcomes such as risk-taking behaviors and suicidality and focus on longer-term indicators of development and functioning.
###
Media contacts:
Tom Hughes
Lisa Bistreich-Wolfe
919-316-3596 lbistreich@rti.org
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 4-Apr-2013
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