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On This Day … 28 August [2022]

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People (Births)

  • 1903 – Bruno Bettelheim, Austrian-American psychologist and author (d. 1990).

People (Deaths)

  • 1757 – David Hartley, English psychologist and philosopher (b. 1705).

Bruno Bettelheim

Bruno Bettelheim (28 August 1903 to 13 March 1990) was an Austrian-born psychologist, scholar, public intellectual and writer who spent most of his academic and clinical career in the United States. An early writer on autism, Bettelheim’s work focused on the education of emotionally disturbed children, as well as Freudian psychology more generally. In the US, he later gained a position as professor at the University of Chicago and director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School for Disturbed Children, and after 1973 taught at Stanford University.

Bettelheim’s ideas, which grew out of those of Sigmund Freud, theorized that children with behavioural and emotional disorders were not born that way, and could be treated through extended psychoanalytic therapy, treatment that rejected the use of psychotropic drugs and shock therapy. During the 1960s and 1970s he had an international reputation in such fields as autism, child psychiatry, and psychoanalysis.

Much of his work was discredited after his death due to fraudulent academic credentials, allegations of patient abuse, accusations of plagiarism, and lack of oversight by institutions and the psychological community.

David Hartley

David Hartley FRS (18 June 1705 to 28 August 1757) was an English philosopher and founder of the Associationist school of psychology.

On This Day … 26 August [2022]

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People (Deaths)

  • 1910 – William James, American psychologist and philosopher (b. 1842).

William James

William James (11 January 1842 to 26 August 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the late 19th century, one of the most influential philosophers of the United States, and the “Father of American psychology”.

Along with Charles Sanders Peirce, James established the philosophical school known as pragmatism, and is also cited as one of the founders of functional psychology. A Review of General Psychology analysis, published in 2002, ranked James as the 14th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century. A survey published in American Psychologist in 1991 ranked James’s reputation in second place, after Wilhelm Wundt, who is widely regarded as the founder of experimental psychology. James also developed the philosophical perspective known as radical empiricism. James’s work has influenced philosophers and academics such as Émile Durkheim, W.E.B. Du Bois, Edmund Husserl, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hilary Putnam, Richard Rorty, and Marilynne Robinson.

Born into a wealthy family, James was the son of the Swedenborgian theologian Henry James Sr. and the brother of both the prominent novelist Henry James and the diarist Alice James. James trained as a physician and taught anatomy at Harvard, but never practiced medicine. Instead he pursued his interests in psychology and then philosophy. He wrote widely on many topics, including epistemology, education, metaphysics, psychology, religion, and mysticism. Among his most influential books are The Principles of Psychology, a ground-breaking text in the field of psychology; Essays in Radical Empiricism, an important text in philosophy; and The Varieties of Religious Experience, an investigation of different forms of religious experience, including theories on mind-cure.

What is Pharmaceutical Care?

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Introduction

Pharmaceutical care is the direct, responsible provision of medication-related care for the purpose of achieving definite outcomes that improve a patient’s quality of life.

Definition

Hepler and Linda Strand’s definition is the most well-known definition for pharmaceutical care, coming from their article ‘Opportunities and responsibilities in pharmaceutical care’ from 1990. This was a landmark paper because it marked the start of the international movement to make pharmaceutical care more visible, and get the term and the type of care implemented in hospital and community pharmacy practice. During the following years both authors worked to make the concept applicable in practice.

Another definition reads: Pharmaceutical care is the direct or indirect responsible provision of drug therapy for the purpose of achieving the elimination or reduction of a patient’s symptoms; arresting or slowing of a disease process; or preventing a disease.

In 2013, a European organisation, the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE), created a new definition that could satisfy experts from a multitude of countries. After a review of existing definitions, a number of options were presented to the participants and in a one-day meeting consensus on a definition was reached:

Pharmaceutical Care is the pharmacologist/pharmacist’s contribution to the care of individuals in order to optimise medicines use and improve health outcomes.

Goal

The ultimate goal of pharmaceutical care (optimise medicines use and improving health outcomes) exists in all practice settings and in all cultures where medicines are used. It involves two major functions:

  • Identifying potential and manifest problems in the pharmacotherapy (DRPs); and then
  • Resolving the problems and preventing the potential problems from becoming real for the patient and their therapy outcomes.

This should preferably be done together with other health care professionals and the patient through a review of the medication (and diseases) and subsequent counselling and discussions.

Refer To

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_care >; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

What is the Classification of Pharmaco-Therapeutic Referrals?

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Introduction

The Classification of Pharmaco-Therapeutic Referrals (CPR) is a taxonomy focused on defining and grouping together situations requiring a referral from pharmacists to physicians (and vice versa) regarding the pharmacotherapy used by the patients. It has been published in 2008. It is bilingual: English/Spanish (Clasificación de Derivaciones Fármaco-terapéuticas).

It is a simple and efficient classification of pharmaco-therapeutic referrals between physicians and pharmacists permitting a common inter-professional language. It is adapted to any type of referrals among health professionals, and to increase its specificity it can be combined with ATC codes, ICD-10, and ICPC-2 PLUS.

It is a part of the MEDAFAR Project, whose objective is to improve, through different scientific activities, the coordination processes between physicians and pharmacists working in primary health care.

Supporting Institutions

  • Pharmaceutical Care Foundation of Spain (Fundación Pharmaceutical Care España).
  • Spanish Society of Primary Care Doctors (Sociedad Española de Médicos de Atención Primaria) (SEMERGEN).

Authors

  • Raimundo Pastor Sánchez (Family practice, “Miguel de Cervantes” Primary Health Centre SERMAS Alcalá de Henares – Madrid – Spain).
  • Carmen Alberola Gómez-Escolar (Pharmacist, Vice-President Fundación Pharmaceutical Care España).
  • Flor Álvarez de Toledo Saavedra (Community pharmacist, Past-President Fundación Pharmaceutical Care España).
  • Nuria Fernández de Cano Martín (Family practice, “Daroca” Primary Health Centre SERMAS Madrid – Spain).
  • Nancy Solá Uthurry (Doctor in Pharmacy, Fundación Pharmaceutical Care España).

Structure

It is structured in 4 chapters (E, I, N, S) and 38 rubrics. The terminology used follows the rules of ICPC-2.

Each rubric consists in an alphanumeric code (the letter corresponds to the chapters and the number to the component) and each title of the rubric (the assigned name) is expressed and explained by:

  • A series of terms related with the title of the rubric.
  • A definition expressing the meaning of the rubric.
  • A list of inclusion criteria and another list with exclusion criteria to select and qualify the contents corresponding to a rubric.
  • Some example to illustrate every term.

It also includes a glossary of 51 terms defined by consensus, an alphabetical index with 350 words used in the rubrics; and a standardised model of inter-professional referral form, to facilitate referrals from community pharmacists to primary care physicians.

Classification of Pharmaco-Therapeutic Referrals MEDAFAR

E. Effectiveness/Efficiency

  • E 0. Effectiveness / Efficiency, unspecified.
  • E 1. Indication.
  • E 2. Prescription and dispensing conditions.
  • E 3. Active substance / excipient.
  • E 4. Pharmaceutical form / how supplied.
  • E 5. Dosage.
  • E 6. Quality.
  • E 7. Storage.
  • E 8. Consumption.
  • E 9. Outcome.

I. Information/Health Education

  • I 0. Information / health education, unspecified.
  • I 1. Situation / reason for encounter.
  • I 2. Health problem.
  • I 3. Complementary examination.
  • I 4. Risk.
  • I 5. Pharmacological treatment.
  • I 6. No pharmacological treatment.
  • I 7. Treatment goal.
  • I 8. Socio-healthcare system.

N. Need

  • N 0. Need, unspecified.
  • N 1. Treatment based on symptoms and/or signs.
  • N 2. Treatment based on socio-economic-work issues.
  • N 3. Treatment based on public health issues.
  • N 4. Prevention.
  • N 5. Healthcare provision.
  • N 6. Complementary test for treatment control.
  • N 7. Administrative activity.
  • N 8. On patient request (fears, doubts, wants).

S. Safety

  • S 0. Safety, unspecified.
  • S 1. Toxicity.
  • S 2. Interaction.
  • S 3. Allergy.
  • S 4. Addiction (dependence).
  • S 5. Other side effects.
  • S 6. Contraindication.
  • S 7. Medicalisation.
  • S 8. Non-regulate substance.
  • S 9. Data / confidentiality.

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Pharmaco-Therapeutic_Referrals >; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

On This Day … 24 August [2022]

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People (Births)

  • 1915 – James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Bradley Sheldon), American psychologist and science fiction author (d. 1987).
  • 1923 – Arthur Jensen, American psychologist and academic (d. 2012).

People (Deaths)

  • 2004 – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-American psychiatrist and academic (b. 1926).

James Tiptree Jr.

Alice Bradley Sheldon (born Alice Hastings Bradley; 24 August 1915 to 19 May 1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy author better known as James Tiptree Jr., a pen name she used from 1967 to her death. It was not publicly known until 1977 that James Tiptree Jr. was a woman. From 1974 to 1985 she also used the pen name Raccoona Sheldon. Tiptree was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012.

Tiptree’s debut story collection, Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home, was published in 1973 and her first novel, Up the Walls of the World, was published in 1978. Her other works include 1973 novelette “The Women Men Don’t See”, 1974 novella “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”, 1976 novella “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?”, 1985 novel Brightness Falls from the Air, and 1990 short story “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever”.

Arthur Jensen

Arthur Robert Jensen (24 August 1923 to 22 October 2012) was an American psychologist and writer. He was a professor of educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen was known for his work in psychometrics and differential psychology, the study of how and why individuals differ behaviourally from one another.

He was a major proponent of the hereditarian position in the nature and nurture debate, the position that genetics play a significant role in behavioural traits, such as intelligence and personality. He was the author of over 400 scientific papers published in refereed journals and sat on the editorial boards of the scientific journals Intelligence and Personality and Individual Differences.

Jensen was controversial, largely for his conclusions regarding the causes of race-based differences in IQ. A 2019 study found him to be the most controversial intelligence researcher among 55 persons covered.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (08 July 1926 to 24 August 2004) was a Swiss-American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies, and author of the internationally best-selling book, On Death and Dying (1969), where she first discussed her theory of the five stages of grief, also known as the “Kübler-Ross model”.

Kübler-Ross was a 2007 inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, was named by Time as one of the “100 Most Important Thinkers” of the 20th century and was the recipient of nineteen honorary degrees. By July 1982, Kübler-Ross taught 125,000 students in death and dying courses in colleges, seminaries, medical schools, hospitals, and social-work institutions. In 1970, she delivered an Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard University on the theme On Death and Dying.

Research: Partnership History and Mental Health over Time

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Study Objective

To describe the mental health of men and women with differing histories of partnership transitions.

Design

Data from nine waves of the British Household Panel Survey, a stratified general population sample, were used to calculate age standardised ratios and 95% confidence intervals for mean General Health Questionnaire scores for groups with different partnership transition histories.

Participants

2,127 men and 2,303 women aged under 65 who provided full interviews at every survey wave.

Main Results

Enduring first partnerships were associated with good mental health. Partnership splits were associated with poorer mental health, although the reformation of partnerships partially reversed this. Cohabiting was more beneficial to men’s mental health, whereas marriage was more beneficial to women’s mental health. The more recently a partnership split had occurred the greater the negative outcome for mental health. Women seemed more adversely affected by multiple partnership transitions and to take longer to recover from partnership splits than men. Single women had good mental health relative to other women but the same was not true for single men relative to other male partnership groups.

Conclusions

Partnership was protective of mental health. Mental health was worse immediately after partnership splits, and the negative outcomes for health were longer lasting in women. Future work should consider other factors that may mediate, confound, or jointly determine the relation between partnership change and health.

Reference

Willitts, M., Benzeval, M. & Stansfield, S. (2004) Partnership History and Mental Health Over Time. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 58(1), pp.53-58. https://jech.bmj.com/content/58/1/53.short.

Risk Communication & Assessment: Are Meteorologists Superior to Psychologists/Psychiatrists?

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Abstract

Meteorology is often thought of as a field with highly developed techniques for forecasting rare and severe events. Risk assessment of another type of rare and severe event – violence to others – occurs in mental health law. The analogy between these 2 forms of risk assessment is explored in this article. How meteorologists go about assessing the risk of harmful weather is described. Implications from the meteorological analogy are drawn for 1 aspect of violence prediction that is routinely ignored in mental health law: the communication of risk “forecasts.”

Reference

Monahan, J. & Steadman, H.J. (1996) Violent Storms and Violent People: How Meteorology can Inform Risk Communication in Mental Health Law. American Psychologist. 51(9), pp.931-938. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.51.9.931.

You can read a free copy of the article here.

On This Day … 23 August [2022]

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People (Births)

  • 1974 – Roberto Assagioli, Italian psychiatrist and author (b. 1888).

People (Deaths)

  • 1989 – R.D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist and author (b. 1927).
  • 2013 – William Glasser, American psychiatrist and author (b. 1925).

Roberto Assagioli

Roberto Assagioli (27 February 1888 to 23 August 1974) was an Italian psychiatrist and pioneer in the fields of humanistic and transpersonal psychology.

Assagioli founded the psychological movement known as psychosynthesis, which is still being developed today by therapists and psychologists who practice the psychological methods and techniques he developed. His work, including two books and many monographs published as pamphlets, emphasized the possibility of progressive integration (that is, synthesis) of the personality.

R.D. Laing

Ronald David Laing (07 October 1927 to 23 August 1989), usually cited as R.D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness – in particular, the experience of psychosis.

Laing’s views on the causes and treatment of psychopathological phenomena were influenced by his study of existential philosophy and ran counter to the chemical and electroshock methods that had become psychiatric orthodoxy. Taking the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of personal experience rather than simply as symptoms of mental illness, Laing regarded schizophrenia as a theory not a fact. Though associated in the public mind with the anti-psychiatry movement, he rejected the label. Politically, he was regarded as a thinker of the New Left. Laing was portrayed by David Tennant in the 2017 film Mad to Be Normal.

William Glasser

William Glasser (11 May 1925 to 23 August 2013) was an American psychiatrist.

Glasser was the developer of W. Edwards Deming’s workplace ideas, reality therapy and choice theory. His innovations for individual counselling, work environments and school, highlight personal choice, personal responsibility and personal transformation. Glasser positioned himself in opposition to conventional mainstream psychiatrists, who focus instead on classifying psychiatric syndromes as “illnesses” and prescribe psychotropic medications to treat mental disorders.

Based on his wide-ranging and consulting clinical experience, Glasser applied his theories to broader social issues, such as education, management, and marriage, to name a few. As a public advocate, Glasser warned the general public of potential detriments caused by older generations of psychiatry, wedded to traditional diagnosing of patients as having mental illnesses (brain disorders) and prescribing medications. In his view, patients simply act out their unhappiness and lack of meaningful personal connection with important people in their life. Glasser advocated educating the general public about mental health issues; offering, post-modern frameworks for finding and following healthy therapeutic direction.

On This Day … 21 August [2022]

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People (Births)

  • 1921 – Reuven Feuerstein, Romanian-Israeli psychologist and academic (d. 2014).

People (Deaths)

Reuven Feuerstein

Reuven Feuerstein (21 August 1921 to 29 April 2014) was an Israeli clinical, developmental, and cognitive psychologist, known for his theory of intelligence which states “it is not ‘fixed’, but rather modifiable”.

Feuerstein is recognised for his work in developing the theories and applied systems of structural cognitive modifiability, mediated learning experience, cognitive map, deficient cognitive functions, learning propensity assessment device, instrumental enrichment programs, and shaping modifying environments. These interlocked practices provide educators with the skills and tools to systematically develop students’ cognitive functions and operations to build meta-cognition.

Feuerstein was the founder and director of the International Centre for the Enhancement of Learning Potential (ICELP) in Jerusalem, Israel. For more than 50 years, Feuerstein’s theories and applied systems have been implemented in both clinical and classroom settings internationally, with more than 80 countries applying his work. Feuerstein’s theory on the malleability of intelligence has led to more than 2,000 scientific research studies and countless case studies with various learning populations

Helen Bamber

Helen Rae Bamber OBE, née Helen Balmuth (01 May 1925 to 21 August 2014), was a British psychotherapist and human rights activist.

She worked with Holocaust survivors in Germany after the concentration camps were liberated in 1945. In 1947, she returned to Britain and continued her work, helping to establish Amnesty International and later co-founding the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. In 2005, she created the Helen Bamber Foundation to help survivors of human rights violations.

Throughout her life, Bamber worked with those who were the most marginalised: Holocaust survivors, asylum-seekers, refugees, victims of the conflict in Northern Ireland, trafficked men, women and children, survivors of genocide, torture, rape, female genital mutilation, British former Far East prisoners of war, former hostages and other people who suffered torture abroad. She worked in many countries including Gaza, Kosovo, Uganda, Turkey and Northern Ireland.

Rick Astley Songs & Mental Health!

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Okay, so you might be wondering how Rick Astley songs are related to mental health.

Well, I was listening to his Essentials album (2019) whilst doing my phys this morning (Army lingo for exercise) and two songs stood out.

  • Song 03: Beautiful Life.
  • Song 05: Cry for Help.

My interpretations:

  • Song 03: This is about giving chance a life and finding the positives, and using them to steer a clear path.
  • Song 05: This is about asking for help or noticing when someone needs help.