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Biomedical subjects

M D Cheatle

Publications and source records attributed to M D Cheatle.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

Goal setting as a predictor of return to work in a population of chronic musculoskeletal pain patients.

To assess prospectively the association between personal attributes, vocational factors, and the return to work outcome for patients with chronic, nonmalignant, musculoskeletal pain, we assessed return to work (RTW) motivation though an open-format listing of treatment goals in 59 chronic pain patients admitted to a university pain management program. Patients were then followed (average of 17.9 months) in the posttreatment period to determine whether they had in fact returned to employment. Results indicated that a number of pretreatment factors predicted future employment status in this patient population. Age, marital status, education and decreased length of unemployment were predictive of RTW outcome. Overall, RTW goal was the single best predictor of return to work outcome. In contrast, increased number of premorbid jobs, compensation status, patient's race and sex were not predictive. The present study suggests that the assessment of an individual's motivation as defined by goal-setting may be a key factor in predicting a favorable outcome in this typically refractory population of patients.

Adult↗

Quality of life assessment of patients with posttraumatic fracture nonunion, chronic refractory osteomyelitis, and lower-extremity amputation.

One hundred nine patients with long-bone fracture nonunion, chronic refractory osteomyelitis, and posttraumatic amputation were evaluated to assess the impact of chronic disability on the quality of life. The quality of life parameters were defined by a functional assessment instrument, the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scale (AIMS), and a Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS). A spouse PAIS self-report instrument was administered to assess the psychosocial adjustment of spouses or significant others. A final questionnaire was developed to determine the reasons, in order of their importance, for either continuing medical therapy or accepting amputation. The PAIS scores differed significantly between osteomyelitis patients and nonunion or amputation patients. The presence or absence of pain produced significant differences in AIMS and PAIS scores of nonunion and osteomyelitis patients. Subscale analysis of AIMS scores showed significant differences among the three groups with respect to health perception and scale of orthopaedic problem. The osteomyelitis patients were more severely affected than the nonunion or amputation patients. The PAIS was unable to detect any statistically significant differences in psychosocial adjustment of the spouses of patients in each of the three population groups. The most frequent reason for continuing medical and surgical management of nonunion and osteomyelitis was hopeful expectation for cure. The group who chose amputation did so in an attempt to put an end to the need for medical and surgical treatment. Differences in psychosocial and functional ability were related to disease diagnosis, pain, status of fracture healing, and timing of amputation. This study provides further insight into the quality of life experience for patients with long-term orthopaedic problems.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

The effect of chronic orthopedic infection on quality of life.

The patient with chronic orthopedic infection presents a unique challenge to the orthopedic surgeon. The orthopedic surgeon must not only possess an expertise in constantly evolving diagnostic and treatment techniques but also be able to identify numerous related problems and direct the patient in receiving the most appropriate treatment. This demands a commitment of time by the treating surgeon to the individual patient to properly assess the need for support, the extent of psychologic distress, the intensity of pain, and the requirement for medication management. The effective utilization of a multidisciplinary team of health care providers (e.g., specialists in infectious disease, physical medicine and rehabilitation, psychiatry, nursing, pharmacology) can provide an optimal treatment program for this multifaceted problem and maximize the potential for a favorable outcome.

Chronic Disease↗

Chronic low back pain, depression, and attributional style.

Twenty consecutive, chronic low back pain patients admitted to our pain treatment unit completed the Attributional Style Questionnaire (an instrument that detects a cognitive style that is correlated with, and that predicts, depression) and the Beck Depression Inventory. An age, sex, and education-matched group of normal subjects, a group of patients with asymptomatic essential hypertension, and a group of patients with end-stage renal disease receiving dialysis treatment served as controls. The majority of the chronic-pain and renal-dialysis patients had elevated depression scores, whereas none of the normal subjects or hypertensive patients were outside the nondepressed range. The Attributional Style scores of the pain and renal dialysis patients were significantly deviant from the normal control group, but no more so than those of the patients with hypertension. The results of this study suggest that individuals with a chronic medical condition, either symptomatic (chronic low back pain or renal disease) or asymptomatic (essential hypertension) in nature, develop an attributional style characteristic of depression. These data neither lend support nor refute the thesis that chronic pain syndromes are a variant of, or a masked, depression. Rather, this research implies that a more important question is what identifiable risk factors (for example, attributional style) predispose patients with chronic pain to develop a depressive illness.

Adult↗

Odor-aversion learning by rats following LiCl exposure: ontogenetic influences.

The influence of LiCl preexposure on odor-aversion conditioning produced by an odor-LiCl pairing was studied in rats 7-31 days old. LiCl preexposure interfered with the acquisition of the odor aversion in both young and old pups. The time course of this effect depended, however, on the age of the pups. It lasted much longer (over 24 hr) if pups 8-17 days old were preexposed to LiCl than if the pups were preexposed when 30 days old (less 12 hr). Alternative interpretations of these data were discussed, and it was suggested that the age-dependent differences in the time course of the LiCl preexposed effect may be determined in part by age-related differences in the rat's excretory processes that clear lithium from the circulatory system.

Aging↗

Ontogeny of second-order odor-aversion conditioning in neonatal rats.

In Experimental 1, rat pups 1, 3, 5, or 7 days old received a Phase 1 S1-US (Stimulus 1-unconditioned stimulus) pairing calculated to establish a first-order conditioned aversion to S1 (lemon scent). On the next day each pup received a Phase 2 S2-S1 pairing designed to establish a second-order aversion to S2 (orange scent). Pups at all ages displayed a first-order aversion to S1, but only pups given Phase 2 training when 6 or 8 days old displayed a second-order aversion to S2. Experiment 2 revealed that pups that received the S1-US pairing when 3 days old acquired an aversion to S2 if they were 6 days old when they received the S2-S1 pairing but not if they received the pairing when 4 days old. In Experiment 3, two Phase 2 treatments were compared. One was identical to that employed in Experiments 1 and 2: Pups 4 days old received a sequential exposure to S2 and S1. Another set of pups received a modified treatment: They were exposed first to S2 and then jointly to both S2 and S1. Only pups in the latter set displayed an aversion to S2. It is suggested that these results reflect developmental differences in the memory processes mediating the rat's experience with olfactory stimulation.

Animals↗

A role for conditioned stimulus duration in toxiphobia conditioning.

The effect of conditioned stimulus (CS) exposure duration on toxiphobia conditioning was investigated. When a relatively long (20--30 min) CS exposure was administered on the conditioning trial, rats subsequently displayed a reduced conditioned aversion in comparison with when CS exposure was relatively brief (5--10 min). This result was obtained in an odor-aversion learning task with neonatal rats as subjects (Experiments 1 and 2) and in a flavor-aversion learning task with adult rats (Experiment 3). This phenomenon was further investigated in the odor-aversion task by presenting neonates with two discrete 10-min exposures to the odor CS and by varying both the temporal proximity of the two CS presentations to each other and to the occurrence of the unconditioned stimulus (US). Two exposures to the CS reduced conditioning in comparison with a single exposure but only when the second CS presentation preceded US occurrence by at least 5 min (Experiments 4 and 5). Both nonassociative and associative interpretations of the data were discussed.

Age Factors↗

Odor-aversion learning in neonatal rats.

Two-day-old rats were exposed to a novel odor and injected with an illness-inducing drug, lithium chloride. When tested at 8 days of age, these pups avoided pine shavings scented with the odor, whereas control pups did not. These results imply that rat pups are capable of associative learning at a much earlier age than was thought possible.

Animals↗

Effects of repeated ambulatory ECG monitoring and relaxation practice on premature ventricular contractions.

Ten patients with premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) were studied to assess the effects of adaptation and relaxation practice on arrhythmia frequency. They had 48 hr of ambulatory ECG monitoring on three occasions: 1) at entry into the study; 2) 4 wk later, after no intervention; and 3) after 4 wk of practicing the relaxation response. Results showed a significant decrease in PVC frequency from the first to the second monitoring, i.e., before relaxation practice. Of eight patients who completed the third monitoring, only three showed a decline in PVC frequency below baseline levels. The group as a whole showed an increase in PVC frequency with relaxation practice, although this was not statistically significant. These findings suggest that there is an important adaptational effect to repeated ambulatory ECG monitoring in PVC patients--namely, a decrease in arrhythmia frequency. Relaxation practice did not produce any clear effect for the overall group.

Adaptation, Physiological↗