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Biomedical subjects

V Cairns

Publications and source records attributed to V Cairns.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Factors contributing to the length of general practice consultations.

Ten general practitioners in a study of general practice consultations were shown to differ significantly in the time they spent in their consultations. Patient demographic characteristics contributed little to differences in consultation time. Consultations in which (a) there was a diagnosis of psychological disorder, (b) the practitioner and the patients focused attention on psychosocial matters, and (c) psychotropic drugs were prescribed, were found to be associated with increased length of consultation time.

Family Practice↗
PubMed1973

Amygdalotomy.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Providing evidence of efficacy for a new drug.

There are many issues to consider when designing an efficacy package for drug registration. Generally in Europe and the United States, two or more confirmatory trials demonstrating efficacy (p < 0.025, one-tailed) of the test treatment versus a suitable control group must be conducted with a priori definition of a primary efficacy endpoint. Exceptions are possible, and there is always extensive discussion whenever less is proposed or more is required. Every aspect of the basic requirement can be questioned: number of trials; choice of control groups; selection of primary efficacy variables(s); levels of significance; one-tailed versus two-tailed test. These issues will be discussed, and justification is given when proposals are made for deviations from standard practice. Differences between Europe and the U.S. are discussed for certain disease entities. Because the assessment of the weight of evidence in favour of a drug effect is difficult to quantitate, if not impossible, no definitive guidance can be given that is suitable for all circumstances and countries.

Bias↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The stability of the symptom groupings in the Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale (IMPS).

A full set of data has been gathered on admission of 1654 inpatients and included information on all 90 items from the Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale (IMPS). The sample was divided into two by means of an odd-even split and principal component analyses with Varimax rotation as well as Ward hierarchical cluster analyses of symptoms were run on both subsamples. Comparisons of results were than made between the two subsamples, between the two methods of analysis, and with the studies of Lorr and Klett and Behrends et al. In general, earlier results concerning the structure of the symptom groupings have been confirmed. However, by comparing all the different sets of results, those symptom groupings that are particularly stable or unstable have been identified. In addition, comparisons have been made between the results from analyses using the full range of scores on the items and those using dichotomized scores in order to determine whether the use of different rating scales for different items has an effect on the resulting item groupings.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Alcohol consumption as a risk factor for high blood pressure. Munich Blood Pressure Study.

The Munich Blood Pressure Study (MBS), a 1980-81 cross-sectional study (with follow-up) of a random sample of 3198 Munich citizens aged 30-69 years (response rate 69%), revealed hypertensive blood pressure (BP) values in 17.7% of men and 10.7% of women (WHO criteria). One of the main goals of the MBS was to search for social, behavioral, and environmental risk factors for hypertension. The relationship between BP and five possible risk factors--alcohol consumption (g/day), cigarette smoking, oral contraceptive use, years of education, obesity (BMI)--has been examined. The major emphasis of this report is the relationship of alcohol consumption to BP. Multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were run controlling for both age and sex. All second- and third-order interactions between the independent variables were tested during a backward-stepping procedure. Alcohol consumption appeared as a significant main effect in many of the analyses. The coefficient of the alcohol variable ranged from 0.02 to 0.06 for men and women in the separate linear regression analyses for systolic and diastolic BP. Thus, for example, according to the model, the daily consumption of 1 liter of beer (40 g alcohol) may cause an increase in diastolic BP in women of 2.4 mm Hg.

Adult↗