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At least 613 records · Page 34Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

[Pathogenesis and treatment of hypertension].

Many hypotheses have been advocated to explain the pathogenesis of essential hypertension: Guyton's autoregulation theory, the natriuretic hormone theory represented by de Wardner, the sympathetic nervous system theory, and the genetic theory etc. However, none of these theories alone explain the single etiology of hypertension and as stated in Page's Mosaic theory, complicated interaction of many factors has been implicated. We have performed a series of studies to evaluate the interaction between the pressor and depressor systems in relation to salt balances and found in general that hyperfunction of the pressor system and the reduced activity of the depressor systems exist in essential hypertension. Many substances also have been found to be involved in the blood pressure regulation and recently endothelin, a most potent pressor peptide which derives from endothelial cell, was discovered and synthesized by Yanagisawa et al. and its pathophysiological roles are now being extensively investigated. On the other hand, the development of many antihypertensive drugs with different modes of action has enabled us to individualize the treatment of hypertension. Further development of drugs with fewer adverse side effects, whether symptomatic or of abnormality in the clinical laboratory data, and which can maintain or even improve the quality of life is mandatory to pursue life-long treatment of hypertension for successful prevention of the fatal vascular complications.

Antihypertensive Agents↗
PubMed1989

[Effects of systemic thinking on the human concept of the therapist and his therapeutic work].

Some of the fundamental ideas of the so called Systemic Theory of the second generation, connected with the names of von Foerster, Maturana, Bateson, von Glasersfeld, Prigogine etc., are described, and the underlying idea of man is outlined in a few points. This is followed by some reflections as to the effects of this kind of thinking and this view of man on the therapist himself, his potentials, his limits, and so on his therapeutic actions.

Child↗
PubMed1982

Ecosystemic epistemology: critical implications for the aesthetics and pragmatics of family therapy.

This paper proposes that family therapy be responsive to both aesthetic and pragmatic considerations. Ecosystemic epistemology, a framework of ideas based on cybernetics, ecology, and systems theory, is suggested as a way of encompassing these different perspectives. Several critical ideas, often ignored by an overemphasis on pragmatics, involve: (a) the function of language in the relation between epistemology and clinical practice; (b) healthy and pathological family ecologies; (c) art and technique in therapy; and (d) the issue of manipulation.

Art↗
PubMed1999

Collaborative practice: a nursing perspective of the psychiatric interdisciplinary treatment team.

The article describes the evolution of collaborative practice across the continuum of care of nurse members of two psychiatric interdisciplinary treatment teams in an inpatient mental health care unit and a psychiatric partial hospital program. The benefits and difficulties of the process are examined in the context of Bowen's family systems theory and a patient case study. There is evidence that patients on these two units have benefited from the improved communication and coordinated care arising from collaborative practice. The sharing of expertise, insights, and knowledge has led to individual professional and personal growth for members of the treatment teams.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Community health nursing in the 1990s--risky business?

The atmosphere in which community health nurses (CHNs) work in city, suburban, and rural neighborhoods has become increasingly dangerous. Using Neuman's Systems Theory, four graduate students surveyed CHNs from three certified home health agencies to ascertain the real and perceived safety risks which these workers face daily. The response from all three agencies was similar as the nurses identified several situations in which they felt that their safety was compromised. As a result of the information gathered, a Community Risk-Reduction Plan was formulated.

Community Health Nursing↗
PubMed1997

Collaboration between hospital social work and pastoral care to help families cope with serious illness and grief.

The authors describe an educational program for hospital chaplains based on a partnership between pastoral care and social work in a teaching hospital. The goal of the program is to train chaplains to use social work principles to maximize families' capacity to negotiate a complex health care system, to solve problems in a health crisis, and to participate constructively on the health care team. Building on the two disciplines' shared values in person-centered, process-oriented approaches to care, the program introduces chaplain trainees to social work concepts of crisis intervention and family systems theory that they can apply in their interactions with families in their hospital and congregational practice. The approach taught in the program is illustrated in a case vignette describing a chaplain trainee's work with the family of a child treated for severe burns.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1982

The fight against fraud and abuse: analyzing constituent support.

Most efforts to combat fraud and abuse have relied on a punitive-deterrent approach, assuming that higher penalties and stricter enforcement will both punish present offenders and deter potential ones. Social science perspectives, particularly that of systems theory, suggest that a more effective approach is prevention grounded in an understanding of the constituencies involved. Constituency analysis can identify the constellations of social and political power that sustain existing opportunities for fraud and abuse, and those that will support countermeasures. Illustrations are drawn from the author's experience with New York State's attempt at reform in nursing homes and with efforts by the General Accounting Office and the Office of Management and Budget to combat fraud and abuse in federal programs.

Consumer Advocacy↗
PubMed1996

How do you communicate? Managing the change process.

Change is a difficult and emotionally charged issue in any organization. Clear, effective communication is essential to deal with people's fears and expectations. Multiple tools and schools of thought are available to increase organizational effectiveness, including systems theory, TQM, and change management. Physician managers are under the gun to incorporate these ideas and use them to effect organizational change. But the biggest challenge is how to bring the techniques home and put them to use, one-on-one with another person. How can you become a more effective communicator and change agent? The basis for win-win relationships revolves around being aware of how we communicate--not just our words, but our body language and tone of voice.

Communication↗
PubMed1992

Occupational therapy intervention with the alcoholic's family.

In this paper, the role of occupational therapy in the treatment of the family affected by alcoholism is explored. Literature is reviewed to analyze occupational therapists' current approaches for interacting with the family. A family-treatment approach, based on systems theory, is organized into three hierarchical treatment levels that accommodate the family's maladaptive roles. Family treatment methods thought most likely to produce the desired results are delineated according to treatment level. Treatment Level 1 focuses on reduction of maladaptive role behaviors of the family that enable the person's drinking. At Treatment Level 2, family members are taught coping skills that weaken their reliance on maladaptive roles. Emotional development is stimulated at Treatment Level 3 through confrontation of continued use of maladaptive roles.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

Psychotherapy with schizophrenics in team groups: a systems model.

This paper focuses on the treatment of patients with schizophrenic disorders employing the Team Group model. The advantages and disadvantages of the Team Group are presented. Systems theory and principles of group development are applied as a basis for understanding the dynamics of the group in the context at the acute psychiatric unit. Particular problems encountered in treating patients with schizophrenic disorders in this setting are presented. These include: (1) issues of therapist style and technique, (2) basic psychopathology of the schizophrenic disorders, and (3) phase-specific problems associated with the dynamics of the group. Recommendations for therapist interventions are made that may better integrate these patients into the Team Group.

Group Processes↗
PubMed2006

On indeterminism, chaos, and small number particle systems in the brain.

This paper presents rational, theoretical, and empirical grounds for doubting the principle of determinism in nature and in the brain, and discusses implications of this for free will and the chaos model of the brain. Small number particle systems are practically indeterministic and may be intrinsically indeterministic. Determinism in nature has often been taken to preclude free will. Strict determinism is a concept frequently applied to systems theory, establishing, e.g., the uniqueness of state-space trajectories. In order to consider determinism as a law of nature, however, one must be able to subject it to empirical tests. Presently, one is not able to and whether this can be shown to enable free will or not is not clear. It does remove, at least for the present, determinism itself as a rationale for precluding free will. The work partially supports the chaos model, but weakens the computational computer metaphor of brain function.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Immunology and disease control: a systems approach.

The application of system theory (or more precisely, differential equations) to immunology and disease, in general, is presented here. Particular results from U.S.-Russian research collaboration depict the potential role of such systematic analysis for more effective health care and disease control. In particular, some emphasis is given to control of influenza. After a brief systematic overview of immunology, a simple infectious disease model is developed to explain four basic forms of disease: subclinical, acute, lethal and chronic. Then, disease treatment is studied.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1996

[Evaluation of stress at the workplace: systemic approach].

According to Functional Systems Theory suggested by P.K.Anokhin, the authors assessed physiologic parameters of workers at the workplace in accordance with results of occupational activity portions. Correlation between pulse and breathing rates appeared to be an objective criterion of emotional stress and fatigue. The specific experiments on animals and observations of workers in real industrial conditions revealed depression of correlation coefficient "Pulse Rate-Breathing Rate" in emotional stress. That coefficient appeared to be significantly lower in beginners and poorly trained subjects if compared to qualified professionals and well trained workers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Psychoneuroimmunology and cancer: an integrated review.

The new field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) studies the measurable interaction between psychological and physiological processes. Specifically, PNI is the study of the intricate interaction of consciousness (psycho), central nervous system (neuro), and the body's defense against external infection and aberrant cell division (immunology). Over the last 30 years, the body of knowledge in PNI has emerged and in the last 10 years has flourished. PNI has many implications for clinical nursing practice. This study provides supportive empirical evidence to systems theories, which have played a major role in nursing's attempt to comprehend the interaction between the mind and the body. Nurses are ideal candidates to take a lead in this new field because it reinforces the holistic perspective which is the essence and uniqueness of our discipline. Although a variety of clinical populations have been used in PNI research, the scope of this integrated review will be limited to PNI and cancer. Research studies addressing psychosocial variables' effect on aetiology, response to treatment, immunocompetence and overall survival in the oncology population will be examined.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Linear systems approach to analysis of complex dynamic behaviours in biochemical networks.

Central functions in the cell are often linked to complex dynamic behaviours, such as sustained oscillations and multistability, in a biochemical reaction network. Determination of the specific mechanisms underlying such behaviours is important, e.g. to determine sensitivity, robustness, and modelling requirements of given cell functions. In this work we adopt a systems approach to the analysis of complex behaviours in intracellular reaction networks, described by ordinary differential equations with known kinetic parameters. We propose to decompose the overall system into a number of low complexity subsystems, and consider the importance of interactions between these in generating specific behaviours. Rather than analysing the network in a state corresponding to the complex non-linear behaviour, we move the system to the underlying unstable steady state, and focus on the mechanisms causing destabilisation of this steady state. This is motivated by the fact that all complex behaviours in unforced systems can be traced to destabilisation (bifurcation) of some steady state, and hence enables us to use tools from linear system theory to qualitatively analyse the sources of given network behaviours. One important objective of the present study is to see how far one can come with a relatively simple approach to the analysis of highly complex biochemical networks. The proposed method is demonstrated by application to a model of mitotic control in Xenopus frog eggs, and to a model of circadian oscillations in Drosophila. In both examples we are able to identify the subsystems, and the related interactions, which are instrumental in generating the observed complex non-linear behaviours.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Metabolic pathways reconstruction by frequency and amplitude response to forced glycolytic oscillations in yeast.

The hypothesis that frequency and amplitude response can be used in a complicated metabolic pathway kinetics model for optimal parameter estimation, as speculated by its successful prior usage for a mechanical oscillator and a heterogeneous chemical system, is tested here. Given the complexity of the glycolysis model of yeast chosen, this question is limited to three kinetics parameters of the 87 in the in vitro model developed in the literature. The direct application of the approach, used with the uninformed selection of operating conditions for the oscillation of external glucose concentration, led to miring the data assimilation process in local minima. Application of linear systems theory, however, identified two natural resonant frequencies that, when excited by external forced oscillations of the same frequency, result in the expression of many harmonics in the Fourier spectra, that is, information-rich experiments. A single such information-rich experiment at one of the resonant frequencies was sufficient to break away from the local minima to find the optimum kinetics parameter estimates. The resonant frequencies themselves represent oscillation modes in glycolysis akin to those previously observed. Furthermore, operation of the bioreactor with large amplitude oscillations of glucose feed (25%) leads to enhanced ethanol average yield by 1.6% at the resonant frequency.

Bioreactors↗
PubMed2003

Linking changes in whole family functioning and children's externalizing behavior across the elementary school years.

This study used observational assessments of 57 2-parent families working and playing together when their eldest child was in kindergarten and again in Grade 4 to identify distinct patterns of family functioning derived from structural family systems theory for (a) cohesive, (b) separate, and (c) triangulated families. Little consistency in family type from early to middle childhood was indicated. No significant mean differences were found in teacher reports of children's externalizing behavior in their Grade 1 classrooms for children in cohesive or triangulated families. Fourth graders in triangulated families were seen as more aggressive at school than were their peers in cohesive or separate families. Changes in observed family functioning across a 4-year period (kindergarten to Grade 4) were also systematically linked to changes in teachers' ratings of children's externalizing behavior from Grades 1 to 4.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Managed care and critical pathway development: the joint replacement experience.

This article examines the economic, social, ethical, and political issues affecting total joint replacement patients in a managed care environment. Using general systems theory as a framework, it examines the interrelated historical events that have shaped the development of both joint replacement procedures and managed care, and discusses the extent to which these two phenomena have been mutually influential. Specifically, the article examines the initial development, implementation, and continuing evolution of clinical pathways as an easily identified and relatively discrete manifestation of managed care for the joint replacement population. While the overall impact of managed care is beyond the scope of this presentation, it is hoped that a focus on the practical application of clinical pathways to joint replacement will allow some general principles to emerge that may be useful for both patients and practitioners operating in other aspects of the managed care environment.

Arthroplasty, Replacement↗