Plos One
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Controlled Clinical Trial
Interictal neurocognitive processing of visual stimuli in migraine: evidence from event-related potentials.
Research has established decreased sensory habituation as a defining feature in migraine, while decreased cognitive habituation has only been found with regard to cognitive assessment of the relative probability of the occurrence of a stimulus event. Our study extended the investigation of interictal habituation in migraine to include cognitive processing when viewing of a series of visually-complex images, similar to those we encounter on the internet everyday. We examined interictal neurocognitive function in migraine from a habituation perspective, using a novel paradigm designed to assess how the response to a series of images changes over time. ⋯ For the controls, we found that the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP) ERP component elicited by the logos had no significant change across trial blocks. In contrast, in migraineurs we found that the LPP significantly increased in amplitude across trial blocks, an effect consistent with a lack of habituation to visual stimuli seen in previous research. Our findings provide empirical support abnormal cognitive processing of complex visual images across time in migraineurs that goes beyond the sensory-level habituation found in previous research.
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Chronic pain appears to be associated with brain gray matter reduction in areas ascribable to the transmission of pain. The morphological processes underlying these structural changes, probably following functional reorganisation and central plasticity in the brain, remain unclear. The pain in hip osteoarthritis is one of the few chronic pain syndromes which are principally curable. ⋯ When the patients were pain free after recovery from endoprosthetic surgery, a gray matter increase in nearly the same areas was found. We also found a progressive increase of brain gray matter in the premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area (SMA). We conclude that gray matter abnormalities in chronic pain are not the cause, but secondary to the disease and are at least in part due to changes in motor function and bodily integration.
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To evaluate the ability of a postnatal weight-gain algorithm (WINROP) to identify sight-threatening retinopathy of prematurity (ROP type 1) in a nation-based extremely preterm infant cohort. ⋯ WINROP, an online surveillance system using weekly weight gain, identified extremely preterm infants at risk for ROP type 1 requiring treatment at an early stage and with high sensitivity in a Swedish nation-based cohort.
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Race and ethnicity, typically defined as how individuals self-identify, are complex social constructs. Self-identified racial/ethnic minorities are less likely to receive preventive care and more likely to report healthcare discrimination than self-identified non-Hispanic whites. However, beyond self-identification, these outcomes may vary depending on whether racial/ethnic minorities are perceived by others as being minority or white; this perception is referred to as socially-assigned race. ⋯ Racial/ethnic minorities who reported being socially-assigned as white are more likely to receive preventive vaccinations and less likely to report healthcare discrimination compared with those who are socially-assigned as minority. Socially-assigned race/ethnicity is emerging as an important area for further research in understanding how race/ethnicity influences health outcomes.
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Comparative Study
Reasons for unmet need for child and family health services among children with special health care needs with and without medical homes.
Medical homes, an important component of U.S. health reform, were first developed to help families of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) find and coordinate services, and reduce their children's unmet need for health services. We hypothesize that CSHCN lacking medical homes are more likely than those with medical homes to report health system delivery or coverage problems as the specific reasons for unmet need. ⋯ CSHCN without medical homes were more likely than those with medical homes to report health system delivery or coverage reasons for unmet child health service needs. Attributable risk estimates suggest that if the 50% of CSHCN who lacked medical homes had one, overall unmet need for child health services could be reduced by as much as 35% and unmet need for family health services by 40%.