<p>This report follows the process of developing a website for cognitive behavioural therapy using the web development framework Symfony. The purpose was to find out if it is appropriate to use Symfony to ease development and maintenance of a website for therapy. For this to be true the framework had to be able to help create a website that was secure, user-friendly and easy to maintain.</p><p>The website was developed using several features of the framework including database abstraction, automatic code generation and URL-rewriting. A plugin was used to enhance the security by adding a complete solution for user authentication. The website was tested by using built-in test functionality of the framework that could run test on functions or emulating a browser visiting the website.</p><p>During the development the framework was tested and evaluated. The worst drawback turned out to be Symfonys steep learning curve, its security solution that only worked if the website was installed correctly and its slow loading time. Except those faults the framework performed well and was easy to use ones the initial learning time was over.</p><p> </p>

<p>The aim of this study was to evaluate if a population suffering from generalized anxiety disorder could benefit from an Internet based self-help treatment guided via email contact with a therapist. The treatment was based on established cognitive behavioral principles. It was hypothesized that significant improvements would be found as measured by eight self report questionnaires, absence of a clinical diagnoses and global clinical improvement. A total of 89 participants were included and 44 were randomized to a treatment condition and 45 were assigned to a waitlist control. The controls received similar treatment after the first post treatment assessment, conducted eight weeks after the beginning or treatment of the first group. The results showed statistically significant improvements for the treatment group. No changes were observed in the waiting-list control group, with the exception of a minor decrease in depression scores. Large effect sizes were found both within the treatment group and between the two groups in favor of the treatment. In conclusion, Internet treatment can be an efficacious format for treating generalized anxiety disorder.</p>

The aim of this study was to evaluate if a population suffering from generalized anxiety disorder could benefit from an Internet based self-help treatment guided via email contact with a therapist. The treatment was based on established cognitive behavioral principles. It was hypothesized that significant improvements would be found as measured by eight self report questionnaires, absence of a clinical diagnoses and global clinical improvement. A total of 89 participants were included and 44 were randomized to a treatment condition and 45 were assigned to a waitlist control. The controls received similar treatment after the first post treatment assessment, conducted eight weeks after the beginning or treatment of the first group. The results showed statistically significant improvements for the treatment group. No changes were observed in the waiting-list control group, with the exception of a minor decrease in depression scores. Large effect sizes were found both within the treatment group and between the two groups in favor of the treatment. In conclusion, Internet treatment can be an efficacious format for treating generalized anxiety disorder.

Ett nytt sätt att behandla panikångest i form av gruppterapi med KBT redovisas ur ett patientperspektiv. Gruppterapeutisk historia och beståndsdelar i KBT tas upp liksom skamkänslor, ”compliance” och ”holding”. Fem kvinnor och tre män ur olika terapigrupper och med olika bakgrund intervjuades om sina upplevelser. Deltagarnas förväntningar, erfarenheter av gruppsammansättning och gruppdynamik samt gruppens bidrag till personliga förändringar och insikter studerades. Materialet bearbetades genom begreppskategorisering. Farhågor och förväntningar på andra deltagare dominerade hos deltagarna inför terapin. Under terapins gång hade andra deltagare motiverat och uppvärderat varandras behandlingsarbete samt visat på att individen inte var ensam om sitt tillstånd. Ingen var helt fri från panikångest efter behandling men har kunnat återerövra delar av sitt liv. Alla planerade någon form av behandlingsfortsättning.

Kognitiv beteendeterapi (KBT) avser att hjälpa personer med problembeteenden så att fokus ligger på nuet och framtiden, vilka mål som bör sättas upp så att en positiv förändring kan ske. KBT syftar till att människor ska kunna leva i samhället utan begränsning och med bättre livskvalitet. Denna kvalitativa studie visar hur KBT kan användas för social fobi och depressionsproblematik. Fem deltagare intervjuades, två psykiatrisjuksköterskor och tre psykologer. Alla arbetar utifrån KBT och studien visar deras upplevelser av metoden samt hur behandlingarna kan se ut. De evidensbaserade metoderna inom KBT, beteendeaktivering för deprimerade patienter och exponering för patienter med social fobi, är en del av det som behandlarna arbetar med och som de uttrycker ger en positiv effekt hos patienter.

Schizophrenia is a complex and pervasive brain disorder that effects millions of people in the United States. There are three tiers of symptoms associated with the disorder, they include: positive symptoms, negative symptoms and thought disorders. The most common method of treatment for this disorder involves the use of antipsychotic medications, and while these medications have been shown to be effective in treating certain positive symptoms of the disorder, they have a tendency to be less effective in treating the negative cluster of symptoms and the thought disorders that can be highly debilitating for patients. The aim of this review was to determine the level of effectiveness of psychosocial treatments for the disorder, and in particular to look in to Cognitive- Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as an adjunctive method of treatment to be used in conjunction with medication. By performing searches using the PsycInfo, ERIC, EBSCO and Medline databases, the researcher was able to draw the conclusion that while there are some complications and areas of improvement in study construction, CBT can indeed be a helpful method of treatment for many patients. Importantly, CBT tends to be a very flexible treatment that can accommodate many different combinations of symptoms at varying levels or severity and stages of the illness. A discussion of a possible model of treatment that uses CBT was also undertaken to provide readers with a practical example of how this form of treatment can be used. / text

No description available.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a highly prevalent mental disorder that will affect 12.2% of Canadians over the course of their lifetimes, and 4.8% annually (Patten, et al., 2006). One of the most robust findings in the MDD literature is that the gold-standard treatments – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), and anti-depressant medications - are equal in their efficacy, and superior to placebo. However, it is unclear whether rates of remission for certain types of symptoms differ among treatments with theoretically different mechanisms. This study re-analyzed data from the Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program, which included 158 adults with MDD randomized to CBT, IPT, imipramine or placebo. We statistically derived 4 factors from the baseline Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. We hypothesized that the rate of remission of somatic factors (sleep and appetite) would be most rapid in the group receiving imipramine plus clinical management (IMI-CM), and that the rate of remission for cognitive-affective factors would be fastest in IPT and CBT. Hierarchical regression analyses predicted the sum of symptom scores corresponding to each factor using linear and quadratic time (measured in weeks). Treatment-by-time interactions were entered in a stepwise fashion. There were no significant interactions found in the appetite factor, suggesting that all therapies acted on these symptoms at similar rates. Consistent with hypotheses, IMI-CM produced more rapid remission in sleep symptoms compared to psychotherapy. Surprisingly, IMI-CM was also more rapid at relieving cognitive-affective symptoms. The results lend partial support to the idea that different treatments for MDD may target specific symptoms at different rates according to their underlying mechanisms of action. The findings present some exciting possibilities for elevating response rates through empirically-based “tailored treatments”. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-03 14:41:46.163

People who are diagnosed with ‘severe mental illness’ experience some of the most extreme and pervasive prejudice of all groups in Western society. How can this still be so? Although the term ‘mental illness’ is typically reserved for the most ‘serious’ of ‘cases’, psychiatry’s medical model is expanding into increasingly everyday realms. Thus, in concert with efforts to reduce social stigma, ‘mental illness’ is becoming ‘normal’. Nevertheless, ‘abnormality’ is a requirement of biopsychiatry and its offshoots; professionals require some ‘thing’ to remedy. How do ‘clinical’ professionals manage these tensions? And what alternatives are there to the pathologizing of such phenomena? Such concerns are considered in relation to my main thesis question: How do professionals represent ‘schizophrenia’ and hearing voices in theoretical texts, and how is that played out in the minutiae of therapy practices? Drawing on discourse analysis and conversation analysis, I critique professional categorizations of what are typically known as ‘schizophrenia’, ‘mental illness’, ‘patients’, ‘clients’, and ‘therapists’. My case in point is the experience of hearing voices - pathologically known as ‘auditory hallucinations’. ‘Delusional’ beliefs are also considered. In Part 1, accounts of voices as supernatural or ordinary phenomena, or as a ‘symptom’ of ‘severe mental illness’, are considered. Mainstream psychiatric and psychological texts are analyzed and critical alternatives are summarized. In Part 2, a selection of studies of interactions involving ‘severe mental illness’ are reviewed and ongoing analytic/methodological debates are discussed. A cognitivebehavioural therapy group for hearing distressing voices then provides data from ‘clinical’ talk-in-interaction for analysis. I focus on negotiations of ‘reality’ (the ordinary versus the psychiatric) and on what I take to be sanist prejudice-in-action. Part 3 relates findings from Part 2 to the context and findings of Part 1. There is also discussion of the positive implications of a more social and dialogical approach to understanding and otherwise dealing with the phenomena in question; for voice hearers, ‘schizophrenics’, and society at large.

ANDRADE, Patrícia Lopes. Qualidade higiênico-sanitária e quimica do leite e avaliação de impactos ambientais e sociais, após a utilização do kit embrapa de ordenha manual® para caprinos leiteiros. 2012. 74 f. Tese (doutorado em zootecnia)- Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza-CE, 2012. / Submitted by Elineudson Ribeiro (elineudsonr@gmail.com) on 2016-04-22T18:44:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_tese_plandrade.pdf: 1145709 bytes, checksum: d44b340ecf19cb05a3e501fce9ad0178 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by José Jairo Viana de Sousa (jairo@ufc.br) on 2016-05-27T17:51:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_tese_plandrade.pdf: 1145709 bytes, checksum: d44b340ecf19cb05a3e501fce9ad0178 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-27T17:51:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_tese_plandrade.pdf: 1145709 bytes, checksum: d44b340ecf19cb05a3e501fce9ad0178 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / The northeastern region of Brazil has great potential for the production of goat milk, and the quality of the milk produced is important to ensure consumers a safe food supply from the nutritional and hygienic-sanitary standpoint. Goat milk has high nutritional value and has a wide acceptance, especially in poor communities, since it is an important protein source in the diet of these people. The free and daily distribution of the goat milk, through government programs, aims to reduce nutritional deficiencies with priority given to children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of the Kit Embrapa de Ordenha Manual® for dairy goats in family farming, located in three regions of northeastern Brazil. This effect was evaluated in samples of goat milk on the composition, somatic cell count (SCC) and total bacterial count (TBC), and also the effect of SCC on the components, by correlation of the data. In parallel, we assessed the environmental and social impacts of the Kit through Sistema Ambitec-Agro. The Kit Embrapa de Ordenha Manual® was developed with the purpose of safe milk production through a low-cost technology that is available to family farmers, who are responsible for much of the production of goat milk in Brazil. Its validation in properties of Paraiba, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará brought positive results, as the average of TBC decreased 72% and the characteristics of milk composition were preserved. The evaluation of SCC effect on the milk components showed that there was a decrease in the percentage of lactose in milk as SCC increased. Among the samples analyzed, 64% had counts exceeding 1.000.000 CCS/mL. This highlights the need for the implementation of hygiene practices on the milking properties evaluated. The social and environmental impact was also positive, with average values of 1.07 and 0.9 in the ex post evaluation indexes for Environmental and Social Impact, respectively, showing the potential of this technology as part of a set of attitudes capable of improving the quality of goat milk produced in Brazil, as well as of providing gains to producers. / A região nordeste do Brasil tem grande potencial para a produção de leite de cabra, e a qualidade do leite produzido é importante para garantir a oferta de um alimento seguro do ponto de vista nutricional e higiênico sanitário aos consumidores. O leite de cabra tem alto valor nutricional e possui grande aceitação, especialmente em comunidades carentes, uma vez que constitui importante fonte proteica de alta qualidade na dieta dessas pessoas. A distribuição gratuita e diária do leite de cabra, por meio de programas governamentais, tem o objetivo de reduzir deficiências nutricionais com prioridade para as crianças, as gestantes e as nutrizes. O Kit Embrapa de Ordenha Manual® foi desenvolvido com o propósito de contribuir para a produção segura do leite, através de uma tecnologia de baixo custo, ao alcance dos produtores familiares, os quais são responsáveis por grande parte da produção de leite de cabra no Brasil. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito do Kit Embrapa de Ordenha Manual® para caprinos leiteiros em propriedades de agricultura familiar, localizadas em três regiões do nordeste Brasileiro. Durante o período de maio de 2010 a fevereiro de 2011, foram colhidas amostras de leite de cabra provenientes de rebanhos dos Estados do Ceará, Paraíba e Rio Grande do Norte para determinação da composição, contagem de células somáticas (CCS) e contagem bacteriana total (CTB). Avaliou-se também os impactos ambientais e sociais do Kit através do Sistema Ambitec-Agro. Após a implantação do Kit nas propriedades estudadas, observou-se uma diminuição média de 72,1% da CTB e preservação das características de composição do leite. A avaliação do efeito da CCS sobre os componentes mostrou que houve um decréscimo da porcentagem de lactose do leite conforme aumentou a CCS. Dentre as amostras analisadas, 64% apresentavam contagens superiores a 1.000.000 CCS/mL, antes da adoção do Kit, o que evidenciou a necessidade da implantação das Boas Práticas de ordenha nas propriedades avaliadas. A avaliação de impacto social e ambiental foi positiva, apresentando valores médios de 1,07 e 0,9 na avaliação ex-post para os índices de impacto Ambiental e Social, respectivamente, mostrando o potencial desta tecnologia como parte de um conjunto de atitudes capazes de melhorar a qualidade do leite de cabra produzido no Brasil, assim como proporcionar ganhos aos produtores.