Yes / This systematic review of reviews aims to investigate how brief interventions (BIs) are defined, whether they increase physical activity, which factors influence their effectiveness, who they are effective for, and whether they are feasible and acceptable. We searched CINAHL, Cochrane database of systematic reviews, DARE, HTA database, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Science Citation Index-Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network from their inception until May 2015 to identify systematic reviews of the effectiveness of BIs aimed at promoting physical activity in adults, reporting a physical activity outcome and at least one BI that could be delivered in a primary care setting. A narrative synthesis was conducted. We identified three specific BI reviews and thirteen general reviews of physical activity interventions that met the inclusion criteria. The BI reviews reported varying definitions of BIs, only one of which specified a maximum duration of 30 min. BIs can increase self-reported physical activity in the short term, but there is insufficient evidence about their long-term impact, their impact on objectively measured physical activity, and about the factors that influence their effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability. Current definitions include BIs that are too long for primary care consultations. Practitioners, commissioners and policy makers should be aware of this when interpreting evidence about BIs, and future research should develop and evaluate very brief interventions (of 5 min or less) that could be delivered in a primary care consultation. / This paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Programme Grants for Applied Research Programme (Grant Reference Number RP-PG-0608-10079). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. The funder had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, the writing of the manuscript, and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Thesis (Ed. S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Psychology, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [1], v, 61 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-42).

Det är vanligt förekommande att universitetsstudenterna i Sverige upplever psykisk ohälsa i form av stress. Hur individen påverkas av stress beror på förmågan att kunna hantera en stressfylld situation. Olika sätt att hantera en stressfylld situation benämns copingstrategier. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka förekomsten av stress och copingstrategier bland universitetsstudenter. Ett ytterligare syfte var att undersöka eventuella könsskillnader. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av en kvantitativ enkätundersökning som distribuerades online. De svenska versionerna av frågeformulären Perceived Stress Scale och Brief COPE användes som underlag. Respondenterna som deltog i studien bestod av 100 studenter varav 59 var kvinnor och 41 män. Resultatet visade att majoriteten av universitetsstudenterna upplevde stress, en del upplevde stress ofta och en del ibland. Copingstrategierna som studenterna använde sig av mest var planering, accepterande och aktiv coping. De copingstrategier som användes minst var uppgivenhet, religion och användning av alkohol eller droger. Könsskillnaderna som förekom i upplevd stress respektive val av copingstrategier var inte signifikanta. / It is common for university students in Sweden to experience mental illness in the form of stress. How the individual is affected by stress depends on the ability to handle a stressful situation. Different ways of dealing with a stressful situation are called coping strategies. The present study aimed to investigate the occurrence of stress and coping strategies among university students. A further aim was to examine possible gender differences. The study was conducted using a quantitative survey that was distributed online. The Swedish versions of the questionnaires Perceived Stress Scale and Brief COPE were used. The respondents who participated in the study consisted of 100 students, of whom 59 were women and 41 were men. The results showed that most university students experienced stress, some students experienced stress often and some sometimes. The coping strategies that students used the most were planning, acceptance and active coping. In contrast, the coping strategies that students used the least were behavioural disengagement, religion and the use of alcohol or drugs. The gender differences discovered in perceived stress and choice of coping strategies, respectively, were not significant.

Background: Prenatal alcohol consumption is one of the leading preventable causes of birth defects, including fetal alcohol syndrome and learning disabilities. Although there is strong evidence of the benefits of screening and alcohol brief interventions (ABIs) in reducing hazardous and harmful drinking among the primary care population, evidence of its effectiveness with the antenatal care population is limited. Nevertheless, the Scottish Government is incorporating an alcohol screening and ABI programme as part of the routine antenatal care provided to women in a bid to protect the health and safety of the unborn child and improve subsequent health and developmental outcomes. This research therefore seeks to increase understanding of the factors that are likely to influence the effectiveness of this recently implemented programme. It also aims to explore the extent to which contemporary issues such as change in guidelines regarding alcohol consumption during pregnancy influences perceptions and attitudes, and the possible implications of these on the screening and ABI delivery. Methods: The study described in this thesis employed a realistic evaluation methodology. Realistic evaluation is a theory-driven approach to investigating social programmes. It is concerned with hypothesising, testing and refining programme theories by exploring the interaction of contexts, mechanisms and outcomes. To identify the relevant screening and ABI programme theories, two separate systematic reviews, a critical review and four face-to-face interviews were undertaken with health policy implementers. The findings were used to construct context, mechanism and outcomes propositions. The propositions were then tested by conducting individual interviews with seventeen pregnant women and fifteen midwives, a further six midwifery team leaders were involved in a focus group discussion. A thematic approach using a hybrid of inductive and deductive coding and theme development informed the qualitative analysis. Results: In the context of uncertainties regarding the threshold of drinking that causes fetal harm, pregnant women reported that screening assessment helped them to reflect on their drinking behaviour and facilitate behaviour change. For women who drank at hazardous and harmful levels before attending the booking appointment, screening and ABI may be helpful in terms of eliciting behaviour change. However, they may not be very beneficial in terms of reducing harm to the fetus as it has been found that drinking during the first trimester poses the most risk to the fetus. Training and resources provided to midwives as part of the screening and ABI programme were found to be facilitating mechanisms that midwives indicated improved their skills and confidence. However, most of the midwives had not subsequently employed the motivational interviewing skills required for the ABI delivery, as many of the pregnant women reported that they reduced or abstained from alcohol consumption once pregnancy was confirmed. The outcome noted was that midwives confidence decreased leading to missed opportunities to appropriately deliver the ABI to eligible women. The small numbers of women being identified for ABI meant midwives rarely delivered the ABI. This negatively influenced midwives attitudes as they then accorded ABI low priority in their workload. Other disenabling mechanisms noted to be hampering the implementation of the screening and ABI initiative included midwives contending with competing priorities at the booking appointments, and the lack of adequate rapport between midwives and pregnant women at the booking appointment to discuss alcohol issues appropriately, leading to women providing socially desirable responses to screening questions. Conclusions: The findings of this study has generated greater explanations of the working of the screening and ABI programme in antenatal care setting and has provided transferable lessons that can be used by others intending to implement similar programmes in other settings.

The positive psychotherapy focused on for this study is Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). Insoo Kim Berg and Yvonne Dolan (2001) once described the essence of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) as the “pragmatics of hope and respect” (p. 1) and despite Berg and Dolan’s declaration of hope’s importance in SFBT, little process research has been published looking at the “pragmatics” of hope in SFBT practice. Hope is seen as a common factor in psychotherapy since the human relationship, also known as the therapeutic alliance, is a foundation of psychotherapy. Hope plays a significant role in every human interaction and it is seen as a common factor in human relationships. To begin to address this gap, a pilot study was conducted of an Insoo Kim Berg training recording, Irreconcilable Differences, in order to explore how she listened, selected and built hope in her work. Based on a SFBT technique focus, the preliminary results suggested Insoo Kim Berg builds hope relationally through the solution-building by working within the clients’ focus and their presenting problem. Four different yet interrelated hope phases in the SFBT solution building process were identified. To address this gap further, based on a SFBT stage focus, three cases by Insoo Kim Berg were analyzed in this study, Irreconcilable Differences, Over the Hump, and I’d Hear Laughter. The goal of this research was to demonstrate the how Berg listened, selected, and built hope with clients to validate her progression within and across the five SFBT solution-building stages, in all three cases through constant comparison, and to show how these findings are congruent with SFBT hopeful tenets. All with the intention of allowing the pragmatics of hope and respect to become more transparent for future SFBT practitioners. Findings suggested building hope appears to be a relational process to building solutions and is co-constructed. Berg demonstrates how she embodies a hopeful stance throughout the duration of therapy. Results show how Berg builds hope within and across her progression of the solution-focused brief therapy solution-building stages, utilizing SFBT techniques and processes, which all align with the foundational SFBT tenets.

L’industrie publicitaire est un travail quotidien de collaboration entre deux « hémisphères » distincts : l’un de nature commercial et l’autre de nature créatif. Des individus qui favorisent des aspects logiques et rationnels se doivent de collaborer avec des individus qui favorisent des aspects intuitifs et artistiques, ce qui suscite des tensions. Cette mise en relation s’opère au travers d’un processus, que nous nommerons processus de design visuel communicationnel car il permet de relier la communication au design, approche que nous adoptons dans ce mémoire. L’industrie publicitaire s’est dotée d’outils permettant de faciliter le processus de design visuel communicationnel, dont le brief créatif. Notre recherche propose d’observer la manière dont les « commerciaux » et les « créatifs » perçoivent leur travail quotidien en agence et comment le brief créatif est réquisitionné. Nous adoptons une posture interprétative pour tenir compte de la complexité du phénomène et nous mobilisons une série d’entrevues pour répondre à nos questions de recherche. Nos questions de recherche sont les suivantes : de quelle manière les « commerciaux » et les « créatifs » négocient-ils les tensions lors du processus de design visuel communicationnel? Quels rôles le brief créatif occupe-t-il au sein de ce processus? Les résultats nous renseignent sur les transformations et les innovations qui émergent des tensions entre les « commerciaux » et les « créatifs » et sur l’importance que revêtent les caractéristiques communicationnelles du brief créatif dans le cadre du processus de design visuel communicationnel. / The advertising industry involves a daily collaboration between two ways of thinking or two hemispheres: one of commercial nature and the other of creative nature. Rational and logical individuals must collaborate with intuitive and artistic individuals, and from this collaboration emerge various tensions. In the advertising industry, this relationship operates throughout a process of visual communication design. We chose to use the term visual communication design process because it illustrates our approach in this research, an approach that joins communication and design. The advertising industry has developed tools to facilitate the visual communication process: among them the creative brief. Our research proposes to observe how “commercials” and “creatives” in the industry perceive their day-to-day work and their use of the creative brief through a series of interviews. Our questions are: in which ways do the “commercials” and “creatives” negotiate the tensions that emerges from the visual communication design process? What are the roles of the creative brief throughout this process? Our findings illustrate the transformations and innovations that emerge from the tensions between “commercials” and “creatives” and highlight the importance of the communicational characteristics of the creative brief as part of the visual communication design process.

Patients with amnestic type of mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) are diagnosed mainly on the basis of performance in verbal memory tests. This thesis deals with the use of a nonverbal test called the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) for the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This research compared the performance of patients with clinical diagnosis of MCI (N=79) using the BVMT-R with the performance of these patients using the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), the AVLT being a validated instrument for differentiating aMCI patients from healthy control patients. Both tests follow a similar design paradigm, but they differ in the type of stimuli measured: the BVMT-R tests memory for nonverbal material and the AVLT tests for verbal material. Results showed that there is a moderate correlation between scores (total score, delayed recall score) of the BVMT-R and equivalent scores of the AVLT. Further analyses of performance of MCI patients in both tests (in total scores and delayed recall scores) identified that there was a proportion of patients tested using the BVMT-R with memory impairment that did not show any memory impairment using the AVLT. Our findings indicate a favorable diagnostic potential of BVMT-R in the diagnostics of mild cognitive impairment. Keywords:...

Socialstyrelsen menar att primärvården står inför en utmaning att tillgodose tillgänglig psykologisk behandling till ett växande behov. Ett möjligt tillvägagångssätt skulle kunna vara Integrerad beteendehälsa som eftersträvar att kunna erbjuda korta psykologiska interventioner med hög tillgänglighet. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att jämföra två varianter av Integrerad beteendehälsa; ett sedvanligt upplägg med Brief Interventions och ett upplägg med utökad bedömning och möjligheten till vägledd självhjälp för ett specifikt problem. Det här med avseende på generella symtom och symtom specifika för just det problem som patienter erhållit självhjälp för, alternativt bedömts skulle ha passat för självhjälp avseende ett specifikt problem. Resultaten visade att den generella symtomnivån förbättrades för gruppen som helhet, samt inom respektive grupp. Den problemspecifika symtomnivån sjönk för både patienter som erhållit vägledd självhjälp och för patienter som erhållit Brief Interventions men vars problemprofil visat att de hade passat för en specifik självhjälpsmanual. Någon signifikant skillnad i symtomförändring, oavsett generell eller problemspecifik, kunde inte hittas. I diskussionen problematiseras bland annat den interna validiteten och den naturalistiska miljön lyfts som en styrka. / The national board of health and wellfare are stating that primary care faces a major challenge in providing available psychological treatment to an increasing need. One possible approach is Integrated Behavioral Health, which strives towards offering brief psychological interventions with great access. The purpose of the following study was to compare two different methods of Integrated Behavioral Health; an ordinary set up with Brief Interventions and one set up with extended assesment and the possibility of guided self-help treatment for a particular problem. This regarding general as well as specific symptoms for the particular problem the patient has received guided self-help for, or considered to have been suited for. The results showed that the general level of symptoms improved for all patients, merged into one group, and within the respective group. The level of the problem-specific symptom decreased for patients who received guided self-help and for patients who received Brief Interventions, but whose problem profile showed that they had fit for a specific self-help manual. No significant difference in symptom change, regardless of general or problem- specific, could be found. In the discussion, the internal validity is discussed, and the naturalistic environment is described as a strength.

Primärvårdens uppdrag innefattar behandling av psykisk ohälsa och för närvarande överstiger behandlingsbehovet vårdnivåns resurser. Integrerad beteendehälsa (IBH) är en organisationsmodell för primärvård som tidseffektivt tillgängliggör psykologisk behandling. Föreliggande pilotstudie ägde rum under perioden januari till april 2019 på vårdcentralen Centrum, som arbetade enligt modellen för IBH. Syftet för studien var att utvärdera effekterna av behandling med Brief Interventions (BI) respektive vägledd självhjälp avseende patienternas vardagliga funktionsnivå, livskvalitet och symtom. Mätningar genomfördes innan behandling påbörjades, efter fyra veckor samt efter åtta veckor. Vidare undersöktes processfaktorer, så som hur stor andel av patienterna som skulle kunna tillgodogöra sig behandling med självhjälp, samt huruvida införande av en sådan behandling skulle kunna vara motiverad i primärvårdsmiljö utifrån tidseffektivitetsperspektiv. Totalt randomiserades 41 patienter mellan behandling med BI respektive en utökad bedömning följt av behandling med vägledd självhjälp. De patienter som vid den utökade bedömningen inte befanns lämpliga för vägledd självhjälp fick behandling med BI. Sammantaget fullföljde 29 patienter behandling inom ramen för studien. Resultaten visade att både BI och självhjälp förbättrade patienternas vardagliga funktionsnivå, livskvalitet och symtomnivå, samt att det fanns få skillnader i behandlingsutfall mellan grupperna. Tidsåtgången för personalen var större för behandling med självhjälp jämfört med BI. Vidare forskning behövs för att utvärdera psykologisk behandling anpassad till primärvården. / A commitment of primary care is mental health treatment. At present the need for treatment exceeds accessible resources. Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) is a model of organization of primary care with the aim to make access to mental treatment from a time-efficiency perspective. The present study was conducted between January and April 2019 at Vårdcentralen Centrum, a primary care unit organized in accordance with PCBH. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of treatment with Brief Interventions (BI) and guided self-help regarding daily functioning, quality of life and aggregate level of symptoms. Self-assessments were filled out by the patients before treatment, at FU4 and at FU8. Furthermore, proportion of patients suitable for self-help treatment was examined, and whether introduction of such a treatment might be justified in the context of primary care on basis of time effectiveness approach. In overall, 41 patients were randomized to two conditions: BI treatment and, respectively, extended assessment with subsequent self-help treatment. Participants, not found suitable for self-help at the extended assessment, got treatment with BI. Within the study, 29 patients went through treatment. The results showed that groups treated with BI and self-help had improved significantly between before treatment and FU8 regarding daily functioning, quality of life and level of symptoms. There were in general little differences in improvement between the two groups. Furthermore, timescale for the group that got extended assessment and subsequent self-help treatment, was significantly larger than timescale for the group that got BI treatment. For future research, evaluation of short-term forms of mental treatment in primary care ought to be relevant.

Les séquelles neuropsychologiques associées aux tumeurs cérébrales pédiatriques représentent un enjeu de santé publique. Les troubles des fonctions exécutives sont désormais avérés chez ces enfants mais la nature des processus perturbés, les modalités d'évaluation à préconiser et l'impact des variables démographiques/médicales liées à la maladie restent méconnus. L'objectif de cette thèse était de mieux comprendre le profil de perturbation des différents processus exécutifs dans ce contexte clinique, en confrontant des mesures basées sur la performance et des indicateurs de vie quotidienne (dans le contexte familial et scolaire). Dans cette perspective, nous avons 1) analysé le profil exécutif de 171 enfants d’âge scolaire atteints d'une tumeur cérébrale à la BRIEF (Inventaire d'évaluation comportementale des fonctions exécutives) et 2) étudié la convergence de ces indicateurs avec des mesures basées sur la performance adaptées en français auprès de 27 patients appariés à des enfants sains. L’influence des variables cliniques sur les profils exécutifs a été examinée. Des difficultés exécutives étendues mais variables ont été identifiées dans le quotidien des patients (tous types histologiques et localisations) au domicile et à l’école, avec par ailleurs des difficultés accrues rapportées par les parents en cas d’irradiation à un âge précoce. Des perturbations du contrôle exécutifs ont confirmées dans les mesures directes, dont la convergence avec les questionnaires apparait cependant limitée. Sur la base de ces résultats, sont discutés les apports respectifs de ces deux types d’outils pour appréhender la problématique exécutive dans le cadre des tumeurs pédiatriques. / Neuropsychological sequelae associated with pediatric brain tumors represent a major public health issue.Disorders of executive functions have been identified among these children, but the nature of the impaired processes, recommended evaluation modalities and the impact of demographic and medical variables related to the disease remain unclear. The aim of this thesis was to get a broader understanding of the disturbance profile of the different executive processes in this disease context, comparing performance-based measures and daily life indicators (in both the school and home environment). From this perspective, we have 1) analyzed the executive profile of 171 school age children with a brain tumor in the BRIEF (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function) and 2) examined the association of these indicators with performance-based measures adapted in French in 27 patients matched to healthy children. The influence of clinical variables on the executive profiles was discussed. Broad and variable executive difficulties have been identified in patients’ everyday life (all tumor types and locations) at home as well as school, with also increased difficulties reported by parents in the case of radiation therapy at an early age. Disturbances of executive control are confirmed in direct measures, whose convergence with the questionnaires appears however limited. Based on these results, respective contributions of these two types of tools are discussed in order to understand the executive issue in pediatric brain tumor survivors.