ANZCTR search results

This is a 12 month single blinded parallel randomised controlled trial with 3 arms: control (usual care), intervention (multidisciplinary lifestyle support). A 3rd arm comprises intervention + a food supplement . Participants will be randomised into a control or one of the intervention groups testing the effect of a novel versus conventional form of individualised health care targeting diet, exercise and health behaviour. An additional 12 month long term follow-up will be offered to all participants. Consenting participants will attend quarterly visits with a dietitian

The purpose of this study is to see if general exercise and education are helpful for patients who have had pelvic cancer (colorectal cancer, gynaecological cancer, or urological cancer). Who is it for? Patients may be eligible to join this study if they are aged 18 - 85 years, have undergone surgery for stage I – III pelvic cancer, and are able to walk and manage self-care, out of bed more than 50% of waking hours (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0 – 2). Trial details All eligible patients will be invited to join the general exercise and education group 6 weeks after all their surgical and medical treatments are finished. The general multidisciplinary rehabilitation will consist of a group education and exercise program, which will be provided twice weekly for 8 weeks. Each session will last approximately one hour. The education component will include advice about nutrition, exercise, fatigue management, health behavior change, and coping with stress. Information will be delivered by a range of clinicians (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, and dieticians). The exercise component will include a general (combined aerobic and resistance) exercise training program supervised by a physiotherapist. All participants will be required to complete some questionnaires and tests (e.g. six-minute walk test, shuttle walk test etc) at the end of the intervention, and at 6, 12, 24 and 60 months from baseline.

A group-randomised controlled trial of a parenting intervention aimed to improve parenting skills in ways that facilitate the development of emotional competence in youth, and emotional communication in the family, thereby improving youth externalising and internalising difficulties.

This study will use and test a memory training program to improve self-care in patients with heart failure. It is hypothesised that this training will improve memory and heart failure self-care and reduce the number of hospital readmissions

This study examines the role of Magnesium supplementation in depression that is resistant to standard treatment. 10 participants who have a confirmed history of treatment non-response while on Medication will be recruited into this small pilot study. participants will take a 1600mg a day divided Magnesium dose in addition to standard medication treatment for a maximum of 8 weeks following a standard protocol in which participants will be subject to pre and post clinical symptom measures. this study aims to provide a preliminary investigation of the value of Magnesium supplement adjuvant treatment for resistant depression.

This project will investigate the efficacy of providing cognitive flexibility and rule abstraction therapy to six children with atypical phonology at age three, an age at whcih many children are referred to speech pathologists. It is hypothesised that therapy will lead to improvements in cognitive flexibility and rule abstraction, phonology and phonological awareness.

This intervention study will evaluate a discussion-based, patient directed group education program for the management of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. The potential benefits of this research for the researchers and other health professionals in the field, include an improved understanding of how best to educate type 2 diabetes patients in a group setting. Additionally, the impact of group interactions and patient-directed or patient-centred care will be assessed. The potential benefits for the participants include an improved understanding of type 2 diabetes, lifestyle improvements, and improvements in self-management behaviours. Participants will have the opportunity to ask any questions to the health professionals facilitating the groups, and to discuss any issues they have relating to their diabetes with both peers and health professionals.

The proposed research aims to investigate the effects of a self-cueing lexical retrieval therapy on seven individuals with varying language profiles, consistent with the diverse presentation of PPA. All participants will engage in an intervention designed to improve the retrieval of nouns, verbs and adjectives through the incorporation of semantic, phonological and orthographic levels of language production. Changes in accuracy of lexical retrieval of treated and control items, pre-treatment, post treatment and four weeks maintenance, will be determined for each participant. The findings will help Speech Pathologists understand the impact this type of therapy can have on the communication you need in day-to-day life. With this knowledge it is hoped that Speech Pathologists will be better equipped to help people with Primary Progressive Aphasia.

(i) Aims of the project Aged care residents with dementia present with high rates of agitated behaviour and lowered quality of life, which is associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, and carer burden. While research has demonstrated that personalised activities and stimuli (such as favourite music and audio recordings of family members) can help in addressing these behaviours, people with marked dementia are often unable to access them without the direct assistance of family or staff carers. Our team has designed a device that provides easy access to personalised multimedia, including photographs, music, videotaped family greetings and movies on a portable device. In this project, we aim to evaluate the effectiveness of this device in reducing agitated behaviour and improving quality of life among aged care residents with dementia and also examine its feasibility for routine use. Hypotheses: (1) Participants who receive the personalised multimedia interface device will have decreased severity and frequency of agitated behaviour and improved quality of life relative to their scores during the control period. (2) Participants who receive the device will also report lower levels of depression and anxiety. (2) Aged care staff will perceive their carer role as less burdensome during the period when the resident receives the device than during the control period. In addition, our feasibility study will (i) determine what level of support from staff and families is required for participants to use the device; (ii) establish patterns of use over a one month period; and (iii) determine levels of satisfaction with this novel approach.

The overarching hypothesis is that a weight loss strategy using an intermittent fasting approach will be more efficacious than a conventional 30% calorie restricted diet approaches in the context of diabetes. The overall aim of the project is to compare the safety and metabolic effects of weight loss via an intermittent fasting protocol versus a standard daily calorie restriction protocol in overweight and obese adult subjects with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.