ANZCTR search results

This study is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial. A total of 34 healthy right-handed male and female participants aged 18 to 40 years old will take part in the study. Participants will be required to attend three sessions. The first visit is a screening and practice session, assessing eligibility and familiarising participants with cognitive tasks. Finally, structural brain information will be obtained during an MRI scan. Subsequently, two testing days will be conducted a minimum of 48 hours apart. Participants will be assigned to a treatment sequence, such that one of each treatment is received across the two testing days. At testing days participants will receive a standardised lunch upon arrival, followed by a 30-minute break, then undergo baseline assessment of stress, mood, and cognitive function. After baseline assessment, treatment will be administered. 30-minutes after administration of treatment, participants will once again undergo assessment of stress, mood, and cognitive function, followed by recording of brain activity during rest and an attention task using magnetoencephalography (MEG). After this, the assessment of stress, mood, and cognitive function will be conducted a third time. Participants will consume all interventions orally as a drink of approximately 430 ml (14.5 fl oz). Both active and vehicle control treatments contain identical ingredients of sweeteners (crystalline fructose and sucralose) and preservatives (sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate) , gum acacia and malic acid. In addition, the active treatment contains L-Theanine (200 mg, L-Tea-Active), L-Alpha Glycerylphosphorylcholine (Alpha GPC; 25 mg)), phosphatidylserine (1mg) and chamomile (10 mg).

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of an 8- week internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (iCBT) as a preventative intervention for depression in older adults with two or more chronic diseases. It is hypothesised that, on the primary outcomes of depressive symptoms and rate of depressive disorders, the iCBT group will have fewer depressive symptoms or diagnoses of depression at post-treatment and follow-up than the control group who receives no intervention.

: This PhD study is an observational cohort study of fluid resuscitation in children with severe sepsis. The primary aim is to determine the effect (both in size and duration) of fluid bolus therapy on stroke volume in children with severe sepsis. Secondary aims include: the ability if IVC ultrasound to predict fluid responsiveness; the ability of lung ultrasound to detect early harms from fluid bolus administration; and the correlation between fluid bolus administration and changes in vital signs.

Traumatic events, such as serious injury, interpersonal assault or natural disaster have a high lifetime incidence. In the aftermath of such an event, individuals may develop emotional disorders (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder, Anxiety Disorders or Depressive disorders). Many trauma survivors develop multiple emotional disorders and can therefore present for treatment with complex difficulties. This demands psychological interventions that are flexible and applicable across disorder types. Such approaches, termed 'transdiagnostic treatments', have been developed for use across emotional disorders. The aim of this project is to conduct the first randomised controlled trial testing the efficacy of the early delivery of a psychological treatment known as the 'Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders' in (i) reducing the prevalence and severity of emotional disorders and (ii) lowering disability and raising quality of life in a sample of severe injury survivors. Based on our earlier work, a two stepped screening process will identify patients eligible for the treatment component of the study. The first step is to screen 1650 injury patients for ‘risk’ of developing an emotional disorder during their acute hospitalisation stage using the Posttrauma Adjustment Screen. The second step is to reassess patients identified as ‘ at risk’ (n= 900) four weeks after injury to assess for emotional disorders meeting diagnostic criteria using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Of these, we expect the sample will comprise 115 participants who meet diagnostic threshold for at least one anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder or PTSD four weeks after they have sustained a traumatic injury and who take up the offer of treatment. These participants will be randomly allocated to either an (a) Treatment (Unified Protocol early intervention/UPEI) or (b) Control (usual care – UC) group. The treatment condition will consist of 10-14 weekly therapy sessions using the 'Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders' with a trained clinician. Participants will be assessed using self report questionnaires to determine types of emotional disorders and severity of symptoms at: (a) pre treatment, (b) mid treatment, (c) post treatment and (d) six months follow up. Quality of life, disability, perceived control and problematic emotion regulation strategies will also be measured at all three time points.

The purpose of this study is to look at the effects of a resiliency and well-being program (Boomerang Effect program), that is being taught to high schools students. The study also looks at the effects of the different skills that are taught such as positivity, motivation, mindfulness, emotional management and other resiliency skills. We expect that the students who are taught the skills will show improvements in their resiliency, well-being and a range of coping skills.

This study will assess the safety of using hypofractionated radiotherapy concurrent with carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy regimen for the palliative management of esophageal cancers. Who is it for? You may be eligible to join this study if you are aged 18 years or above, have been diagnosed with esophageal cancer for which curative surgery or radical chemoradiotherapy is not appropriate, and are experiencing symptoms of dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). Study details The first three participants in this study will undergo a total of 15 sessions of hypofractionated radiotherapy together with weekly intravenous injections (into the veins) of the chemotherapy drugs Carboplatin and Paclitaxel. If the initial regimen is tolerated in the participants, the radiotherapy dose given per session will be increased in subsequent groups (resulting in smaller total number of sessions). Participants will be monitored for safety throughout the treatment. They will also be followed for up to 1 year in order to evaluate treatment effect on dysphagia,quality of life and survival time.

This study aims to investigate whether mindfulness practice can improve the cognitive function, psychological health, mindfulness level and functional abilities in activities of daily living of persons with MCI over time. Furthermore, it will address the issues about the way in which the MCI participants and familiar support persons engage with the mindfulness training program, the nature of group interactions during the program, their program experience and expectations about mindfulness practice, the perceived effects of mindfulness on them, and the MCI participants’ challenges in practising mindfulness.

Ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia (UGRA) is a complex procedural task that anaesthetists must learn. UGRA has been shown to have greater efficacy and safety than other nerve block localisation techniques and is thus the standard of care for performing peripheral nerve blockade. Task deconstruction reveals that bimanual dexterity, hand-eye coordination and sonographic interpretation are some of the skills necessary for performance of UGRA. There is likely to be a correlation with visuospatial aptitude (defined as the ability to generate, retain and manipulate abstract visual images) and superior performance in UGRA in novices. This study aims to evaluate the importance of visuospatial aptitude on the performance of UGRA in both novices and experts and which domains of visual perception are most closely linked to UGRA performance. We will recruit novices to UGRA and administer a series of psychometric tests on visuospatial ability, to identify individuals with higher and lower skills. All novices will be asked to perform non-invasive, ultrasound scanning of the neck and shoulder of healthy human volunteers and their performance on several metrics (image quality, time, stability, and ability to obtain standard images) will be recorded. Experts in UGRA will tested as well, and they provide a control group against whom the novices will be compared to.

Pain is the primary reason for patients to seek medical care. A survey found that 31% of the population in the united state and 19% of adult European population had experienced moderate to severe pain, with serious consequences for their social and working lives. The exorbitant medical treatment costs paid by governments and individuals can be decreased by better therapeutic approaches. Parallel areas of brain are involved in experience of Pain which make it a complex issue to manage. Lateral parallel nuclei and somatosensory cortex (S1) are responsible for discrimination of quality, location, and intensity of pain, whereas medical thalamic nuclei, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and limbic system have been proposed to subserve emotional dimensions of pain. Furthermore, it is suggested that neural communications between S1 and primary motor cortex (M1) may leads to motor cortex neuroplastisity to reduce movement in order to prevent further injuries. Non-invasive therapeutic approaches, including medication, electrotherapy, and manual therapy, can provide satisfactory pain control in only 20%-30% of cases of pain syndromes. In order to develop a more effective treatment method, it is therefore, needed to test other efficient methods. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), including anodal and cathodal tDCS, is one of the novel painless techniques used by neuroscientists to relieve pain. The optimal parameters, stimulation site and current density, for effective application of tDCS, have not been studied yet. The findings of current study will be used to optimise the effects of new therapeutic approaches for pain relief.

The proposed study aims to assess the efficacy of a single 90-minute session of a Brief Behavioural Activation for Depression (BATD) intervention in treating depressive symptoms in adults. BATD is a single-component intervention that increases access to environmental reward to improve mood. Treatment efficacy will be assessed by comparing outcome measures of a treatment group to a wait-list control group at pre-intervention and post-intervention. It is hypothesised that the treatment group will show significant reductions in self-reported depressive symptoms, as well as increases on measures of environmental reward and valued living, relative to the wait-list control group. It is hypothesised that these gains will be maintained at three-month follow-up.