ANZCTR search results

This study aims to conduct a feasibility trial to test the efficacy of a Personal Financial Incentive (PFI)-based intervention at increasing smoking cessation in pregnant women attending a public hospital for antenatal care. Ninety consenting women will take part in the trial, with 30 women being randomised into one of three groups: the control group, the small PFI group and the larger PFI group. Women in the intervention groups will be eligible to receive a total of eight PFIs, if they successfully abstain from smoking for a 7 day period. Each time a participant in the intervention groups abstains from smoking their PFI will increase. As this is a Proof-Of-Concept study the main aim of the trial is to assess the viability and acceptability of this intervention.

Intake or phone counsellor screening occurs already though these services, for presenting issues and risk. These services will identify appropriate referrals during their routine service provision to identify parents who might be eligible and benefit from the programs. The identified potential participants will then be given the telephone contact number for the clinical intake worker on our research team. The intake worker will administer a standardized interview assessing the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and other important clinical information. Participants who are referred and screened but do not meet criteria for the programs will be offered suitable alternative referrals.

Supplemental oxygen (O2) is the delivery of O2 when a person experiences O2 desaturation during activity. The use of supplemental O2 during exercise training for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is prescribed inconsistently and requires scientific evaluation. Since COPD is the second leading cause of avoidable hospital admissions and there are 47 percent of people with COPD referred to pulmonary rehabilitation who demonstrate O2 desaturation during exercise, whether to use supplemental O2 during exercise training is a substantial issue. Aim and Hypothesis: To determine whether supplemental O2 in people with COPD who desaturate during walking-based exercise provides greater benefit in exercise capacity and health-related quality of life than medical air. Exercise training with supplemental O2 will increase exercise capacity and health-related quality of life more than exercise training with medical air in people with COPD who desaturate during walking-based exercise. Design: This study is a national, multi-centre study where 110 participants with COPD will be recruited from sites in NSW, VIC, QLD, and WA. A prospective, double-blind, randomised controlled trial design will be used with COPD participants randomised into one of two groups: 1) receive intranasal cylinder O2 throughout exercise training (O2 group) or 2) receive intranasal cylinder medical air throughout exercise training (Air group). Participants will be asked to complete exercise tests and questionnaires at baseline, on completion of exercise training and at six month follow-up. This research will provide the first substantial and robust evidence regarding the role of supplemental O2 during exercise training for people with COPD who desaturate during exercise.

This clinical trial is designed to test whether oral corticosteroids are effective in treating children of pre-schol age presenting with wheeze associated with viral upper respiratory tract illness.

Approximately 5-10% of newly born infants receive assistance in the delivery room to establish regular breathing. Healthcare workers provide artificial ventilation using a manual ventilation device and a face mask to fit around the infant’s nose and mouth. Several factors can reduce the effectiveness of mask ventilation. These include poor face mask application resulting in leak or airway obstruction and spontaneous movements of the baby. Airway obstruction may be due to inadvertent manual compression of the soft tissues of the neck, tongue and thus the trachea, or hyperextension or flexion of the head. In addition, if the face mask is held on the face too tight, it may obstruct the mouth and nose. Using a simple device such as an oropharyngeal airway may reduce the prevalence of obstruction during mask ventilation and lead to more effective mask ventilation. This randomized trial is investigating whether for newly born infants requiring positive pressure ventilation in the delivery room, does the use of an oropharyngeal airway with a face mask reduce the degree of airway obstruction compared to using a face mask alone. Physiological recordings of the resuscitation will be made measuring delivered and expired tidal volumes, prevalence and degree of airway obstruction as well as oxygen saturations and heart rate. Data will also be collected and compared between the groups on common neonatal morbidities including duration of assisted ventilation in the nursery.

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

The trial is being led by Professor Anthony Jorm from the School of Population Health, Population Mental Health Group at The University of Melbourne. One thousand families in Victoria are invited to participate, consisting of one parent and one teenager (aged between 12-15 years) per family. Parents will be randomly assigned to either a 14 hour Youth Mental Health First Aid course or a 15 hour Australian Red Cross Apply First Aid course. The study will assess whether parents who are trained in physical or mental health first aid respond differently to teenagers who develop physical or mental health problems. Telephone surveys will be conducted on both the parent and teenager before the parent can attend their free training course. Parents will be asked about their knowledge about mental and physical first aid, confidence in supporting a teenager with a mental or physical health problem and self-reported supportive behaviours if their teenager or someone they know develops a mental or physical health problem and perceptions of their own mental health. Teenagers will be asked about their intentions to seek help and actual help-seeking from family and professionals for mental health problems depicted in vignettes, perceptions of support from the parent if the teenager develops a mental health problem and perceptions of their own mental health and general social support from the parent. Both telephone surveys will ask about stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness. One year after the initial telephone survey, parents and teenagers will be asked to complete another telephone survey. This will continue on an annual basis, for possibly up to ten years, subject to funding being available. The project has received ethics approval (ID: 1135679) and is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Australia Fellowship.

This research project is aiming to determine the effects of green tea and combinations of potential active components of green tea (caffeine and catechins) on cognitive function and mood. This project will assess the effectiveness of green tea extract and different fractions of green tea extract on cognitive function (primarily attention) and mood measures. The plasma levels of several potential active constituents of green tea will also be monitored. Subjects will be required to attend five testing sessions (and one practice session). Subjects will take one intervention (administered in capsule format) at each session. 1. Whole green tea extract standardised with regard to caffeine and catechins (‘GTE’). Extract to deliver 40 mg caffeine per dose. 2. 40 mg synthetic caffeine (‘caffeine’) 3. Decaffeinated green tea extract (‘Decaff-GTE’) standardised with regard to catechins 4. Catechins alone i.e. without any other components of green tea extract (‘catechins’) 5. Placebo

We propose to examine the effects of regular Naltrexone dosing as an off-label treatment for problem gamblers. We plan to examine the neural activation when we present gambling stimuli, are asked to make self-controlled or impulsive hypothetical choices and when subjects have to inhibit a learned response. Participants will be tested pre and post treatment and correlate these responses with the urge to gamble and self-reported gambling behaviour. By examining these relationships, specifically the change in neurological functioning, we hope to find the neural correlates to measures of problem gambling. Investigating these issues will assist in the analysis of a putative common neurological basis between gambling and alcoholism and hopefully advance both treatments

The aim of this research is to: 1. Investigate the effects of adding a Brief Behavioural Activation Programme to the STEPS (Self-Training Educative Pain Sessions) and PUMP (Pain Understanding and Management Programme) programmes for patients with chronic pain. 2. Investigate the effects of adding a Brief Behavioural Activation Programme to the STEPS and PUMP programme on patients’ adherence to their own particular treatment instructions. 3. Identifying the effects of STEPS and PUMP programmes in combination. It is hoped that this research will provide an opportunity to work collaboratively with patients with the ultimate aim of establishing improved self-management strategies for patients coping with pain.