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This study aims to determine whether oxytocin improves emotion perception and understandind in people who have a diagnosis of Schizophrenia

We are examining pain management in those patients who present to the emergency department with a fractured hip. Current practice in St Vincent's hospital emergency department is regular paracetamol and parenteral morphine. The POTENTIAL side effects of morphine are well known particularly in the older age group and include such effects as: drowsiness and/or confusion; nausea and vomiting; clinical significant slowing of breathing and lowering of blood pressure. Particular in those who receive significant amounts of morphine. Our aim is to show that patients who receive an ultrasound guided femoral nerve block AS PART OF their pain control management will require clinically significant less morphine than those who do not. In fact we are hoping to show these patients use 50% less morphine. If this is the case we will be supporting the idea of introducing ultrasound guided femoral nerve blocks to current clinical practice guidelines for managing pain in fractured hips.

This intervention trial is a pragmatic study to investigate the impact of three feeding assistance models on energy intake of older hospitalised patients (compared with pre-intervention data) and will provide some pilot data for other clinical outcomes, such as functional capacity, length of stay and mortality. This study will add to the limited evidence base on interventions to improve nutritional intake in elderly hospital patients. While this study will not be adequately powered to determine whether clinical outcomes are improved with these interventions, findings could be used to inform the design of larger trials to further evaluate outcomes such as functional status, hospital readmission and mortality. This study will also explore the impact of the different feeding assistance models on ward culture. As implementation of these interventions will require complex changes to service delivery, it is imperative that changes in staff behaviours and their perspective and acceptability of interventions are explored.

This study aims to better understand the way in which painful osteoarthritis affects different people and whether an anti-inflammatory medication such as Arcoxia (etoricoxib) can help to modify this pain. The study will use questionnaires and tests of pain sensitivity to identify arthritis sufferers with more widespread, nerve-type pain and then to investigate whether a daily dose of Arcoxia is more effective than a placebo pill in reducing these symptoms and improving functional movements. The study will also be comparing the same test results of a small group of subjects without knee pain.

This is a project being jointly conducted by departments of Anesthesia and Psychiatry at Ballarat Health Services. Anaesthetic agents such as hypnotics tend to increase the seizure threshold in patients undergoing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Consequently, higher current strength may be required to induce seizure activity. This study aims to reduce the dose of such anaesthetic agents. However, this does not imply that patients will be awake or partially awake at the time of ECT. Agents that do not increase seizure threshold such as opioids would be used in combination with hypnotics. In fact, a monitor to record depth of anaesthesia, will be employed during this study to ensure patients are asleep before ECT is administered. This study will be approved by Ballarat Health Services and St John of God Human Research and Ethics Committee. The main aim of the study is to determine optimal dose of anesthetic agents used with or without opioid to induce good quality seizure.

The aim of this study was to determine whether a new antipsychotic medication, quetiapine (Seroquel) is a safe and effective treatment for young people with anorexia nervosa

Week bones (osteoporosis) are an emerging problem in children and adults with cystic fibrosis (CF). When present, osteoporosis can cause bone pain, bone fragility, fracture and decrease quality of life. Bones develop during childhood and adolescence, however in CF the amount of bone that is made is reduced. Many factors work together to reduce the amount of bone made in children with CF. One major factor is that children with CF have less muscle than healthy children. The amount of muscle a child has affects the amount of bone that child can make. This is because the amount of bone made depends on the forces it is placed under and the greatest forces come from muscle pull on the bone during every day activity. One way to think of it is that the bigger the muscles the bigger and stronger the bones. As such, activity that increases the amount of muscle will increase the amount of bone. This may be because they do not participate in as much exercise as healthy children and cannot exercise as long as healthy children. Whole body vibration training (WBVT) using vibration plates can increase muscle with minimal effort required by the user. It may therefore be a very good way to increase the amount muscle and bone in children with CF, who often have difficulty exercising. WBVT has been shown to increase the amount of bone and muscle function in different groups of children and adults, including adults with CF. With this in mind, we plan to do a home base WBVT program in children and adolescents to see if WBVT increases the amount of bone and muscle they have. We will also look at muscle function and respiratory function.

Individuals with chronic post-stroke hemiparesis commonly face physical disability and some form of emotional or mood imbalance. Persisting physical and psychosocial disabilities could further worsen the individual’s condition due to reduced physical activity, leading to increased risk of fall and increased risk for chronic conditions. Yoga presents a novel means of addressing post-stroke disabilities since it has the potential to both enhance motor function and mood. An intervention program that includes meditation training may potentially lend to larger improvements in mood, which in turn, may further enhance motor function recovery of balance and gait. Thus, this research hopes to be able to provide evidence that participation in yoga and meditation program may be a cost-effective and low risk approach to addressing physical and emotional disabilities in stroke survivors.

The main purpose of the study is to compare the difference, if any, in the appearance of the surgical scar between the the diathermy blade and the standard surgical steel scalpel. The blunt diathermy blade produces a cutting effect by passing electric current and vaporise the skin cells while the standard surgical scalpel physically cuts the skin. Anecdotal experience suggest there is no difference in the appearance of the scar between the two instruments. However, the sharp surgical blade remains in common use, albeit almost exclusively for skin incision only in modern day abdominal surgery, because the general perception is that the diathermy will cause charring of the skin and thus results in poorer scar appearance. The presence of the sharp blade poses significant and potentially avoidable risk of sharps injury to the entire surgical team. The study hypothesis is that there are no visible difference in the appearance of the scar between the diathermy and the scalpel.