5-Minutes Mindfulness for palliative care: Integrating evidence and good design.

In psychiatry, mindfulness based intervention has been increasingly popular as a means of psychosocial intervention over the last decade. With the alvanche of technological advances, there has been a myriad of mindfulness based applications. Recent reviews have highlighted how these applications are lacking in functionalities and without demonstrated efficacy.

Prevalence of Internet Addiction in Medical Students: a Meta-analysis.

Objective: With the development of online learning, communication, and entertainment, the Internet has become an indispensable tool for university students. Internet addiction (IA) has emerged as a health problem and the prevalence of IA varies from country to country. To date, the global prevalence of IA in medical students remains unknown.

Internet addiction and sleep quality among Vietnamese youths.

Introduction: Internet addiction has been a major behavioral disorder over the past decade. Prior meta-analytic review has demonstrated the association between Internet addiction and psychiatric disorders, as well as sleep related disorders.

Aims And Objectives: There remains a paucity of literature about Internet addiction and sleep related disorders in low and middle income countries like Vietnam.

The Consequences of Whistle-blowing: An Integrative Review.

Background: Whistle-blowing provides an avenue for healthcare workers to express their concerns when there is a breach of patients' safety. Most healthcare organizations have policies in place to prevent reprisals on whistle-blowers. Despite these protective measures, whistle-blowing often leads to negative consequences.

Exploring the association between childhood and adolescent obesity and depression: a meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the association between childhood and adolescent obesity and depression. We systematically searched PubMed, PsycInfo, EMBASE and Science Direct for studies that compared prevalence of depression and depressive symptoms in normal weight and obese children and adolescents. Observational studies were included if they reported body mass index and assessed depression by validated instruments or diagnostic interviews.

Effects of Traumatic Stress Induced in the Juvenile Period on the Expression of Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid Receptor Type A Subunits in Adult Rat Brain.

Studies have found that early traumatic experience significantly increases the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) deficits were proposed to be implicated in development of PTSD, but the alterations of GABA receptor A (GABAR) subunits induced by early traumatic stress have not been fully elucidated. Furthermore, previous studies suggested that exercise could be more effective than medications in reducing severity of anxiety and depression but the mechanism is unclear.

Analysis of print news media framing of ketamine treatment in the United States and Canada from 2000 to 2015.

Objectives: There are multifaceted views on the use of ketamine, a potentially addictive substance, to treat mental health problems. The past 15 years have seen growing media coverage of ketamine for medical and other purposes. This study examined the print news media coverage of medical and other uses of ketamine in North America to determine orientations and trends over time.

Co-financing for viral load monitoring during the course of antiretroviral therapy among patients with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam: A contingent valuation survey.

Background: Viral load testing is considered the gold standard for monitoring HIV treatment; however, given its high cost, some patients cannot afford viral load testing if this testing is not subsidized. Since foreign aid for HIV/AIDS in Vietnam is rapidly decreasing, we sought to assess willingness to pay (WTP) for viral load and CD4 cell count tests among HIV-positive patients, and identified factors that might inform future co-payment schemes.

Methods: A multi-site cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1133 HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Hanoi and Nam Dinh.

Smartphone application for multi-phasic interventional trials in psychiatry: Technical design of a smart server.

Smartphones and their accompanying applications are currently widely utilized in various healthcare interventions. Prior to the deployment of these tools for healthcare intervention, typically, proof of concept feasibility studies, as well as randomized trials are conducted to determine that these tools are efficacious prior to their actual implementation. In the field of psychiatry, most of the current interventions seek to compare smartphone based intervention against conventional care.

Smartphone applications for immersive virtual reality therapy for internet addiction and internet gaming disorder.

There have been rapid advances in technologies over the past decade and virtual reality technology is an area which is increasingly utilized as a healthcare intervention in many disciplines including that of Medicine, Surgery and Psychiatry. In Psychiatry, most of the current interventions involving the usage of virtual reality technology is limited to its application for anxiety disorders. With the advances in technology, Internet addiction and Internet gaming disorders are increasingly prevalent.

Personalized reminiscence therapy M-health application for patients living with dementia: Innovating using open source code repository.

Dementia is known to be an illness which brings forth marked disability amongst the elderly individuals. At times, patients living with dementia do also experience non-cognitive symptoms, and these symptoms include that of hallucinations, delusional beliefs as well as emotional liability, sexualized behaviours and aggression. According to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines, non-pharmacological techniques are typically the first-line option prior to the consideration of adjuvant pharmacological options.

Rapid cross platform healthcare gaming design and implementation: The cost effective methodology.

There have been massive advances in E-Health and M-Health technology, with recent interest in the utility of games for healthcare and the promotion of well-being and recovery as well as patient empowerment. There has been various review demonstrating the clinical effectiveness and efficacy of games for healthcare. It is the aim of this technical note to illustrate how appropriate gaming engines could be used by non-expert clinicians to program games that could run across various platforms, as well as games that could integrate well with existing mechanical sensors.

Conceptualization of an evidence-based smartphone innovation for caregivers and persons living with dementia.

Recent statistics released by Alzheimer's Disease International has highlighted how prevalent dementia will become in the next couple of years. Along with the increased incidence of individuals being diagnosed with dementia, there has also been an increment in the number of informal carers for people living with dementia. A recent report highlighted that in Australia, there are an estimated of 200,000 informal carers as of 2011.

Harnessing the potential of the Kinect sensor for psychiatric rehabilitation for stroke survivors.

Dominques et al. in their recent article described how low-cost sensors, such as Microsoft Kinect could be utilized for the measurement of various anthropometric measures. With the recent advances in sensors and sensor based technology, along with the rapid advancement in E-health, Microsoft Kinect has been increasingly recognized by researchers and bioengineers to be a low-cost sensor that could help in the collation of various measurements and various data.

The alcohol tracker application: an initial evaluation of user preferences.

Background: The prevalence of at-risk drinking and alcohol use disorders is increasing. Advances in technology have resulted in numerous smartphone applications for this disorder. However, there are still concerns about the evidence base of previously developed alcohol applications.

Tapping onto the Potential of Smartphone Applications for Psycho-Education and Early Intervention in Addictions.

E-health, and in particular smartphone-based technology, is increasingly becoming commonplace in healthcare. While psychiatry has tapped onto these innovations for conditions, such as affective disorders, and schizophrenia and psychosis, the usage of these technologies in addiction is limited. Addiction psychiatry could harness the potential of smartphone technologies.

The `WikiGuidelines' smartphone application: Bridging the gaps in availability of evidence-based smartphone mental health applications.

Over the past decade, there have been massive advances in technology. These advances in technology have significantly transformed various aspects of healthcare. The advent of E-health and its influence on healthcare practice also implies that there is a paradigm shift in the way healthcare professionals work.

Insomnia and daytime neuropsychological test performance in older adults.

Objectives/background: There is good documentation of the impact of insomnia on daytime cognitive function based on self-reports, but not on neuropsychological test performance. The study investigated the association of difficulty initiating sleep (DIS), difficulty maintaining sleep (DMS), and early morning awakening (EMA) complaints with daytime domain-specific neuropsychological performance in older adults.

Participants/methods: Participants were 859 older adults (mean 71.

Determining the quality of life of depressed patients in Singapore through a multiple mediation framework.

Quality of Life (QOL) is reported to be lower for patients with depression than the general population. This study aims to investigate the mediational effects of protective resource factors (PSFs), such as depressive symptom management ability, self-efficacy, social support and problem-focused coping act, in the relationship between dysfunctional attitudes and QOL. It is hypothesized that these PSFs have different mediating strengths.