Crosschecking the subjective everyday Parkinson's experience among patients and their caregiving spouses: French versions of the Belastungsfragebogen Parkinson Kurzversion (Bela-P-k and Bela-A-k)

BACKGROUND

Parkinson's disease (PD) affects all dimensions of the patient's and the caregiver's daily life. There are two questionnaires in German, Bela-A-k (for caregivers) and Bela-P-k (for PD patients), that can be used to assess the PD-related psychosocial burden in a dyad. The patient's and the caregiver's perspective of living with PD can be crosschecked. Four dimensions are explored: physical performance, emotional load, social relationships, and couple/family life.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of the study was to translate these questionnaires into French and to test them among patients and caregivers.

METHODS

The questionnaires were translated from German into French by forward and backward translation, followed by a cultural crosscheck. Participants were invited to test the consensual French version in its online administered version created via Lime Survey® software. Participants filled out the questionnaires twice (five-day interval) according to the test-retest method. Data analysis was performed with SPSS software.

RESULTS

Thirty dyads were recruited and eighteen completed the study. Bela-A-K showed strong temporal stability, though it was weak for the social relationships dimension. Bela-P-k showed strong internal consistency, but significant test-retest differences for ten items due to day-by-day changes in patient status.

CONCLUSIONS

The questionnaires are useful and reliable for dyad-centered follow-up in case of PD. Some items of the Bela-P-k were simplified to improve its temporal stability, considering the patient's changing status through the day. The items concerning social relationships were adjusted for the Bela-A-k.

Suicide sleep monitoring (SSleeM): A feasibility and acceptability study of a wearable sleep tracking monitoring device in suicide attempters

Introduction

Sleep disturbances are associated with an increased risk of suicidal behavior. The evidence primarily stems from studies based on questionnaires about sleep quality. In recent years, the availability of wearable health technology has increased and offers an inexpensive, appealing, and accessible way to measure sleep.

Our aim is to assess the feasibility and acceptability of wearable sleep tracking monitoring devices in a sample of suicide attempters.

Methods

A prospective, open-label, 12-months study will be conducted in the emergency department (ED) and psychiatric unit (PU) of the university hospital of Brest, France. Inclusion criteria are male or female aged 18 or over, surviving a suicide attempt, discharged from ED or PU, and giving consent. The sleep tracker and a smartphone will be given to the patient after discharge. He or she will receive brief training on how to use the sleep tracker. Patient will be asked to monitor their sleep during the five days following the discharge. The feasibility will be explored by analyzing the data proceeding from the sleep tracker. The acceptability will be assessed during the five-days follow up visit, using a standardized questionnaire.

Results

Preliminary results of this ongoing study show that feasibility and acceptance may be related to technical features of wearable devices.

Discussion

A better understanding of the bidirectional mechanism between sleep disturbances and suicide behavior will allow the design of tailored interventions to prevent suicide attempts.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

[Oral premedication with diazepam]

A double blind study has been carried out on patients scheduled for appendicectomy. They were divided into two groups who were given diazepam as premedication either orally or intramuscularly. The clinical effects were measured with regard to anxiolysis, gastric contents volume and acidity. Orally premedicated patients were not significantly less anxious. No significant differences between both groups concerning gastric contents (volume and pH) were found. Therefore, oral premedication did not increase the risk of inhalation. Taking into account the previous findings in the literature, the pharmacological advantages of the oral route and the lack of complications, a wider use of oral premedication for elective operations in adults is recommended.