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Hardin Greer posted an update 3 weeks, 3 days ago
Leptospirosis is a zoonotic bacterial disease that affects humans and animals worldwide. Recently, more attention has been paid to Leptospira spp. infections in domestic cats. In this seroepidemiological study, we estimated the prevalence of anti-Leptospira spp. antibodies in domestic cats in Estonia and evaluated risk factors for the seropositivity. A total of 546 surplus feline plasma and serum samples, collected in collaboration with small animal clinics and an animal shelter in 2013 and 2015, were included in this study. The samples were tested for antibodies against Leptospira spp. using a microscopic agglutination test. The panel included Leptospira interrogans serovars Pomona, Icterohaemorrhagiae, Bratislava, Canicola, and Hardjo, and Leptospira kirschneri serovar Grippotyphosa. Titers ≥100 (positive reactions at dilutions ≥1/100) were considered positive. Anti-Leptospira spp. antibodies were detected in 12.8% of the cats. The percentage of cats that tested positive for antibodies against L. interrogans serovars Pomona, Icterohaemorrhagiae, Bratislava, Canicola, and Hardjo were 9.3%, 3.5%, 2.4%, 0.4%, and 0.2%, respectively, and the percentage of cats that tested positive for antibodies against L. kirschneri serovar Grippotyphosa was 7.3%. Of the seropositive cats, 46.5%, 35.2%, 12.7%, 4.2%, and 1.4% tested positive for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 serovars, respectively. The prevalence of anti-Leptospira spp. antibodies was 11.2% in pet cats and 16.3% in shelter cats. Among pet cats, the seroprevalence was over four times higher in cats that had access to the outdoors (17.2%) than in indoor cats (3.9%). Multivariable models, one based on data on pet cats only and another including also data on shelter cats, identified having access to the outdoors, being a shelter cat, and being from Western Estonia as the risk factors for seropositivity. Cats could be better protected from exposure to Leptospira spp. by not allowing them to roam freely outdoors.The psychodynamic treatment of dying cancer patients is a relatively neglected area in practice and the literature. Death anxiety in these patients often results in countertransferences that lead therapists to exclude dying patients for treatment or avoid discussing their patients’ concerns about dying. This article offers the reader an exposure to a clinician’s immersion in the psychodynamic treatment of cancer patients for over 40 years and offers recommendations that meet the needs of patients facing death. Interventions that may lessen the patient’s death anxiety and the therapist’s countertransferences include advocating for the patient’s quality of life, taking a common sense approach to denial, helping the patient accept “uncertainty” regarding prognosis, providing a flexible approach that includes support and medication, validating the patient’s life contributions, elevating the patient’s self-esteem, and exploring the patient’s concerns about dying. In addition, the article will also provide many case examples of meaningful psychotherapeutic work at the end of life, including mastering longstanding psychological conflicts, forgiving oneself for past mistakes, establishing a legacy, and healing relationships.The clinician-rated Adaptive Interpersonal Vulnerability Scale (AIVS) was developed from items of the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP; Westen & Shelder, 2007; Westen, Waller, Shedler, & Blagov, 2014). Convergent validity of the AIVS was examined with self-report attachment style measures Relationship Questionnaire (RQ; Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991) and Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire-Revised (ECR-R; Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000). Fifty-nine patients completed the RQ and ECR-R before beginning psychotherapy. Clinicians rated patients on the SWAP after six sessions. The AIVS was negatively related to the RQ Fearful/Avoidance scale, the ECR-R attachment anxiety scale, and the ECR-R attachment avoidance scale and positively related to the RQ Secure Attachment scale, although not significant. Findings provide initial supposrt for the AIVS as a therapist-rated measure associated with lower client-reported levels of the fearful/avoidant attachment prototype, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance. Implications and suggestions for future research on the AIVS and clinical work are discussed.The aim of this paper is to present further data for the validation of the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale-15 self-report (IGRS-15s; Gazzillo et al., 2018). We recruited a sample of 448 subjects, to whom we administered the IGRS-15s together with other empirically validated measures for the assessment of social desirability, shame, self-esteem, empathy, mental health and therapeutic alliance. In line with our hypotheses, the previously established three-factor structure of the IGRS-15s (Survivor guilt, Omnipotence guilt, and Self-hate) was confirmed. Moreover, the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of IGRS-15s were adequate to good. All the IGRS-15s factors were negatively correlated with self-esteem and mental health and positively correlated with shame; Survivor guilt and Omnipotence guilt were positively correlated with empathy; Survivor guilt and Self-hate negatively affected therapeutic alliance; and different traumas had different, theoretically predictable, impacts on the different kinds of guilt. Lonidamine Overall, these data support the reliability and validity of the IGRS-15s.No previous research has investigated the emergence of stereotypic movements in patients during psychotherapeutic sessions, nor have such movements been mentioned in the numerous articles on Habib Davanloo’s technique of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy. In this article, we present two clinical vignettes from early intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy sessions, using Davanloo’s technique, with a patient who was observed to have an emerging stereotypic movement. These vignettes, extracted from the videotaped sessions using audiovisual technology, concern a young woman who is known to have treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder. By presenting this case report, we aim to highlight the possibility of the occurrence of such a movement in response to specific interventions, and propose its clinical significance. We interpret this movement as being a tension-releasing mechanism that manifests in response to the therapist’s exploration of the patient’s emotions. We propose that the purpose of this stereotypic movement is to defend against the patient’s actual experience of her repressed feelings.