Perception of aesthetics and personality traits in orthognathic surgery patients: A comparison of still and moving images.

It is common in practicing orthognathic surgery to evaluate faces with retruded or protruded chins (dysgnathic faces) using photographs. Because motion may alter how the face is perceived, we investigated the perception of faces presented via photographs and videos. Two hundred naïve raters (lay persons, without maxillo facial surgery background) evaluated 12 subjects with varying chin anatomy [so-called skeletal Class I (normal chin), Class II (retruded chin), and Class III (protruded chin)]. Starting from eight traits, with Factor analysis we found a two-Factor solution, i.e. an "aesthetics associated traits cluster" and a Factor "personality traits cluster" which appeared to be uncorrelated. Internal consistency of the Factors found for photographs and videos was excellent. Generally, female raters delivered better ratings than males, but the effect sizes were small. We analyzed differences and the respective effect magnitude between photograph and video perception. For each skeletal class the aesthetics associated dimensions were rated similarly between photographs and video clips. In contrast, specific personality traits were rated differently. Differences in the class-specific personality traits seen on photographs were "smoothed" in the assessment of videos, which implies that photos enhance stereotypes commonly attributed to a retruded or protruded chin.

Facial esthetics and the assignment of personality traits before and after orthognathic surgery rated on video clips.

Typically, before and after surgical correction faces are assessed on still images by surgeons, orthodontists, the patients, and family members. We hypothesized that judgment of faces in motion and by naïve raters may closer reflect the impact on patients' real life, and the treatment impact on e.g. career chances. Therefore we assessed faces from dysgnathic patients (Class II, III and Laterognathia) on video clips. Class I faces served as anchor and controls. Each patient's face was assessed twice before and after treatment in changing sequence, by 155 naïve raters with similar age to the patients. The raters provided independent estimates on aesthetic trait pairs like ugly /beautiful, and personality trait pairs like dominant /flexible. Furthermore the perception of attractiveness, intelligence, health, the persons' erotic aura, faithfulness, and five additional items were rated. We estimated the significance of the perceived treatment related differences and the respective effect size by general linear models for repeated measures. The obtained results were comparable to our previous rating on still images. There was an overall trend, that faces in video clips are rated along common stereotypes to a lesser extent than photographs. We observed significant class differences and treatment related changes of most aesthetic traits (e.g. beauty, attractiveness), these were comparable to intelligence, erotic aura and to some extend healthy appearance. While some personality traits (e.g. faithfulness) did not differ between the classes and between baseline and after treatment, we found that the intervention significantly and effectively altered the perception of the personality trait self-confidence. The effect size was highest in Class III patients, smallest in Class II patients, and in between for patients with Laterognathia. All dysgnathic patients benefitted from orthognathic surgery. We conclude that motion can mitigate marked stereotypes but does not entirely offset the mostly negative perception of dysgnathic faces.

Emotion regulation and mental well-being before and six months after bariatric surgery.

PURPOSE: According to the current state of research, mental health improves due to bariatric surgery. However, improvements in weight and psychosocial aspects often show a gradual decline with time. As emotion regulation (ER) appears to be a key variable in the successful outcome of weight loss treatments, the present study aimed at investigating ER-strategies applied by bariatric surgery candidates pre- and post-surgery and examining interactions between ER, depressive symptoms, health-related quality of life (HrQoL), and post-surgical weight loss. METHODS: Prior to and 6 months after bariatric surgery, 45 patients (76% women) completed self-report questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-II), HrQoL (Short Form-36 Health Survey), and ER-strategies (Emotion Regulation Inventory for Negative Emotions). RESULTS: Six months post-surgery, the patients reported significant improvements in depressive symptomatology, HrQoL, and satisfaction with ER compared to pre-surgery. Groups differing in their course of ER-satisfaction also differed in psychosocial dimensions pre- to post-surgery, increased satisfaction being related to less impairment and enhanced communication of negative emotions as a form of an adaptive regulation. Patients with higher weight loss applied the strategy of controlled expression more frequently post-surgery than pre-surgery and compared to patients with lower weight loss. CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative weight loss leads to improvements in ER-satisfaction and mental well-being. As satisfaction with ER seems to be associated with less impaired mental well-being among bariatric surgery candidates, presumably even more positive psychosocial outcomes could be obtained post-surgery by implementing trainings explicitly encouraging the use of adaptive ER-strategies.

Assessment of nasalance and nasality in patients with a repaired cleft palate.

In patients with a repaired cleft palate, nasality is typically diagnosed by speech language pathologists. In addition, there are various instruments to objectively diagnose nasalance. To explore the potential of nasalance measurements after cleft palate repair by NasalView®, we correlated perceptual nasality and instrumentally measured nasalance of eight speech items and determined the relationship between sensitivity and specificity of the nasalance measures by receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) analyses and AUC (area under the curve) computation for each single test item and specific item groups. We recruited patients with a primarily repaired cleft palate receiving speech therapy during follow-up. During a single day visit, perceptive and instrumental assessments were obtained in 36 patients and analyzed. The individual perceptual nasality was assigned to one of four categories; the corresponding instrumental nasalance measures for the eight specific speech items were expressed on a metric scale (1-100). With reference to the perceptual diagnoses, we observed 3 nasal and one oral test item with high sensitivity. However, the specificity of the nasality indicating measures was rather low. The four best speech items with the highest sensitivity provided scores ranging from 96.43 to 100%, while the averaged sensitivity of all eight items was below 90%. We conclude that perceptive evaluation of nasality remains state of the art. For clinical follow-up, instrumental nasalance assessment can objectively document subtle changes by analysis of four speech items only. Further studies are warranted to determine the applicability of instrumental nasalance measures in the clinical routine, using discriminative items only.

Information preferences regarding cure rates and prognosis of Austrian patients with advanced lung cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Due to concerns about patients' wellbeing, open end-of-life communication is associated with reservation. Furthermore, sociocultural differences must be considered. The objective of this pilot study was therefore to investigate the information preferences of Austrian patients regarding cure rates and prognosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The information preferences of 50 advanced lung cancer patients were assessed at their first visit to the Department of Radiation Oncology, Medical University of Vienna. Preferences in terms of content (cure rates and/or prognosis) and depth of the information (additional quantitative estimates) were addressed. After the individually adapted medical consultation, patients' satisfaction with the consultation and the emotional responses to the information were evaluated. RESULTS: The majority of patients (76 %) requested information about cure rates and/or prognosis; nearly half of these (47 %) wanted additional quantitative estimates. Neither sociodemographic variables, disease characteristics, nor time since diagnosis had an impact on the information preferences. The individually adapted medical information showed no overall negative influence on the emotional responses; only patients receiving prognostic information had significantly higher distress scores after the consultation. High satisfaction with the individually adapted medical consultation was reported by 92 % of patients. CONCLUSION: Austrian physicians may offer end-of-life communication and directly ask patients about their information preferences, since patients seem able to decide whether or not prognostic information would overwhelm their emotional capacity and therefore to accept or reject the invitation. The disclosure of cure rates and/or prognosis with or without quantitative estimates-according to the patients' preferences-shows overall no negative impact on emotional reactions. The individually adapted consultation results in high patient satisfaction. Nevertheless, prognostic information may lead to higher distress.

Randomized controlled trials in pregnancy: scientific and ethical aspects. Exposure to different opioid medications during pregnancy in an intra-individual comparison.

BACKGROUND: Chronic medical conditions such as opioid dependence require evidence-based treatment recommendations. However, pregnant women are under-represented in clinical trials. We describe the first within-subject comparison of maternal and neonatal outcomes for methadone- versus buprenorphine-exposed pregnancies. Although methadone is the established treatment of pregnant opioid-dependent women, recent investigations have shown a trend for a milder neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) under buprenorphine. However, it is not only the choice of maintenance medication that determines the occurrence of NAS; other factors such as maternal metabolism, illicit substance abuse and nicotine consumption also influence its severity and duration and represent confounding factors in the assessment of randomized clinical trials. CASE SERIES DESCRIPTION: Three women who were part of the European cohort of a randomized, double-blind multi-center trial with a contingency management tool [the Maternal Opioid Treatment: Human Experimental Research (MOTHER) study], each had two consecutive pregnancies and were maintained on either methadone or buprenorphine for their first and then the respective opposite, still-blinded medication for their second pregnancy. Birth measurements, the total neonatal abstinence score, the total amounts of medication used to treat NAS and the days of NAS treatment duration were assessed. RESULTS: Both medications were effective and safe in reducing illicit opioid relapse and avoiding preterm labor. Methadone maintenance yielded to a significantly higher neonatal birth weight. Data patterns suggest that buprenorphine exposure was associated with lower neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) scores. Findings from this unique case series are consistent with earlier reports using between-group analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Buprenorphine has the potential to become an established treatment alternative to methadone for pregnant opioid-dependent women. Under special consideration of ethical boundaries, psychopharmacological treatment during pregnancy must be addressed as an integral part of clinical research projects in order to optimize treatment for women and neonates.

Association between prenatal tobacco exposure and outcome of neonates born to opioid-maintained mothers. Implications for treatment.

BACKGROUND: Prenatal nicotine exposure is associated with increased neonatal mortality, low birth weight, and smaller head circumference. Opioid-dependent pregnant women show a particularly high prevalence of tobacco smoking and are at greater risk for additional adverse events. However, little is known about the impact of tobacco smoking on opioid-maintained pregnant women and neonatal outcomes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study examined the effect of cigarette smoking on 139 opioid-maintained pregnant women and their neonates. Forty-five percent of the participants were maintained on slow-release oral morphine (SROM), 39% received methadone maintenance, and 16% received buprenorphine. Participants were divided into two groups: (1) women who reported a low cigarette consumption of < or =10 cigarettes/day (56.8%) and (2) those reporting heavy consumption of > or =20 cigarettes/day (43.2%). Neonatal outcome measures were assessed, and a standardized Finnegan score was applied to determine the neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). RESULTS: Fifty-two percent of the newborns did not require treatment for NAS (54% of neonates born to methadone-maintained mothers, 30% born to SROM-maintained mothers, and 95% born to buprenorphine-maintained mothers; p < 0.001). Heavy cigarette consumption was associated with significantly lower neonatal birth weight (p < 0.001), smaller birth length (p = 0.017) as well as with the severity of NAS (p = 0.03). With regard to concomitant consumption of opioids (p = 0.54), cocaine (p = 0.25), amphetamines (p = 0.90) or benzodiazepines (p = 0.09), no significant differences between heavy or low nicotine consumption were noted. CONCLUSION: Heavy tobacco smoking in opioid-maintained pregnant women is associated with adverse medical and developmental consequences for the newborn. Future treatment programs for this target group should focus on an individualized approach to opioid maintenance therapy in addition to offering specially tailored counseling for smoking cessation.

Evaluation of esthetic, functional, and quality-of-life outcome in adult cleft lip and palate patients.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of esthetic, functional, and health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) outcomes in adult patients with a repaired cleft lip and palate. The treatment for all patients was based on the so-called Vienna concept. PATIENTS/DESIGN: Seventy adult patients with a repaired complete cleft lip and palate, ranging in age from 18 to 30 years, were included in the study. Esthetic and functional outcomes were assessed by the patients themselves and by five experts using a visual analog scale. Patients also completed the MOS Short-Form 36 questionnaire to evaluate health-related quality of life. RESULTS: Patients rated their esthetic outcome significantly worse than the experts did. No significant differences were observed in the ratings for function. Female patients, especially, were dissatisfied with their esthetic outcomes. In a personal interview, nearly 63% of them asked for further treatment, particularly for upper-lip and nose corrections. The health-related quality-of-life questionnaire revealed low scores for only two subscales, namely social functioning and emotional role. In most subscales of health-related quality of life, patients who desired further treatment had significantly lower scores than did patients who desired no further treatment. CONCLUSION: Surgery of the lip and nose appears to be of prime importance for patients with a cleft lip and palate. Cleft patients who do not request secondary treatment are not always satisfied with the treatment. Patients with realistic expectations in regard to further treatment should be treated by specialists, whereas those with unrealistic expectations should be referred to a clinical psychologist.

Quality of life in long-term childhood cancer survivors and the relation of late effects and subjective well-being.

GOALS: The purpose of the present study was the assessment of health-related quality of life in adult long-term survivors of childhood cancer and the detection of possible treatment- and cancer-related late effects. The relation of objective medical data and subjective appraisal was also examined by combining the doctor's and the patient's views of the perceived health status. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Seventy-eight young adults at the age of at least 18 years who had been diagnosed with cancer in the years 1975-1995 and were off therapy at least 5 years with no evidence of disease participated. Cancer survivors completed self-rating instruments [SF-36 Health Survey, Nottingham Health Profile (NHP), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) trait-anxiety scale]; the doctor assessed the patient's health by means of the Common Toxicity Criteria (CTCv2). MAIN RESULTS: The cancer survivors showed a mostly higher-than-average positive subjective rating of the various areas of quality of life. In comparison to the general population, the cancer survivors showed lower extents of depression. In 64.1% of the cancer survivors, medical rating and self-assessment regarding the perceived health status corresponded. Cancer survivors who felt severely impaired regarding their subjectively perceived well-being showed worse results in some dimensions of quality of life than persons who subjectively felt mildly impaired. The so-called "unfortunate" persons showed the worst assessment of quality of life and the highest extent of depression and anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study may be helpful in planning an appropriate multidisciplinary, long-term follow-up of childhood cancer survivors.

Psychologic implications of orthognathic surgery in patients with skeletal Class II or Class ill malocclusion.

The psychologic profile of 100 consecutive patients undergoing orthognathic surgery for correction of Class II or Class III malocclusion was monitored in a prospective observational study. Patients and their relatives or friends completed questionnaires about their self-image before surgery, 6 weeks postoperatively, and 6 months postoperatively. Preoperatively, patients with Class III malocclusion felt significantly less attractive (P = .03), had slightly higher attention to physical appearance, and had slightly stronger feelings of insecurity regarding their facial appearance compared with Class II patients. Grading of attractiveness/self-confidence improved significantly in Class III patients at 6 weeks postoperatively (P = .006), while in Class II patients the improvement was less pronounced and only significant at 6 months postoperatively (P = .002). Grading of attractiveness/self-confidence by relatives/friends of patients with Class II and Class III was similar preoperatively, but was significantly higher for Class III patients 6 weeks postoperatively in comparison with Class II patients (P = .048). These data indicate that the psychologic profiles are significantly different between Class II and Class III patients preoperatively and show different dynamics postoperatively.

Opioid addiction changes cerebral blood flow symmetry.

Changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) due to long-term abuse of opioids such as heroin or morphine are not yet fully understood in humans. The goal of the present study was to investigate rCBF alterations in a large sample of long-term opioid addicts in comparison to healthy controls. We investigated 21 opioid-dependent subjects, who were currently abusing heroin or were enrolled in a methadone or morphine maintenance program, and 36 healthy controls with (99m)Tc-HMPAO single photon emission computed tomography. We found a decrease in rCBF in most regions of interest in patients in comparison to controls. Long-term opioid dependence seems to decrease prefrontal CBF in particular. A right-greater-than-left CBF asymmetry in healthy subjects was reversed in patients. This change in CBF symmetry could reflect the different emotional status of opioid-dependent patients. Our findings are in line with neuropsychological investigations indicating a correlation of mood states with lateralization of hemispheric activation patterns.