The structure of mental health research: networks of influence among psychiatry and clinical psychology journals.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatry and clinical psychology are the two dominant disciplines in mental health research, but the structure of scientific influence and information flow within and between them has never been mapped. METHOD: Citations among 96 of the highest impact psychiatry and clinical psychology journals were examined, based on 10 052 articles published in 2008. Network analysis explored patterns of influence between journal clusters. RESULTS: Psychiatry journals tended to have greater influence than clinical psychology journals, and their influence was asymmetrical: clinical psychology journals cited psychiatry journals at a much higher rate than the reverse. Eight journal clusters were found, most dominated by a single discipline. Their citation network revealed an influential central cluster of 'core psychiatry' journals that had close affinities with a 'psychopharmacology' cluster. A group of 'core clinical psychology' journals was linked to a 'behavior therapy' cluster but both were subordinate to psychiatry journals. Clinical psychology journals were less integrated than psychiatry journals, and 'health psychology/behavioral medicine' and 'neuropsychology' clusters were relatively peripheral to the network. CONCLUSIONS: Scientific publication in the mental health field is largely organized along disciplinary lines, and is to some degree hierarchical, with clinical psychology journals tending to be structurally subordinate to psychiatry journals.

Ethical Use and Impact of Participatory Approaches to Research in Post-Disaster Environments: An Australian Bushfire Case Study.

This paper presents a case study of Beyond Bushfires, a large, multisite, mixed method study of the psychosocial impacts of major bushfires in Victoria, Australia. A participatory approach was employed throughout the study which was led by a team of academic investigators in partnership with service providers and government representatives and used on-site visits and multiple methods of communication with communities across the state to inform decision-making throughout the study. The ethics and impacts of conducting and adapting the approach within a post-disaster context will be discussed in reference to theories and models of participatory health research. The challenges of balancing local interests with state-wide implications will also be explored in the description of the methods of engagement and the study processes and outcomes. Beyond Bushfires demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating participatory methods in large, post-disaster research studies and achieving rigorous findings and multilevel impacts, while recognising the potential for some of the empowering aspects of the participatory experience to be reduced by the scaled-up approach.

Improving left hemispatial neglect using virtual reality.

BACKGROUND: In hemispatial neglect, space can be dissociated on the basis of "near" peripersonal vs "far" extrapersonal space. The clinical manifestations of neglect can be modified by having patients use a tool to explore "far" extrapersonal space. An explanation for this is that the use of a stick produced an extension of body space resulting in a remapping of "far" space as "near" space. OBJECTIVE: S: To determine whether the remapping of space can be generalized to the amelioration of the "affected" vs the "nonaffected" space, rather than being confined to the selective amelioration of "far" vs "near" neglect; and to determine whether tool use is a necessary condition for the remapping of space. METHODS: Using virtual reality, the authors asked six hemispatial neglect patients to reach and grasp a real object while simultaneously observing the grasping of a virtual object located within a virtual environment by a virtual hand. The virtual hand was commanded in real time by their real hand. RESULTS: After a period of adaptation, hemispatial neglect patients coded the visual stimuli within the neglected space in an identical fashion as those presented within the preserved portions of space. CONCLUSIONS: It is possible to re-create links between the affected and the nonaffected space. Wielding a tool is not a necessary condition in reopening neglected space.