Tag: News Approved

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Renaclic for Chronic Kidney Disease Self-Management: Formative User-Centered Co-Design Study

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects over 850 million individuals worldwide and requires sustained patient education, shared decision-making, and self-management support. Digital health platforms may facilitate these needs; however, many lack comprehensive, user-centered design and fail to address practical and psychosocial patient concerns. Objective: This study aimed to describe the formative co-design of Renaclic, a digital platform developed with patients and health care professionals (HCPs) to support CKD education and self-management in the French health care context. Methods: A three-stage user-centered design (UCD) study was conducted between April and August 2021. Stage 1 included benchmarking of 10 French-language CKD platforms and semistructured interviews with 8 stakeholders (3 HCPs: 1 nephrologist, 1 general practitioner, 1 nurse; 5 patients: 2 novice and 3 expert users). Stage 2 consisted of two virtual co-design focus groups incorporating card-sorting and interface design activities. Stage 3 translated identified needs into structured content categories and a low-fidelity prototype. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically. Results: Benchmarking revealed fragmented educational content, limited practical guidance on home dialysis logistics, insufficient coverage of lifestyle and psychosocial concerns, and minimal interactive features. Interviews identified five main themes: need for reliable centralized information, anxiety during care transitions, demand for practical lifestyle guidance, importance of reassuring language, and value of moderated peer exchange. More than 30 thematic content items were generated and organized through card-sorting into five consolidated content categories that structured the platform’s information architecture. Co-design sessions informed mobile accessibility, simplified navigation pathways, and integration of educational, symptom-tracking, and community-oriented functionalities. Conclusions: This formative study demonstrates how participatory UCD with diverse CKD stakeholders can generate a structured, context-sensitive digital platform framework. Renaclic provides a replicable model for early-stage co-design of digital health interventions in chronic disease management. Future research will evaluate usability, engagement, and implementation in real-world settings.
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Autistic traits and obsessive–compulsive symptom severity: a retrospective six-month follow-up study

Autistic traits have been increasingly associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), yet their influence on longitudinal symptom severity and treatment-related change remains poorly understood. This retrospective longitudinal study included 38 adults with DSM-5 OCD who completed six months of guideline-based pharmacological treatment. Obsessive–compulsive symptom severity was assessed using the Yale–Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) at baseline, one month, and six months. Autistic traits were evaluated at the six-month follow-up using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Linear mixed-effects models served as the primary analyses, while repeated-measures analyses of covariance were performed as sensitivity analyses. Exploratory analyses examined the contribution of individual AQ subscales. Higher autistic trait levels were independently associated with persistently greater OCD symptom severity across the six-month follow-up, whereas the rate of treatment-related improvement did not differ according to autistic trait levels. This association was primarily driven by compulsive rather than obsessive symptoms. Exploratory analyses further identified social skills and attention switching as the AQ dimensions most strongly associated with overall OCD severity and compulsive symptom burden, whereas attention to detail was not significantly associated with symptom severity. These findings suggest that autistic traits represent stable markers of greater clinical burden in OCD without necessarily conferring poorer pharmacological treatment responsiveness. The results further support a dimensional conceptualization of autistic traits and highlight social functioning as a potentially important contributor to OCD symptom burden.
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Association of iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anemia with behavioral problems in children with autism: a cross-sectional study

PurposeIron deficiency (ID) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) are common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and may contribute to behavioral problems. We examined their association with internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems.MethodsThis cross-sectional study (October 2023 to March 2025) was conducted at a tertiary hospital in India. Of 179 children aged 2 to 18 years with newly diagnosed ASD (DSM-5 criteria), 173 were analyzed after six exclusions for missing data. ID and IDA were defined using age-specific World Health Organization thresholds and modeled as a three-category variable with normal iron status as the reference. The Child Behavior Checklist was used to assess internalizing and externalizing problems (T-score > 63). Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs), controlling for age, sex, maternal education and family type; ferritin and hemoglobin were modeled using restricted cubic splines. Bonferroni correction was applied across the six adjusted comparisons.ResultsAmong 173 children (median age 4.0 years [IQR 3.0–5.0]; 79.8% male), 19.7% had ID, 22.5% had IDA and 42.2% had either; internalizing and externalizing problems occurred in 39.9% and 35.8% of the children, respectively. Compared with normal iron status, both ID and IDA were associated with higher odds of internalizing problems (ID aOR 3.03, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.34–6.86; IDA aOR 2.73, 95% CI 1.23–6.05) and externalizing problems (ID aOR 3.71, 95% CI 1.63–8.46; IDA aOR 3.24, 95% CI 1.45–7.24), corresponding to prevalence differences of 25 to 29 percentage points. An interquartile increase in ferritin (9.2 to 21.4 µg/L) was associated with lower odds of both outcomes (internalizing aOR 0.23, 95% CI 0.11–0.46; externalizing aOR 0.30, 95% CI 0.15–0.60). Five of six associations survived Bonferroni correction; IDA with internalizing problems did not. Hemoglobin was not consistently associated with either outcome.ConclusionsID and IDA are prevalent in Indian children with ASD and are associated with clinically significant behavioral problems, with higher serum ferritin inversely associated with both outcomes. Routine iron screening may be considered during initial ASD evaluation, particularly in high-burden settings, although randomized trials are needed to determine whether correcting deficiency improves behavioral outcomes.
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Neurodiversity as an epistemic stress test for psychotherapy and health care: a neuroaffirmative conceptual analysis of relational-proximity priors in clinical, institutional, and AI-supported models

Neurodiversity-affirming mental health care requires not only adapting support to neurodivergent people but also examining the relational assumptions through which alliance, empathy, cooperation, progress, and risk are interpreted. This Conceptual Analysis develops the heuristic concept of relational-proximity priors: implicit assumptions that emotional closeness, rapid reciprocity, eye contact, visible warmth, and ready acceptance of help are generally reliable indicators of therapeutic fit or improvement. Drawing primarily on autism research and, more cautiously, on broader neurodivergence-informed literature, the paper synthesizes work on neurodiversity, double empathy, minority stress, healthcare accessibility, interpersonal distance, epistemic injustice, and psychotherapy process. The argument is that when such priors remain unaudited, clinically meaningful behaviors such as distance, reduced affect display, written communication, slower pacing, or literal style may be misread as resistance, poor alliance, or lack of insight. The paper further proposes that these priors can become sedimented in service routines, documentation practices, and AI-supported systems if observation and interpretation are not adequately separated. The article does not present a validated empirical construct or a systematic review; rather, it offers a theory-anchored conceptual synthesis and a set of heuristic audit tools intended to slow interpretation and widen clinically plausible hypotheses. Implications are discussed for psychotherapy, service design, documentation, participatory evaluation, and AI governance in public mental health.
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Rapid Entrainment and Signal-guided Neuromodulation for Behavioral Health

Conditions: Anxiety; PTSD; ADHD; Depression Disorders; Post-traumatic Stress; Substance Use; Executive Function; Sleep Disturbance

Interventions: Behavioral: AIP-Informed Integrative Psychotherapy; Device: Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation; Behavioral: Regulated Breathing and Autonomic Regulation; Device: Audiovisual Entrainment; Device: Vibroacoustic Stimulation; Behavioral: Breathwork-Based Auditory Driving Entropy Module (BADEM); Device: Transcranial Electrical Stimulation

Sponsors: Tactical Mind Research Coalition, Inc.

Active, not recruiting
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Mobile Application-Based Interventions for Cannabis Use in Young Adults With First Episode Psychosis

Conditions: First Episode Psychosis (FEP); Psychosis; Schizophreni-form Disorder; Dependence Addictive

Interventions: Other: CHAMPS; Other: I Can Change

Sponsors: Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM); Integrated University Health and Social Services Center of the Capitale-Nationale; Nova Scotia Health Authority; Centre Intégré de Santé et de Services Sociaux de la Montérégie-Centre; Centre Integre Universitaire de Sante et Services Sociaux du Nord de l’ile de Montreal; Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Not yet recruiting