M E Hyland

..The therapist matters, but how or why we do not know. We need a better understanding of therapist effects, in psychotherapy, in CAM and also amongst physicians...

..Two research ideas are presented for testing the hypothesis of entanglement between people, both of which are based on predicting variation in outcome in naturally occurring contexts (the naturalistic observational study)...

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..Being able to identify patients at risk of exacerbations is useful as it enables resources to be targeted at these patients...

..The aim of this study was to determine whether absorption and spirituality predict the placebo response independently of expectancy...

..A brief questionnaire completed prior to the clinical encounter would assist health professionals identify areas of information need...

..The results suggest that a caring therapeutic intervention increases positive interpretations of illness prior to improvements in mental fatigue, but that positivity does not play a causal role in the reduction of fatigue...

..The aim of this study was to provide exploratory qualitative data on anecdotal reports by some physical therapists that they sometimes experience a sense of 'special connection' with patients or clients...

..The motivational concordance interpretation is that therapeutic rituals that are consistent with self-defining or self-actualizing goals have a nonspecific therapeutic benefit independently of expectancy...

..This may limit the need for the development of new CAM-specific outcomes...

..Intermittent ICS use is inconsistent with current guidelines but is a common form of non-compliance. The aim of this study was to investigate how asthma nurses advise patients to use ICS...

..Expectancy failed to predict outcome in the nonenhanced ritual group. The results suggest that motivational concordance is an important therapeutic mechanism for real-life placebos...

..Empirical predictions of this new theory are outlined, including ways in which placebo effects can be combined with other psychologically mediated effects on short-term and long-term psychological and physiological state...

..Subtle therapies are needed, in addition to the conventional robust therapies to correct network pathology...

..This theory is potentially testable...

..Patients' perceptions of asthma tend to differ from those of clinicians, who primarily focus on asthma control. Patients' treatment needs and preferences may not be adequately addressed...

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..The reason why the HH subscale failed to distinguish between the two patient groups or predict less antibiotic use is unknown. The HCAMQ appears to have good internal validity, but its external validity remains to be established...

..If the complexity theory interpretation is correct, then this will have a significant impact on the design of clinical trials in homeopathy and, possibly, other complementary medical interventions...

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..Researchers from both communities should make explicit their underlying assumptions and the mechanisms they seek to evaluate when carrying out empirical studies. Research design needs to be appropriate for the mechanism under test...

..In clinical practice, the placebo response creates an adjunctive response to that of active treatment. It is a useful, but fickle, boon as it is difficult to predict when it will occur...

..This paper sets out the theory in the form of 16 propositions and then describes 11 research ideas. ENET theory suggests that researchers should focus more on the patient-therapist dyad rather than the technical aspects of the therapy...

..A common sense view in psychotherapy holds that there are individual differences in response to different treatments. However, despite considerable effort, no clear rationale exists to guide the selection of therapy for individual patients...

..Clinical trials of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) exclude women who have other health problems. The aim of our community survey was to investigate the impact of HRT on women with a variety of other health problems...

..For cross-sectional use scales should have a wide range of items, should be longer, and there are no adverse floor and ceiling effects, and response options can be simpler to allow a larger set of items...

..Single measures such as lung function provide a limited reflection of how the disease affects patients. Composite measures have the potential to account for many of the facets of COPD...

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..Chronically elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines are associated with inflammatory diseases and psychological symptoms of depression and tiredness...

..Prediction of attrition is possible from both intervention content and psychological variables...

..For prediction to be possible, the response to placebo must be reliable. We tested the consistency of the placebo effect by assessing the response to four trials of placebo analgesic treatment...

..In addition to confirming previous research, this is the first demonstration that complementary medicine and vitamin/mineral use are predicted by the same variables, including less rationality...

..This data suggests and the observations of Walach et al may be explicable by conventional mechanisms including differential reporting and constitutional type...

..It is unclear whether gender impacts the effects of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)...

..Different patients improve on different outcome measures following PR, and this could have implications for the planning and designs of PR programs...

..Validity was established by showing significantly poorer health in the rehabilitation sample, and correlations with state and trait anxiety. The Norwegian translations are reliable and valid versions of the original questionnaires...