Postmortem concentrations of citalopram

The postmortem concentrations of citalopram in blood, bile, liver, and vitreous humour were investigated in 14 cases using a specially developed high performance liquid chromatography assay. Concentrations from drug and non-drug related deaths were categorized to determine a postmortem therapeutic and toxic range. Therapeutic citalopram concentrations for blood, bile, liver, and vitreous humour ranged to 0.4 mg/L, 2.1 mg/l, 6.6 mg/kg, and 0.2 mg/L, respectively. In one potentially fatal response to citalopram, concentrations were 0.8 mg/L, 6.0 mg/L, 0.3 mg/L for blood, bile and vitreous humour, respectively.     

The Bottom Line: The Effect of Written Expert Witness Statements on Juror Verdicts and Information Processing

Mock jurors recruited from jury rolls were either not given written statements of expert witnesses' direct testimony or were provided with such statements before or after the presentation of that testimony. Presentation of the statements before the testimony and cross-examination provided jurors with a schema that allowed them to distinguish more effectively among the claims of four differentially worthy plaintiffs because they processed more probative evidence than other jurors. Jurors in receipt of written statements before the testimony found the evidence to be more comprehensible than other jurors. Jurors provided with written statements following testimony and cross-examination were able to differentiate between the most and least severely injured plaintiffs, whereas jurors not in receipt of any written statements were unable to differentiate among any of the differentially worthy claimants. The limitations of this case management technique and of the study are discussed.     

Constructing the self in mental health practice: identity,individualism and the feminization of deficiency

The discursive production of the ‘self’ in the context of mental health care has potential implications for how the subjects of intervention come to understand and experience themselves. Eating disorders provide an illustrative example of the ways in which conceptualizations of the self that structure mental health practices can be gendered, because they are mainly diagnosed in women and dominant explanations of their origins are feminized. This discourse analytic study examines the gendered nature of mental health workers' constructions of the eating-disordered self through the psychological construct of ‘identity’, examining the dominant discourses implicated in the feminization of deficient identity, and addressing the implications of this construction for mental health practice.     

Consociationalism and Intergovernmental Relations ‐ Linking Internal and External Power‐Sharing in the Swiss Federal Polity1

For several decades, comparative politics has treated the Swiss political system as the prime example of a power‐sharing polity in which consociationalism and cooperative intergovernmental relations co‐exist in a mutually reinforcing manner. Surprisingly enough, so far the linkages between these two types of power‐sharing have been neither adequately theorized nor empirically analyzed. In order to substantiate how intra‐governmental power‐sharing facilitates intergovernmental cooperation, this paper proposes a rational choice approach specifying different mechanisms driving actors' choices in favour of or against strong intergovernmental arrangements (IGAs). Just to mention two of the mechanisms at work: given multi‐party executives in the cantons, over time, party compositions hardly change and ideological differences between cantonal executives are moderate. Hence, a fairly stable horizontal interest profile characterized by little ideological divergence facilitates the setting‐up of strongly institutionalized IGAs. These mechanisms are examined empirically, first, by systematically assessing the organization of Swiss intergovernmental relations and second, by identifying the motives of Swiss intergovernmental actors to establish the given structures on the basis of in‐depths interviews. While the results indicate that intra‐cantonal power‐sharing facilitates inter‐governmental institutionalization, they also reveal what culturalist approaches on Swiss federalism presupposing actors' inclination towards cooperation commonly overlook, namely Swiss actors' strategic moves to guard own powers and defend institutional self‐interests affecting organizational developments in the intergovernmental arena.     

NGOs,international courts,and state backlash against human rights accountability: Evidence from NGO mobilization against Tanzania at the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

When nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) encounter state resistance to human rights accountability, how do NGOs use international courts for their human rights advocacy strategies? Considering the overlapping phenomena of shrinking civic space within authoritarian, hybrid, and democratically backsliding regimes, and state backlash against international courts, NGOs navigate two potential levels of state backlash against human rights accountability. Building on the interdisciplinary scholarship on legal mobilization, we develop an integrated framework for explaining how states' two-level (domestic and international) backlash tactics can both promote and deter NGOs' strategic litigation at international human rights courts (IHRCs). States' backlash tactics can influence NGOs' opportunities, capacities, and goals for their human rights advocacy, and thus affect whether and how they pursue strategic litigation at IHRCs. We elucidate the value of this framework through case studies of NGOs' litigation against Tanzania at the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, an understudied IHRC. Drawing on an original data set, interviews, and documentation, we process-trace how Tanzania's various backlash tactics influenced whether and how NGOs litigated at the Court. Our framework and analysis show how state backlash against human rights accountability affects NGOs' mobilization at IHRCs and, relatedly, IHRCs' opportunities for influence.     

Unmet Need for Workplace Accommodation

We use experimental survey methods in a nationally representative survey to test alternative ways of identifying (1) individuals in the population who would be better able to work if they received workplace accommodation for a health condition; (2) the rate at which these individuals receive workplace accommodation; and (3) the rate at which accommodated workers are still working four years later, compared to similar workers who were not accommodated. We find that question order in disability surveys matters. We present suggestive evidence of priming effects that lead people to understate accommodation when first asked about very severe disabilities. We also find a sizeable fraction of workers who report they receive a workplace accommodation for a health problem but do not report work limitations per se. Our preferred estimate of the size of the accommodation‐sensitive population is 22.8 percent of all working‐age adults. We find that 47 to 58 percent of accommodation‐sensitive individuals lack accommodation and would benefit from some kind of employer accommodation to either sustain or commence work. Finally, among accommodation‐sensitive individuals, workers who were accommodated for a health problem in 2014 were 13.2 percentage points more likely to work in 2018 than those who were not accommodated in 2014.     

Young British Partisan Attitudes to Negative Election Campaign Advertising: A Tri-Party Perspective

This article presents an empirical investigation of young partisan first-time voter attitudes toward the use of negative attack advertising in a British general election. Partisanship, particularly in relation to negative advertising and third-party effects, is significantly under-researched, yet it advances understanding of youth electoral interaction. Our study confirms that young British partisans are not passive recipients of information, but are actively involved in information processing, interpretation, and counter arguing. Our findings also highlight a third-party effect among young partisans in their evaluation of the attack advertising. Overall our young partisans broadly reject image-attack election ads, which raises a “health warning” on its use in future election campaigning. The findings of this study are of significant interest to election campaign strategists in their planning for future elections and to political researchers striving to advance understanding within the field of political marketing.     

Evaluating an Online Program to Help Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Results of Two Randomized Controlled Trials

The current study reports the results of two randomized controlled trials investigating effects of an online program (Change A Life) designed to educate individuals about children’s exposure to domestic violence (DV), and to increase individuals’ self-efficacy for providing support to children exposed to DV. In both a community sample (n = 110) and a college student sample (n = 146), participants who completed Change A Life, compared to those who completed a control program, reported increased knowledge about children’s exposure to DV. In the community sample, but not the college student sample, those who completed Change A Life also reported increased self-efficacy for helping children exposed to DV. Neither participant sex nor history of exposure to domestic violence moderated intervention effects.     

Parental Depressive Symptoms and Youth Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: The Moderating Role of Interparental Conflict

The current investigation examined if interparental conflict (IPC), including psychological and physical violence, moderated the relationship between parental depressive symptoms and youth internalizing and externalizing problems, respectively, in a sample of youth with a parent with a history of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). One hundred and eighty families with a parent with a history of MDD (M _age = 41.96; 88.9 % mothers) and a youth in the target age range of 9-to-15 years (49.4 % females; M _age = 11.46) participated. Findings indicated that IPC exacerbated the effect of parental depressive symptoms on internalizing, but not externalizing, problems for both males and females. Findings suggest that, in families with a parent who has a history of depression, parental depressive symptoms and IPC together have important implications for youth internalizing problems. Targeting improvement for both parent depressive symptoms and interparental conflict may directly lead to decreases in youth internalizing symptoms in the context of parental depression.     

Perceived Injustice is Associated with Heightened Pain Behavior and Disability in Individuals with Whiplash Injuries

The present study examined the relationship between perceived injustice associated with whiplash injury and displays of pain behavior. Individuals (N?=?85) with whiplash injuries were filmed while performing a simulated occupational lifting task. They were also asked to complete measures of pain, perceived injustice, catastrophic thinking, depression, and functional disability. Consistent with previous research, high levels of perceived injustice were associated with more intense pain, higher levels of catastrophic thinking, depression, and disability. Analyses revealed that individuals with high levels of perceived injustice displayed more protective pain behaviors than individuals with low levels of perceived injustice, regardless of the level of physical demand of the task. The relation between perceived injustice and protective pain behavior remained significant even when controlling for pain severity, catastrophic thinking, and depression. There was no significant association between perceived injustice and displays of communicative pain behavior. The results of this study suggest that the relation between perceived injustice and pain behavior might underlie the high prevalence of occupational disability in individuals who have sustained whiplash injuries. Implications for intervention are addressed.