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The FIM-SR motor scales and total FIM-SR score are reliable and valid measures of perceived functional independence in individuals with SCI. However, all of the FIM-SR scales in the amputation sample, and the FIM-SR cognitive scales in the SCI sample, seem to be less useful measures of functioning due to subjects reporting high levels of independence. The FIM-SR should be retested in amputation samples with more variable levels of functioning.

Background There is evidence of negative attitudes among health professionals towards people with mental illness but there is also a knowledge gap on what training must be given to these health professionals during their education. The purpose of this study is to compare the attitudes of students of health sciences: nursing, medical, occupational therapy, and psychology. Methods A comparative and cross-sectional study in which 927 final-year students from health sciences university programmes were evaluated using the Mental Illness: Clinicians’ Attitudes (both MICA-2 and MICA-4) scale. The sample was taken in six universities from Chile and Spain. Results We found consistent results indicating that stigma varies across university programmes. Medical and nursing students showed more negative attitudes than psychology and occupational therapy students in several stigma-related themes: recovery, dangerousness, uncomfortability, disclosure, and discriminatory behaviour. Conclusions Our study presents a relevant description of the attitudes of each university programme for education against stigma in the formative years. Results show that the biomedical understanding of mental disorders can have negative effects on attitudes, and that education based on the psychosocial model allows a more holistic view of the person over the diagnosis.

Despite the fact that the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) is a useful pain assessment tool with widespread acceptance, empirical analyses have questioned its validity because they have not consistently supported the three a priori factors that guided its construction. The Spanish version that has followed the most systematic and rigorous reconstruction process (Lázaro C, Bosch F, Torrubia R, Banos JE. The development of a Spanish Questionnaire for assessing pain: preliminary data concerning reliability and validity. Eur J Psychol Assess, 1994;10:145-151) lacks evidence to support its construct validity. In the present study, the internal structure of the Spanish version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (Lázaro C, Bosch F, Torrubia R, Banos JE. The development of a Spanish Questionnaire for assessing pain: preliminary data concerning reliability and validity. Eur J Psychol Assess, 1994;10:145-151) was examined in a sample of 202 acute pain patients and 207 chronic pain patients. Confirmatory factor analyses were carried out to compare alternative models postulating different internal structures (one-factor model, the classic three-factor model, and the semantic model inspired by the alternative structure found by Donaldson in 1995 (Donaldson GW. The factorial structure and stability of the McGill Pain Questionnaire in patients experiencing oral mucositis following bone marrow transplantation. Pain 1995;62:101-109)). Results from the LISREL CFA analysis indicated that the semantic model fitted better than the other models. On the other hand, intercorrelations between scales were smaller than the reliability indexes. In relation to concurrent evidence, significant correlations (0.001) were found between each subscale and the criteria measurements of every pain dimension. Only the affective subscale presented discriminant validity. Evidence supports the validity of the affective and sensory subscales but not the evaluative scale.

University education affects the attitudes of future professionals toward people with mental illness. To evaluate and compare stigmatizing attitudes of university students from nursing, psychology, and occupational therapy careers toward people with severe mental disorder (SMD), a multisite, nonrandomized, pre-post-test design was used with evaluations before and after a practicum program in mental health. Evaluation was done on a convenience sample of 520 students. The Mental Illness Clinicians' Attitudes (MIws1CA-4) scale was used to assess attitudes and a mixed linear model was used to compare the pre-and post-test data. Our results show that the practicum was slightly effective at reducing negative attitudes toward people with mental illness. Students' attitudes changed significantly after the training when considering career and country, although the changes were small. Nursing and psychology, but not

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