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The nice therapist effect: does the therapeutic relationship matter?

Quality of relationships is considered a core component of all speech and language therapy work, yet there is little agreement of what constitutes a therapeutic relationship. This study describes a scoping review to map existing evidence that has investigated this...

Motor learning: better knowing how, not how well

Motor learning is described as the ability to perform a motor skill due to practice and/or experience. Research on interventions to enhance limb motor skills can be influenced through the amount, distribution, variability and schedule of practice as well as...

Otolith malfunction can be a cause of orthostatic dizziness

This prospective study evaluated otolith function with vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) and subjective visual vertical / horizontal (SVH) tests in 50 adults with normal hearing between the ages of 18 and 50 years. The authors hypothesised that there are...

Ego-resiliency and tinnitus

Adults with tinnitus are 2.5 more likely to suffer with depression and anxiety. Ego-resiliency is the ability of a person to adapt to change and cope in difficult situations. This study aimed to determine whether ego-resiliency is related to perceived...

Is GERD linked to CRS?

We are all well aware that both chronic rhinosinusitis and reflux are prevalent in our populations. This meta-analysis looked at 25 studies investigating the association between GERD, LPR and CRS, therefore evaluating more than 117,000 patients. The results are fascinating...

How common is oropharyngeal dysphagia amongst the adult population?

It is well known that oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is a symptom arising from many different aetiologies or disease conditions and that it is a significant morbidity affecting people’s quality of life. Establishing the prevalence of OD is complicated by the...

Hearing preservation in cochlear implantation – an American cocktail

There has been an increase in hearing preservation cochlear implant (HPCI) surgery over the last decade. Both steroid and L-N-acetylcysteine (NAC) were used and investigated respectively in the past in HPCI surgery. Authors investigated the role of perioperative NAC and...

Impact of Covid-19 on secretory otitis media (SOM) in terms of rate of intervention, effusion detected intraoperatively and seasonal variation

It is widely known that secretory otitis media (SOM) has seasonal variations. In well-judged cases, there is middle ear effusion found at the time of surgery. In this retrospective study, the authors have tried to assess if Covid-19 changed these...

Four lessons: the development of speech and language therapy research for people with dementia care

Dementia has been described as the biggest expanded caseload for speech and language therapists. Everyone with dementia experiences communication difficulties. The late Prof Audrey Holland revolutionised the work of speech-language pathologists in this field through four key lessons. Lesson 1:...

To pack or not to pack!

Ear packing is thought to support grafts, control bleeding and facilitate healing. However, it is not without complications such as fibrosis and infection. The authors aimed at investigating the effect of middle ear packing on graft success rate in myringoplasty...

Let’s talk brains: review of care pathways for communication management post brain tumour

One in five people with a brain tumour have speech and language difficulties such as aphasia – a language impairment that can result in difficulties using and understanding words and sentences and participating in conversations. This paper describes a scoping...