THEORETICAL OVERVIEW Simply speaking, hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness. Hypnotherapy, therefore, is the use of an altered state of consciousness, or trance, to reach a therapeutic goal or purpose. During the trance state there is a heightened concentration for the specific purpose of maximizing potential or changing understanding and experience. Relaxation and imagery is used to ob...

The interpretation of MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1943) profiles has emphasized a language of pathological attribution that often serves the interests of clinical description and actuarial prediction better than those of individual case formulation and an understanding of the adaptive forces involved in the production of symptomatic behavior. In this article, I illustrate a contrasting approach,...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a widely used tool for studying brain function in vivo. The technique is based on acquiring brain images sensitive to the physiological response following neural activation, and hence, allows brain activity to be examined and documented. In this thesis, methods for fMRI mapping of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) are optimised and subsequentl...

Rheumatoid factors are antibodies directed against the Fc region of immunoglobulin G. First detected in patients with rheumatoid arthritis 70 years ago, they can also be found in patients with other autoimmune and nonautoimmune conditions, as well as in healthy subjects. Rheumatoid factors form part of the workup for the differential diagnosis of arthropathies. In clinical practice, it is recom...

BACKGROUND Hypertension is a chronic and lifestyle-related disease that requires continuous preventive care. Although there are many evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for hypertension management, applying them to daily management can be difficult for patients with hypertension. A mobile app, based on CPGs, could help patients with hypertension manage their disease. OBJECTIVE ...

BACKGROUND The Electrocardiogram ECG is one of the most important non-invasive tools for cardiac diseases diagnosis. Taking advantage of the developed telecommunication infrastructure, several approaches that address the development of telemetry cardiac devices were introduced recently. Telemetry ECG devices allow easy and fast ECG monitoring of patients with suspected cardiac issues. Choosing ...