Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) emphasizes the relationship a person has with their thoughts and beliefs as potentially more relevant than belief content in predicting the emotional and behavioral consequences of cognition. In ACT, 'defusion' interventions aim to 'unhook' thoughts from actions and to create psychological distance between a person and their thoughts, beliefs, memories and self-stories. A number of similar concepts have been described in the psychology literature (e.g. decentering, metacognition, mentalization and mindfulness) suggesting converging evidence that how we relate to mental events may be of critical importance. Whilst there are some good measures of these related processes, none of them provides an adequate operationalization of cognitive fusion. Despite the centrality of cognitive fusion in the ACT model, there is as yet no agreed measure of cognitive fusion. This paper presents the construction and development of a brief, self-report measure of cognitive fusion: The Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ). The results of a series of studies involving over 1800 people across diverse samples show good preliminary evidence of the CFQ's factor structure, reliability, temporal stability, validity, discriminant validity, and sensitivity to treatment effects. The potential uses of the CFQ in research and clinical practice are outlined.

Together, results suggest that the group provides an efficient and therapeutically beneficial service. However, since these findings are limited by the lack of control or follow-up data, they warrant further investigation.

The replication of the five-factor structure suggests that these are relevant themes within the feelings of guilt to both Hispanic and British dementia caregivers. The CGQ has been demonstrated to be a valid measure for use with British dementia caregivers and is likely to be of use in clinical and research settings.

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Premedication is considered routine for domestic animal and human anesthesia but is rarely applied to avian patients, and few controlled studies exist to document effects of premedication in avian species. To determine the effects of a butorphanol and midazolam premedication on general anesthesia and quality of induction and recovery phases in psittacid species, 17 clinically healthy birds undergoing anesthesia were randomly allocated into either a premedicated or control group. Anesthetic parameters were subsequently compared. Induction time and isoflurane concentration required for anesthetic maintenance were reduced in the premedicated group. Induction quality scores were improved in the premedicated group and no adverse effects on anesthesia and cardiovascular stability were observed. Use of a combined butorphanol and midazolam premedication in clinically healthy psittacine birds appears safe and effective. Premedication provides a beneficial effect at induction and enables maintenance levels of anesthetic gas to be reduced.