(1) Background: The Automated Test of Embodied Cognition (ATEC) uses video administration of cognitively demanding physical tasks and motion capture technology to assess cognition in action. Embodied cognition is a radical departure from conventional approaches to cognitive assessment and is in keeping with contemporary neuroscience. (2) Methods: ATEC was administered to a convenience sample of 20 patients with substance use disorder and 25 age-matched community controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmbodied cognition assessment may be more closely related to how children function than standard measures of executive functioning (EF) that require little body movement. Activate Test of Embodied Cognition (ATEC) measures cognitive functioning based on cognitively demanding physical tasks assessed using an automated administration with motion capture technology. This study evaluated the psychometrics of ATEC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Multiple interventions have been tested to promote well-being in high school students, often focusing on depression prevention.
Aims: To test the impact of a one-semester active learning curriculum covering the modern science and philosophy of well-being and happiness on attitudinal measures related to the curriculum and standard measures of depression and well-being.
Sample: Subjects were first-year students in an urban high school in Beijing, China (equivalent to US tenth grade).
Objective: In a previous report on a randomized clinical trial of a 3-month program of Cognitive Remediation Therapy (CRT) augmented by Work Therapy (WT) compared with WT alone for older veterans with substance use disorder (SUD), we reported significantly greater improvements at six-month follow-up on neurocognitive outcomes of working memory and executive functions for the CRT + WT condition. However, no difference was found between conditions on SUD outcomes, with both groups showing unusually high levels of abstinence. In this study, we extended follow-up to 12 months to test whether there was an SUD outcome "sleeper effect" from CRT + WT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This study focused on the efficacy of cognitive training for verbal learning and memory deficits in a population of older veterans with alcohol use disorders.
Methods: Veterans with alcohol use disorders, who were in outpatient treatment at VA facilities and in early-phase recovery (N = 31), were randomized to receive a three-month trial of daily cognitive training plus work therapy (n = 15) or work therapy alone (n = 16), along with treatment as usual. Participants completed assessments at baseline and at three- and six-month follow-ups; the Hopkins Verbal Learning Task (HVLT) was the primary outcome measure.
Drug Alcohol Depend
February 2016
Background: This study examined visual and verbal learning in the early phase of recovery for 48 Veterans with alcohol use (AUD) and substance use disorders (SUD, primarily cocaine and opiate abusers). Previous studies have demonstrated visual and verbal learning deficits in AUD, however little is known about the differences between AUD and SUD on these domains. Since the DSM-5 specifically identifies problems with learning in AUD and not in SUD, and problems with visual and verbal learning have been more prevalent in the literature for AUD than SUD, we predicted that people with AUD would be more impaired on measures of visual and verbal learning than people with SUD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Some studies suggest intensive psychiatric consultation services facilitate medical care and reduce length of stay (LOS) in general hospitals.
Objective: To compare LOS between a consultation-as-usual model and a proactive consultation model involving review of all admissions, rapid consultation, and close follow-up.
Methods: LOS was compared in an ABA design between a 33-day intervention period and 10 similar control periods, 5 before and 5 after the intervention, on an internal medical unit.
Background: Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the world, and long-term abstinence rates remain modest. Mindfulness training (MT) has begun to show benefits in a number of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety and more recently, in addictions. However, MT has not been evaluated for smoking cessation through randomized clinical trials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Recent research has emphasized that the human circadian rhythm system is differentially sensitive to short wavelength light. Light treatment devices using efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) whose output is relatively concentrated in short wavelengths may enable a more convenient effective therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
Methods: The efficacy of a LED light therapy device in the treatment of SAD was tested in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center trial.