A longitudinal study of changes in psychological responses to continuous terrorism.

Objective: The impact of ongoing terror over time has received little attention. This study assesses longitudinally prevalence and predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms' trajectories, namely resistance, resilience, late-onset and chronicity in the course of intensive and ongoing terror.

Method: Two surveys were performed at a two-year interval among 153 Jewish Israeli adults.

Protective factors and predictors of vulnerability to chronic stress: a comparative study of 4 communities after 7 years of continuous rocket fire.

Many communities across the world are chronically exposed to extreme violence. Responses of residents from a city and rural community in Southern Israel, both exposed to 7 years of daily mortar fire, were compared to residents from demographically, socio-economically and geographically comparable non-exposed control samples to examine protective factors and predictors of vulnerability to chronic war-related attacks. Samples from a highly exposed city (Sderot) and a highly exposed rural community region (Otef Aza), along with a demographically comparable comparison non-exposed city (Ofakim) and non-exposed rural community region (Hevel Lachish), were obtained in 2007 using Random Digit Dialing.

Attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and emotions of the nursing staff toward patient restraint.

Physical restraints are used as a psychiatric intervention to protect psychiatric inpatients from self-harm or harm to others, by securing a safe environment for the patients and staff. We examined nurses' attitudes, environmental concerns, and emotional responses to physical restraint of psychiatric inpatients, using a questionnaire we constructed expressly for this study. Nurses reported that the main criteria for restraint were endangerment of the patient's self or surroundings.

Feeling the real world: limbic response to music depends on related content.

Emotions are often object related--they are about someone or something in the world. It is yet an open question whether emotions and the associated perceptual contents that they refer to are processed by different parts of the brain or whether the brain regions that mediate emotions are also involved in the processing of the associated content they refer to. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we showed that simply combining music (rich in emotion but poor in information about the concrete world) with neutral films (poor in emotionality but rich in real-world details) yields increased activity in the amygdala, hippocampus, and lateral prefrontal regions.

Does psychiatric comorbidity affect drug abuse treatment outcome? A prospective assessment of drug abuse, treatment tenure and infectious diseases in an Israeli methadone maintenance clinic.

Objective: The influence of psychiatric comorbidity in drug addicts on therapeutic outcome is an important unresolved issue. We studied the links between patterns of psychiatric comorbidity and psychological distress with treatment outcome variables.

Method: 151 methadone maintenance patients underwent a structured clinical interview, twice-weekly urinalysis for traces of drugs of abuse, and completed psychological distress and risk-taking questionnaires for periods of up to three years.

Is terror gender-blind? Gender differences in reaction to terror events.

Objective: This study examines gender differences in posttraumatic vulnerability in the face of the terror attacks that occurred during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. In addition, the contribution of level of exposure, sense of safety, self-efficacy, and coping strategies is assessed.

Method: Participants were 250 men and 262 women, who constitute a representative sample of Israel's adult population.

Video testimony of long-term hospitalized psychiatrically ill Holocaust survivors.

Objective: Many Holocaust survivors who have both psychotic disorders and residual symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain chronically hospitalized in psychiatric institutions. This study investigated the clinical benefits of a therapeutic process facilitating a detailed videotaped account of traumatic experience (testimony method) in elderly long-term hospitalized Holocaust survivors.

Method: Twenty-four schizophrenia patients (mean age=72.

Emotional impact of exposure to terrorism among young-old and old-old Israeli citizens.

Objective: Since September 2000, continuous terrorist attacks have exposed Israeli society to trauma, and the impact of these events on the mental health of the elderly Israeli population remains unclear. The authors sought to assess the prevalence of posttraumatic stress-related symptoms of distress, depression, optimism, self-efficacy, and sense of safety of the young-old and old-old Jewish population after 19 months of intense terrorism in Israel, in order to identify correlates of the psychological sequelae and compare symptoms and coping methods of these populations with those of younger adults.

Methods: Authors did a telephone survey using stratified sampling with a national sample of young-old (65-74 years old), old-old (>74 years old) and a comparison group of younger adults (18-64 years old).

Cannabis abuse is not a risk factor for treatment outcome in methadone maintenance treatment: a 1-year prospective study in an Israeli clinic.

Objective: We addressed the following questions. What are the current and lifetime prevalence of cannabis abuse in an Israeli methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) clinic? Does cannabis abuse change over time during MMT? Is cannabis abuse related to treatment outcome measures such as retention rate and the abuse of drugs? Is the abuse of cannabis related to psychopathology, HIV/HCV risk-taking and infectious diseases? Do cannabis abusers (CAs) have a different psychosocial and demographic profile than nonabusers (NCAs)? Is cannabis abuse part of a polydrug abuse tendency or a distinct substance of abuse?

Method: Overlapping samples of either the entire clinic population (n = 283) or all the patients who had completed 1 year of MMT treatment (n = 196 of which 20 were re-entering) underwent random and twice-weekly observed urine analysis for various drugs of abuse, responded to self-report questionnaires (SCL-90-R; HIV/HCV risk-taking behaviours; n = 164), interviews (ASI, n = 176; SCID, n = 151) and hepatitis C and HIV testing (n = 149).

Results: Lifetime abuse prevalence was found in 75% and current abuse at MMT intake in 25%.

Exposure to terrorism, stress-related mental health symptoms, and coping behaviors among a nationally representative sample in Israel.

Context: The terrorist attacks on Israeli society have been ongoing since September 2000. However, few studies have examined the impact of terrorism on nationally representative population samples, and no study has examined the psychological impact of ongoing terrorism in Israel.

Objectives: To determine the level of exposure to terrorist attacks and the prevalence of traumatic stress-related (TSR) symptoms, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and sense of safety after 19 months of terrorism in Israel, and to identify correlates of the psychological sequelae and the modes of coping with the terrorism.

Treatment of benzodiazepine dependence in methadone maintenance treatment patients: a comparison of two therapeutic modalities and the role of psychiatric comorbidity.

Objective: Therapeutic approaches for benzodiazepine (BZD) dependence in patients in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) have met with limited success. Clonazepam detoxification (CDTX) and clonazepam maintenance treatment (CMT) were compared in an open, clinical naturalistic study on such patients.

Methods: Benzodiazepine dependent patients substituted their BZD of abuse for clonazepam and were then either detoxified (CDTX) or a maintenance dose was reached and maintained (CMT).