Association of pregnancy attitudes and intentions with sexual activity and psychiatric symptoms in justice-involved youth.

Context: With over one-third of detained girls experiencing teenage pregnancy, it is critical that the juvenile justice system better addresses the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of youth. Although pregnancy attitudes and intentions (PAI) are associated with pregnancy outcomes among the general adolescent population, this relationship has not been examined among justice-involved youth.

Methods: Participants were drawn from a longitudinal study characterizing trajectories of behavioral and reproductive health and recidivism among newly justice-involved youth in a Northeast family court.

The prospective impact of adverse childhood experiences on justice-involved youth's psychiatric symptoms and substance use.

Objective: Justice-involved youth report high rates of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; abuse, neglect, household dysfunction) and are at high risk for elevated behavioral health needs (i.e., substance use, psychiatric symptoms).

Effect of Age on Psychiatric Rehospitalization Rates After Electroconvulsive Therapy for Patients With Depression.

Objectives: The aims of this naturalistic study are to examine psychiatric rehospitalization rates in geriatric compared to nongeriatric patients who receive electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and to characterize the sustained effectiveness of ECT for treatment of depression.

Methods: Retrospective review of electronic medical records at a tertiary care center for patients with major depressive disorder who received an acute course of ECT at an index psychiatric hospitalization over a 5-year period. Data for subsequent psychiatric and primary care encounters were ascertained by chart review.

Improvements in depression severity in hospitalized patients with and without borderline personality features.

Introduction: Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often struggle with treatment-resistant depression. To date, few studies have specifically assessed the rate of improvement of depressive symptoms during an acute inpatient hospitalization in patients who screen positive for BPD compared with those who do not.

Methods: A sample of 245 psychiatric inpatients was divided into 2 groups on the basis of whether or not they tested positive on the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD).

Baseline screening tools as indicators for symptom outcomes and health services utilization in a collaborative care model for depression in primary care: a practice-based observational study.

Objective: Within a practice-based collaborative care program for depression, we examined associations between positive baseline screens for comorbid mental and behavioral health problems, depression remission and utilization after 1 year.

Methods: This observational study of 1507 depressed adults examined baseline screens for hazardous drinking (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test score ≥ 8), severe anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item score ≥ 15) and bipolar disorder [Mood Disorders Questionnaire (MDQ) positive screen]; 6-month depression remission; primary care, psychiatric, emergency department (ED) and inpatient visits 1 year postbaseline; and multiple covariates. Analyses included logistic and zero-inflated negative binomial regression.

Neural circuitry of masked emotional face processing in youth with bipolar disorder, severe mood dysregulation, and healthy volunteers.

Youth with bipolar disorder (BD) and those with severe, non-episodic irritability (severe mood dysregulation, SMD) show face-emotion labeling deficits. These groups differ from healthy volunteers (HV) in neural responses to emotional faces. It is unknown whether awareness is required to elicit these differences.

Impaired fixation to eyes during facial emotion labelling in children with bipolar disorder or severe mood dysregulation.

Background: Children with bipolar disorder (BD) or severe mood dysregulation (SMD) show behavioural and neural deficits during facial emotion processing. In those with other psychiatric disorders, such deficits have been associated with reduced attention to eye regions while looking at faces.

Methods: We examined gaze fixation patterns during a facial emotion labelling task among children with pediatric BD and SMD and among healthy controls.

"Diminished" association between the serotonin transporter linked polymorphism (5HTTLPR) and body mass index in a large psychiatric sample.

Background: The role of the promoter polymorphism (5HTTLPR) of the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) in psychiatric illnesses has been studied extensively. Serotonergic function also regulates many central nervous system, including appetite and feeding behaviors. The 5HTTLPR short allele was found to be associated with increased body mass index and obesity risk among the general population.

Parametric modulation of neural activity by emotion in youth with bipolar disorder, youth with severe mood dysregulation, and healthy volunteers.

CONTEXT Youth with bipolar disorder (BD) and those with severe, nonepisodic irritability (severe mood dysregulation [SMD]) exhibit amygdala dysfunction during facial emotion processing. However, studies have not compared such patients with each other and with comparison individuals in neural responsiveness to subtle changes in facial emotion; the ability to process such changes is important for social cognition. To evaluate this, we used a novel, parametrically designed faces paradigm.

Differing amygdala responses to facial expressions in children and adults with bipolar disorder.

Objective: Child and adult bipolar patients show both behavioral deficits in face emotion processing and abnormal amygdala activation. However, amygdala function in pediatric relative to adult bipolar patients has not been compared directly. The authors used functional MRI to compare amygdala activity during a face processing task in children and adults with bipolar disorder and in healthy comparison subjects.