Frozen conflict in the midst of a global pandemic: potential impact on mental health in Armenian border communities.

Armenia has been in a conflict with its neighbor, Azerbaijan, since 1988. Civilians in Tavush Province are regularly affected by ceasefire violations along the armed border with recent escalations further threatening the population's safety. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns regarding the mental health of border village residents in Armenia are prevalent.

Community Violence, PTSD, Hopelessness, Substance Use, and Perpetuation of Violence in an Urban Environment.

We investigated the relationships among chronic violence exposure, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, hopelessness, substance use, and perpetuation of violence to facilitate the development of trauma-related interventions for residents of Newark, NJ. A convenience sample of Newark residents (N = 153) was recruited from community centers during various events in 2016-2017. Anonymous, self-report survey measures included a PTSD screen (PCL-C), Beck's Hopelessness Scale, the CAGE questionnaire, and a CDC Health Behavior Scale.

Mood disorders of childhood and adolescence in a low-income, urban community: A retrospective chart review.

Background: Our goal was to determine the risk factors that most correlated with mood disorder diagnoses in children in a low-income, urban community.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of 174 patients age 6 to 18 who were seen between November 2016 and July 2017 at the University Hospital Psychiatric Pediatric Emergency Services in Newark, New Jersey, United States.

Results: Bivariate and multivariate analyses revealed that increasing age, female sex, exposure to trauma, and family history of psychiatric illness were significantly associated with mood disorders in our sample.

A Course on Terror Medicine: Content and Evaluations.

Introduction: The development of medical school courses on medical responses for disaster victims has been deemed largely inadequate. To address this gap, a 2-week elective course on Terror Medicine (a field related to Disaster and Emergency Medicine) has been designed for fourth year students at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey (USA). This elective is part of an overall curricular plan to broaden exposure to topics related to Terror Medicine throughout the undergraduate medical education.

Terror medicine as part of the medical school curriculum.

Terror medicine, a field related to emergency and disaster medicine, focuses on medical issues ranging from preparedness to psychological manifestations specifically associated with terrorist attacks. Calls to teach aspects of the subject in American medical schools surged after the 2001 jetliner and anthrax attacks. Although the threat of terrorism persists, terror medicine is still addressed erratically if at all in most medical schools.