Remotely-administered resilience and self-compassion intervention targeting loneliness and stress in older adults: a single-case experimental design.

Objectives: Loneliness and chronic stress are prevalent issues for older adults that have been linked to adverse health outcomes. We conducted a remote resilience and self-compassion intervention targeting loneliness and chronic stress.

Methods: This study utilized a multiple-phase-change single-case experimental design with three consecutive 6-week phases: control, intervention, follow-up.

Remotely Administered Resilience- and Wisdom-Focused Intervention to Reduce Perceived Stress and Loneliness: Pilot Controlled Clinical Trial in Older Adults.

Objective: Older adults are vulnerable to perceived stress and loneliness, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We previously reported inverse relationships between loneliness/perceived stress and wisdom/resilience. There are few evidence-based tele-health interventions for older adults.

Automated Analysis of Drawing Process to Estimate Global Cognition in Older Adults: Preliminary International Validation on the US and Japan Data Sets.

Background: With the aging of populations worldwide, early detection of cognitive impairments has become a research and clinical priority, particularly to enable preventive intervention for dementia. Automated analysis of the drawing process has been studied as a promising means for lightweight, self-administered cognitive assessment. However, this approach has not been sufficiently tested for its applicability across populations.

Improving Healthy Living in Residential Care Facilities: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Appropriateness of Implementing a Multicomponent Intervention for Diabetes Risk Reduction in Adults with Serious Mental Illnesses.

Persons with serious mental illnesses experience high rates of medical comorbidity, especially diabetes. This study examined initial implementation feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness of a new 6-month Multicomponent Intervention for Diabetes risk reduction in Adults with Serious mental illnesses (MIDAS) among persons in residential care facilities (RCFs). We conducted a mixed-methods study using four types of quantitative and qualitative data sources (administrative data; structured facility-level observations; resident assessments including blood-based biomarkers, 24-h dietary recalls, and self-report physical activity; and focus groups/interviews with staff and participants), to assess evidence of and factors affecting intervention feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness.

Engaging older adults as advocates for age-friendly, walkable communities: The Senior Change Makers Pilot Study.

As the U.S. population ages, communities must adapt to help older adults thrive.

Study of loneliness and wisdom in 482 middle-aged and oldest-old adults: a comparison between people in Cilento, Italy and San Diego, USA.

Objectives: There has been growing research interest in loneliness and wisdom in recent decades, but no cross-cultural comparisons of these constructs using standardized rating measures in older adults, especially the oldest-old. This was a cross-sectional study of loneliness and wisdom comparing middle-aged and oldest-old adults in Cilento, Italy and San Diego, United States.

Method: We examined loneliness and wisdom, using the UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 (UCLA-3) and San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE), respectively, in four subject groups: adults aged 50-65 and those ≥90 years from Cilento, Italy ( = 212 and 47, respectively) and San Diego, California, USA ( = 138 and 85, respectively).

A pragmatic trial of a group intervention in senior housing communities to increase resilience.

Background: Aging is associated with numerous stressors that negatively impact older adults' well-being. Resilience improves ability to cope with stressors and can be enhanced in older adults. Senior housing communities are promising settings to deliver positive psychiatry interventions due to rising resident populations and potential impact of delivering interventions directly in the community.

The New Science of Practical Wisdom.

Wisdom has been discussed for centuries in religious and philosophical texts. It is often viewed as a fuzzy psychological construct analogous to consciousness, stress, and resilience. This essay provides an understanding of wisdom as a scientific construct, based on empirical research starting in the 1970s.

Study of Independent Living Residents of a Continuing Care Senior Housing Community: Sociodemographic and Clinical Associations of Cognitive, Physical, and Mental Health.

Objective: To examine associations of sociodemographic and clinical factors with cognitive, physical, and mental health among independent living older adults in a continuing care senior housing community (CCSHC).

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study at the independent living sector of a CCSHC in San Diego County, California. Participants included English-speaking adults aged 65-95 years, of which two-thirds were women.

High prevalence and adverse health effects of loneliness in community-dwelling adults across the lifespan: role of wisdom as a protective factor.

Objectives: This study of loneliness across adult lifespan examined its associations with sociodemographics, mental health (positive and negative psychological states and traits), subjective cognitive complaints, and physical functioning.

Design: Analysis of cross-sectional data.

Participants: 340 community-dwelling adults in San Diego, California, mean age 62 (SD = 18) years, range 27-101 years, who participated in three community-based studies.

A new scale for assessing wisdom based on common domains and a neurobiological model: The San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE).

Wisdom is an ancient concept that has gained new interest among clinical researchers as a complex trait relevant to well-being and healthy aging. As the empirical data regarding wisdom have grown, several measures have been used to assess an individual's level of wisdom. However, none of these measures has been based on a construct of wisdom with neurobiological underpinnings.

Age-Friendly Communities Initiative: Public Health Approach to Promoting Successful Aging.

Older adults consistently prefer aging in place, which requires a high level of community support and services that are currently lacking. With a rapidly aging population, the present infrastructure for healthcare will prove even more inadequate to meet seniors' physical and mental health needs. A paradigm shift away from the sole focus on delivery of interventions at an individual level to more prevention-focused, community-based approaches will become essential.

Paradoxical Trend for Improvement in Mental Health With Aging: A Community-Based Study of 1,546 Adults Aged 21-100 Years.

Objective: Studies of aging usually focus on trajectories of physical and cognitive function, with far less emphasis on overall mental health, despite its impact on general health and mortality. This study examined linear and nonlinear trends of physical, cognitive, and mental health over the entire adult lifespan.

Methods: Cross-sectional data were obtained from 1,546 individuals aged 21-100 years, selected using random digit dialing for the Successful AGing Evaluation (SAGE) study, a structured multicohort investigation that included telephone interviews and in-home surveys of community-based adults without dementia.

Associations of high sensitivity C-reactive protein levels in schizophrenia and comparison groups.

Schizophrenia is characterized by physical (mainly metabolic and cardiovascular) comorbidity and shortened lifespan. High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), an inflammatory marker of hepatic origin linked to metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and mortality in the general population, has been reported to be elevated in people with schizophrenia. However, the relationship of hs-CRP to psychiatric and medical risk factors, after controlling for potentially confounding variables such as smoking, is not well established in schizophrenia.

Wellness within illness: happiness in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is typically a chronic disorder and among the most severe forms of serious mental illnesses in terms of adverse impact on quality of life. Yet, there have been suggestions that some people with schizophrenia can experience an overall sense of happiness in their lives. We investigated happiness among 72 outpatients with non-remitted chronic schizophrenia with a mean duration of illness of 24.

Bereavement: course, consequences, and care.

This paper discusses each of several potential consequences of bereavement. First, we describe ordinary grief, followed by a discussion of grief gone awry, or complicated grief (CG). Then, we cover other potential adverse outcomes of bereavement, each of which may contribute to, but are not identical with, CG: general medical comorbidity, mood disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and substance use.

Association between older age and more successful aging: critical role of resilience and depression.

Objective: There is growing public health interest in understanding and promoting successful aging. While there has been some exciting empirical work on objective measures of physical health, relatively little published research combines physical, cognitive, and psychological assessments in large, randomly selected, community-based samples to assess self-rated successful aging.

Method: In the Successful AGing Evaluation (SAGE) study, the authors used a structured multicohort design to assess successful aging in 1,006 community-dwelling adults in San Diego County, ages 50-99 years, with oversampling of people over 80.

Comparison of longer-term safety and effectiveness of 4 atypical antipsychotics in patients over age 40: a trial using equipoise-stratified randomization.

Objective: To compare longer-term safety and effectiveness of the 4 most commonly used atypical antipsychotics (aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone) in 332 patients, aged > 40 years, having psychosis associated with schizophrenia, mood disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, or dementia, diagnosed using DSM-IV-TR criteria.

Method: We used equipoise-stratified randomization (a hybrid of complete randomization and clinician's choice methods) that allowed patients or their treating psychiatrists to exclude 1 or 2 of the study atypical antipsychotics due to past experience or anticipated risk. Patients were followed for up to 2 years, with assessments at baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks, and every 12 weeks thereafter.

Older patients with schizophrenia: does military veteran status matter?

Objective: : The objective of this study was to examine the influence of military veteran status within a data set of older patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Methods: : The data set was examined to determine whether veteran status influenced psychopathology, quality of life, cognitive performance, and everyday functioning among 746 male participants.

Results: : There were no significant differences between the groups on measures of premorbid functioning or psychopathology.

Increased Framingham 10-year risk of coronary heart disease in middle-aged and older patients with psychotic symptoms.

Objective: The Framingham 10-risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) has been a widely studied estimate of cardiovascular risk in the general population. However, few studies have compared the relative risk of developing CHD in antipsychotic-treated patients with different psychiatric disorders, especially in older patients with psychotic symptoms. In this study, we compared the 10-year risk of developing CHD among middle-aged and older patients with psychotic symptoms to that in the general population.