Rates and predictors of brief intervention for women veterans returning from recent wars: Examining gaps in service delivery for unhealthy alcohol use.

Background: Approximately one in four women veterans accessing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) engage in unhealthy alcohol use. There is substantial evidence for gender-sensitive screening (AUDIT-C = 3) and brief intervention (BI) to reduce risks associated with unhealthy alcohol use in women veterans; however, VA policies and incentives remain gender-neutral (AUDIT-C = 5). Women veterans who screen positive at lower-risk-level alcohol use (AUDIT-C = 3 or 4) may screen out and therefore not receive BI.

Implementing and Sustaining Team-Based Telecare for Bipolar Disorder: Lessons Learned from a Model-Guided, Mixed Methods Analysis.

Background: Telemental health interventions have empirical support from clinical trials and structured demonstration projects. However, their implementation and sustainability under less structured clinical conditions are not well demonstrated.

Introduction: We conducted a follow-up analysis of the implementation and sustainability of a clinical video teleconference-based collaborative care model for individuals with bipolar disorder treated in the Department of Veterans Affairs to (a) characterize the extent of implementation and sustainability of the program after its establishment and (b) identify barriers and facilitators to implementation and sustainability.

Team-Based Telecare for Bipolar Disorder.

Introduction: Numerous randomized controlled trials indicate that collaborative chronic care models improve outcome in a wide variety of mental health conditions, including bipolar disorder. However, their spread into clinical practice is limited by the need for a critical mass of patients and specialty providers in the same locale. Clinical videoconferencing has the potential to overcome these geographic limitations.

Inpatient hospitalization for substance use disorders one year after residential rehabilitation: predictors among US veterans.

Background: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is among the principal providers of the full range of substance use disorders (SUD) treatment in the US. Relatively little, however, is known about patient outcomes after residential rehabilitation.

Objective: To identify predictors of SUD inpatient hospitalization (primarily medically managed detoxification) in the year after SUD residential rehabilitation among US veterans.

A controlled family study of cannabis users with and without psychosis.

Background: Cannabis is one of the most highly abused illicit drugs in the world. Several studies suggest a link between adolescent cannabis use and schizophrenia. An understanding of this link would have significant implications for legalization of cannabis and its medicinal value.

Association between age at onset of psychosis and age at onset of cannabis use in non-affective psychosis.

Introduction: Several studies have associated cannabis use with the development of schizophrenia. However, it has been difficult to disentangle the effects of cannabis from that of other illicit drugs, as previous studies have not evaluated pure cannabis users. To test whether the onset of cannabis use had an effect on the initiation of psychosis, we examined the time relationship between onset of use and onset of psychosis, restricting our analysis to a cohort of individuals who only used cannabis and no other street drugs.

Correlates to the variable effects of cannabis in young adults: a preliminary study.

Background: Cannabis use can frequently have adverse affects in those that use it and these can be amplified by various characteristics of an individual, from demographic and environmental variations to familial predisposition for mental illnesses.

Methods: The current study of 100 individuals, who were cannabis users during their adolescence and may still be users, was a survey of the self perceived effects of cannabis and their correlates. A reliable family member was also interviewed for determination of family history of various major mental illnesses and substance use.