Publications by authors named "Jessica Balderas"

Article Synopsis
  • Cocaine use is increasingly leading to overdose deaths, and there are currently no proven medications to effectively treat cocaine use disorder (CUD).
  • GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), typically used for diabetes and weight management, show promise in reducing cocaine use but lack human study validation.
  • A case study involving 3 patients showed that the GLP-1RA exenatide was well-tolerated and resulted in good patient attendance and satisfaction, indicating potential for future research on its effectiveness for CUD.
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Background: Following natural disasters, early helping behavior often dissipates despite remaining disaster-related suffering and affective vulnerability in the community. Interventions that have successfully increased helping behaviors have included components of motivational interviewing (MI) and mindful compassion; however, this research is limited by laboratory-based settings and lengthy training sessions. Brief, portable, and efficient intervention is needed to increase accessibility to large groups simultaneously.

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The Posttraumatic Checklist for Civilians (PCL-C) is one of the most common tools used to assess PTSD among civilian populations. However, the underlying factor structure of the PCL-C remains under examined, with the most recent research relying on small samples with limited generalizability. Thus, the present study used exploratory and confirmatory techniques in a large North American college student sample to investigate the factor structure of the PCL-C.

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Experiential background can influence how individuals respond to affective interpersonal information. For formerly depressed individuals, sad facial expressions are presumably salient. If so, when performing affectively neutral daily tasks, these individuals would find peripheral sad faces particularly distracting, and thus, they might shift their attention from them.

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During recent conflicts in the Middle East, U.S. military families have endured multiple separations, relocations, and alterations in family structure/routines, combined with other significant stressors.

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Objective: The goal of this study was to carry out the first comprehensive assessment of psychiatric comorbidity in adolescents (aged 12-17 years) with DSM-IV criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD) compared to a psychiatric comparison group without BPD. Complex comorbidity (a hallmark feature of adult BPD and defined as having any mood or anxiety disorder plus a disorder of impulsivity) was also examined as a distinguishing feature of adolescent BPD.

Method: Consecutively admitted patients (October 2008 to October 2012) to an inpatient psychiatric hospital received parental consent and gave assent for participation in the study (N = 418), with the final sample after exclusions consisting of 335 adolescent inpatients.

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