Publications by authors named "Julie Petersen"

Purpose: Despite a wealth of research, the etiology of the abdominal wall defect gastroschisis remains largely unknown. The strongest known risk factor is young maternal age. Our objective was to conduct a hypothesis-generating analysis regarding gastroschisis etiology using random forests.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Trichotillomania is a debilitating and chronic condition involving repeated hair pulling from various areas of the body. Trichotillomania often begins in childhood, suggesting that the development and understanding of treatments for trichotillomania in youth are of utmost importance, especially for successful early intervention. While habit reversal training (HRT) is considered the gold standard treatment for trichotillomania in young people, this article reviews a nascent treatment approach for trichotillomania in youth, acceptance-enhanced behavior therapy (AEBT).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study aims to analyze mental health-related hospitalizations among adolescents aged 12-17 in South Australia in relation to their prior contact with the child protection system when they were younger (0-11 years).
  • Using data from various linked administrative sources, the researchers highlight how the extent of contact with child protection services correlates with the likelihood of mental health hospitalizations.
  • Results show that the rate of hospitalization for mental health issues increases significantly with each level of child protection contact, revealing a concerning trend where more severe interactions with child services are associated with higher hospitalization rates for mental health disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe the audiological test results from a sample of 60 adults with self-reported misophonia.

Method: Audiological testing was completed prior to participant randomization in a controlled trial for misophonia treatment. Participants completed the Inventory of Hyperacusis Symptoms Survey (IHS), the Tinnitus and Hearing Survey (THS), the Misophonia Questionnaire (MQ), and behavioral and objective audiometric measures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Magnetic resonance-guided, focused ultrasound thalamotomy is a neurosurgical treatment for refractory essential tremor. This study examined cognitive outcomes following unilateral magnetic resonance-guided, focused ultrasound thalamotomy, targeting the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus for essential tremor. The research was conducted at two sites: Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto, Canada, and West Virginia University School of Medicine Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in West Virginia, USA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Misophonia is a condition involving decreased tolerance and intense responses to specific sounds, often those that are human-generated and repetitive in nature. Misophonia frequently onsets during childhood and is associated with significant distress, impairment, and diminished quality of life. While misophonia research remains nascent and no definitive practice guidelines exist at present, extant studies offer several promising potential avenues in intervention development for adults with misophonia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Misophonia is a disorder characterized by an intense emotional reaction to specific sounds, often leading to significant distress and impairment in daily functioning. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a promising psychotherapy for treating misophonia, but has only been previously tested in case studies. This paper presents a protocol for the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessing the efficacy and feasibility of ACT supplemented by audiological interventions for misophonia versus progressive relaxation training (PRT).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Those with eating disorders (EDs) characterized by purging behaviors tend to show more impulsivity than those diagnosed with restrictive eating, who tend to show more compulsivity. Impulsive choice (i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The CRISPR gene editing tool holds great potential for curing genetic disorders. However, the safe, efficient, and specific delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 components into cells and tissues remains a challenge. While many currently available delivery methods achieve high levels of gene editing effects in vivo, they often result in genotoxicity and immunogenicity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that are accompanied by negative health outcomes, high mortality rates, impaired functioning, and comorbid mental health conditions. Despite many empirically supported interventions for eating disorders, it remains one of the most challenging mental disorders to treat, as individuals often struggle to maintain treatment gains. One method of improving our understanding of effective eating disorder treatment is to identify important processes of change to target during therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Birth defects and preterm birth share common risk factors, often presenting a higher incidence in male infants, which this study investigates through data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS) from 1997 to 2011.
  • The research employed random forests to identify key predictors of male and female preterm births among infants with specific birth defects, using logistic regression to analyze associations between these factors and birth outcomes.
  • Key findings revealed that while predictors varied for different defects, a short interpregnancy interval was frequently linked to preterm birth status, and obesity, commonly linked to preterm birth in other studies, was not a significant factor in this analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Certain associations observed in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS) contrasted with other research or were from areas with mixed findings, including no decrease in odds of spina bifida with periconceptional folic acid supplementation, moderately increased cleft palate odds with ondansetron use and reduced hypospadias odds with maternal smoking.

Objectives: To investigate the plausibility and extent of differential participation to produce effect estimates observed in NBDPS.

Methods: We searched the literature for factors related to these exposures and participation and conducted deterministic quantitative bias analyses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) funds and coordinates scientific research in Europe, recently supporting the "Genome Editing to treat Human Diseases" (GenE-HumDi) network that connects various stakeholders including pharmaceutical companies and academia.
  • - GenE-HumDi’s main goal is to fast-track the use of genome editing for treating human diseases through organized working groups that improve technologies, assess safety, and create regulatory guidelines.
  • - The initiative aims to standardize practices, share knowledge, and effectively communicate the potential of genome editing to the public, highlighted by their first meeting in March 2023 in Granada, Spain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Neural tube defects (NTDs) still occur among some women who consume 400 μg of folic acid for prevention. It has been hypothesized that intakes of methyl donors and other micronutrients involved in one-carbon metabolism may further protect against NTDs.

Objectives: To investigate whether intakes of vitamin B6, vitamin B12, choline, betaine, methionine, thiamine, riboflavin, and zinc, individually or in combination, were associated with NTD risk reduction in offspring of women meeting the folic acid recommendations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Racism is a key determinant of perinatal health disparities. Poor diet may contribute to this effect, but research on racism and dietary patterns is limited.

Objective: We aimed to describe the relation between experiences of racial discrimination and adherence to the 2015‒2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sexual orientation intrusive thoughts are a debilitating form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The present study aimed to elucidate how psychological inflexibility and dysfunctional beliefs may impact the relationships of sexual orientation intrusive thoughts and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms with well-being. A total of 181 undergraduate students completed measures of sexual orientation intrusive thoughts, OC symptoms, psychological inflexibility, dysfunctional beliefs, and well-being.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: A strength of SuperLearner is that it may accommodate key interactions between model variables without a priori specification. In prior research, protective associations between fruit intake and preeclampsia were stronger when estimated using SuperLearner with targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) compared with multivariable logistic regression without any interaction terms. We explored whether heterogeneity (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: This case-cohort study estimated associations between gestational weight gain (GWG) and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) and large-for-gestational-age (LGA) births stratified by obesity class (I: 30-34.9 kg/m ; II: 35-39.9 kg/m ; III: ≥40 kg/m ) (Magee-Womens Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1998-2011).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Values are freely chosen life directions and/or qualities of being that can motivate behavior change. There is nascent support for the utility of values work as a part of the therapeutic process across treatments, particularly in third wave therapy approaches (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Placental abnormalities have been described in clinical convenience samples, with predominately adverse outcomes. Few studies have described placental patterns in unselected samples.

Objective: We aimed to investigate associations between co-occurring placental features and adverse pregnancy outcomes in a prospective cohort of singletons.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Involving patients and families in nursing care is essential to improve patients' health outcomes. Furthermore, families play an essential role in supporting patients by helping nurses understand the patient's everyday life. However, families also need support.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Medication use during pregnancy is common, with up to 90% of pregnant women taking at least one medication. Women with congenital physical disabilities often report co-occurring conditions during pregnancy that may warrant pharmaceutical treatment, however, research is limited. We aim to describe medication use during pregnancy including: pain, psychotropic, and antibacterial medication, among women with and without congenital physical disabilities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Adherence to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is often assessed using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI). The HEI total score reflects overall diet quality, with all aspects equally important. Using the traditional weighting scheme for the HEI, all components are generally weighted equally in the total score.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The northernmost regions of our planet experience twice the rate of climate warming compared to the global average. Despite the currently low air temperatures, tundra shrubs are known to exhibit high leaf temperatures and are increasing in height due to warming, but it is unclear how the increase in height will affect the leaf temperature. To study how temperature, soil moisture, and changes in light availability influence the physiology and emissions of climate-relevant volatile organic compounds (VOCs), we conducted a study on two common deciduous tundra shrubs, Salix glauca (separating males and females for potential effects of plant sex) and Betula glandulosa, at two elevations in South Greenland.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF