Though social support (SS) and communal mastery (CM) are resilience factors among American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIAN), they have not been examined as trauma treatment predictors in this at-risk group. This study evaluated whether SS and CM were associated with improved treatment response in a sample of 73 AIAN women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Participants received culturally adapted CPT and were assessed for PTSD, CM, and SS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCrowdsourcing is an essential data collection method for psychological research. Concerns about the validity and quality of crowdsourced data persist, however. A recent documented increase in the number of invalid responses within crowdsourced data has highlighted the need for quality control measures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Social support is a protective factor against the development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, examinations of the social support after trauma have relied primarily on the self-reports of trauma survivors to the exclusion of their support providers. A new measure, the Supportive Other Experiences Questionnaire (SOEQ) was adapted from a well-established behavioral coding schema of support behaviors to capture social support experiences from the support provider perspective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMuch of the research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been conducted in high-income countries (HICs). However, PTSD and AUD commonly co-occur (PTSD + AUD) are both associated with high global burden of disease, and disproportionately impact those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This narrative review attempts to synthesize the research on prevalence, impact, etiological models, and treatment of PTSD + AUD drawing from research conducted in HICs and discussing the research that has been conducted to date in LMICs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among US military veterans can adversely impact their concerned significant others (CSOs; eg, family members and romantic partners). Mobile apps can be tailored to support CSO mental health through psychoeducation, coping skills, and stress monitoring.
Objective: This study assessed the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of PTSD Family Coach 1.
Young adult sexual minority women (SMW) are at elevated risk for sexual assault (SA), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and inadequate social support. While SA and PTSD can lead to reductions in social support from close significant others, the impact of SA and PTSD on SMWs' social support has not previously been assessed. This study examined the associations of past year SA and PTSD with SMW's social support from intimate partners, family, and friends.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Consumption of traditional and social media markedly increased at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as new information about the virus and safety guidelines evolved. Much of the information concerned restrictions on daily living activities and the risk posed by the virus. The term is used to describe the phenomenon of elevated negative affect after viewing pandemic-related media.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe transition to adulthood is a period of increased risk for emergent psychopathology; emerging adults with a childhood maltreatment history are at risk for poor outcomes. Using a multi-measure, transdisciplinary, cross-sectional design, this study tested whether participant-reported positive parenting, a potential resilience-promoting factor, moderated the association between clinician-rated PTSD symptom severity and a transdiagnostic maladjustment biomarker, fear-potentiated startle (FPS), in a sample of 66 emerging adults ( = 18.83, SD = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExposure to maltreatment during childhood is associated with structural changes throughout the brain. However, the structural differences that are most strongly associated with maltreatment remain unclear given the limited number of whole-brain studies. The present study used machine learning to identify if and how brain structure distinguished young adults with and without a history of maltreatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInterventions administered shortly after a traumatic event have the potential to prevent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related mental health conditions. A key challenge in delivering such interventions is understanding how PTSD symptoms develop in the acute post-trauma period, defined as the first 30 days after a trauma. Mobile devices have the potential to transform the way symptoms are assessed and how treatment is delivered in that they can capture the dynamic and nuanced nature of symptom progression after trauma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: PTSD is posited to develop in the acute posttrauma period. Few studies have examined psychopathology symptoms within this period due to the demands on individuals in the first month after a trauma. Mobile devices can overcome these barriers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough crowdsourcing websites like Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) allow researchers to conduct research efficiently, it is unclear if MTurk and traditionally recruited samples are comparable when assessing the sequela of traumatic events. We compared the responses to validated self-report measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related constructs that were given by 822 participants recruited via MTurk and had experienced a DSM-5 Criterion A traumatic event to responses obtained in recent samples of participants recruited via traditional methods. Results suggested that the rate of PTSD in the present sample (19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) results from exposure to traumatic events. Social support is negatively related to PTSD symptoms in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. It is unclear, however, if social support is associated with treatment response for PTSD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrauma exposure markedly increases risk for psychopathology including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Understanding the course by which PTSD develops after a traumatic event is critical to enhancing early intervention. Although prior work has explored the course of PTSD symptoms in the subsequent months, relatively few studies have explored the course of symptoms in the acute post-trauma period, defined as the 30 days after a traumatic event.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccording to the Institute of Medicine, the vast older adult population is estimated to have mental health and substance use disorders at unprecedented rates and will place high demand on an unprepared healthcare system. Online and mobile health interventions, such as text messaging, could provide an alternative form of frontline intervention that could alleviate some of the burden on the healthcare system; however, it remains unknown what are characteristics of adults over 50 who might be interested in a mobile health behavioral intervention and how they may differ from their younger counterparts. To explore the characteristics of those interested in a text messaging intervention by age, we examined screening data for a randomized controlled trial testing a text messaging intervention to reduce drinking among 1,128 hazardous and problem drinkers, aged 21-30, 31-50, and 51 and older.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA range of risk factors lead to opioid use and substance-related problems (SRP) including childhood maltreatment, elevated impulsivity, and psychopathology. These constructs are highly interrelated such that childhood maltreatment is associated with elevated impulsivity and trauma-related psychopathology such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and impulsivity-particularly urgency-and PTSD are related. Prior work has examined the association between these constructs and substance-related problems independently and it is unclear how these multi-faceted constructs (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Recent evidence suggests that text messaging may help to reduce problem drinking as an extension to in-person services, but very little is known about the effectiveness of remote messaging on problem drinking as a stand-alone intervention, or how different types of messages may improve drinking outcomes in those seeking to moderate their alcohol consumption.
Methods: We conducted an exploratory, single-blind randomized controlled pilot study comparing four different types of alcohol reduction-themed text messages sent daily to weekly drink self-tracking texts in order to determine their impact on drinking outcomes over a 12-week period in 152 participants (≈ 30 per group) seeking to reduce their drinking on the internet. Messaging interventions included: weekly drink self-tracking mobile assessment texts (MA), loss-framed texts (LF), gain-framed texts (GF), static tailored texts (ST), and adaptive tailored texts (TA).
J Rehabil Assist Technol Eng
October 2017
Introduction: Mobile technologies, such as short message service or text messaging, can be an important way to reach individuals with medical and behavioral health problems who are homebound or geographically isolated. Optimally tailoring messages in short message service interventions according to preferences can enhance engagement and positive health outcomes; however, little is known about the messaging preferences of middle-aged and older adults.
Methods: Utilizing secondary data, global messaging preferences were examined to inform the development of short message service interventions for adults of all ages.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a significant public health concern associated with marked impairment across the lifespan. Exposure to traumatic events alone, however, is insufficient to determine if an individual has PTSD. PTSD is a heterogeneous diagnosis such that assessment of all 20 symptoms is problematic in time-limited treatment settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe behavior of concerned significant others (CSOs) can have a measurable impact on the health and wellness of individuals attempting to meet behavioral and health goals, and research is needed to better understand the attributes of text-based CSO language when encouraging target significant others (TSOs) to achieve those goals. In an effort to inform the development of interventions for CSOs, this study examined the language content of brief text-based messages generated by CSOs to motivate TSOs to achieve a behavioral goal. CSOs generated brief text-based messages for TSOs for three scenarios: (1) to help TSOs achieve the goal, (2) in the event that the TSO is struggling to meet the goal, and (3) in the event that the TSO has given up on meeting the goal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExposure to traumatic events places individuals at high risk for multiple psychiatric disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The high rates of comorbidity among these conditions merit evaluation in order to improve diagnosis and treatment approaches. The current study evaluated the association between PTSD, MDD, and GAD factors as presented in the DSM 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mobile messaging interventions have been shown to improve outcomes across a number of mental health and health-related conditions, but there are still significant gaps in our knowledge of how to construct and deliver the most effective brief messaging interventions. Little is known about the ways in which subtle linguistic variations in message content can affect user receptivity and preferences.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether any global messaging preferences existed for different types of language content, and how certain characteristics moderate those preferences, in an effort to inform the development of mobile messaging interventions.