Behavioural profiling following acute stress uncovers associations with future stress sensitivity and past childhood abuse.

Individuals greatly differ in their responses to acute stress, ranging from resilience to vulnerability that may yield stress-related psychopathology. Stress-related psychopathologies involve, by definition, substantial modifications across multiple behavioural domains, including impaired cognitive, affective and social functioning. Nevertheless, and despite extensive investigation of individual variability in stress responsivity, no study to date simultaneously assessed the impact of acute stress across multiple behavioural domains within a given individual.

Stress-induced increase in heart-rate during sleep as an indicator of PTSD risk among combat soldiers.

Study Objectives: Discerning the differential contribution of sleep behavior and sleep physiology to the subsequent development of posttraumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD) symptoms following military operational service among combat soldiers.

Methods: Longitudinal design with three measurement time points: during basic training week (T1), during intensive stressed training week (T2), and following military operational service (T3). Participating soldiers were all from the same unit, ensuring equivalent training schedules and stress exposures.

Mapping Oral health and Local Area Resources (MOLAR): protocol for a randomised controlled trial connecting emergency department patients with social and dental resources.

Introduction: There are substantial inequities in oral health access and outcomes in the USA, including by income and racial and ethnic identity. People with adverse social determinants of health (aSDoH), such as housing or food insecurity, are also more likely to have unmet dental needs. Many patients with dental problems present to the emergency department (ED), where minimal dental care or referral is usually available.

Challenges connecting emergency department patients with oral health care: A qualitative analysis of patients, emergency department clinicians, and dentists.

Background: Unmet dental need shares many risk factors with unmet health-related social needs (HRSN) such as housing and food security and are a common cause for seeking treatment at the emergency department (ED).

Methods: The authors recruited a purposive sample of English-speaking and Spanish-speaking patients, ED clinicians at 3 urban EDs, and dentists from nearby communities to participate in qualitative interviews to explore barriers to and facilitators of screening for HRSN and unmet dental needs in the ED. Themes were identified from transcripts using a modified grounded theory approach.

Treatment deferral for elevated blood pressure at a dental school clinic.

Objectives: Current guidelines by the American Dental Association (ADA) recommend deferral of elective dental care for elevated blood pressure. However, it is unknown how frequently this impacts dental treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate rates of asymptomatic hypertension and treatment deferral at a dental school clinic.

Stressful life events, oral health, and barriers to dental care during pregnancy.

Objectives: Poor oral health during pregnancy poses risks to maternal and infant well-being. However, limited research has documented how proximate stressful life events (SLEs) during the prenatal period are associated with oral health and patterns of dental care utilization.

Methods: Data come from 13 states that included questions on SLEs, oral health, and dental care utilization in the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System for the years 2016-2020 (n = 48,658).

Dental Services Use: Medicare Beneficiaries Experience Immediate And Long-Term Reductions After Enrollment.

Traditional Medicare does not cover routine dental care, but little is known about transitions in dental outcomes upon reaching Medicare eligibility at age sixty-five. Using data from the 2010-19 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys, we examined dental insurance, utilization, and outcomes among US adults before and after age sixty-five, using a regression discontinuity design and segmented regression analysis. Among 97,108 US adults representing a weighted population of 104,787,300 people, complete edentulism, or the loss of all teeth, increased by 4.

Multi-trajectory analysis uncovers latent associations between psychological and physiological acute stress response patterns.

Encounter with an acute stressor elicits multiple physiological and psychological response trajectories that spread at different times-scales and directions. Associating a single physiological response trajectory with a specific psychological response has remained a challenge, due to putative interactions between the different stress response pathways. Hence, multidimensional analysis of stress response trajectories may be better suited to account for response variability.

Predicting Chronic Stress among Healthy Females Using Daily-Life Physiological and Lifestyle Features from Wearable Sensors.

Background: Chronic stress is a highly prevalent condition that may stem from different sources and can substantially impact physiology and behavior, potentially leading to impaired mental and physical health. Multiple physiological and behavioral lifestyle features can now be recorded unobtrusively in daily-life using wearable sensors. The aim of the current study was to identify a distinct set of physiological and behavioral lifestyle features that are associated with elevated levels of chronic stress across different stress sources.

The acetyltransferase p300 is recruited in trans to multiple enhancer sites by lncSmad7.

The histone acetyltransferase p300 (also known as KAT3B) is a general transcriptional coactivator that introduces the H3K27ac mark on enhancers triggering their activation and gene transcription. Genome-wide screenings demonstrated that a large fraction of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) plays a role in cellular processes and organ development although the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unclear (1,2). We found 122 lncRNAs that interacts directly with p300.

Is Oral Health Essential?

Since 1840, when the first dental school in the United States was founded, educational and policy outcomes have reinforced the separation of dentistry from medicine. Originating in serial historical divides, this separation has produced grave health inequity. The COVID-19 pandemic illuminates differences in medical and dental care delivery streams and also suggests how to design a unified health care system that transcends historical precedent.

Which factors are associated with the number of dental providers employed in correctional settings?

Objectives: Individuals experiencing incarceration are at increased risk of poor oral health. The purpose of this study was to identify state-level factors that influence the number of oral healthcare providers employed in US correctional settings.

Methods: This ecological study utilized the National Survey of Prison Health Care (NSPHC) to identify the total number of dentists employed in US correctional facilities.

Dental care utilization in Massachusetts before and after initiation of medication for opioid use disorder: A cross-sectional study of a state all-payer claims database.

Background: Individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at higher risk of poor oral health. Medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) has been shown to improve outcomes for patients with OUD, but it is unknown how initiation of MOUD affects access to oral health services.

Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of all individuals in the Massachusetts All-Payer Claims Database prescribed oral buprenorphine-naloxone or injectable naltrexone from 2013 to 2016.

Changes in dental care use patterns due to COVID-19 among insured patients in the United States.

Background: Demand for dental services has been known to be linked closely to dental insurance and disposable income. Widespread economic uncertainty and health systems changes due to COVID-19 thus may have a significant impact on dental care use.

Methods: Using deidentified dental practice management data from 2019 and 2020, the authors observed variations in dental care use among insured patients since the COVID-19 outbreak (during the period of practice closure and after the reopening) by patient age, procedure type, insurance type, practice size, geographic area, and reopening status.

Now or Later? Stress-Induced Increase and Decrease in Choice Impulsivity Are Both Associated with Elevated Affective and Endocrine Responses.

Exposure to acute stress elicit physiological and psychological responses that can impact decision-making, often expressed as an increased tendency to act in an impulsive manner following stress. Delay discounting (DD) task has emerged as a reliable measure of impulsive behavior in the form of choice impulsivity (CI). Interestingly, studies that examined the effect of acute stress on DD performance reported mixed results.