Investigating a clinically informed sleep disturbance threshold for physical and mental health among Gulf War Illness veterans.

Study Objectives: This study (1) assessed sleep quality and health in Gulf War veterans (GWV) meeting the Gulf War Illness (GWI) criteria and (2) compared health associations for both those meeting a "clinically disturbed sleep" threshold, and those below, as determined by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) cutoff for military populations (≥10) on measures of physical, mental, and cognitive health.

Methods: Participant data consisted of questionnaires and assessments completed prior to group assignment in a clinical trial. The sample consisted of 147 GWV, where 81.

An ERP measure of non-conscious memory reveals dissociable implicit processes in human recognition using an open-source automated analytic pipeline.

Non-conscious processing of human memory has traditionally been difficult to objectively measure and thus understand. A prior study on a group of hippocampal amnesia (N = 3) patients and healthy controls (N = 6) used a novel procedure for capturing neural correlates of implicit memory using event-related potentials (ERPs): old and new items were equated for varying levels of memory awareness, with ERP differences observed from 400 to 800 ms in bilateral parietal regions that were hippocampal-dependent. The current investigation sought to address the limitations of that study by increasing the sample of healthy subjects (N = 54), applying new controls for construct validity, and developing an improved, open-source tool for automated analysis of the procedure used for equating levels of memory awareness.

Gulf War Illness: A Randomized Controlled Trial Combining Mindfulness Meditation and Auricular Acupuncture.

Background: Many Gulf War (GW) Veterans report chronic symptoms including pain, fatigue, and cognitive impairment, commonly defined as Gulf War Illness (GWI). Complementary and integrative health (CIH) therapies may potentially improve multiple symptoms of GWI.

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of combining 2 commonly available CIH therapies, mindfulness meditation and auricular acupuncture, in improving health-related functioning and multiple symptom domains of GWI (e.

Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) Clinical Normative Data for Gulf War Veterans.

Objective: Heterogenous test batteries and methods applied in neurocognitive research on Gulf War Veterans (GWVs) limit the translation of findings to clinical practice. A clinical data set is necessary.

Methods: Neurocognitive screening data from treatment-seeking GWVs were collected from multiple sites and compiled, informed by consideration of performance validity.

The relationship between Gulf War Illness symptom severity and heart rate variability: A pilot study.

Introduction: Gulf War Illness (GWI) is a chronic multisymptom illness affecting 250,000+ veterans of the '90-'91 Gulf War which remains under-explored in terms of its physiological characteristics. We investigated whether subjective GWI symptom severity scores were related to objective measures of autonomic nervous system activity.

Methods: We estimated activity in the two major branches of the autonomic nervous system (the parasympathetic nervous system [PNS] and the sympathetic nervous system [SNS]) via metrics of heart rate variability in a sample of Veterans who met established criteria for GWI with varying degrees of self-reported symptom severity.

Social rehabilitation for military veterans with traumatic brain injury, psychological trauma, and chronic neuropsychiatric symptoms: Intervention development and initial outcomes.

Objective: A subset of military veterans who have experienced both traumatic brain injury and psychological trauma present with chronic neuropsychiatric symptoms and experience persistent obstacles to social reintegration. This project aimed to develop a novel treatment targeting the unmet social rehabilitation needs of these veterans. Initial intervention development, feasibility, and outcome data are explored.

Neuropsychological measurement of inhibitory control in posttraumatic stress disorder: An exploratory antisaccade paradigm.

Objective: The aim of the study was to uncover inhibitory control dynamics and assess antisaccade eye-tracking tasks for relevance in a veteran posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) population.

Method: Participants were 36 veterans enrolled at the Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The groups (PTSD diagnosed vs.

Relationship Functioning in Vietnam Veteran Couples: The Roles of PTSD and Anger.

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anger have been implicated separately in relationship dysfunction for veterans; however, no studies have simultaneously examined the roles of each of these constructs.

Method: This study examined the roles of PTSD and anger in the relationships of Vietnam veterans and their partners (n = 33 couples) with actor-partner interdependence modeling (APIM). Couples in which the veteran was diagnosed with PTSD (PTSD-positive; n = 20) were compared to couples in which the veteran did not have PTSD (PTSD-negative; n = 13) on measures of frequency of anger and relationship functioning.

Acupuncture and meditation for military veterans: first steps of quality management and future program development.

Veterans of all war eras have a high rate of chronic disease, mental health disorders, and chronic multi-symptom illnesses (CMI).(1-3) Many veterans report symptoms that affect multiple biological systems as opposed to isolated disease states. Standard medical treatments often target isolated disease states such as headaches, insomnia, or back pain and at times may miss the more complex, multisystem dysfunction that has been documented in the veteran population.

Cullin 5 regulates Dab1 protein levels and neuron positioning during cortical development.

Many laminated regions of the mammalian brain develop by the migration of neuronal precursor cells, whose final positions are coordinated by signals from the secreted molecule Reelin. Early events in Reelin signaling have been identified, but the mechanism of signal down-regulation has been unclear. A possible source of negative feedback is the Reelin-induced degradation of the critical intracellular signaling component, Disabled-1 (Dab1).