Patient-reported outcomes of pain and physical functioning in neurofibromatosis clinical trials.

Objective: Tumors and other disease complications of neurofibromatosis (NF) can cause pain and negatively affect physical functioning. To document the clinical benefit of treatment in NF trials targeting these manifestations, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) assessing pain and physical functioning should be included as study endpoints. Currently, there is no consensus on the selection and use of such measures in the NF population.

Neurocognitive outcomes in neurofibromatosis clinical trials: Recommendations for the domain of attention.

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is associated with neurocognitive deficits that can impact everyday functioning of children, adolescents, and adults with this disease. However, there is little agreement regarding measures to use as cognitive endpoints in clinical trials. This article describes the work of the Neurocognitive Committee of the Response Evaluation in Neurofibromatosis and Schwannomatosis (REiNS) International Collaboration.

Macro-level implicit HIV prejudice and the health of community residents with HIV.

Objectives: This study examined how community levels of implicit HIV prejudice are associated with the psychological and physical well-being of people with HIV living in those same communities. It also examined whether community motivation to control prejudice and/or explicit HIV prejudice moderates the relationship of implicit prejudice and well-being.

Method: Participants were 206 people with HIV living in 42 different communities in New England who completed measures that assessed psychological distress, thriving, and physical well-being.

A transactional approach to relationships over time between perceived HIV stigma and the psychological and physical well-being of people with HIV.

Rationale: Cross-sectional studies demonstrate that perceived discrimination is related to the psychological and physical well-being of stigmatized people. The theoretical and empirical foci of most of this research in on how racial discrimination undermines well-being. The present study takes a transactional approach to examine people with HIV, a potentially concealable stigma.

Psychological symptoms are associated with both abstinence and risky sex among men with HIV.

Sexual abstinence is often deemed the "safest behavior" in HIV prevention, but is sometimes associated with psychological symptoms (e.g., depression) just as sexually risky behavior is.

Perceptions of Behavioral Norms Related to HIV Transmission by People with HIV and by Residents of Their Communities.

We examined how people with HIV are both part of and apart from the communities in which they live. We compared perceptions of behavioral norms of 203 people with HIV living in 33 different communities with community-level normative perceptions assessed by surveys of 2,444 randomly selected residents of these communities. Participants with HIV perceived behavior that risks the transmission of HIV as injunctively and descriptively more normative than did other community residents.

Sexual behavior as a function of stigma and coping with stigma among people with HIV/AIDS in rural New England.

The relationship between coping with HIV/AIDS stigma and engaging in risky sexual behavior (i.e., inconsistent condom use) was examined in HIV-positive adults living in rural areas.

A Preliminary Examination of Sexual Orientation as a Social Vulnerability for Experiencing HIV/AIDS-related Stigma.

This investigation is a preliminary examination of sexual orientation as a social vulnerability for experiencing HIV/AIDS-related stigma, specifically concerns about disclosure and public attitudes. Participants were 36 heterosexual men and 82 gay men with HIV/AIDS. Consistent with prediction, a heterosexual sexual orientation was significantly associated with HIV/AIDS disclosure concerns.

Disengagement and Engagement Coping with HIV/AIDS Stigma and Psychological Well-Being of People with HIV/AIDS.

The stigma associated with HIV/AIDS poses a psychological challenge to people living with HIV/AIDS. We hypothesized that that the consequences of stigma-related stressors on psychological well-being would depend on how people cope with the stress of HIV/AIDS stigma. Two hundred participants with HIV/AIDS completed a self-report measure of enacted stigma and felt stigma, a measure of how they coped with HIV/AIDS stigma, and measures of depression and anxiety, and self-esteem.

Community norms about suppression of AIDS-related prejudice and perceptions of stigma by people with HIV or AIDS.

We investigated the relationship between community motivations to control AIDS-related prejudice and the experience of stigma by community members with HIV or AIDS, using self-reports from 203 New England residents with HIV or AIDS and 2,444 randomly selected residents of the same New England communities. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that the disclosure concerns of participants with HIV or AIDS were lower in communities where residents were motivated by personal values to control AIDS-related prejudice, and were higher in communities where residents were motivated by social pressure to control AIDS-related prejudice. Reported experiences with discrimination and exclusion were unrelated to community motivations.

Exploration of the relevance of anxiety sensitivity among adults living with HIV/AIDS for understanding anxiety vulnerability.

This investigation explored facets of anxiety sensitivity (AS-social, physical and mental concerns) in regard to somatization, anxiety and depression symptoms among people with HIV/AIDS. Significant relations were found for AS-physical concerns and somatization symptoms (beta = .52, p = .

The interaction of mindful-based attention and awareness and disengagement coping with HIV/AIDS-related stigma in regard to concurrent anxiety and depressive symptoms among adults with HIV/AIDS.

This investigation examined the interaction of disengagement coping with HIV/AIDS-related stigma and mindful-based attention and awareness in regard to anxiety and depressive symptoms among people with HIV/AIDS. There was a significant interaction in regard to anxiety symptoms. Higher levels of disengagement coping paired with lower levels of mindful-based attention and awareness was related to the greatest degrees of anxiety symptoms, while lower levels of disengagement coping paired with higher levels of mindful-based attention and awareness was related to the lowest levels of anxiety symptoms.

Size matters: community size, HIV stigma, & gender differences.

Conclusions regarding HIV stigma in rural areas are hampered by lack of agreement about rural classification. This investigation examined perceptions of HIV stigma among males and females with HIV/AIDS in metropolitan, micropolitan, and rural areas. Two-hundred people with HIV/AIDS completed a measure of perceived HIV stigma.

Urban-rural differences in motivation to control prejudice toward people with HIV/AIDS: the impact of perceived identifiability in the community.

Context: HIV/AIDS is occurring with increasing frequency in rural areas of the United States, and people living with HIV/AIDS in rural communities report higher levels of perceived stigma than their more urban counterparts. The extent to which stigmatized individuals perceive stigma could be influenced, in part, by prevailing community attitudes. Differences between rural and more metropolitan community members' attitudes toward people with HIV/AIDS, however, have rarely been examined.

Cardiophobia: a critical analysis.

Cardiophobia, a clinical syndrome that affects hundreds of thousands of individuals in the USA, is characterized by abrupt, recurrent sensations and pain in the chest in the absence of physical pathology. This conceptual article seeks to address the significance of cardiophobia in western culture and to distinguish it from related disorders. In addition, a model of cardiophobia that highlights the role of heart-focused anxiety and interoceptive conditioning in the generation of limited-symptom panic attacks and acute chest pain is presented and vulnerability factors for cardiophobia are discussed.

Three-year follow-up of same-sex couples who had civil unions in Vermont, same-sex couples not in civil unions, and heterosexual married couples.

This study was a 3-year follow-up of 65 male and 138 female same-sex couples who had civil unions in Vermont during the 1st year of that legislation. These couples were compared with 23 male and 61 female same-sex couples in their friendship circles who did not have civil unions and with 55 heterosexual married couples (1 member of each was a sibling to a member of a civil union couple). Despite the legalized nature of their relationships, civil union couples did not differ on any measure from same-sex couples who were not in civil unions.

Measurement of stigma in people with HIV: a reexamination of the HIV Stigma Scale.

Stigma associated with HIV infection can unfavorably impact the lives and behavior of people living with HIV/AIDS. The HIV Stigma Scale was designed to measure the perception of stigma by those who are HIV infected. Reanalysis of the psychometric properties of this scale was conducted in a new sample of 157 individuals living with HIV/AIDS in rural New England.

Emotional-vulnerability and mindfulness: a preliminary test of associations among negative affectivity, anxiety sensitivity, and mindfulness skills.

This study evaluated associations between general (negative affectivity) and specific (anxiety sensitivity) factors that may relate to the mindfulness skill domains assessed by the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills. Participants were 154 young adults (88 females; M(age) = 22.4 years, SD = 7.

Incremental validity of mindfulness-based attention in relation to the concurrent prediction of anxiety and depressive symptomatology and perceptions of health.

This investigation evaluated the role of mindfulness-based attention in concurrently predicting anxiety and depressive symptomatology and perceived health functioning in a community sample of 170 young adults (95 females; mean age (Mage) = 22.2 years, SD = 7.6).

Pioneers in partnership: lesbian and gay male couples in civil unions compared with those not in civil unions and married heterosexual siblings.

This study compared 212 lesbians and 123 gay men who had civil unions in Vermont (during the first year legislation made this available) with 166 lesbians and 72 gay men in their friendship network who had not had civil unions, and also with 219 heterosexual married women and 193 heterosexual married men consisting of civil union couples' siblings and their spouses. Married heterosexual couples had been together longer and had more traditional division of labor and child care than did lesbians and gay men in both types of couples. Lesbians in civil unions were more open about their sexual orientation than those not in civil unions, and gay men in civil unions were closer to their family of origin than gay men not in civil unions.