Community heals: Lessons from qualitative narratives of first-generation college students.

First-generation college students struggle to navigate the college experience. Prior research suggests that social capital plays a critical role in college success such that students benefit from building networks of support within the university. We investigated whether social capital, in the form of engagement with university services, had positive implications for college students' mental health and academic performance, particularly for first-generation college students.

Cultural Predictors of Resilience in a Multinational Sample of Trauma Survivors.

The present study aims to fill a gap in the study of resilience to trauma by examining resilience in a culturally diverse population. Approximately 70% of adults across the globe experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, yet resilience is a common response trajectory. This pilot study explored reactions to trauma and psychological resilience in an international sample of trauma-exposed participants.

Cultural Considerations in the Assessment of Survivors of Torture.

The cultural and ethnic landscape of North America is becoming increasingly diverse, with many refugees fleeing torture and persecution and seeking safety in the United States and Canada. In working with this population, clinicians must implement culturally appropriate methods of assessing and treating individuals from diverse backgrounds. Culture can exert a powerful and often misunderstood influence on psychological assessment, and the critical challenge is to account for both subjective experience of the client and the objective symptoms or behaviors present.

Measurement Invariance of the Brief Symptom Inventory in Survivors of Torture and Trauma.

The United States accepts more refugees than any other industrialized nation. As refugee populations grow, mental health professionals must implement culturally and ethnically appropriate strategies to assess and treat individuals from diverse backgrounds. Culture can exert a powerful and often misunderstood influence on psychological assessment, and few structured measures have been demonstrated to have adequate cross-cultural validity for use with diverse and vulnerable populations such as survivors of torture.

ASHA: Using Participatory Methods to Develop an Asset-building Mental Health Intervention for Bangladeshi Immigrant Women.

Background: Common mental disorder (CMD) is highly prevalent among low-income immigrant women, yet few receive effective treatment. This underutilization is partly owing to a lack of conceptual synchrony between biopsychiatric theories underlying conventional mental treatments and explanatory models in community settings. The Action to Improve Self-esteem and Health through Asset building (ASHA) program is a depression intervention designed by and for South Asian women immigrants.

Rates and impact of trauma and current stressors among Darfuri refugees in Eastern Chad.

Darfur refugees face hardships associated with chronic displacement, including lack of basic needs and safety concerns. Psychiatric research on refugees has focused on trauma, but daily stressors may contribute more to variance in distress. This article reports rates of past trauma and current stressors among Darfur refugees and gauges the contribution of each to psychological distress and functional impairment.

Effects of topiramate on cue-induced cigarette craving and the response to a smoked cigarette in briefly abstinent smokers.

Rationale: Clinical studies have shown that topiramate, an anticonvulsant medication, may be effective as a treatment for smoking cessation. However, less is known about topiramate effects on nicotine withdrawal and craving and its interactions with a smoked cigarette.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of topiramate treatment on abstinence-related nicotine withdrawal, cue-induced cigarette craving, and the acute effects of a smoked cigarette.