Publications by authors named "Tracy Xu"
Prior regional Cerebral Blood Flow (rCBF) studies in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) have been limited by small, highly selective, non-representative samples that have yielded variable and poorly replicated findings. The aim of this study was to compare rCBF measures in a large, more representative community sample of adults with MDD and healthy control participants. This is a cross-sectional, retrospective multi-site cohort study in which clinical data from 338 patients 18-65 years of age with a primary diagnosis of MDD were retrieved from a central database for 8 privately owned, private-pay outpatient psychiatric centers across the United States.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused escalating levels of business, economic and societal uncertainty and created extensive disruptions around the world. Policymakers have responded with a variety of measures to combat this unprecedented crisis. This paper investigates the stock market reactions to the national policy responses.
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- - The study investigates how the quality of transitions for persons with dementia (PWDs) and their caregivers can affect their overall experience, focusing on the challenges faced during these changes.
- - Researchers tracked 108 PWD/caregiver pairs over 24 months to assess the perceived quality of these transitions and found that higher baseline quality of life and lower caregiver burden correlated with better transition outcomes.
- - The findings suggest that identifying factors affecting transition quality can help develop supportive strategies for PWDs and their caregivers, particularly for those experiencing greater challenges.
Reduced health resource use after acupuncture for low-back pain.
J Altern Complement Med
November 2011
Objectives: Acupuncture is commonly used to treat low-back pain (LBP) and clinical trials have demonstrated its efficacy. However, less is known about how the utilization of acupuncture impacts public health service utilization in the real world. This study investigates the association between acupuncture utilization for LBP and health care utilization by assessing whether patients who undergo acupuncture subsequently use fewer health care resources and whether those patients differ in their health care use from the general population with LBP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study was conducted with participants from a trial evaluating an 8-week spirituality teaching program to treat unipolar major depression. The objectives of this study were to understand the nature of the observed mood following participation in the spirituality based intervention.
Design: This study used the methods of a naturalistic inquiry.
Objective: This randomized controlled trial assessed the efficacy of a Spirituality Teaching Program to treat unipolar major depression.
Method: A randomized controlled, assessor blinded trial design was used. A total of 84 individuals aged 18 years or older with unipolar major depression of mild to moderate severity were recruited in Calgary, Canada and randomized to two study arms: 1) Spirituality Teaching Program Group (8 week, home-based Spirituality Teaching Program); and 2) Waitlist Control Group (no intervention followed by Spirituality Teaching Program starting at week 9).