Understanding Psychological Distress and Protective Factors Amongst Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives: This study examined the emotional distress and loneliness during COVID-19 and the roles of resiliency and activities.

Design: A cross-sectional national survey.

Setting: Amazon Mechanical Turk (mTurk) and Prolific Research Platforms.

Implementation of a Telemental Health Training Program Across a Mental Health Department.

Telemental health (TMH) has increased substantially. However, health care systems have found it challenging to implement TMH ubiquitously. A quality improvement project guided by implementation science methodology was used to design and implement a TMH training program.

Childhood maltreatment and later stressful life events as predictors of depression: A test of the stress sensitization hypothesis.

Objectives: Long-term negative effects of child maltreatment, including risk for depression, are well established. The role of acute stressors in the relationship between maltreatment and depression is not as clear. We used data from a prospective study to test a stress sensitization hypothesis; whether child maltreatment lowered the threshold at which adult household stressors impacted adult depression.

Identifying PTSD symptom typologies: A latent class analysis.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by re-experiencing, avoidance, negative alterations in cognition and mood, and arousal symptoms per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5). While numerous symptom combinations are possible to meet diagnostic criteria, simplification of this heterogeneity of symptom presentations may have clinical utility. In a nationally representative sample of American adults with lifetime DSM-5 PTSD diagnoses from the third wave of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (n = 2,365), we used Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to identify qualitatively distinct PTSD symptom typologies.

Trauma and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Review, Proposed Treatment Adaptations and Future Directions.

Empirical investigations of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are lacking despite indications of increased risk for exposure to potentially traumatic events in this population. Research on the treatment of traumatic stress psychopathology in ASD is even more limited and suggests a critical need for guidance in the area of ASD-specific treatment adaptations. The current paper provides preliminary recommendations for adapting current evidenced-based, trauma-specific interventions, specifically trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), for individuals with ASD based on well-established and evidence-based practices for working with this population.

Examining the Needs of Patient Stakeholders as Research Partners in Health Data Networks for Translational Research.

Patient stakeholders are getting increasingly involved in research health data networks, particularly as research partners. However, tools do not exist to help effectively orient, educate, and engage patient stakeholders as they take on these roles. Using a human centered design approach, we conducted a patient stakeholder needs assessment qualitative study to identify key user needs to drive design recommendations for development of an online education and engagement tool for research health data networks.

Recruitment outcomes, challenges and lessons learned: the Healthy Communities Study.

Background: The Healthy Communities Study (HCS) was a national study of community programs and policies that aimed to address childhood obesity; it necessitated recruitment of a large sample of children from communities throughout the United States.

Objective: The HCS aimed to complete visits with an average of 45 children and 12 key informants from at least 120 communities, diverse with respect to region of the country, urbanicity, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity and intensity of community programs and policies that aim to address childhood obesity.

Methods: Purchased address lists were utilized to select households for recruitment during Wave 1 of the study, and recruitment of families through schools was employed for Wave 2.

Defining Health in the Era of Value-Based Care: The Six Cs of Health and Healthcare.

Introduction: While healthcare expenditure continues to increase overall health outcomes in the United States continue to be submarginal. The changes we make in our healthcare system need to be informed by a comprehensive and actionable definition of health that can unite patients, healthcare professionals, and policymakers.

Methods: A literature review across multiple disciplines was conducted to assess a broad range of factors associated with health and well-being and based on this literature review a novel definition of health was developed.

A randomized controlled trial to influence client language in substance use disorder treatment.

Background: Client language is hypothesized to be a mechanism of action in motivational interviewing (MI). Despite the association of change and sustain talk with substance treatment outcomes, it not known whether providers can intentionally influence this language as hypothesized.

Objective: This is a randomized controlled trial to investigate whether substance use providers can be trained to influence client language.

Neural and behavioral suppression of interfering flankers by children with and without autism spectrum disorder.

Electrophysiological responses, accuracy and reaction time were recorded while 7-11-year-olds with typical development (TYP; N=30) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD; N=19) inhibited conflicting information. Relative to the TYP group, children with ASD had larger decrements in accuracy for incongruent trials and were slower. In terms of neural responses, N2 mean amplitude was greater overall for children with ASD relative to TYP children.

Laboring in the Shadow of the Media: Care and Perceptions of Care in the VA.

Unbalanced criticism of the VA risks marginalizing the superlative care that many veterans receive and the important research, training, and innovative care that the VA provides.

Sex Differences in Weight Loss among Veterans with Serious Mental Illness: Observational Study of a National Weight Management Program.

Purpose: Obesity disproportionately burdens individuals with serious mental illness (SMI), especially women. This observational study investigated whether there were sex differences in weight loss and program participation among veterans with SMI enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) MOVE! weight management program.

Procedures: Participants were identified from a national cohort of 148,254 veterans enrolled in MOVE! during fiscal years 2008 through 2012 who attended two or more sessions within 12 months of enrollment.

Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with PTSD participate less in VA's weight loss program than those without PTSD.

Background: Three-quarters of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans enrolled in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) care are overweight or obese. The VHA MOVE!® weight management program can mitigate the risks of obesity-related morbidity. However, many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans experience barriers to VHA services, which may affect participation, especially among those with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression.

Veterans with PTSD report more weight loss barriers than Veterans with no mental health disorders.

Objective: This study characterized and compared Veterans of the United States Armed Forces with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to Veterans with no mental health disorders on self-reported measures of factors that influence success in weight management programs.

Method: We examined the relation of PTSD diagnosis with weight loss plan, reasons for overweight/obesity and barriers to dieting and physical exercise among 171,884 Veterans. Statistically significant variables in chi-square tests (P<.

Expanding Slayer Statutes to Elder Abuse.

Common law has a dictum that people must not benefit from their crimes. In years past, states have enacted slayer rules to prevent killers from inheriting from their victims. The specific criteria and applicability of slayer rules vary by jurisdiction.

Gender-based Outcomes and Acceptability of a Computer-assisted Psychosocial Intervention for Substance Use Disorders.

Background: Digital technologies show promise for increasing treatment accessibility and improving quality of care, but little is known about gender differences. This secondary analysis uses data from a multi-site effectiveness trial of a computer-assisted behavioral intervention, conducted within NIDA's National Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network, to explore gender differences in intervention acceptability and treatment outcomes.

Methods: Men (n=314) and women (n=192) were randomly assigned to 12-weeks of treatment-as-usual (TAU) or modified TAU+Therapeutic Education System (TES), whereby TES substituted for 2hours of TAU per week.

Treatment of Methamphetamine Dependence with Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) in Iran: A Critical Note.

Objevtive: This comment article reviews the literature to explore whether the use of ECT for the treatment of methamphetamine dependence can be justified by scientific rationale and/or evidence.

Method: This article reviews the literature on the use of ECT in addictive disorders. It describes a patient with methamphetamine dependence treated with ECT.

Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Increase Self-Compassion: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Self-compassion has been shown to be related to several types of psychopathology, including traumatic stress, and has been shown to improve in response to various kinds of interventions. Current conceptualizations of self-compassion fit well with the psychological flexibility model, which underlies acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). However, there has been no research on ACT interventions specifically aimed at self-compassion.

Effects of the Family Bereavement Program on academic outcomes, educational expectations and job aspirations 6 years later: the mediating role of parenting and youth mental health problems.

Experiencing the death of a parent during childhood is associated with a variety of difficulties, including lower academic achievement, that have implications for functioning in childhood and adulthood. This study examines effects of the Family Bereavement Program (FBP), a preventive intervention for parentally-bereaved youth and their caregivers, on grade point averages (GPA), educational expectations and job aspirations of youths 6 years after the intervention. A total of 244 bereaved youths ages 8-16 and their caregivers were randomized to either the FBP or a comparison group that received books about bereavement.

ASD: Psychopharmacologic Treatments and Neurophysiologic Underpinnings.

Autism Spectrum Disorder encompasses a range of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by early deficits in social communication in addition to restricted and repetitive behaviors. Symptoms are increasingly understood to be associated with abnormalities in the coordination of neuronal assemblies responsible for processing information essential for early adaptive behaviors. Pharmacologic treatments carry evidence for clinically significant benefit of multiple impairing symptoms of ASD, yet these benefits are limited and range across a broad spectrum of medication classes, making it difficult to characterize associated neurochemical impairments.