Weekly Changes in Blame and PTSD Among Active-Duty Military Personnel Receiving Cognitive Processing Therapy.

Both negative posttraumatic cognitions and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms decrease over the course of cognitive-behavior therapy for PTSD; however, further research is needed to determine whether cognitive change precedes and predicts symptom change. The present study examined whether weekly changes in blame predicted subsequent changes in PTSD symptoms over the course of cognitive processing therapy (CPT). Participants consisted of 321 active duty U.

Cardiovascular risks in relation to posttraumatic stress severity among young trauma-exposed women.

Background: Posttraumatic stress is associated with elevated risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Relatively little research, particularly among women, has documented mechanisms by which PTSD might confer CVD risk during early adulthood. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the number and relative levels of CVD risk factors are associated with posttraumatic stress symptom severity among young, trauma-exposed women.

Demographic and Clinical Factors Associated With Nonsurgical Osteoarthritis Treatment Among Patients in Outpatient Clinics.

Objective: To identify patient demographic and clinical characteristics associated with osteoarthritis (OA) treatment use.

Methods: This was a secondary data analysis of 3 clinical trials among patients with hip or knee OA conducted in Duke Primary Care practices, the Durham Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC). At baseline, participants reported sociodemographic characteristics, OA-related pain and function, and OA treatment use, including oral analgesics, topical creams, joint injections, and physical therapy.

Development of an Emergency Medicine Simulation Fellowship Consensus Curriculum: Initiative of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Simulation Academy.

Objectives: There is currently no consolidated list of existing simulation fellowship programs in emergency medicine (EM). In addition, there are no universally accepted or expected standards for core curricular content. The objective of this project is to develop consensus-based core content for EM simulation fellowships to help frame the critical components of such training programs.

Pilot Cases of Combined Cognitive Processing Therapy and Smoking Cessation for Smokers With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and smoking are often comorbid, and both problems are in need of improved access to evidence-based treatment. The combined approach could address two high-priority problems and increase patient access to both treatments, but research is needed to determine whether this is feasible and has promise for addressing both PTSD and smoking. We collected data from 15 test cases that received a treatment combining two evidence-based treatments: cognitive processing therapy-cognitive version (CPT-C) for PTSD and integrated care for smoking cessation (ICSC).

Race and sex differences in willingness to undergo total joint replacement: the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project.

Objective: Using data from the community-based Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project, we examined race and sex variations in willingness to undergo, and perceptions regarding, total joint replacement (TJR).

Methods: Analyses were conducted for the total sample who participated in a followup measurement period from 2006-2010 (n = 1,522) and a subsample with symptomatic hip and/or knee osteoarthritis (sOA; n = 445). Participants indicated how willing they would be to have TJR (hip or knee) if their doctor recommended it; responses were categorized as "definitely" or "probably" willing versus "unsure," "probably not," or "definitely not" willing, or "don't know.

Nocturnal blood pressure non-dipping, posttraumatic stress disorder, and sleep quality in women.

Women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have poor sleep quality and increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Non-dipping of nocturnal blood pressure may be an explanatory factor for the relationship between sleep and CVD found in previous research. The current study was designed to determine if non-dipping nocturnal blood pressure was associated with trauma exposure, PTSD diagnosis, PTSD symptoms, and sleep quality in a sample of women.

Childhood traumatic stress and obesity in women: the intervening effects of PTSD and MDD.

In this study, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) were modeled as intervening variables in the relationship between childhood traumatic stress and weight outcomes in civilian women in the United States. Of the 148 participants, 72 had current PTSD, 64 had current MDD, and 32 had neither disorder. In separate single indirect effect models, there were significant indirect effects of both PTSD and depressive symptoms on body mass index and waist-hip ratio.

Combining adjusted and unadjusted findings in mixed research synthesis.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: Finding ways to incorporate disparate types of evidence into research syntheses has the potential to build a better evidence base for clinical practice and policy. Yet conducting such mixed research synthesis studies is challenging. Researchers have to determine whether and how to use adjusted and unadjusted quantitative findings in combination with each other and with qualitative findings.

Making Sense of Qualitative and Quantitative Findings in Mixed Research Synthesis Studies.

The synthesis of qualitative and quantitative research findings is increasingly promoted, but many of the conceptual and methodological issues it raises have yet to be fully understood and resolved. In this article, we describe how we handled issues encountered in efforts to synthesize the findings in forty-two reports of studies of antiretroviral adherence in HIV-positive women in the course of an ongoing study to develop methods to synthesize qualitative and quantitative research findings in common domains of health-related research. Working with these reports underscored the importance of looking past method claims and ideals and directly at the findings themselves, differentiating between aggregative syntheses in which findings are assimilated and interpretive syntheses in which they are configured, and understanding the judgments involved in designating relationships between findings as confirmatory, divergent, or complementary.

Impact of a multidisciplinary thoracic oncology clinic on the timeliness of care.

Background: Multidisciplinary clinics have been recommended for the evaluation of patients with lung cancer. Evidence to support this recommendation, however, is limited. A single-center, retrospective review of lung cancer patients at a Veterans Affairs hospital was performed comparing timeliness of diagnostic and treatment decisions during the operation of a multidisciplinary thoracic oncology clinic (MTOC) with a period after it closed (non-MTOC), during which only a weekly multidisciplinary conference was held.

Mitotic rate in melanoma: a reexamination.

We reexamined the relationship between mitotic rate and overall survival in more than 1,200 cases of cutaneous melanoma with long-term follow-up. Like others, we found that mitotic rate was significantly associated with survival (P < 4 x 10(-8)) and more prognostic than tumor ulceration but was not an independent prognosticator because it was significantly associated with tumor thickness and ulceration. Thus, all 3 histologic variables are interrelated; among these, tumor thickness is the most important.

Relationship of radiographic and clinical variables to pinch and grip strength among individuals with osteoarthritis.

Objective: Little is known about how specific radiographic features are related to hand strength in osteoarthritis (OA). This study examined associations of radiographic variables with pinch and grip strength among individuals with radiographic hand OA.

Methods: Participants (n = 700, 80% female, mean age 69 years) were part of a study on the genetics of generalized OA.

Magnitude of abdominal incision affects the duration of postoperative ileus in rats.

Background: The pathogenesis of reduced postoperative ileus (POI) in laparoscopic gastrointestinal (GI) surgery still remains controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of surgical incision on postoperative ileus.

Methods: The effects of length, depth, and site of the incision on GI transit were compared using the geometric center of 51Cr in rats.

High-density microarray of small-subunit ribosomal DNA probes.

Ribosomal DNA sequence analysis, originally conceived as a way to provide a universal phylogeny for life forms, has proven useful in many areas of biological research. Some of the most promising applications of this approach are presently limited by the rate at which sequences can be analyzed. As a step toward overcoming this limitation, we have investigated the use of photolithography chip technology to perform sequence analyses on amplified small-subunit rRNA genes.

The genetics of innate immunity.

Despite the tremendous interindividual variability in the response to toxins, we simply do not understand why certain people have disease develop when challenged with toxic agents, and why others remain healthy. To address this concern, we investigated whether the TLR-4 gene (toll-like receptor [TLR]4), which has been shown to affect lipopolysaccharide (LPS) responsiveness in mice, underlies the variability in airway responsiveness to inhaled LPS in humans. Here we show that common, cosegregating missense mutations (Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile) in the extracellular domain of the TLR4 receptor are associated with a significantly blunted response to inhaled LPS in 83 humans.

Incorporation of biotinylated SP-A into rat lung surfactant layer, type II cells, and clara cells.

The goal of this study was to compare the functions of Clara and type II cells during alveolar clearance and recycling of surfactant protein (SP) A, a secretory product of both cell types. We examined the incorporation of instilled biotinylated SP-A (bSP-A) into rat lung type II and Clara cells as a measure of clearance and recycling of the protein. Ultrastructural localization of bSP-A was accomplished by an electron-microscopic immunogold technique at 7, 30, and 120 min after intratracheal instillation.