Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

The Intersection Of Marital Problems, Unhealthy Lifestyles, And Adhd Challenges.Pdf, Ron J. Hammond, Christopher Anderson Ph.D., Devin Gilbert, Justin Wilbert, Michelle Chatterly

Ron J. Hammond

Massachusetts Medicaid Members That Smoked In 2008: Characteristics Associated With Smoking Status In 2014, Alexis D. Henry, John Gettens, Judith A. Savageau, Doris Cullen, Anna Landau

Judith A. Savageau

The smoking rate among non-elderly Medicaid enrollees is more than double the rate for those privately insured; smoking-related conditions account for 15% of Medicaid expenditures. Under state health reform, Massachusetts Medicaid (MassHealth) made tobacco cessation treatment available beginning in 2006. We used surveys conducted in 2008 and 2014 to examine changes in smoking abstinence rates among MassHealth members identified as smokers and to identify factors associated with being a former smoker. Members previously identified as smokers were surveyed by mail or phone; 2008 and 2014 samples included 3,116 and 2,971 members, respectively. Surveys collected demographic and health information, asked members …

Improving Huntington’S Disease Education For New Staff In A Voluntary Mental Health Facility, Joe Ogunbode

Joe Ogunbode

Evaluation Of The Massachusetts Peer Specialist Training And Certification Program (Phase Two), Linda M. Cabral, Kathy Muhr, Laura A. Sefton, Judith A. Savageau

Judith A. Savageau

Most public mental health systems are shifting to a recovery-oriented system of care; however, offering recovery-oriented and peer support services to various cultural and linguistic groups is challenging. This study sought to better understand how persons with mental health conditions from two cultural groups – Latinos and Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) - access recovery-based services. Interviews with national key informants were conducted prior to data collection to better formulate instruments. Cultural brokers, identified as leaders in their communities who also have mental health conditions, were hired to aid in recruitment and data collection. Interviews and focus groups were …

Computer Administered Safety Planning For Individuals At Risk For Suicide: Development And Usability Testing, Edwin D. Boudreaux, Gregory K. Brown, Barbara Stanley, Rajani S. Sadasivam, Carlos A. Camargo Jr, Ivan W. Miller

Rajani S. Sadasivam

BACKGROUND: Safety planning is a brief intervention that has become an accepted practice in many clinical settings to help prevent suicide. Even though it is quick compared to other approaches, it frequently requires 20 min or more to complete, which can impede adoption. A self-administered, Web-based safety planning application could potentially reduce clinician time, help promote standardization and quality, and provide enhanced ability to share the created plan. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to design, build, and test the usability of a Web-based, self-administered safety planning application. METHODS: We employed a user-centered software design strategy led by a …

Multi-Scale Motility Amplitude Associated With Suicidal Thoughts In Major Depression, Premananda Indic, Greg Murray, Carlo Maggini, Mario Amore, Tiziana Meschi, Loris Borghi, Ross J. Baldessarini, Paola Salvatore

Premananda Indic

Major depression occurs at high prevalence in the general population, often starts in juvenile years, recurs over a lifetime, and is strongly associated with disability and suicide. Searches for biological markers in depression may have been hindered by assuming that depression is a unitary and relatively homogeneous disorder, mainly of mood, rather than addressing particular, clinically crucial features or diagnostic subtypes. Many studies have implicated quantitative alterations of motility rhythms in depressed human subjects. Since a candidate feature of great public-health significance is the unusually high risk of suicidal behavior in depressive disorders, we studied correlations between a measure (vulnerability …

Clinical Topic Review 2013 - Behavioral Health Screening Among Masshealth Children And Adolescents, Judith A. Savageau, Georgianna Willis, Kathy Muhr, David M. Keller, Gideon Aweh, Elizabeth O'Connell

Judith A. Savageau

Results from the 2013 evaluation suggest that the Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative had a large impact on formal behavioral health screening and treatment utilization among children and adolescents enrolled in MassHealth.

Clinical Topic Review: Behavioral Health Screening For Children With Well Visits, Judith A. Savageau, Linda M. Cabral, Jack Gettens, Elizabeth O'Connell, Lana Miller, Susan Maguire

Judith A. Savageau

The first Clinical Topic Review was conducted in order to better understand how behavioral health screenings were occurring for children and adolescents during well visits prior to the implementation of a requirement that primary care providers perform behavioral health screening using a standardized behavioral health screening tool during every well child visit.

Review: Sylvia Martin, 'Ink In Her Veins: The Troubled Life Of Aileen Palmer', (Crawley: Uwa Publishing, 2016)., Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Review: Sylvia Martin, 'Ink In Her Veins: The Troubled Life Of Aileen Palmer', (Crawley: Uwa Publishing, 2016)., Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

A Pilot Study Of Deaf Trauma Survivors’ Experiences: Early Traumas Unique To Being Deaf In A Hearing World, Melissa L. Anderson, Kelly S. Wolf Craig, Wyatte C. Hall, Douglas M. Ziedonis

Melissa L. Anderson

Conducting semi-structured American Sign Language interviews with 17 Deaf trauma survivors, this pilot study explored Deaf individuals’ trauma experiences and whether these experiences generally align with trauma in the hearing population. Most commonly reported traumas were physical assault, sudden unexpected deaths, and “other” very stressful events. Although some “other” events overlap with traumas in the general population, many are unique to Deaf people (e.g., corporal punishment at oral/aural school if caught using sign language, utter lack of communication with hearing parents). These findings suggest that Deaf individuals may experience developmental traumas distinct to being raised in a hearing world. Such …

Piloting Signs Of Safety: A Deaf-Accessible Toolkit For Trauma And Addiction, Melissa L. Anderson, Kelly S. Wolf Craig, Amanda Sortwell, Douglas M. Ziedonis

Melissa L. Anderson

The Deaf community - a minority group of 500,000 Americans who use American Sign Language (ASL) - experiences trauma and addiction at rates double to the general population. Yet, there are no evidence-based treatments that have been evaluated to treat trauma, addiction, or other behavioral health conditions among Deaf people.

Current evidence-based treatments fail to meet the needs of Deaf clients. One example is Seeking Safety, a well-validated therapy for people recovering from trauma and addiction. Seeking Safety includes a therapist guide and client handouts for 25 therapy sessions, each teaching clients a safe coping skill. When Seeking Safety was …

Attitudes Toward Substance Abuse Clients: An Empirical Study Of Clinical Psychology Trainees, Chandra Mundon, Melissa Anderson, Lisa Najavits

Melissa L. Anderson

Despite the high prevalence of substance use disorder (SUD) and its frequent comorbidity with mental illness, individuals with SUD are less likely to receive effective SUD treatment from mental health practitioners than SUD counselors. Limited competence and interest in treating this clinical population are likely influenced by a lack of formal training in SUD treatment. Using a factorial survey-vignette design that included three clinical vignettes and a supplementary survey instrument, we investigated whether clinical psychology doctoral students differ in their level of negative emotional reactions toward clients with SUD versus major depressive disorder (MDD); whether they differ in their attributions …

Symptom Patterns Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Deaf Trauma Survivors, Melissa Anderson, Amanda Sortwell, Kelly Wolf Craig, Douglas Ziedonis

Melissa L. Anderson

Details about Deaf people’s pattern of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms remain relatively unknown due to inaccessible methods used in most epidemiological research. We conducted semi-structured American Sign Language interviews with 16 trauma-exposed Deaf individuals to explore their PTSD symptom patterns. Half met criteria for current PTSD, a rate higher than the general population. Underlying this disparity may be heightened rates of dissociation and psychogenic amnesia reported by many Deaf trauma survivors. Future research with large samples of Deaf survivors is needed to clarify this hypothesis, and to inform interventions that more accurately target Deaf people’s pattern of trauma symptoms.

Sex Offending And Serious Mental Illness: Directions For Policy And Research, Andrew Harris, William Fisher, Bonita Veysey, Laura Ragusa, Arthur Lurigio

Arthur J. Lurigio

Over the past decade, two rapidly evolving areas of criminal justice practice have garnered increasing attention from policy makers, practitioners, and researchers: the management and treatment of justice involved individuals with serious and persistent mental illness, and the challenges of managing the perceived societal risk presented by sex offenders. Yet, whereas each of these issues has independently attracted significant attention, the nexus between them has remained largely unexamined. Matters of concern include the manner in which individuals with serious mental illness may be disproportionately affected by the expanding range of restrictions placed on those with sexual offense histories, the demands …

Correspondence Between Self-Report And Interview-Based Assessments Of Antisocial Personality Disorder, Laura Guy, Norman Poythress, Kevin Douglas, Jennifer Skeem, John Edens

Norman Poythress

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is associated with suicide, violence, and risk-taking behavior and can slow response to first-line treatment for Axis I disorders. ASPD may be assessed infrequently because few efficient diagnostic tools are available. This study evaluated 2 promising self-report measures for assessing ASPD--the ASPD scale of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 (PDQ-4; S. E. Hyler, 1994) and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; L. Morey, 1991, 2007)--as well as the ASPD module of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II (SCID-II; M. B. First, R. L. Spitzer, M. Gibbon, J. B. W. Williams, and L. S. Benjamin, 1997). The …

A Client-Based Description Of Reflecting Team-Work In Family Therapy , David Brown

David C. Brown

Though the practice of reflecting team-work has a strong theoretical base there has been little research examining its actual use. What has been written is primarily based on the therapist's and/or supervisor's experience, rather than the client's. This dissertation describes clients' perceptions of two different strategies of reflecting team-work that emerged from interviews conducted and analyzed using a moderately structured ethnographic interview methodology. The primary results suggested that reflecting team-work was helpful in providing clients with different perspectives; that in-room teams should be used sparingly during early therapy; that teams should reflect at least twice in-session; and that a three-person …

Factors Differentiating Successful Versus Unsuccessful Malingerers, John Edens, Laura Guy, Randy Otto, Jacqueline Buffington, Tara Tomicic, Norman Poythress

Norman Poythress

Relatively little is known about the processes in which "successful" malingerers engage to avoid detection. This study summarizes the response strategies used by participants (N = 540) instructed to feign a specific mental disorder while completing various self-report instruments designed to detect faking. Postexperiment questionnaires indicated that those who were able to appear symptomatic while avoiding being detected as feigning (n = 60) were more likely to endorse a lower rate of legitimate symptoms, to avoid overly unusual or bizarre items, and to base their responses on their own personal experiences.

Working Therapeutically With Deaf People Recovering From Trauma And Addiction, Melissa Anderson, Neil Glickman, Lisa Mistler, Marco Gonzalez

Melissa L. Anderson

OBJECTIVE: This article reviews what is known about behavioral health treatment of deaf persons with comorbid trauma and addiction.

METHOD: We discuss how to work therapeutically with deaf people with comorbid trauma and addiction, both through a review of the literature and through clinical observations of the authors. The article also includes the personal stories of two people-a Deaf peer specialist and a hearing psychiatrist-who share their humbling stories about the recovery process for deaf people and the challenges of learning to become an effective Deaf mental health care provider.

FINDINGS: Deaf people report higher rates of mental health problems …

Frontal Alpha Asymmetry As A Pathway To Behavioural Withdrawal In Depression: Research Findings And Issues, Emmanuel Jesulola, Christopher Sharpley, Vicki Bitsika, Linda Agnew, Peter Wilson

Vicki Bitsika

Depression has been described as a process of behavioural withdrawal from overwhelming aversive stressors, and which manifests itself in the diagnostic symptomatology for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The underlying neurobiological pathways to that behavioural withdrawal are suggested to include greater activation in the right vs the left frontal lobes, described as frontal EEG asymmetry. However, despite a previous meta-analysis that provided overall support for this EEG asymmetry hypothesis, inconsistencies and several methodological confounds exist. The current review examines the literature on this issue, identifies inconsistencies in findings and discusses several key research issues that require addressing for this field to …

Behavioural Charactertics Of Patients Vulnerable For Repeated Hospitalisation, Amresh Srivastava, Coralee Berlmont, Miky Kaushal, Avinash Desouza, Robbie Campbell, Larry Stitt

Amresh Srivastava

Background

Re-hospitalization which takes place in about 30 to 50% postdischarge patienst, leads to poor outcome, increased rate of mortality and consumes more than 2/3 of budgetary allocations. Inability to identify vulnerable candidates for repeated admissions limits our options for strategic treatment.

Methods

In this prospective study conducted at Regional Mental Health Care ( Presently Parkwood Institute) 101 patienst ( 51 feamles, mean age 43 years), were examined using standard psychometric tools on parameters of clinical, psychopathological, suicide behaviour and resiliency for their risk and preventive characerstics.

Results

We assessed 101 subjects (51 females) with mean age of 42 years. …

Should Suicide Behaviour Be An Outcome Parameter For Mental Disorder, Amresh Srivastava

Amresh Srivastava

Suicide and mental illness are closely related to each other. A high number of people who commit suicide suffer from a mental illness, and a high number of mentally ill patients exhibit suicide behavior. Suicide behavior is a significant aspect of mental illness. It is consistently observed throughout the course of illness, seen in the prodromal stage, during acute phase of remission, in residual phase and whenever illness relapses. A number of times, mental disorder improves but suicide behavior persists. 10-15% patients attempt suicide in the initial phase of an illness. More than half of the patients get hospitalized due …

Measuring Individual Burden Of Illness For Depression Among Prostate Cancer Patients, Christopher Sharpley, Vicki Bitsika, David Christie

Vicki Bitsika

Objective: This study aims to develop and test three potential models of Individual Burden of Illness for Depression (IBI-D) in prostate cancer patients. Methods: Responses to three sets of scales measuring depressive symptoms, functional impairment, and quality of life satisfaction were collected from 191 prostate cancer patients and analysed via principal components analysis to obtain weightings for each of the scales within the three sets of measures. These weightings were then used to form IBI-D Indices, and these were then compared with depressive symptoms alone for their overlap. Results: Single-factor solutions were found for each of the three IBI-D models, …

Rationales That Providers And Family Members Cited For The Use Of Antipsychotic Medications In Nursing Home Residents With Dementia, Alice Bonner, Terry Field, Celeste Lemay, Kathleen Mazor, Daniel Andersen, Christina Compher, Jennifer Tjia, Jerry Gurwitz

Jennifer Tjia

OBJECTIVES: To describe the rationales that providers and family members cite for the use of antipsychotic medications in people with dementia living in nursing homes (NHs). DESIGN: Qualitative, descriptive study. SETTING: Twenty-six medium-sized and large facilities in five Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regions. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals diagnosed with dementia who received an antipsychotic medication. MEASUREMENTS: Data were collected from medical record abstraction and interviews with prescribers, administrators, direct care providers, and family members. Textual data from medical record abstraction and responses to open-ended interview questions were analyzed using directed content analysis techniques. A coding scheme was developed, and coded …

Statin Discontinuation In Nursing Home Residents With Advanced Dementia, Jennifer Tjia, Sarah Cutrona, Daniel Peterson, George Reed, Susan Andrade, Susan Mitchell

Jennifer Tjia

OBJECTIVES: To describe patterns of, and factors associated with, statin use and discontinuation in nursing home (NH) residents progressing to advanced dementia and followed for at least 90 days.

DESIGN: Retrospective inception cohort using a dataset linking 2007 to 2008 Minimum Data Set (MDS) to Medicare denominator and Part D files.

SETTING: All NHs in five states (Minnesota, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, Florida).

PARTICIPANTS: NH residents with dementia.

MEASUREMENTS: Residents who developed advanced dementia were observed from baseline (date of progression to very severe cognitive impairment with eating problems) and followed for at least 90 days to statin discontinuation or death. …

Construct Validity Of Animal-Assisted Therapy And Activities: How Important Is The Animal In Aat?, Lori Marino

Lori Marino, PhD

Animal-assisted therapy and animal-assisted activities involve a nonhuman animal as a key therapeutic agent in some kind of intervention that may range from highly specified, as in AAT, to more casual, as in AAA. In this review I address the question: How important is the animal in animal therapy? In other words, does the recent literature strongly support the notion that a live animal, as opposed to another novel stimulating component, is specifically necessary for therapeutic success. Two meta-analyses and 28 single empirical studies were reviewed in order to address this issue. I conclude that the effects of AAT and …

The Flip-Side To Readmission: Focused After-Care, Amresh Srivastava

Amresh Srivastava

paper 1. Suicidality in hospitalized early psychosis patients at time of discharge

The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence and nature of suicidal risk among early psychosis patients at the time of discharge from hospital. Is it only related to the involvement of a suicidal attempt at admission? Thirty such patients, who were admitted after a suicide attempt were compared with 30 patients similarly diagnosed, but admitted for clinical reasons not involving a suicide attempt. Dependent measures of psychopathology, adjustment and suicidality were used. It was found that the two groups did not differ in suicidality, which …

Influence Of The Hcr-20, Ls/Cmi, And Pcl-R On Decisions About Parole Suitability Among Lifers, Laura Guy, Cliff Kusaj, Ira Packer, Kevin Douglas

Ira K Packer

Among 5,181 inmates indeterminately sentenced to life in California who were evaluated for parole suitability between January 2009 and November 2010, 11% were granted parole. After administration of the HCR-20, LS/CMI, and PCL-R, psychologists judged most inmates (78%) to be at low or moderate risk for future violence. This overall risk rating (ORR) was significantly associated with parole suitability decisions. Moderate to large associations were observed between the ORR and all risk indices. The HCR-20 Clinical and Risk Management scales demonstrated the strongest associations with parole suitability decisions. Among the LS/CMI scales, Procriminal Attitudes and Leisure/Recreation were most predictive of …

The Promise Of Healthcare Reform In Transforming Services For Jail Detainees, Maureen Mcdonnell, Laura Brookes, Arthur J. Lurigio

Arthur J. Lurigio

Chronic behavioral health conditions, such as psychiatric and substance use disorders, affect at least half of all arrestees, with two-thirds suffering from at least one chronic medical disorder. These conditions contribute to their criminal behaviors and propensities to recycle through the criminal justice system (Binswanger et al. Journal of Urban Health 89:183-190, 2012). Despite their limited resources, jails have nonetheless become de facto settings for the delivery of healthcare services. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, jail releasees will become eligible for government-subsidized healthcare coverage in 2014. The widespread availability of integrated healthcare services for …

Introduction: A Changing Indonesia, Maribeth Erb, Kathleen M. Adams

Kathleen M. Adams

No abstract provided.