Clinical Psychology Commons^™

Marijuana Use Is Associated With Behavioral Approach And Depressive Symptoms In Adolescents And Emerging Adults, Natasha E. Wright, Danny Scerpella, Krista M. Lisdahl

Psychology Faculty Articles

Background

Repeated CB1 binding due to THC results in downregulation of the endocannabinoid system in cortex and limbic regions, perhaps disrupting frontolimbic functioning. This is particularly a concern in young adults who are still undergoing neurodevelopment in frontal and limbic regions. Such disruptions may be linked to increased depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and executive dysfunction, and decreased behavioral approach.

Objectives

Here we examine the influence of young adult marijuana use on anxiety, depressive symptoms, behavioral approach, and executive dysfunction. The influence of alcohol and gender were also assessed.

Methods

84 participants (42 MJ, 42 controls) aged 18–25 were balanced for …

Neural Circuitry Underlying The Intrusion Of Task-Irrelevant Threat Into Working Memory In Anxiety, Daniel Stout

Theses and Dissertations

Dispositional anxiety is an important risk factor for the development of anxiety and other psychological disorders. Symptoms commonly expressed by highly anxious individuals include intrusive memories, uncertainty, and worry — all occurring in the absence of immediate threat. This raises the possibility that anxious individuals have difficulty governing threat’s access to working memory, the mental workspace where goal-related information is actively retained for guiding on-going behavior. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while 81 subjects completed a well-validated working memory task, I show that threat-related and neutral distracters unnecessarily gain access to working memory, as evidenced by increased neural activity …

Examining Heightened Sense Of Incompleteness As A Candidate Endophenotypic Marker For Skin Picking Disorder, Ivar Snorrason

Theses and Dissertations

Excoriation (skin-picking) disorder (SPD) shares genetic underpinnings with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the phenomenology of both disorders is characterized by heightened sense of incompleteness or “not just right” experiences. The aim of the study was to examine if a general tendency for heightened sense of incompleteness (trait incompleteness) can serve as an endophenotypic maker of SPD. Individuals with SPD (n=32) and matched healthy controls (n=42) completed two validated self-report measures of trait incompleteness and rated photographs designed to evoke a sense of incompleteness. Additionally, unaffected first-degree relatives of the SPD group (n=18) and the control group (n=22) completed the same set …

Is The Therapeutic Alliance Associated With And Predictive Of Treatment Retention And Outcome Among Latinos?: A Secondary Analysis Of An Rct Of Behavioral Activation For Latinos With Depression Versus Treatment-As-Usual, Maria Magdalena Santos

Theses and Dissertations

A robust association between the therapeutic alliance and various forms of psychotherapy outcome has been demonstrated. The therapist-client alliance has been shown to be associated with and predictive of dropout and depression symptom change with primarily U.S. White samples. The current study examines whether the alliance is associated with retention, as measured by dropout and session attendance, and depression change in a sample of low-income Spanish-speaking Latinos in the U.S. who received Behavioral Activation for Latinos (BAL) with depression or treatment-as-usual (TAU). Given the proposition that BA treatment fosters the alliance systematically throughout treatment, and that usual treatment was not …

Clarifying The Influence Of Comorbid Depression On Response Inhibition In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder And Trichotillomania, Gregory Berlin

Theses and Dissertations

Response inhibition performance in Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders (OCRDs) is emerging as a potential neurocognitive endophenotype of these disorders. A point of needed clarification, however, is how unique such performance is to the OCRD spectrum. Specifically, it is unknown whether comorbid depression, a disorder that frequently occurs with OCRDs (60-80%) (Pallanti et al., 2011) and is also associated with cognitive deficits, can influence response inhibition observed in OCRDs. We sought to clarify whether response inhibition performance could be reliably accounted for OCRD symptomology (in obsessive compulsive disorder and trichotillomania specifically) even when taking into consideration the influence of comorbid depression. …

Eye Movement Effects In Simulated Object Recognition Memory Impairment, Dmitriy Kazakov

Theses and Dissertations

Malingering is the purposeful fabrication of symptoms for secondary gain. Memory problems are the most reported symptom, and object recognition tests are often used in clinical settings to evaluate these claims. Past research has shown that eye movements can indirectly index memory, in that greater viewing is directed at studied stimuli 500-750 ms after display onset. The present study evaluated eye movements as a potential method of detecting feigned memory impairment. Forty-eight participants, half simulators, studied standardized images and took a memory test. Several levels of analysis were used to detect broad trends and brief effects. Simulators performed significantly worse …

Relations Between Lab-Based And Parent-Reported Executive Functioning In Children And Adolescents With Williams Syndrome, Gregor Nathanael Pau Schwarz

Theses and Dissertations

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by lowered cognitive abilities and significant attention and executive functioning (EF) difficulties. The current study constitutes the first investigating the relevance of performance on an EF task measuring one or more of the “core” EF’s (inhibition, shifting, working memory) to EF behaviors observed by parents of youth with WS. Parent-ratings of their children indicated more EF difficulties in all domains compared to the general population. Performance on the EF task (correct trials during the last phase of the Dimensional Change Card Sort) predicted parent reported general EF difficulties, metacognition, working memory …

Cannabis Use And Affective Processing: A Brain Structure Analysis, Kristin E. Maple

Theses and Dissertations

Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug amongst adolescents and young adults in the United States. Previously, cannabis and its components have been associated with differences in affective processing and neural functioning. Participants (ages 16-25) were cannabis users and non-users excluded for psychiatric disorders, major medical conditions, and excessive other drug use. A series of multiple regressions examined whether past year cannabis use and cannabis x gender predicted measures of emotional face processing (using the PennCNP affective battery) as well as volumes in bilateral prefrontal, temporal, limbic, and cerebellar regions, as well as frontolimbic white matter tracts. Subsequently, Pearson …

Testing The Effects Of Attention Training At Later Stages Of Processing Among Socially Anxious Individuals: A Web-Based Randomized Controlled Trial, Taylor Davine

Theses and Dissertations

Attention bias (AB) modification training is an emerging intervention for the treatment of social anxiety disorder. Research has shown that attenuation of AB leads to reductions of social-anxiety symptoms. To date, researchers have relied primarily on the AB modification paradigm that is designed to improve disengagement from threatening stimuli at early stages of attentional processing. Numerous AB modification studies have demonstrated that individuals who show reductions in AB to threat also show improvement in clinical outcome (e.g., diagnosis, symptoms). These studies provide support for the theory that AB may be a mechanism that causes and/or maintains emotional disorders such as …