Digital Commons Network^™

Analyzing The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Deprivation And Outpatient Medicare Part D Fluoroquinolone Claim Rates In Texas, Mayar Al Mohajer, Edgar Samarasundera, Judite Gonçalves, Alicia Heath

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: Only a few studies have assessed the relationship between deprivation and excessive antibiotic use. In Texas, antimicrobial prescription rates are particularly high compared with the rest of the US. This study analyzed the association between local area socioeconomic deprivation and providers' fluoroquinolone claim rates among beneficiaries 65 years and older in Texas.

METHODS: This ecological study utilized provider- and area-level data from Medicare Part D Prescribers and the Social Deprivation Index (SDI) repositories. Negative binomial regression models were employed to evaluate the relationship between provider- and area-level characteristics (prescriber's gender, specialty, rural-urban community area, beneficiaries' demographics, area-level population, and …

The Impact Of The Filmarray Meningitis/Encephalitis Panel On Empiric Antibiotic Prescriptions In Patients With Suspected Community-Acquired Meningitis, Aaron Pathak, Caitlynn Pham, Sabra Shay, Todd Lasco, Mayar Al Mohajer

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The BioFire® FilmArray® meningitis/encephalitis (FA/ME) panel provides rapid testing for common cerebrospinal fluid pathogens. We compared empiric antibiotic utilization between patients with suspected community-acquired meningitis with and without an FA/ME panel ordered. No significant differences in antibiotic use were found.

Clinical Utility Of Plasma Microbial Cell-Free Dna Sequencing In Determining Microbiologic Etiology Of Infectious Syndromes In Solid Organ Transplant Recipients, Jesal R Shah, Muhammad Rizwan Sohail, Todd Lasco, John A Goss, Mayar Al Mohajer, Sarwat Khalil

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) is increasingly being used for microbial detection in various infectious syndromes. However, data regarding the use of mNGS in solid organ transplant recipients (SOTR) are lacking.

OBJECTIVES: To describe and analyze real-world clinical impact of mNGS using plasma microbial cell-free DNA (mcfDNA) in SOTR.Design: Retrospectively reviewed all adult SOTR who underwent mNGS testing using plasma mcfDNA at Baylor St Luke's Medical Center from March 2017 to February 2023.

METHODS: Clinical impact (positive, neutral, and negative) was assessed using standardized objective criteria. Three Infectious Diseases physicians independently performed clinical adjudication to determine the correlation of mcfDNA …

Creating A Plasma Coordination Center To Support Covid-19 Outpatient Trials Across A National Network Of Hospital Blood Banks, Anusha Yarava, Christi Marshall, David E Reichert, Aaron Ye, Preeti Khanal, Sanford H Robbins, Bruce S Sachais, David Oh, Ryan A Metcalf, Kathleen Conry-Cantilena, Karen King, Meredith Reyes, Jill Adamski, Marisa B Marques, Minh-Ha Tran, Elizabeth S Allen, Daniel Pach, Neil Blumberg, Rhonda Hobbs, Tammon Nash, Aarthi G Shenoy, Giselle S Mosnaim, Yuriko Fukuta, Bela Patel, Sonya L Heath, Adam C Levine, Barry R Meisenberg, Shweta Anjan, Moises A Huaman, Janis E Blair, Judith S Currier, James H Paxton, William Rausch, Kevin Oei, Matthew Abinante, Donald N Forthal, Martin S Zand, Seble G Kassaye, Edward R Cachay, Kelly A Gebo, Shmuel Shoham, Arturo Casadevall, Nichol A Mcbee, Daniel Amirault, Ying Wang, Erica Hopkins, David M Shade, Oliver Layendecker, Sabra L Klein, Han-Sol Park, John S Lee, Patrizio Caturegli, Jay S Raval, Daniel Cruser, Alyssa F Ziman, Jonathan Gerber, Thomas J Gniadek, Evan M Bloch, Aaron A R Tobian, Daniel F Hanley, David J Sullivan, Karen Lane

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we rapidly implemented a plasma coordination center, within two months, to support transfusion for two outpatient randomized controlled trials. The center design was based on an investigational drug services model and a Food and Drug Administration-compliant database to manage blood product inventory and trial safety.

METHODS: A core investigational team adapted a cloud-based platform to randomize patient assignments and track inventory distribution of control plasma and high-titer COVID-19 convalescent plasma of different blood groups from 29 donor collection centers directly to blood banks serving 26 transfusion sites.

RESULTS: We performed 1,351 transfusions in …

A Novel System To Culture Human Intestinal Organoids Under Physiological Oxygen Content To Study Microbial-Host Interaction, Tatiana Y Fofanova, Umesh C Karandikar, Jennifer M Auchtung, Reid L Wilson, Antonio J Valentin, Robert A Britton, K Jane Grande-Allen, Mary K Estes, Kristi Hoffman, Sashirekha Ramani, Christopher J Stewart, Joseph F Petrosino

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Mechanistic investigation of host-microbe interactions in the human gut are hindered by difficulty of co-culturing microbes with intestinal epithelial cells. On one hand the gut bacteria are a mix of facultative, aerotolerant or obligate anaerobes, while the intestinal epithelium requires oxygen for growth and function. Thus, a coculture system that can recreate these contrasting oxygen requirements is critical step towards our understanding microbial-host interactions in the human gut. Here, we demonstrate Intestinal Organoid Physoxic Coculture (IOPC) system, a simple and cost-effective method for coculturing anaerobic intestinal bacteria with human intestinal organoids (HIOs). Using commensal anaerobes with varying degrees of oxygen …

Rates And Predictors Of Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder Symptoms Among Post-9/11 Veterans, Melissa B Jones, Juliann Tea, Matthew Meyers, Ruosha Li, Audri Villalon, Ritwick Agrawal, Ricardo E Jorge

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), which are prevalent conditions among post-9/11 veterans, increase risks of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) and degenerative synucleinopathy. Rates and predictors of RBD symptoms were investigated by screening post-9/11 veterans for RBD with a validated questionnaire.

Methods: In this cross-sectional analysis, consecutive patients in the Houston Translational Research Center for TBI and Stress Disorders (TRACTS) were screened with the English translation of the RBD Questionnaire-Hong Kong (RBDQ-HK). In addition to data from the standard TRACTS battery, systematic chart review was used to identify known sleep disorders mimicking …

Spatial Transcriptomics Resolve An Emphysema-Specific Lymphoid Follicle B Cell Signature In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Joselyn Rojas-Quintero, Scott A Ochsner, Felicia New, Prajan Divakar, Chen Xi Yang, Tianshi David Wu, Jerid Robinson, Darshan Shimoga Chandrashekar, Nicholas E Banovich, Ivan O Rosas, Maor Sauler, Farrah Kheradmand, Amit Gaggar, Camilla Margaroli, Raul San Jose Estepar, Neil J Mckenna, Francesca Polverino

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Rationale

Within chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema is characterized by a significant yet partially understood B cell immune component.

Objectives

To characterize the transcriptomic signatures from lymphoid follicles (LFs) in ever-smokers without COPD and patients with COPD with varying degrees of emphysema.

Methods

Lung sections from 40 patients with COPD and ever-smokers were used for LF proteomic and transcriptomic spatial profiling. Formalin- and O.C.T.-fixed lung samples obtained from biopsies or lung explants were assessed for LF presence. Emphysema measurements were obtained from clinical chest computed tomographic scans. High-confidence transcriptional target intersection analyses were conducted to resolve emphysema-induced transcriptional networks. …

The Impact Of Direct Inoculation Of Ascites Into Blood Culture Bottles On Ascites Culture Positivity, Tyler Brehm, Todd Lasco, Mayar Al Mohajer

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: Assess whether direct inoculation of ascites into blood culture bottles would improve ascites culture yield.

DESIGN: Pre-post-study.

SETTING: The study was performed at a quaternary academic medical center in Houston, Texas, including all inpatient and emergency department encounters.

PATIENTS: Ascites cultures collected from November 2020 to December 2022 were reviewed and screened for spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Patients were excluded if a prior ascites culture from the same patient was already included in the study or if there was evidence of secondary bacterial peritonitis.

INTERVENTION: In the pre-intervention period, ascites cultures were collected into a sterile container and inoculated onto/into …

Early Immune Factors Associated With The Development Of Post-Acute Sequelae Of Sars-Cov-2 Infection In Hospitalized And Non-Hospitalized Individuals, Jacqueline M Leung, Michelle J Wu, Pouya Kheradpour, Chen Chen, Katherine A Drake, Gary Tong, Vanessa K Ridaura, Howard C Zisser, William A Conrad, Natalia Hudson, Jared Allen, Christopher Welberry, Celine Parsy-Kowalska, Isabel Macdonald, Victor F Tapson, James N Moy, Christopher R Defilippi, Ivan O Rosas, Mujeeb Basit, Jerry A Krishnan, Sairam Parthasarathy, Bellur S Prabhakar, Mirella Salvatore, Charles C Kim

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can lead to post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) that can persist for weeks to years following initial viral infection. Clinical manifestations of PASC are heterogeneous and often involve multiple organs. While many hypotheses have been made on the mechanisms of PASC and its associated symptoms, the acute biological drivers of PASC are still unknown.

METHODS: We enrolled 494 patients with COVID-19 at their initial presentation to a hospital or clinic and followed them longitudinally to determine their development of PASC. From 341 patients, we conducted multi-omic profiling on peripheral blood …

Gambian Mothers Lack Obstetric Danger Sign Knowledge, But Educational Intervention Shows Promise, Kara Shannon, Jocelyn Burridge, Brodus Franklin, Sheena Bhushan, Susan Hilsenbeck, Elena V Petrova, James N'Dow, Ibezimako Iwuh, Sharmila Anandasabapathy, Jeffrey P Wilkinson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: The Gambia has the 12th highest maternal mortality rate in the world, with 80% of deaths resulting from avoidable causes. Unawareness of pregnancy danger signs (DS) has been shown to be a barrier to seeking obstetric care, while app-based education intervention has shown promise.

OBJECTIVE: We aim to assess patient awareness of DS, identify barriers to awareness, and evaluate potential for implementing smartphone-based technologies for education.

METHODS: A cross-sectional semi-structured survey was administered to Gambian women (n = 100) across five hospitals/health centers. Data and informed consent were collected via an online survey portal. Analysis included bivariate analysis and …

Ethical Considerations For Integrating Multimodal Computer Perception And Neurotechnology, Meghan E Hurley, Anika Sonig, John Herrington, Eric A Storch, Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Kristin Kostick-Quenet

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI)-based computer perception technologies (e.g., digital phenotyping and affective computing) promise to transform clinical approaches to personalized care in psychiatry and beyond by offering more objective measures of emotional states and behavior, enabling precision treatment, diagnosis, and symptom monitoring. At the same time, passive and continuous nature by which they often collect data from patients in non-clinical settings raises ethical issues related to privacy and self-determination. Little is known about how such concerns may be exacerbated by the integration of neural data, as parallel advances in computer perception, AI, and neurotechnology enable new insights into subjective states. …

Proton Pump Inhibitors: Rational Use And Use-Reduction - The Windsor Workshop, Peter Kahrilas, Foteini Anastasiou, Albert J Bredenoord, Hashem B El Serag, Joachim Labenz, Juan Mendive, Edoardo V Savarino, Daniel Sifrim, Mihaela Udrescu, Rena Yadlapati, A Pali Hungin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Despite deprescribing initiatives to curb overutilization of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), achieving meaningful reductions in PPI use is proving a challenge.

SUMMARY: An international group of primary care doctors and gastroenterologists examined the literature surrounding PPI use and use-reduction to clarify: (i) what constitutes rational PPI prescribing; (ii) when and in whom PPI use-reduction should be attempted; and (iii) what strategies to use when attempting PPI use-reduction.

KEY MESSAGES: Before starting a PPI for reflux-like symptoms, patients should be educated on potential causes and alternative approaches including dietary and lifestyle modification, weight loss, and relaxation strategies. When commencing a …

The Determinants Of Nonprofit Hospital Ceo Compensation, Derek Jenkins, Marah N Short, Vivian Ho

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Hospital CEO salaries have grown quickly over the past two decades. We investigate correlates of rising nonprofit hospital CEO pay between 2012 and 2019 by merging compensation data from Candid's IRS 990 forms with hospital data from the National Academy for State Health Policy Hospital Cost Tool. Almost half of the measured increase in CEO compensation (44.5%) accrued to a "base case" CEO, who was leading a non-teaching hospital system or independent hospital with fewer than 100 beds that earned 0 profits and provided no charity care. Another 28.5% of the measured salary increase resulted from changes in the generosity …

"A Double-Edged Sword": A Brief History Of Genomic Data Governance And Genetic Researcher Perspectives On Data Sharing, Kayte Spector-Bagdady, Kerry A Ryan, Amy L Mcguire, Chris D Krenz, M Grace Trinidad, Kaitlyn Jaffe, Amanda Greene, J Denard Thomas, Madison Kent, Stephanie Morain, David Wilborn, J Scott Roberts

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

As the federal government continues to expand upon and improve its data sharing policies over the past 20 years, complex challenges remain. Our interviews with U.S. academic genetic researchers (n=23) found that the burden, translation, industry limitations, and consent structure of data sharing remain major governance challenges.

Gsk-3Β As A Potential Coordinator Of Anabolic And Catabolic Pathways In Hepatitis C Virus Insulin Resistance, Gokul C Das, F Blaine Hollinger

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: Chronic hepatitis C infection can result in insulin resistance (IR). We have previously shown that it occurs through the interaction of pathways for glucose homeostasis, insulin signaling, and autophagy. But it is not known how soon the pathways are activated and how IR is related to the signals generated by catabolic and anabolic conditions occurring in infected cells. We have extended our studies to a cell culture system mimicking acute infection and to downstream pathways involving energy-sensor AMPK and nutrient-sensor mTOR that are active in catabolic and anabolic processes within the infected cells.

METHODS: Huh7 liver cells in culture …

Choosing Your “Healthiest” Embryo After Dobbs: Polygenic Screening And Distinctive Challenges For Truth In Advertising And Informed Consent, Dov Fox, Sonia Suter, Meghna Mukherjee, Stacey Pereira, Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Polygenic embryo screening ("PES") analyzes embryos for hundreds or thousands of genomic loci to generate risk scores that estimate genetic susceptibility to conditions and traits compared to the general population. The technology is commercially marketed directly to consumers. Companies focus mostly on medical conditions, sometimes in ways that oversell its advantages and efficacy, encouraging fertility patients to "choose your healthiest embryo" and "protect your future child from genetic risks." The advertising of PES trades on norms of children's health and good parenting and reinforces those normative ideals. While it is easy to assume PES will be constrained in practice by …

Interrogating The Value Of Return Of Results For Diverse Populations: Perspectives From Precision Medicine Researchers, Caitlin E Mcmahon, Nicole Foti, Melanie Jeske, William R Britton, Stephanie M Fullerton, Janet K Shim, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: Over the last decade, the return of results (ROR) in precision medicine research (PMR) has become increasingly routine. Calls for individual rights to research results have extended the "duty to report" from clinically useful genetic information to traits and ancestry results. ROR has thus been reframed as inherently beneficial to research participants, without a needed focus on who benefits and how. This paper addresses this gap, particularly in the context of PMR aimed at increasing participant diversity, by providing investigator and researcher perspectives on and questions about the assumed value of ROR in PMR.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews with a …

Development Of A Multi-Level/Multi-Modal Intervention For Health Care Transition Preparation, Beth H Garland, Mary Majumder, Constance M Wiemann, Blanca Sanchez-Fournier, Jordyn Babla, Albert C Hergenroeder

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Aims: Health care transition (HCT) to adult care and young adult disease self-management is a multi-step process involving three major stakeholders - the adolescent, the caregiver, and the provider. Preparation gaps exist within each of these stakeholder groups. This paper presents the development of the Intervention to Promote Autonomy and Competence in Transition-aged Youth (IPACT), a multi-level (adolescent, caregiver, provider), multi-modal (interactive skill building sessions, educational materials, videos) intervention to address gaps in all three stakeholder groups simultaneously and help support achieving the three core elements of HCT planning.

Methods: Eight processes were utilized to develop the IPACT intervention, including …

How Should Clinical Wound Care And Management Translate To Effective Engineering Standard Testing Requirements From Foam Dressings? Mapping The Existing Gaps And Needs, Amit Gefen, Paulo Alves, Dimitri Beeckman, Breda Cullen, José Luis Lázaro-Martínez, Hadar Lev-Tov, Bijan Najafi, Nick Santamaria, Andrew Sharpe, Terry Swanson, Kevin Woo

Center on Aging Staff Publications

Significance: Wounds of all types remain one of the most important, expensive, and common medical problems, for example, up to approximately two-thirds of the work time of community nurses is spent on wound management. Many wounds are treated by means of dressings. The materials used in a dressing, their microarchitecture, and how they are composed and constructed form the basis for the laboratory and clinical performances of any advanced dressing.

Recent Advances: The established structure/function principle in material science is reviewed and analyzed in this article in the context of wound dressings. This principle states that the microstructure determines the …

La Fin Du Droit National A L'Interruption Volontaire De Grossesse Aux Etats-Unis: Quels Enseignements Pour L'Etude Comparative Des Droits?, Elisabeth Zoller

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Deals In The Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, And How Law Can Help, Christiana Ochoa, Kacey Cook, Hanna Weil

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article offers proposals for better engagements, relationships, and deals with local communities contemplating wind farms. Because the rapid expansion of wind energy to date has exhausted the first-mover rural communities, the promise of wind energy depends on reluctant rural communities that may require the legal, relational, and policy innovations proposed herein if they are to grant their consent to future wind farms and participate in the renewable energy transformation. The proposals herein are the result of empirical research exploring how occupants of rural spaces have reacted to wind developer’s strategies in their communities and how local communities have employed …

Broadening The Community, Strengthening The Movement: An Introduction To The Innocence Project "Just Data" 2024 Scholarship Issue, Vanessa Meterko, Jaime S. Henderson, Ngozi Ndulue, Tebah Browne, Valena Beety

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This special issue of The Wrongful Conviction Law Review features a collection of seven research papers presented at the Innocence Project’s 2023 Just Data: Advancing the Innocence Movement conference. This annual event, organized by the Innocence Project and partners in the larger Innocence Network, brings together a diverse group of scholars and advocates, including those who have been wrongfully convicted themselves, to share the latest social science, discuss emerging issues, and make connections to inform our collective work and promote new applied research. Social science research, often conducted quietly and behind the scenes, is critical to data-driven litigation and policy …

Silencing The Sex Worker, Yvette Butler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article argues that sex workers are silenced when they attempt to contribute to lawmaking processes. As a result, they are unable to contribute their knowledge in a meaningful way. The consequence is that laws reflect only one perspective of life in the sex trades: the prostitution abolitionist position that all sex work is inherently a form of violence against women. Without the ability to help shape this narrative, sex workers will continue to be silenced by the allegation that they are a danger to the feminist movement, courts will make harmful rulings, and legislatures will continue to enact laws …

Misery, Melancholy, And Misfortune: A Migrant Case Study, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

There is an ongoing crisis of despair involving migrants from abroad who are seeking refuge in one of the world’s longest-standing, post-World War II democracies—India. There are roughly 4.9 million noncitizen migrants in India, with most coming from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Because these migrants often live in the shadows, they are frequently deprived of fundamental human rights.

On the one hand, it may seem surprising that this population remains so vulnerable. After all, India’s Supreme Court has been a leading institutional light in safeguarding the rights of many marginalized groups. Supreme courts in other countries point …

Blunt Speech Rights, Nicholas Almendares

Articles by Maurer Faculty

There is a lot to be said about the Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative LLC. In the wake of the decision there will be a range of commentaries like those presented in this Issue. I want to draw attention to a particular aspect of the opinion, part of a broader trend in the Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence, towards blunt, sweeping rules. By a blunt rule, I mean a simple, coarse one that lacks nuance or distinctions. Blunt rules, by their nature, tend to be sweeping: nuance, that is, distinguishing cases based on various factors, limits the scope of a …

Big Law's Immigration Advocates, Jayanth K. Krishnan, Megan Riley, Vitor M. Dias

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This study examines lawyers working in the federal appellate courts who represent immigrants seeking relief from deportation. By analyzing over 23,000 appellate cases during the Trump and Obama Administrations, the research here uncovers crucial findings. To begin, there was a statistically significant difference in the win rates of lawyers working pro bono and coming from the largest and most profitable corporate “Big Law” firms compared to lawyers based in other, typically more specialized immigration practice settings. Specifically, during the Trump Administration, Big Law lawyers won at nearly three times higher a rate than non-Big Law lawyers in the federal appellate …

The Sec And "Major Questions Doctrine" Questions, Donna M. Nagy

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Nearly two years ago, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s formal adoption of what it termed the “major questions doctrine,” the Wall Street Journal reported a prediction that “‘every corporate securities lawyer in America is going to now fashion their arguments against SEC rulemaking to force-fit it into [that doctrine].’” As articulated by the sharply divided 6- 3 majority in West Virginia v. EPA, major questions doctrine (MQD) analysis is warranted in certain “extraordinary cases” involving a “transformative expansion” in a federal agency’s regulatory authority that is premised on “a merely plausible textual basis for the agency action.” Extraordinariness, …

Expecting Medication Surveillance, Jennifer D. Oliva

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In response to federal financial incentives and mandates, all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and three U.S. territories administer electronic prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs). Federal and state policymakers justified the implementation and enhancement of ubiquitous prescription drug monitoring by contending that expansive state drug surveillance was a necessary weapon in the war against the American drug overdose crisis. As is often the case with tools designed for law enforcement surveillance, however, PDMPs have proven susceptible to mission creep. Although pioneer PDMPs were paper-based systems that limited their surveillance to a narrow class of heavily regulated controlled substances, modern …

Operationalising Progressive Ideas About Property: Resilient Property, Scale, And Systemic Compromise, Marc L. Roark, Lorna Fox O'Mahony

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

Property theory is at a crossroads. In recent decades, scholars seeking to advance progressive ideas about property have embraced ‘Progressive Property’ theories that seek to advance the goals of social justice and the common good, offering a vital counter-weight to utilitarian and neo-conservative accounts of property. Progressive Property theories seek to correct an imbalance in American property discourse which—across the temporal scale—has sustained a range of narratives and normative commitments, but which has veered towards extreme acquisitive individualism and the rhetoric of property absolutism since the 1970s. The idea that individual property rights are not absolute but defined by the …

Maladaptive Behaviors In Disasters: Case Study Evaluation Of Hurricane Hugo, Hurricane Katrina And The Haiti Earthquake, Andrew M Milsten, Christopher S Kang, Ira Nemeth

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Maladaptive behaviors during a disaster refer to actions that do not benefit the individual or society. Quarantelli highlights several maladaptive behaviors myths associated with disasters: widespread antisocial behavior, passivity, role conflict or abandonment, and sudden widespread mental health breakdowns (1). Despite early work reporting these myths, the common perception is that maladaptive behaviors such as rioting, looting, panic, and criminal conduct are prevalent in the wake of disasters. This is despite research by de Ville de Goyet and Arnold which has called on public officials and the media to stop propagating false disaster myths (2, 3). The classic academic response …