Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Happy Older Latinos Are Active (Hola) Health Promotion And Prevention Study: Study Protocol For A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial, Daniel E. Jimenez, Charles F. Reynolds, Margarita Alegría, Philip Harvey, Stephen Bartels

Dartmouth Scholarship

Results of previous studies attest to the greater illness burden of common mental disorders (anxiety and depression) in older Latinos and the need for developing preventive interventions that are effective, acceptable, and scalable. Happy Older Latinos are Active (HOLA) is a newly developed intervention that uses a community health worker (CHW) to lead a health promotion program in order to prevent common mental disorders among at-risk older Latinos. This pilot study tests the feasibility and acceptability of delivering HOLA to older, at-risk Latinos.

Methods/Design: HOLA is a multi-component, health promotion intervention funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). …

Nucleus Accumbens Deep Brain Stimulation In A Rat Model Of Binge Eating, W. T. Doucette, J. Y. Khokhar, A. I. Green

Dartmouth Scholarship

Binge eating (BE) is a difficult-to-treat behavior with high relapse rates, thus complicating several disorders including obesity. In this study, we tested the effects of high-frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS) in a rodent model of BE. We hypothesized that BE rats receiving high-frequency DBS in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core would have reduced binge sizes compared with sham stimulation in both a 'chronic BE' model as well as in a 'relapse to chronic BE' model. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (N=18) were implanted with stimulating electrodes in bilateral NAc core, and they received either active stimulation (N=12) or sham stimulation (N=6) for …

Belief About Nicotine Selectively Modulates Value And Reward Prediction Error Signals In Smokers, Xiaosi Gu, Terry Lohrenz, Ramiro Salas, Philip R. Baldwin, Alireza Soltani

Dartmouth Scholarship

Little is known about how prior beliefs impact biophysically described processes in the presence of neuroactive drugs, which presents a profound challenge to the understanding of the mechanisms and treatments of addiction. We engineered smokers' prior beliefs about the presence of nicotine in a cigarette smoked before a functional magnetic resonance imaging session where subjects carried out a sequential choice task. Using a model-based approach, we show that smokers' beliefs about nicotine specifically modulated learning signals (value and reward prediction error) defined by a computational model of mesolimbic dopamine systems. Belief of "no nicotine in cigarette" (compared with "nicotine in …

Wordless Intervention For Epilepsy In Learning Disabilities (Wield): Study Protocol For A Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial, Marie-Anne Durand, Bob Gates, Georgina Parkes, Asif Zia

Dartmouth Scholarship

Epilepsy is the most common neurological problem that affects people with learning disabilities. The high seizure frequency, resistance to treatments, associated skills deficit and co-morbidities make the management of epilepsy particularly challenging for people with learning disabilities. The Books Beyond Words booklet for epilepsy uses images to help people with learning disabilities manage their condition and improve quality of life. Our aim is to conduct a randomized controlled feasibility trial exploring key methodological, design and acceptability issues, in order to subsequently undertake a large-scale randomized controlled trial of the Books Beyond Words booklet for epilepsy.

The Social Production Of Substance Abuse And Hiv/Hcv Risk: An Exploratory Study Of Opioid-Using Immigrants From The Former Soviet Union Living In New York City, Honoria Guarino, Sarah K. Moore, Lisa A. Marsch, Sal Florio

Dartmouth Scholarship

Several former Soviet countries have witnessed the rapid emergence of major epidemics of injection drug use (IDU) and associated HIV/HCV, suggesting that immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) may be at heightened risk for similar problems. This exploratory study examines substance use patterns among the understudied population of opioid-using FSU immigrants in the U.S., as well as social contextual factors that may increase these immigrants' susceptibility to opioid abuse and HIV/HCV infection. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 FSU immigrants living in New York City who initiated opioid use in adolescence or young adulthood, and with 6 drug treatment …

Small Individual Loans And Mental Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial Among South African Adults, Lia C. H. Fernald, Rita Hamad, Dean Karlan, Emily J. Ozer, Jonathan Zinman

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: In the developing world, access to small, individual loans has been variously hailed as a poverty-alleviation tool – in the context of "microcredit" – but has also been criticized as "usury" and harmful to vulnerable borrowers. Prior studies have assessed effects of access to credit on traditional economic outcomes for poor borrowers, but effects on mental health have been largely ignored.

Methods: Applicants who had previously been rejected (n = 257) for a loan (200% annual percentage rate – APR) from a lender in South Africa were randomly assigned to a "second-look" that encouraged loan officers to approve their …