Mental and Social Health Commons^™

Community-Based Tuberculosis Contact Management: Caregiver Experience And Factors Promoting Adherence To Preventive Therapy, Micaela Sandoval, Godwin Mtetwa, Tara Devezin, Debrah Vambe, Joyce Sibanda, Gloria S Dube, Thandeka Dlamini-Simelane, Bhekumusa Lukhele, Anna M Mandalakas, Alexander Kay

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Delivery of tuberculosis preventive therapy (TPT) for children with household exposure to tuberculosis is a globally supported intervention to reduce the impact of tuberculosis disease (TB) in vulnerable children; however, it is sub-optimally implemented in most high-burden settings. As part of a community-based household contact management program, we evaluated predictors of adherence to community based TPT in children and performed qualitative assessments of caregiver experiences. The Vikela Ekhaya (Protect the Home) project was a community-based household contact management program implemented between 2019 and 2020 in the Hhohho Region of Eswatini. At home visits, contact management teams screened children for TB, …

Caregiving To Older Adults With A Physical Limitation: Evidence From The Mexican Health And Aging Study, Carlos Díaz-Venegas, Rafael Samper-Ternent, Rebeca Wong

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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Many older adults face physical limitations to performing activities of daily life (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily life (IADLs) and seek help performing them. In Mexico, family caregivers, especially spouses and adult children, traditionally take care of older adults. However, a detailed characterization of the care received has not been thoroughly provided. We sought to identify socioeconomic, demographic, and health-related differences in receiving help among older adults reporting physical limitations.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Using the 2012 wave of the Mexican Health and Aging Study, we provided information on adults aged 60 and older who reported …

Health-Related Quality Of Life And Recovery Capital Among Recovery Residents Taking Medication For Opioid Use Disorder In Texas, Elizabeth O Obekpa, Sheryl A Mccurdy, Vanessa Schick, Christine M Markham, Kathryn R Gallardo, Johnny Michael Wilkerson

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BACKGROUND: Recovery from opioid use disorder (OUD) includes improvements in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and is supported by recovery capital (RC). Little is known about RC and HRQOL among recovery residents taking medication for OUD. We described HRQOL and RC and identified predictors of HRQOL.

METHODS: Project HOMES is an ongoing longitudinal study implemented in 14 recovery homes in Texas. This is a cross-sectional analysis of data from 358 participants' on HRQOL (five EQ-5D-5L dimensions-mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression) and RC (Assessment of Recovery Capital scores) collected from April 2021 to June 2023. Statistical analyses were conducted …

Understanding The Implications Of Under-Reporting, Vaccine Efficiency And Social Behavior On The Post-Pandemic Spread Using Physics Informed Neural Networks: A Case Study Of China, Samiran Ghosh, Alonso Ogueda-Oliva, Aditi Ghosh, Malay Banerjee, Padmanabhan Seshaiyer

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In late 2019, the emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, led to the implementation of stringent measures forming the zero-COVID policy aimed at eliminating transmission. Zero-COVID policy basically aimed at completely eliminating the transmission of COVID-19. However, the relaxation of this policy in late 2022 reportedly resulted in a rapid surge of COVID-19 cases. The aim of this work is to investigate the factors contributing to this outbreak using a new SEIR-type epidemic model with time-dependent level of immunity. Our model incorporates a time-dependent level of immunity considering vaccine doses administered and time-post-vaccination dependent vaccine efficacy. We find that vaccine …

Reimbursement For Hpv Vaccine Cost In The Private Sector: A Comparison Across Specialties, Yenan Zhu, Yueh-Yun Lin, Ruosha Li, Cara He, David R Lairson, Ashish A Deshmukh, Kalyani Sonawane

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The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is the most expensive of all routinely recommended pediatric vaccines. Adequate cost reimbursement by 3rd-party payers is a critical enabling factor for clinicians to continue offering vaccines. This study found that net returns from HPV vaccine cost reimbursements are lowest for family physicians ($0.34/dose) and highest for pediatricians ($5.08/dose). Furthermore, a $1 increment in return was associated with an increase in HPV vaccine doses administered (highest for family physicians; 0.08% per dollar). Reimbursement for HPV vaccine costs by private payers is adequate; however, return margins are small for non-pediatric specialties.

Designing And Pilot-Testing Smokefreesgm: A Text-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention For Sexual And Gender Minority Groups, Rebecca Klaff, Samuel Tundealao, Brittany Krenek, Irene Tamí-Maury

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BACKGROUND: Although the prevalence of smoking is significantly higher among sexual and gender minorities (SGM) than the general population, no text-based smoking cessation intervention has been specifically tailored to this group. The objective of this phase of our study was to develop SmokefreeSGM, an SGM-tailored text-based smoking cessation program, and pilot test its design to inform the refinement of the program.

METHODS: SmokefreeSGM was adapted from SmokefreeTXT, the National Cancer Institute's text-based smoking cessation program, to respond to the needs of SGM smokers. In addition to tailored text messages, SmokefreeSGM includes a new keyword, STRESS, to address the unique psychosocial …

Enabling Structural Resilience Of Street-Involved Children And Youth In Kenya: Reintegration Outcomes And The Flourishing Community Model, Michael L Goodman, Sarah E Seidel, Andrew Springer, Aleisha Elliott, Christine Markham, Hani Serag, Philip Keiser, Ben Raimer, Lauren Raimer-Goodman, Christine Gatwiri, Kelvin Munene, Stanley Gitari

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Introduction: Millions of children and youth live on city streets across the globe, vulnerable to substance use, abuse, material and structural neglect. Structural resilience, the re-establishment of access to structural goods within a society such as housing, education, and healthcare following some interruption, provides an orientation for research and interventional efforts with street-involved children and youth (SICY). Further, a structural resilience framework supports organizing interactions between levels and sectors of a socio-ecology.

Methods: Following the expressed interests of Kenyan SICY, and consistent with emerging policy interests at national and global levels, we assess reintegration trajectories of Kenyan SICY (n …

Pregnancy-Related Covid Worry, Depressive Symptom Severity, And Mediation Through Sleep Disturbance In A Low-Income, Primarily Latinx Population In California’S Central Valley, Jennifer N Felder, Patience A Afulani, Kimberly Coleman-Phox, Serwaa S Omowale, Charles E Mcculloch, Lauren Lessard, Miriam Kuppermann

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Purpose: This study (1) assessed the psychometric properties of a pregnancy-related COVID worry scale, (2) explored variations in pregnancy-related COVID worry over the course of the pandemic, and (3) examined associations between pregnancy-related COVID worry and depressive symptom severity, and evaluated sleep disturbance as a mediator.

Methods: Data were drawn from an ongoing randomized trial comparing the effectiveness of two enhanced forms of prenatal care. The current analysis includes baseline pre-randomization data collected from participants who enrolled November 2020-November 2021 (n = 201). Participants were pregnant individuals with low income and primarily Latinx.

Results: Our 7-item scale was valid and …

Keeping Employees Safe During Health Crises: The Effects Of Media Exposure, Hr Practices, And Age, Shuqi Li, Henry R Young, Majid Ghorbani, Byron Y Lee, Daan Van Knippenberg, Russell E Johnson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Occupational health and safety are critical in promoting the wellness of organizations and employees. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most life-threatening viruses encountered in recent history, providing a unique opportunity for research to examine factors that drive employee safety behavior. Drawing from terror management theory, we propose and test a moderated mediation model using data collected from employees working during a peak of the pandemic. We identify two sources of influence - one external (i.e., media exposure), and one internal (i.e., HR practices) to the organization - that shape employees' mortality salience and safety behaviors. We find that …

Associative Learning Contributes To The Persistence Of Fatigue-Like Behavior In Male Mice In A Model Of Cancer Survivorship, Elisabeth G Vichaya, Josephine K Darpolor, Phillip S Gross, Jessica M Molkentine, Daniel W Vermeer, Paola D Vermeer, John H Lee, Cullen M Taniguchi, Robert Dantzer

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Persistent fatigue is a debilitating side effect that impacts a significant proportion of cancer survivors for which there is not yet an FDA-approved treatment. While certainly a multi-factorial problem, persistent fatigue could be due, in part, to associations learned during treatment. Therefore, we sought to investigate the role of associative learning in the persistence of fatigue using a preclinical model of cancer survivorship. For this purpose, we used a murine model of human papilloma virus-related head and neck cancer paired with a curative regimen of cisplatin-based chemoradiation in male C57BL/6J mice. Fatigue-like behavior was assessed by measuring variations in voluntary …

Chronic Restraint Stress Impairs Voluntary Wheel Running But Has No Effect On Food-Motivated Behavior In Mice, Kiersten Scott, Thien Trong Phan, Nabila Boukelmoune, Cobi J Heijnen, Robert Dantzer

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Chronic restraint stress is known to cause significant alterations of mitochondrial biology. However, its effects on effort-based behavior and the sensitivity of these effects to treatments that restore mitochondrial function have not been assessed. Based on the hypothesis that the behavioral consequences of this stressor should be more severe for an energy demanding activity than for an energy procuring activity, we compared the effects of chronic restraint stress on the performance of male mice trained to use a running wheel or to nose poke for a food reward in an operant conditioning cage. In accordance with our hypothesis, we observed …

Financial Toxicity In Cancer Patients And Subsequent Risk Of Repeat Acute Care Utilization, Julia J Shi, J Alberto Maldonado, Chi-Fang Wu, Susan K Peterson, Ying-Shiuan Chen, Kevin Diao, Robert J Volk, Sharon H Giordano, Ya-Chen T Shih, Kelsey Kaiser, Grace L Smith

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Acute care (AC) visits by cancer patients are costly sources of healthcare resources and can exert a financial burden of oncology care both for individuals with cancer and healthcare systems. We sought to identify whether cancer patients who reported more severe initial financial toxicity (FT) burdens shouldered excess risks for acute care utilization.

METHODS: In 225 adult patients who participated in the Economic Strain and Resilience in Cancer (ENRICh) survey study of individuals receiving ambulatory cancer care between March and September 2019, we measured the baseline FT (a multidimensional score of 0-10 indicating the least to most severe global, …

Pilot Study Of A Spanish Language Measure Of Financial Toxicity In Underserved Hispanic Cancer Patients With Low English Proficiency, Julia J Shi, Gwendolyn J Mcginnis, Susan K Peterson, Nicolette Taku, Ying-Shiuan Chen, Robert K Yu, Chi-Fang Wu, Tito R Mendoza, Sanjay S Shete, Hilary Ma, Robert J Volk, Sharon H Giordano, Ya-Chen T Shih, Diem-Khanh Nguyen, Kelsey W Kaiser, Grace L Smith

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Financial toxicity (FT) reflects multi-dimensional personal economic hardships borne by cancer patients. It is unknown whether measures of FT-to date derived largely from English-speakers-adequately capture economic experiences and financial hardships of medically underserved low English proficiency US Hispanic cancer patients. We piloted a Spanish language FT instrument in this population.

METHODS: We piloted a Spanish version of the Economic Strain and Resilience in Cancer (ENRICh) FT measure using qualitative cognitive interviews and surveys in un-/under-insured or medically underserved, low English proficiency, Spanish-speaking Hispanics (UN-Spanish,

RESULTS: UN-Spanish Hispanic participants reported high acceptability of the instrument (only 0% responded that the …

Unsheltered Homeless And Unstably Housed Adults Have Higher Levels Of Stress And More Health Risk Factors Than Sheltered Homeless Adults, Chaelin K Ra, Emily T Hébert, Adam Alexander, Darla E Kendzor, Robert Suchting, Michael S Businelle

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In the United States, approximately 580,000 individuals were homeless on a single night in 2020. Homelessness can be categorized into three subgroups: sheltered homeless, unsheltered homeless, and unstably housed. Few studies have examined the relations between homelessness subtypes, shelter service utilization, levels of stress experienced, and health risk factors. This study aimed to empirically examine whether shelter status the previous night was related to current stress, recent utilization of shelter-based mental health services, and current health risk factors. Data were collected at multiple homeless shelters in 2016 in the Oklahoma City area (N=575). All participants completed assessments of demographic characteristics, …

Examining The Role Of Autonomy Support, Goal Setting, And Care Coordination Quality On Hiv Prep Adherence In Black Men Who Have Sex With Men: Hptn 073, Donte T Boyd, Laron E Nelson, Mandy J Hill, Darren Whitfield, S Raquel Ramos, Samuel Akyirem, Lynda Emel, Leo Wilton, Lisa Hightow-Weidman, Steve Shoptaw, Manya Magnus, Kenneth H Mayer, Estelle Piwowar-Manning, Stephaun E Wallace, Sheldon D Fields, Darrell P Wheeler

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Autonomy support is a concept that is derived from self-determination theory. Autonomy refers to the freedom to act as one chooses. The current study aimed to examine if autonomy support was associated with dried blood spot validated pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) adherence, and whether the association was mediated by PrEP adherence goal setting and progress toward PrEP adherence goals. Our sample was drawn from Black men who have sex with men (MSM) from across three cities (Chapel Hill, NC; Los Angeles, CA; and Washington, DC) in the United States between February 2013 and September 2014. We used logistic regression to evaluate …

Adolescent Loneliness During The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Role Of Pre-Pandemic Risk Factors, Hena Thakur, Morgan Stutts, Jae Wan Choi, Jeff R Temple, Joseph R Cohen

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The COVID-19 pandemic is a global mental health crisis that disproportionately impacts adolescents. Loneliness is a particularly salient pandemic psychosocial outcome to understand; however, research to date on this outcome is sparse and largely cross-sectional. In response, we examined pre-pandemic risk factors for pandemic loneliness. Further, we examined how risk may differ based on key demographics, and whether mediation or moderation models best explained potential disparities in experiencing loneliness. Self-reported, pre-pandemic mental health, trauma exposure, and family conflict survey data were collected at Wave 1 in a diverse sample of 369 adolescents (54.5% female, 45.5% male; 30.1% White; 30.9% Black; …

Are Trauma Surgeons Prepared? A Survey Of Trauma Surgeons’ Disaster Preparedness Before And During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jay Doucet, David V Shatz, Lewis J Kaplan, Eileen M Bulger, Jeannette Capella, Deborah A Kuhls, Mary Fallat, Kyle N Remick, Christopher Newton, Adam Fox, Randeep Jawa, John A Harvin, David P Blake, Marko Bukur, Jonathan Gates, James Ficke, Mark L Gestring, The American Association For Surgery Of Trauma Disaster Committee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: US trauma centers (TCs) must remain prepared for mass casualty incidents (MCIs). However, trauma surgeons may lack formal MCI training. The recent COVID-19 pandemic drove multiple patient surges, overloaded Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies, and stressed TCs. This survey assessed trauma surgeons' MCI training, experience, and system and personal preparedness before the pandemic compared with the pandemic's third year.

METHODS: Survey invitations were emailed to all 1544 members of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma in 2019, and then resent in 2022 to 1575 members with additional questions regarding the pandemic. Questions assessed practice type, TC characteristics, …

Interpersonal Violence Against Women With Spinal Cord Injury: Adding Insult To Injury, Susan Robinson-Whelen, Rosemary B Hughes, Kimberley Aguillard, Diana Gonzalez, Heather B Taylor

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BACKGROUND: Mounting empirical evidence suggests that, compared to women without disabilities, women with disabilities are more likely to experience interpersonal violence (IPV). However, there is extremely limited research attention on IPV against women with spinal cord injury (SCI), a particularly understudied and underserved population.

OBJECTIVES: To conduct the first known examination of lifetime IPV experience in women with SCI, to explore demographic and disability-related correlates of IPV, and to examine the health impacts of IPV.

METHODS: The sample included 175 women with traumatic SCI from across the United States who enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of an online psychological …

Association Between Brain Similarity To Severe Mental Illnesses And Comorbid Cerebral, Physical, And Cognitive Impairments, Yizhou Ma, Mark D Kvarta, Bhim M Adhikari, Joshua Chiappelli, Xiaoming Du, Andrew Van Der Vaart, Eric L Goldwaser, Heather Bruce, Kathryn S Hatch, Si Gao, Ann Summerfelt, Neda Jahanshad, Paul M Thompson, Thomas E Nichols, L Elliot Hong, Peter Kochunov

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Severe mental illnesses (SMIs) are often associated with compromised brain health, physical comorbidities, and cognitive deficits, but it is incompletely understood whether these comorbidities are intrinsic to SMI pathophysiology or secondary to having SMIs. We tested the hypothesis that cerebral, cardiometabolic, and cognitive impairments commonly observed in SMIs can be observed in non-psychiatric individuals with SMI-like brain patterns of deviation as seen on magnetic resonance imaging. 22,883 participants free of common neuropsychiatric conditions from the UK Biobank (age = 63.4 ± 7.5 years, range = 45–82 years, 50.9% female) were split into discovery and replication samples. The regional vulnerability index …

Depression And Insomnia Among Healthcare Professionals During Covid-19 Pandemic In Ethiopia: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Aragaw Asfaw Hasen, Abubeker Alebachew Seid, Ahmed Adem Mohammed

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INTRODUCTION: Healthcare professionals play a great role in the struggle against COVID-19. They are highly susceptible to COVID-19 due to their responsibilities. This susceptibility directly affects their mental health status. Comprehensive evidence on prevalence of depression and insomnia during this pandemic is vital. Thus, this study aims to provide the pooled prevalence of depression and insomnia, and their associated factors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This systematic review and meta-analysis follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Studies were searched from PubMed, Cochrane Library, CrossRef, African Journals Online and Google Scholar databases from …

Poor Sleep Quality And Suicidal Ideation Among Pregnant Women During Covid-19 In Ethiopia: Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Aragaw Asfaw Hasen, Abubeker Alebachew Seid, Ahmed Adem Mohammed

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INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 has profoundly impacted the mental health and well-being of pregnant women worldwide. In Ethiopia, the poor sleep quality and suicidal ideation among pregnant women has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to provide comprehensive evidence on the prevalence and associated factors of poor sleep quality and suicidal ideation among pregnant women during COVID-19 in Ethiopia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) recommendation. Data were searched from PubMed, Google Scholar, and African Journals Online from the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic to February 2023. …

Bacterial Meningitis In Africa, Tatiana Barichello, Carlos Henrique Rocha Catalão, Ursula K Rohlwink, Martijn Van Der Kuip, Dan Zaharie, Regan S Solomons, Ronald Van Toorn, Marceline Tutu Van Furth, Rodrigo Hasbun, Federico Iovino, Vivian Ssonko Namale

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Bacterial meningitis differs globally, and the incidence and case fatality rates vary by region, country, pathogen, and age group; being a life-threatening disease with a high case fatality rate and long-term complications in low-income countries. Africa has the most significant prevalence of bacterial meningitis illness, and the outbreaks typically vary with the season and the geographic location, with a high incidence in the meningitis belt of the sub-Saharan area from Senegal to Ethiopia. Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) and Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus) are the main etiological agents of bacterial meningitis in adults and children above the age of one. Streptococcus agalactiae (group …

Sulforaphane Improves Cognitive Function Administered Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Jackson W S Gasperecz, Elizabeth Baumler, Leila Wood, Jeff R Temple

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As the second leading cause of death among Americans aged 10 to 34, suicide is a serious public health concern. One potential predictor of suicidality is dating violence (DV) victimization, such as any physical, psychological, or sexual abuse by a current or former intimate partner. However, little longitudinal data exists on the relationship between suicidal ideation and DV. To address this gap in knowledge, we leverage data from two years of our longitudinal study

Within Subject Cross-Tissue Analyzes Of Epigenetic Clocks In Substance Use Disorder Postmortem Brain And Blood, Brenda Cabrera-Mendoza, Laura Stertz, Katherine Najera, Sudhakar Selvaraj, Antonio L Teixeira, Thomas D Meyer, Gabriel R Fries, Consuelo Walss-Bass

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There is a possible accelerated biological aging in patients with substance use disorders (SUD). The evaluation of epigenetic clocks, which are accurate estimators of biological aging based on DNA methylation changes, has been limited to blood tissue in patients with SUD. Consequently, the impact of biological aging in the brain of individuals with SUD remains unknown. In this study, we evaluated multiple epigenetic clocks (DNAmAge, DNAmAgeHannum, DNAmAgeSkinBlood, DNAmPhenoAge, DNAmGrimAge, and DNAmTL) in individuals with SUD (n = 42), including alcohol (n = 10), opioid (n = 19), and stimulant use disorder (n = 13), and controls (n = 10) in …

Validation Of The Brazilian Portuguese Version Of The Quick Inventory Of Depressive Symptomatology And Self-Report (Qids-Sr16) For The Brazilian Population, Lucas Bandinelli, Julia Luiza Schäfer, Bruno Kluwe-Schiavon, Rodrigo Grassi-Oliveira

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OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QID-SR16), a self-report instrument based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV) criteria that assesses the severity of depression symptoms, in the Brazilian population.

METHODS: Participants were 4,400 Brazilians over the age of 15 years recruited for an online survey assessing depressive symptoms during the early phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Brazil. The internal consistency, construct validity, and convergent and discriminant validity of the QIDS-SR16 were evaluated.

RESULTS: The model tested was considered an adequate fit to the …

Non-Pharmacological Treatment-Related Changes Of Molecular Biomarkers In Major Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Courtney L Irwin, Patrícia S Coelho, Bruno Kluwe-Schiavon, Anabela Silva-Fernandes, Óscar F Gonçalves, Jorge Leite, Sandra Carvalho

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BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious mood disorder and leading cause of disability. Despite treatment advances, approximately 30% of individuals with MDD do not achieve adequate clinical response. Better understanding the biological mechanism(s) underlying clinical response to specific psychopharmacological interventions may help fine tune treatments in order to further modulate their underlying mechanisms of action. However, little is known regarding the effect of non-pharmacological treatments (NPTs) on candidate molecular biomarker levels in MDD. This review aims to identify molecular biomarkers that may elucidate NPT response for MDD.

METHODS: We performed a systematic review and a multilevel linear mixed-effects …

A Deep Residual Model For Characterization Of 5d Spatiotemporal Network Dynamics Reveals Widespread Spatiodynamic Changes In Schizophrenia, Behnam Kazemivash, Theo G M Van Erp, Peter Kochunov, Vince D Calhoun

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Schizophrenia is a severe brain disorder with serious symptoms including delusions, disorganized speech, and hallucinations that can have a long-term detrimental impact on different aspects of a patient's life. It is still unclear what the main cause of schizophrenia is, but a combination of altered brain connectivity and structure may play a role. Neuroimaging data has been useful in characterizing schizophrenia, but there has been very little work focused on voxel-wise changes in multiple brain networks over time, despite evidence that functional networks exhibit complex spatiotemporal changes over time within individual subjects. Recent studies have primarily focused on static (average) …

Processing Speed – A Potential Candidate Cognitive Endophenotype For Bipolar Disorder, Mirona Letitia Dobri, Taya Prince, Alexandre Paim Diaz, Giovana B Zunta-Soares, Sudhakar Selvaraj, Rodrigo Machado-Vieira, Thomas D Meyer, Marsal Sanches, Jair C Soares

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BACKGROUND: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic multifactorial disorder that presents with cognitive impairment as one of its main features, in patients as well as in their first-degree relatives. However, the profile of cognitive dysfunction in BD patients and their relatives is not yet well defined. Various neurocognitive deficits have been proposed as endophenotypes for BD. In the present study, we explored the susceptibility to neurocognitive deficits in BD patients and their siblings compared to healthy controls.

METHOD: A sample consisting of patients diagnosed with BD (

RESULTS: Compared to healthy controls, BD patients and their unaffected siblings showed deficits …

Non-Canonical Pathways In The Pathophysiology And Therapeutics Of Bipolar Disorder, Rodrigo Machado-Vieira, Alan C Courtes, Carlos A Zarate, Ioline D Henter, Husseini K Manji

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Bipolar disorder (BD) is characterized by extreme mood swings ranging from manic/hypomanic to depressive episodes. The severity, duration, and frequency of these episodes can vary widely between individuals, significantly impacting quality of life. Individuals with BD spend almost half their lives experiencing mood symptoms, especially depression, as well as associated clinical dimensions such as anhedonia, fatigue, suicidality, anxiety, and neurovegetative symptoms. Persistent mood symptoms have been associated with premature mortality, accelerated aging, and elevated prevalence of treatment-resistant depression. Recent efforts have expanded our understanding of the neurobiology of BD and the downstream targets that may help track clinical outcomes and …

Reproductive Coercion Victimization And Associated Mental Health Outcomes Among Female-Identifying Young Adults, Emily A Muñoz, Ryan C Shorey, Jeff R Temple

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Reproductive coercion is a serious public health problem. Victimization has been associated with poor mental health outcomes, including symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in clinical and college samples. We build on these findings by examining the association between reproductive coercion victimization and mental and behavioral health outcomes, including depression, PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and drinking behaviors in a diverse community-derived sample of female-identifying young adults (mean age = 20; SD=.72). Participants (n = 368) were originally recruited as part of a study on dating violence in seven Texas public high schools. Participants completed an online study that …