Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Commons^™

Implementation Of A Zen Room And Mindfulness Techniques To Decrease Perceived Burnout, Danika Scott

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to implement a Zen room and mindfulness techniques, aiming to improve job satisfaction by 65% and reduce perceived burnout by 10% among behavioral health staff. The project was conducted at a substance abuse center in Deer Park, TX.

Background: Behavioral health staff face high levels of emotional exhaustion and job-related stress, leading to increased burnout.

Methodology: The Plan-Do-Study-Act model guided the QI methodology using a sample of 23 behavioral health staff. Interventions included an equipped Zen space and wellness resources. Data collection utilized the Maslach Burnout Inventory and a …

Prediction Of Mild Cognitive Impairment Status: Pilot Study Of Machine Learning Models Based On Longitudinal Data From Fitness Trackers, Qidi Xu, Yejin Kim, Karen Chung, Paul Schulz, Assaf Gottlieb

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Early signs of Alzheimer disease (AD) are difficult to detect, causing diagnoses to be significantly delayed to time points when brain damage has already occurred and current experimental treatments have little effect on slowing disease progression. Tracking cognitive decline at early stages is critical for patients to make lifestyle changes and consider new and experimental therapies. Frequently studied biomarkers are invasive and costly and are limited for predicting conversion from normal to mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to use data collected from fitness trackers to predict MCI status.

METHODS: In this pilot study, fitness trackers were …

Verbal Learning And Memory Deficits Across Neurological And Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Insights From An Enigma Mega Analysis, Eamonn Kennedy, Spencer W Liebel, Hannah M Lindsey, Shashank Vadlamani, Pui-Wa Lei, Maheen M Adamson, Martin Alda, Silvia Alonso-Lana, Tim J Anderson, Celso Arango, Robert F Asarnow, Mihai Avram, Rosa Ayesa-Arriola, Talin Babikian, Nerisa Banaj, Laura J Bird, Stefan Borgwardt, Amy Brodtmann, Katharina Brosch, Karen Caeyenberghs, Vince D Calhoun, Nancy D Chiaravalloti, David X Cifu, Benedicto Crespo-Facorro, John C Dalrymple-Alford, Kristen Dams-O'Connor, Udo Dannlowski, David Darby, Nicholas Davenport, John Deluca, Covadonga M Diaz-Caneja, Seth G Disner, Ekaterina Dobryakova, Stefan Ehrlich, Carrie Esopenko, Fabio Ferrarelli, Lea E Frank, Carol E Franz, Paola Fuentes-Claramonte, Helen Genova, Christopher C Giza, Janik Goltermann, Dominik Grotegerd, Marius Gruber, Alfonso Gutierrez-Zotes, Minji Ha, Jan Haavik, Charles Hinkin, Kristen R Hoskinson, Daniela Hubl, Andrei Irimia, Andreas Jansen, Michael Kaess, Xiaojian Kang, Kimbra Kenney, Barbora Keřková, Mohamed Salah Khlif, Minah Kim, Jochen Kindler, Tilo Kircher, Karolina Knížková, Knut K Kolskår, Denise Krch, William S Kremen, Taylor Kuhn, Veena Kumari, Junsoo Kwon, Roberto Langella, Sarah Laskowitz, Jungha Lee, Jean Lengenfelder, Victoria Liou-Johnson, Sara M Lippa, Marianne Løvstad, Astri J Lundervold, Cassandra Marotta, Craig A Marquardt, Paulo Mattos, Ahmad Mayeli, Carrie R Mcdonald, Susanne Meinert, Tracy R Melzer, Jessica Merchán-Naranjo, Chantal Michel, Rajendra A Morey, Benson Mwangi, Daniel J Myall, Igor Nenadić, Mary R Newsome, Abraham Nunes, Terence O'Brien, Viola Oertel, John Ollinger, Alexander Olsen, Victor Ortiz García De La Foz, Mustafa Ozmen, Heath Pardoe, Marise Parent, Fabrizio Piras, Federica Piras, Edith Pomarol-Clotet, Jonathan Repple, Geneviève Richard, Jonathan Rodriguez, Mabel Rodriguez, Kelly Rootes-Murdy, Jared Rowland, Nicholas P Ryan, Raymond Salvador, Anne-Marthe Sanders, Andre Schmidt, Jair C Soares, Gianfranco Spalleta, Filip Španiel, Scott R Sponheim, Alena Stasenko, Frederike Stein, Benjamin Straube, April Thames, Florian Thomas-Odenthal, Sophia I Thomopoulos, Erin B Tone, Ivan Torres, Maya Troyanskaya, Jessica A Turner, Kristine M Ulrichsen, Guillermo Umpierrez, Daniela Vecchio, Elisabet Vilella, Lucy Vivash, William C Walker, Emilio Werden, Lars T Westlye, Krista Wild, Adrian Wroblewski, Mon-Ju Wu, Glenn R Wylie, Lakshmi N Yatham, Giovana B Zunta-Soares, Paul M Thompson, Mary Jo Pugh, David F Tate, Frank G Hillary, Elisabeth A Wilde, Emily L Dennis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Deficits in memory performance have been linked to a wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. While many studies have assessed the memory impacts of individual conditions, this study considers a broader perspective by evaluating how memory recall is differentially associated with nine common neuropsychiatric conditions using data drawn from 55 international studies, aggregating 15,883 unique participants aged 15–90. The effects of dementia, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder on immediate, short-, and long-delay verbal learning and memory (VLM) scores were estimated relative to matched healthy individuals. Random forest …

Neuroecological Links Of The Exposome And One Health, Agustin Ibanez, Lucia Melloni, Paweł Świeboda, William Hynes, Burcin Ikiz, Rym Ayadi, Massamba Thioye, Consuelo Walss-Bass, Bahar Güntekin, Jyoti Mishra, Mohamed Salama, Sarah Dunlop, Claudia Duran-Aniotz, Harris A Eyre

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This NeuroView assesses the interplay among exposome, One Health, and brain capital in health and disease. Physical and social exposomes affect brain health, and green brain skills are required for environmental health strategies. Ibanez et al. address current gaps and strategies needed in research, policy, and technology, offering a road map for stakeholders.

Parent-Led Cognitive Behavioral Teletherapy For Anxiety In Autistic Youth: A Randomized Trial Comparing Two Levels Of Therapist Support, Andrew G Guzick, Sophie C Schneider, Minjee Kook, Julia Rose Iacono, Saira A Weinzimmer, Troy Quast, Sean M Olsen, Killian Rainey Hughes, Emily Jellinek-Russo, Amanda Perozo Garcia, Abigail Candelari, Leandra N Berry, Robin P Goin-Kochel, Wayne K Goodman, Eric A Storch

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Parent-led cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an efficient, promising form of therapy that may be well suited for autistic youth with anxiety disorders, though to date it has been minimally tested. In this study, 87 autistic youth (7 to 13 years old) with anxiety disorders and their parents were randomized to two forms of parent-led CBT in which parents led their child through a guided CBT workbook across 12 weeks: one with low therapist contact (four 30-minute telehealth calls), and one with standard therapist contact (ten 60-minute telehealth calls). Anxiety, functional impairment, and autism features significantly declined across therapy, without …

Interaction Of High-Fat Diet And Brain Trauma Alters Adipose Tissue Macrophages And Brain Microglia Associated With Exacerbated Cognitive Dysfunction, Rebecca J Henry, James P Barrett, Maria Vaida, Niaz Z Khan, Oleg Makarevich, Rodney M Ritzel, Alan I Faden, Bogdan A Stoica

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Obesity increases the morbidity and mortality of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Detailed analyses of transcriptomic changes in the brain and adipose tissue were performed to elucidate the interactive effects between high-fat diet-induced obesity (DIO) and TBI. Adult male mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks prior to experimental TBI and continuing after injury. High-throughput transcriptomic analysis using Nanostring panels of the total visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and cellular components in the brain, followed by unsupervised clustering, principal component analysis, and IPA pathway analysis were used to determine shifts in gene expression patterns and molecular pathway activity. Cellular …

Causal Influence Of Linguistic Learning On Perceptual And Conceptual Processing: A Brain-Constrained Deep Neural Network Study Of Proper Names And Category Terms, Phuc T U Nguyen, Malte R Henningsen-Schomers, Friedemann Pulvermüller

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Language influences cognitive and conceptual processing, but the mechanisms through which such causal effects are realized in the human brain remain unknown. Here, we use a brain-constrained deep neural network model of category formation and symbol learning and analyze the emergent model's internal mechanisms at the neural circuit level. In one set of simulations, the network was presented with similar patterns of neural activity indexing instances of objects and actions belonging to the same categories. Biologically realistic Hebbian learning led to the formation of instance-specific neurons distributed across multiple areas of the network, and, in addition, to cell assembly circuits …

The Biology Of Hope: Inflammatory And Neuroendocrine Profiles In Ovarian Cancer Patients, Susan K Lutgendorf, Rachel M Telles, Brendan Whitney, Premal H Thaker, George M Slavich, Michael J Goodheart, Frank J Penedo, Alyssa E Noble, Steven W Cole, Anil K Sood, Benjamin W Corn

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: Although the concept of hope is highly relevant for cancer patients, little is known about its association with cancer-relevant biomarkers. Here we examined how hope was related to diurnal cortisol and interleukin-6 (IL-6), a pro-inflammatory cytokine previously associated with tumor biology and survival in ovarian cancer. Secondly, we examined whether hope and hopelessness are distinctly associated with these biomarkers.

METHOD: Participants were 292 high-grade ovarian cancer patients who completed surveys and provided saliva samples 4x/daily for 3 days pre-surgery to assess diurnal cortisol. Blood (pre-surgery) and ascites were assessed for IL-6. Hope and hopelessness were assessed using standardized survey …

Associations Between Genetically Predicted Plasma Protein Levels And Alzheimer’S Disease Risk: A Study Using Genetic Prediction Models, Jingjing Zhu, Shuai Liu, Keenan A Walker, Hua Zhong, Dalia H Ghoneim, Zichen Zhang, Praveen Surendran, Sarah Fahle, Adam Butterworth, Md Ashad Alam, Hong-Wen Deng, Chong Wu, Lang Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Specific peripheral proteins have been implicated to play an important role in the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the roles of additional novel protein biomarkers in AD etiology remains elusive. The availability of large-scale AD GWAS and plasma proteomic data provide the resources needed for the identification of causally relevant circulating proteins that may serve as risk factors for AD and potential therapeutic targets.

METHODS: We established and validated genetic prediction models for protein levels in plasma as instruments to investigate the associations between genetically predicted protein levels and AD risk. We studied 71,880 (proxy) cases and 383,378 …

Clinical Characteristics Of Probands With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder From Simplex And Multiplex Families, Monicke O Lima, Leonardo C Saraiva, Vanessa R Ramos, Melaine C Oliveira, Daniel L C Costa, Brazilian Research Consortium On Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders, Thomas V Fernandez, James J Crowley, Eric A Storch, Roseli G Shavitt, Euripedes C Miguel, Carolina Cappi

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Genetic and non-genetic factors contribute to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), with strong evidence of familial clustering. Genomic studies in psychiatry have used the concepts of families that are "simplex" (one affected) versus "multiplex" (multiple affected). Our study compares demographic and clinical data from OCD probands in simplex and multiplex families to uncover potential differences. We analyzed 994 OCD probands (501 multiplex, 493 simplex) from the Brazilian Research Consortium on Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders (C-TOC). Clinicians administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-IV) to diagnose, Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) to assess severity, and Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DY-BOCS) to assess symptom dimensionality. …

G-Quadruplex Dna And Rna In Cellular Senescence, Rocio Diaz Escarcega, Paul Marshall, Andrey S Tsvetkov

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Normal cells divide, are damaged, and are repaired across their lifetime. As cells age, they enter cellular senescence, characterized by a permanent state of cell-cycle arrest triggered by various stressors. The molecular mechanisms that regulate senescent phenotypes have been actively investigated over the last several decades; however, one area that has been neglected is how G-quadruplex (G4) DNA and RNA (G4-DNA and G4-RNA) mediate senescence. These non-canonical four-stranded DNA and RNA structures regulate most normative DNA and RNA-dependent processes, such as transcription, replication, and translation, as well as pathogenic mechanisms, including genomic instability and abnormal stress granule function. This review …

Depressive Symptoms In Autistic Youth With Anxiety Disorders, Rebecca L Greenberg, Andrew G Guzick, Sophie C Schneider, Saira A Weinzimmer, Minjee Kook, Amanda B Perozo Garcia, Eric A Storch

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Objective: Anxiety and depression often coexist in youth and share overlapping symptomatology; however, little is known about the comorbidity of anxiety and depression in autistic youth. This study explores (1) the frequency of depressive symptoms among autistic children with clinically significant anxiety, (2) clinical variables that may be associated with elevated depressive symptoms, and (3) whether pretreatment depressive symptoms predict cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) outcomes for anxiety.

Method: Children aged 7 to 13 years (N = 87) and their parents participated in a randomized controlled trial comparing 2 versions of a parent-led, telehealth-delivered CBT program. Parents and children completed a …

Language Nativeness Modulates Physiological Responses To Moral Vs Immoral Concepts In Chinese-English Bilinguals: Evidence From Event-Related Potential And Psychophysiological Measures, Fei Gao, Chenggang Wu, Hengyi Fu, Kunyu Xu, Zhen Yuan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Morality has been an integral part of social cognition and our daily life, and different languages may exert distinct impacts on human moral judgment. However, it remains unclear how moral concept is encoded in the bilingual brain. This study, therefore, aimed to explore the emotional and cognitive involvement of bilingual morality judgement by using combined event-related potential (ERP) and psychophysiological (including skin, heart, and pulse) measures. In the experiment, thirty-one Chinese-English bilingual participants were asked to make moral judgments in Chinese and English, respectively. Our results revealed increased early frontal N400 and decreased LPC in L1 moral concept encoding as …

Closing The Gap For Children With Ocd: A Staged-Care Model Of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy With Exposure And Response Prevention, Lara J Farrell, Allison M Waters, Eric A Storch, Gabrielle Simcock, Iain E Perkes, Jessica R Grisham, Katelyn M Dyason, Thomas H Ollendick

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is among the most prevalent and disabling mental health conditions affecting children and adolescents. Although the distress and burden associated with childhood OCD are well documented and empirically supported treatments are available, there remains an unacceptable "treatment gap" and "quality gap" in the provision of services for youth suffering from OCD. The treatment gap represents the large number of children who never receive mental health services for OCD, while the quality gap refers to the children and young people who do access services, but do not receive evidence-based, cognitive behavioural therapy with exposure and response prevention …

Fibroblast-Derived Pi16 Sustains Inflammatory Pain Via Regulation Of Cd206+ Myeloid Cells, Rachelle Garrity, Neha Arora, Md Areeful Haque, Drew Weis, Ronnie T Trinh, Sanjay V Neerukonda, Susmita Kumari, Ibdanelo Cortez, Eroboghene E Ubogu, Rajasekaran Mahalingam, Diana Tavares-Ferreira, Theodore J Price, Annemieke Kavelaars, Cobi J Heijnen, Andrew J Shepherd

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Originally identified in fibroblasts, Protease Inhibitor (PI)16 was recently shown to be crucial for the development of neuropathic pain via effects on blood-nerve barrier permeability and leukocyte infiltration, though its impact on inflammatory pain has not been established. Using the complete Freund’s Adjuvant inflammatory pain model, we show that Pi16-/- mice are protected against sustained inflammatory pain. Accordingly, intrathecal delivery of a PI16 neutralizing antibody in wild-type mice prevented sustained CFA pain. In contrast to neuropathic pain models, we did not observe any changes in blood-nerve barrier permeability due to PI16 deletion. Instead, Pi16-/- mice display reduced macrophage density …

Beyond Valence And Arousal: The Role Of Age Of Acquisition In Emotion Word Recognition, Chenggang Wu, Yiwen Shi, Juan Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Although the age of acquisition (AoA) effect has been established in numerous studies, how emotion word processing is modulated by AoA, along with affective factors, such as valence and arousal, is not well understood. Hence, the influence of age of acquisition (AoA), valence, and arousal on Chinese emotion word recognition was investigated through two experiments. Experiment 1 (N = 30) adopted a valence judgment task to explore the roles of valence and AoA in emotion word recognition, whereas Experiment 2 (N = 30) used a lexical decision task to examine AoA and arousal effects. A mixed linear effects …

Towards Neuromarkers For Tailored Smoking Cessation Treatments, Francesco Versace, Jason D Robinson, Paul M Cinciripini

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Vulnerability to compulsive drug use stems from dysregulated activity within the neural networks that underlie reward and executive functions. Empirical evidence suggests that a) attributing high motivational salience to drug-related stimuli leads to compulsive drug seeking and b) cognitive control deficits lead to compulsive drug taking. Noninvasive neuroimaging techniques enable brain activity monitoring during affective and cognitive processing and are paving the way to precision medicine for substance use disorders. Identifying robust neuromarkers of affective and cognitive dysregulation would allow clinicians to personalize treatments by targeting individual psychophysiological vulnerabilities. However, methodological choices have biased the field toward experimental paradigms that …

Things That Make You Go Hmm: Myths And Misconceptions Within Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Samuel D Spencer, Jordan T Stiede, Andrew D Wiese, Andrew G Guzick, Matti Cervin, Dean Mckay, Eric A Storch

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

The past four decades have yielded a robust body of evidence supporting the efficacy and effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as a gold-standard treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) across the lifespan. Exposure and response prevention (E/RP) has been identified as a key component of this approach. Despite robust research support for CBT with E/RP, several myths and misconceptions continue to proliferate in both research and practice settings. Such myths and misconceptions are concerning, as they lack empirical basis, may hinder widespread dissemination and implementation of CBT for OCD, and run contrary to the practice of evidence-based psychological medicine. Focusing on …

Electrophysiological Normative Responses To Emotional, Neutral, And Cigarette-Related Images, Francesco Versace, Nicola Sambuco, Menton M Deweese, Paul M Cinciripini

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

To create reproducible emotional probes, affective scientists rely on sets of standardized pictures that are normed using subjective ratings of valence and emotional arousal. However, when emotional responses are investigated using neurophysiological measures, it might be more appropriate to select pictures integrating information from normative subjective reports and normative neurophysiological responses. Here, we provide electrophysiological normative responses for 323 emotional pictures (215 from the IAPS) covering a wide range of categories (erotica, romantic, appetizing foods, landscapes, people engaged in mundane activities, household objects, disgusting objects, accidents, sad people, violence, mutilations, and cigarette-related contents). Event-related potentials (ERPs) and subjective ratings of …

Spoken Word Recognition Across Language Boundary: Erp Evidence Of Prosodic Transfer Driven By Pitch, Juan Zhang, Yaxuan Meng, Chenggang Wu, Zhen Yuan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Extensive research has explored the perception of English lexical stress by Chinese EFL learners and tried to unveil the underlying mechanism of the prosodic transfer from a native tonal language to a non-native stress language. However, the role of the pitch as the shared cue by lexical stress and lexical tone during the transfer remains controversial when the segmental cue (i.e., reduced vowel) is absent. By employing event-related potential (ERP) measurements, the current study aimed to further investigate the role of the pitch during the prosodic transfer from L1 lexical tone to L2 lexical stress and the underlying neural responses. …

Evidence Of Phone Vs Video-Conferencing For Mental Health Treatments: A Review Of The Literature, Patricia V Chen, Ashley Helm, Steve G Caloudas, Anthony Ecker, Giselle Day, Julianna Hogan, Jan Lindsay

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The goal of this paper is to provide a comparative review of using phone (audio-only) or video for mental health treatments. Our review includes evidence of phone and video's effectiveness in terms of reduced symptomology, retention, satisfaction, therapeutic alliance, and other outcomes of interest. This review also discusses how patients and providers' experiences and attitudes differ between these two modalities. Finally, we present information on different usage rates of phone and video across patient populations and mental health provider types, and different implementation strategies.

RECENT FINDINGS: Treatments through phone and video are both able to reduce symptoms …

Association Of Disease Outcomes With Physical Activity In Multiple Sclerosis: A Cross-Sectional Study, Trinh L T Huynh, Stephanie L Silveira, Brenda Jeng, Robert W Motl

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose/Objective Research: This study examined combinations of disease outcomes (i.e., walking, cognition, and symptoms) as correlates of physical activity subgroups (insufficiently active vs. sufficiently active) in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS).

RESEARCH METHOD/DESIGN: This study included 213 participants who completed walking and cognitive function tests and self-report measures of symptoms and physical activity. Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant function analysis identified combinations of MS outcomes associated with physical activity.

RESULTS: The sample had a mean age of 49.6 years (

CONCLUSION/IMPLICATIONS: The findings identified walking endurance and limitations, processing speed, depression, and fatigue as primary correlates of physical activity …

A Photography-Based, Social Media Walking Intervention Targeting Autonomous Motivations For Physical Activity: Semistructured Interviews With Older Women, Michael C Robertson, Maria Chang Swartz, Ursela Christopherson, Jason R Bentley, Karen M Basen-Engquist, Debbe Thompson, Elena Volpi, Elizabeth J Lyons

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Older adult women are at risk for negative health outcomes that engaging in sustained physical activity can help prevent. However, promoting long-term maintenance of physical activity in this population has proven to be a challenge. Increasing autonomous motivations (ie, intrinsic, integrated, and identified regulations) for physical activity may facilitate enduring behavior change. Digitally delivered games for health that take a celebratory technology approach, that is, using technology to create new ways to experience valued behaviors and express valued beliefs, may be a useful way to target autonomous motivations for physical activity. Formative research with the target population is needed …

Detecting Primary Progressive Aphasia Atrophy Patterns: A Comparison Of Visual Assessment And Quantitative Neuroimaging Techniques, Stephanie Franczak, Jessica Pommy, Greta Minor, Chandler Zolliecoffer, Manav Bhalla, Mohit Agarwal, Andrew Nencka, Yang Wang, Andrew Klein, Darren O'Neill, Jude Henry, Glass Umfleet

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: There are now clinically available automated MRI analysis software programs that compare brain volumes of patients to a normative sample and provide

OBJECTIVE: To address this gap in the literature, we examined Neuroreader

METHODS: lvPPA or aMCI patients who underwent MRI with Neuroreader

RESULTS: Cohen's Kappa coefficients were significant in 10 of the 28 computations (

CONCLUSION: Overall, our results indicated moderate to low interrater reliability, and raters never agreed that left asymmetry was present. While lower

Intermittent Hypoxia And Effects On Early Learning/Memory: Exploring The Hippocampal Cellular Effects Of Pediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Arvind Chandrakantan, Adam C Adler, Mehmet Tohsun, Farrah Kheradamand, Russell S Ray, Steven Roth

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

This review provides an update on the neurocognitive phenotype of pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Pediatric OSA is associated with neurocognitive deficits involving memory, learning, and executive functioning. Adenotonsillectomy (AT) is presently accepted as the first-line surgical treatment for pediatric OSA, but the executive function deficits do not resolve postsurgery, and the timeline for recovery remains unknown. This finding suggests that pediatric OSA potentially causes irreversible damage to multiple areas of the brain. The focus of this review is the hippocampus, 1 of the 2 major sites of postnatal neurogenesis, where new neurons are formed and integrated into existing circuitry …

Microbiome For Mars: Surveying Microbiome Connections To Healthcare With Implications For Long-Duration Human Spaceflight, Virtual Workshop, July 13, 2020, Michael Lapelusa, Dorit Donoviel, Sergio E Branzini, Paul E Carlson, Stephanie Culler, Amrita K Cheema, Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, Denise Kelly, Isabelle De Cremoux, Rob Knight, Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, Stephen L Mayo, Sarkis K Mazmanian, Emeran A Mayer, Joseph F Petrosino, Keith Garrison

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The inaugural "Microbiome for Mars" virtual workshop took place on July 13, 2020. This event assembled leaders in microbiome research and development to discuss their work and how it may relate to long-duration human space travel. The conference focused on surveying current microbiome research, future endeavors, and how this growing field could broadly impact human health and space exploration. This report summarizes each speaker's presentation in the order presented at the workshop.

Education Program Using Non-Pharmacologic Support During Benzodiazepine Reduction In Patients With Anxiety Disorders, Kelly D. Kearney Dnp, Rn, Pmhnp-Bc, Diane Wardell Phd, Whnp-Bc

Journal of Nursing & Interprofessional Leadership in Quality & Safety

A private mental health clinic developed an initiative to aid patients with anxiety disorders to taper their use of benzodiazepines. Based on best practices, a treatment protocol was developed in which patients attended 4 sessions (1 per month) in which they combined instruction in non-pharmaceutical anti-anxiety techniques (guided imagery, mindfulness meditation, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, exercise, emotional freedom) with cognitive behavioral therapy and use of selective serotonin re uptake inhibitors. Participants experienced a reduction in benzodiazepine use. This small scale initiative showed that the holistic approach to anxiety management was an effective plan to decrease the use of benzodiazepines …