Psychiatric and Mental Health Commons^™

Global Medical Education Partnerships To Expand Specialty Expertise: A Case Report On Building Neurology Clinical And Research Capacity, Marco A. Costa, Anthony Furlan, Chris T. Longenecker, Shirley Moore, Svetlana Pundik, Daniel I. Smith, Kathleen A. Smyth, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Neurological disorders are a common cause of morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan African, but resources for their management are scarce. Collaborations between training institutions in developed and resource-limited countries can be a successful model for supporting specialty medical education and increasing clinical and research capacity. Case report: This report describes a US National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) to enhance expertise in neurology, developed between Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala, Uganda, and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, OH, USA. This collaborative model is based on a successful …

Assessing Risk Factors And Levels Of Functioning Across The Continuum Of Psychosis, James Castorina

Theses and Dissertations

Schizophrenia and other related psychotic disorders are often associated with impairments in social and general functioning. It has been proposed that there may be underlying factors such as personality traits or cognitive abilities that contribute to one's psychosis proneness, or levels of schizotypy. In the current study, we expect to see a decline in overall functioning and verbal memory according to symptom severity. Particularly, we hypothesize a similar pattern with overall functioning and verbal memory in regards to negative symptomology with comparable results between an outpatient sample and those with high levels of schizotypy. Furthermore, based on prior research, we …

Development And Mental Health Care Services: A Case Study At Rtccd, Hanoi, Michelle Lafortune

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Vietnam’s rapid development since 1986 has had both positive and negative impacts on Vietnam’s mental health services. A health system was put into place and is expanding to overcome many challenges. Conversely, development has also brought with it new amenities and technologies that, in some cases, are being abused – one such is example is video games. As Vietnam deals with disturbing violent video game related episodes, parents and community members are searching for answers. This study project focuses on understanding the mental health care system in Vietnam and its current growth and advances. Three weeks were spent in Hanoi, …

An Examination Of The Mental Health Services Provided To Students At Western Michigan University, Melissa Rex

Honors Theses

Introduction: All college students will experience stress related to academic demands, changing social situations and new environments. For some students, these multiple stressors can create overwhelming challenges. Students who are not able to receive needed support may be unable to successfully navigate the world of higher education, and are at higher risk of developing mental illness. The purpose of this study is to assess mental health services available at Western Michigan University (WMU) in comparison to other similar size universities within the state.

Method: The information used in this study was collected via several methods. Information was gathered from …

Resilience : An Independent Psychobiological Mental Health Construct (Guest Editorial), Amresh Srivastava

Data and Test Instruments

Survival against trauma is a unique characteristic of all human beings. While a number of factors contribute in building this capacity, resilience appears to be the most important one. Interest in studying resilience arises from number of areas which are of utmost clinical significance such as such as exploring the possibility of at-risk individuals who developing a mental illness]. Resilience is a human capacity to adapt swiftly and successfully to stressful or traumatic events and revert back to a positive state. It is commonly conceptualized as the ability to thrive despite experiencing adversity

Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Workforce Development In Behavioral Healthcare Settings In Rural Mississippi, Arlen Davis Cooper

Doctoral Projects

Description and Significance of the Problem: The United States is facing a significant rural mental healthcare workforce shortage and an uneven distribution of mental healthcare professionals. The psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) may increase access to mental healthcare in rural underserved regions (NRHA, 2012). However, little is known regarding their distribution. The lack of uniform and consistent data collection methods regarding the number and the geographic distribution of PMHNPs in rural areas, specifically in rural Mississippi, exists. The importance of better data collection and improving infrastructure through collaboration with state licensing boards and state nursing workforce centers is …

Hospital Discharge Decision Modeling For Mental Health Inpatients, Peiwen Duan

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research addresses the issue of unnecessary treatment and late discharge for mental health inpatients. In this thesis, a dynamic decision model is proposed to determine the optimal timing to discharge a patient from hospital that considers both the impacts of over-treatment and not enough treatment on patients recovery. We measure the reward of making the discharge decisions in terms of hospitalization cost and readmission cost. The objective is to minimize the total expected cost for patients and provides hospital care providers with theoretical methods to assist them to make a better decision about discharge planning and management.

Ethnic And Language Matching: Effects On Hispanics' Treatment Perceptions, Carlos Adrian Ojeda Cedeno

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cultural adaptations to mental health treatment have been recommended to improve treatment outcomes in minorities, including Hispanics (Griner & Smith, 2006). One such adaptation includes matching the therapist to the client on culturally salient variables, such as spoken language or ethnic background. Yet, most investigations about the efficacy of matching have been correlational or have not examined language and ethnic match together (Cabassa, 2007). I investigated the effects of both ethnic and language matching on Hispanics' perceptions of psychological treatment. Participants were 100 Hispanic adults (36 men) randomly assigned to one of four conditions. In each condition, participants read a …

Understanding Service Utilization Disparities And Depression In Latino Parents And Children: The Role Of Fatalismo, Elizabeth Anastasia

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has repeatedly demonstrated a disparity between need and utilization of mental health services for Latino adults and children. The adapted Health Beliefs Model (Henshaw & Freedman-Doan, 2009) provides a useful framework for conceptualizing the roles of perceived severity and therapy expectations in the relation between demographic variables and service utilization. Cultural variations in perceptions of mental illness by Latinos may be linked with lower service utilization rates for Latino parents and children. It was speculated that fatalismo, a cultural construct similar to external locus of control, may be related to perceptions of mental illness and service utilization outcomes for …

Is Postpartum Depression A Disease Of Modern Civilization?, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Martie Haselton

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Access to calorie-dense foods, medicine, and other comforts has made modern humans healthier than our prehistoric ancestors in many respects. However, the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease suggest that there are also drawbacks to modern living. Here, we address the question of whether the dramatic cultural changes that have occurred over the past century have inflated rates of postpartum depression, adding postpartum depression to the list of diseases of modern civilization. We review evidence from cross-cultural, epidemiological, and experimental studies documenting associations between postpartum depression and modern patterns of early weaning, diets deficient in essential fatty acids, low …

Rethink #, Kayla A. Britt

SURGE

Watching anyone struggle with mental health disorders should never be funny- and yet, in some instances, that’s exactly how it is viewed. Recently, celebrity Amanda Bynes was involuntarily committed to psychiatric hold for the second time in a year. This was following a series of very public tweets which clearly show instability in her mental health. One tweet in particular regarding a microchip she believes was implanted in her brain is markedly delusional. The media and public, however, have been sensationalizing and demoralizing her condition by treating it as just another piece of shocking celebrity news. Headlines like “Amanda Bynes’ …

Education And Training For Suicide Prevention In India, Amresh Srivastava

Data and Test Instruments

No abstract provided.

Modeling Hedonic Processing And Anhedonia In Depression, Kevin Mercado

Honors College Theses

Depression is characterized by low positive emotion and a lack of pleasurable experiences, or anhedonia. Past studies have emphasized controlling negative affect, but there is an emerging trend in the depression literature to focus on positive emotion. The current study employed several psychophysiological tools, postauricular reflex, startle blink reflex, and event-related potential (ERP) components such as P3 and the late positive potential (LPP), to assess the dissociable components in positive emotion (consummatory and anticipatory processes). In addition, several different hypotheses of emotional dysfunction were evaluated to accurately model deficits in positive emotionality. A majority of the psychophysiological tools used supported …

Research Brief: "Veterans’ Attitudes Toward Work And Disability Compensation: Associations With Substance Abuse", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This study compares attitudes towards employment and service-connected disabilities among substance using and non-using veterans. In practice, veterans place a high value on being employed, regardless of whether they use substances; however, veterans who used substances were more likely to express fear of losing disability benefits if they became employed. In policy, state-level agencies and programs might work with counseling centers to determine the most productive ways to address the specific employment needs of veterans with disabilities and/or substance use issues. Suggestions for future study include sampling larger populations on a randomized basis to ensure that the results found here …

Characterization Of Somatosensory Processing In Relation To Schizotypal Traits In A Sample Of Nonclinical Young Adults, Maureen Patricia Daly

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A core feature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) is a basic sensory (e.g., visual, auditory) processing disruption, yet few studies have examined somatosensation. The current dissertation project examined somatosensory processes among individuals at varying degrees of psychometric risk for psychosis using tactile texture and spatial discrimination and letter recognition tasks. Differential patterns of associations of somatosensory abilities with schizotypal trait dimensions (positive, negative, disorganized), independent of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and the relative contributions of bottom-up (peripheral and morphologic features) versus top-down (error types) processing were examined. It was hypothesized that: 1) performance on somatosensory tasks would account for significant …

A Meta-Analysis Of The Prediction Of Violence Among Adults With Mental Disorders, Hing Po Lam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study of the risk for violence among persons with mental disorders has received substantial scientific attention over the past few decades; however, many uncertainties and controversies remain due to the wide disparities in the reported results. Using the state-of-the-art perspective of public health, a meta-analysis was conducted to clarify the ambiguities by synthesizing quantitative findings from 85 research reports (completed between January 1970 and May 2010) on violence risk assessment among mentally disordered adults. Results of this meta-analytic study revealed that the estimates of the prevalence of violence among the psychiatric population varied considerably from 1.1% to 78.4% with …

The Capus Project-Innovative Solutions For Hiv/Aids Linkage To Care, Melanie Gwynn, Jamila Ealey, Kate Racoff Musgrove

9th Annual Rural HIV Research & Training Conference (2014-2019) (Archived)

“The CAPUS Project-Innovative Solutions for HIV/AIDS Linkage to Care”

Objectives: 1) Expand knowledge of the current linkage to care landscape within Georgia; 2) Identify essential components of the Resource Hub to enhance linkage to care efforts throughout Georgia; and 3)Promote effective use of the Resource Hub to facilitate HIV/AIDS linkage to care within highly impacted communities

The Epidemic Of Mental And Neurological Health, Mohsyn I. Malik

Psychology Publications

This paper composes an image of modern mental and neurological health issues and looks to draw links to the current epidemic based on research and studies found online the internet and off-line. The goal is to examine what may be the underlying problem for a lot of these increases in mental health issues and neurodegenerative diseases and what are some promising clinical and sociocultural advances that may help. It explores problems such as the negative impact of the pharmaceutical giants, the increase in apathy in the work place and the general stigma towards mental disease. Through current research, the use …

Coping Strategies, Psychopathological Symptoms, And Posttraumatic Growth Following Trauma And Stressful Life Events, Jessica Henninger

Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined the predictive value of stressful life experiences and coping strategies on posttraumatic growth and psychopathological symptoms. Using the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ), the Brief COPE, the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), hierarchical linear regression models were used to explore the contribution of specific coping strategies to predict posttraumatic growth and psychopathological symptoms following exposure to a trauma/stressful life event. We hypothesized that coping styles such as planning, humor, and acceptance would predict more adaptive outcomes, whereas coping styles such as venting, substance use, and denial would predict more maladaptive outcomes. …

Concussion Guidelines Step 1: Systematic Review Of Prevalent Indicators, Nancy Carney, Jamshid Ghajar, Andy Jagoda, Steven Bedrick, Cynthia Davis-O'Reilly, Hugo Du Coudray, Dallas Hack, Nora Helfand, Amy Huddleston, Tracie Nettleton, Riggio Silvana

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

BACKGROUND: Currently, there is no evidence-based definition for concussion that is being uniformly applied in clinical and research settings.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic review of the highest-quality literature about concussion and to assemble evidence about the prevalence and associations of key indicators of concussion. The goal was to establish an evidence-based foundation from which to derive, in future work, a definition, diagnostic criteria, and prognostic indicators for concussion.

METHODS: Key questions were developed, and an electronic literature search from 1980 to 2012 was conducted to acquire evidence about the prevalence of and associations among signs, symptoms, and neurologic and …

The Effect Of The Victim-Offender Relationship And Pre-Assault Intoxication On Ptsd Symptom Severity, Diandra Meloni

Theses and Dissertations

College-aged women are at an increased risk for experiencing non-consensual sexual contact (i.e. sexual assault) relative to the general population. Women who endure a sexual assault are at an increased risk for developing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Intoxication by drugs and/or alcohol during an assault is linked to victims experiencing less severe PTSD symptoms; however, little is known about how the victim-offender relationship relates to PTSD symptom severity. The current study sampled 125 university women on measures that assessed degree of sexual victimization and resulting PTSD symptoms. It was hypothesized that both intoxication and the victim-offender relationship would affect PTSD …

Impulsivity Traits As Determinants For Smoking Behavior, Stacey Munyon

Theses and Dissertations

The notion that smoking is in direct relation to the character trait of impulsivity is widely agreed upon. This study examines the individual character traits of the UPPS-P impulsivity scale that comprise the construct of impulsivity as they relate to cigarette smoking. This study seeks to illustrate whether or not there is determination of smoking behavior as a result of high levels of one or more of these impulsive traits. Analysis will be evaluated through means of several different analyses of variance to determine if any relationships are present.

The Victimization-Substance Relationship: An Examination Of Nonconsensual Sexual Experiences And Post-Assault Substance Use, Jessica Melillo

Theses and Dissertations

Women with nonconsensual sexual experience (NSE) history are at elevated risk of experiencing revictimization and engaging in post-NSE substance use. Though the risk of college women experiencing NSEs has been well-established, high school women have been mostly overlooked in the literature, especially in relation to revictimization pathways. Substance use post-high school NSE, post-college NSE, and post-revictimization were examined, with revictimization being defined as an NSE in high school and an NSE in college. Female college students (N = 195) completed measures that assessed degree of sexual victimization, quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption and illicit drug use, and substance-related consequences. …

Gender Differences And Depression In Self-Disclosure On The Therapeutic Relationship, Nicole Rubio

Theses and Dissertations

The counseling relationship is a major factor in promoting change from the client in the therapeutic relationship. Additional factors contributing to or hindering this relationship including gender, depressive symptomology, and disclosure tendency, collectively require further attention to facilitate improved treatment outcomes in counseling. Male and female college students (N = 212) completed measures that assessed depression symptomology and disclosure tendency. It was hypothesized that female college students would engage in greater levels of self-disclosure than male students and that greater depressive symptomology would equate to a lesser degree of disclosure tendency. The employed ANOVA model found no interaction between gender, …

Cluster B Personality Disorders Separated By Gender Expectations, Brianna Kloss

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Criticisms of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000), the most widely recognized system for classification of psychological disorders in the U.S., including gender discriminating disorders and diagnoses, have existed for all editions of the DSM. Arguably, gender construction has a profound influence on the standards and evaluation of normal and abnormal behaviors. Concern for the presence of gender bias of personality disorders has been raised within the DSM, in part, by the frequent diagnoses made according to gender stereotypes. The DSM-IV-TR characterizes personality disorders as marked distress and …

Mental Health Awareness Building Via Android Application, James Faraday, Joshua Martin

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The goal of this project was to create a tool that provides students at Minnesota State University, Mankato with mental health information through a freely available smartphone application (App). Our approach used a software engineering design process that focused on who our customers are, what resources are available, and how we can best connect the two to improve student lives. We identified the stakeholders involved and worked with campus mental health professionals to help shape our App. While there is a broad range of mental health topics, we have focused on materials related to depression. The first process of the …

Imr Deconstruction And Reconstruction: Mental Health Group Recovery, Lauren Harding, Renee Lips

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

In recent years the recovery process of people with mental illness has been extensively researched. Program models such as Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) have been proven to be successful with a high degree of fidelity. The overall goal of this project is to design client and clinician manuals based on IMR that allow the modules to be implemented in groups within a residential setting. The nine IMR modules have been reconstructed into four 12-week group sessions for Transition Services (TS) at St. Peter Regional Treatment Center (SPRTC), St. Peter, MN. It is expected the curriculum constructed will be implemented …

The Fatherhood Factor: The Impact Of The Father-Child Relationship On The Social, Interpersonal, And Recidivism Risk Factors Of Previously Incarcerated Men, Larissa A. Maley

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Of the men who return home from prison, nearly 7 out of 10 will be re-arrested and sent back within 3 years of their release (Travis, Solomon, & Waul, 2001). This trend has large- scale implications, not just for individuals, but for their families and communities as well. Clearly, understanding the factors that contribute to a man’s success or failure in staying out of prison is extremely important in constructing policy and programs to assist these at-risk individuals and communities. Of the few studies that have explored the lives of previously incarcerated men, some have found fatherhood to be a …

Impaired Theory Of Mind In Psychotic And Affective Disorders, Erik Nelson Ringdahl

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Psychotic symptoms in bipolar I disorder during mood episodes has been associated with several negative outcomes raising the question as to whether psychosis is a risk factor for a more severe form of this chronic and debilitating condition. However, relatively little research has been directed at understanding the relationships among social cognitive functioning in bipolar I disorder with and without a history of psychosis. Impaired social cognition has been identified as a putative endophenotypic markers in schizophrenia and the evidence is mounting as to whether similar impairments also exist in bipolar I disorder. Given the plethora of research supporting the …

Risk And Impact Of Inter-Ictal Depression On Quality Of Life Of Nigerian Women With Epilepsy Of Childbearing Age, Philip Adebayo, Olukayode Abayomi, Shamsideen Abayomi Ogun

Internal Medicine, East Africa

Background: Depression, the most common psychiatry comorbidity in patients with epilepsy is common among women, especially those of reproductive age. Although it could be said that the female gender is a risk factor for depression, the risk of inter-ictal depression and its impact on the quality of life (QoL) of women with epilepsy (WWE) has not been sufficiently studied among Nigerians.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional case–control study, data were collected from 70 women (29 WWE and 41 women without epilepsy) within the age range ≥18 and ≤55 between July 2010 and March 2011. A questionnaire that includes items-related …