Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

Maternal Mental Health Priorities, Help-Seeking Behaviors, And Resources In Post-Conflict Settings: A Qualitative Study In Eastern Uganda., Wietse A Tol, Breeona Ebrecht, Rebecca Aiyo, Sarah M Murray, Amanda J Nguyen, Brandon A Kohrt, Sheila Ndyanabangi, Stephen Alderman, Seggane Musisi, Juliet Nakku

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Limited knowledge exists to inform the selection and introduction of locally relevant, feasible, and effective mental health interventions in diverse socio-cultural contexts and health systems. We examined stakeholders' perspectives on mental health-related priorities, help-seeking behaviors, and existing resources to guide the development of a maternal mental health component for integration into non-specialized care in Soroti, eastern Uganda.

METHODS: We employed rapid ethnographic methods (free listing and ranking; semi-structured interviews; key informant interviews and pile sorting) with community health workers (n = 24), primary health workers (n = 26), perinatal women (n = 24), traditional and religious healers (n = …

Circadian Rhythms Of Body Temperature And Locomotor Activity In The Antelope Ground Squirrel, Ammospermophilus Leucurus, Roberto Refinetti, G. J. Kenagy

Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We studied circadian rhythms of body temperature and locomotor activity in antelope ground squirrels (Ammospermophilus leucurus) under laboratory conditions of a 12L:12D light-dark cycle and in constant darkness. Antelope ground squirrels are diurnally active and, exceptionally among ground squirrels and other closely related members of the squirrel family in general, they do not hibernate. Daily oscillations in body temperature consisted of a rise in temperature during the daytime activity phase of the circadian cycle and a decrease in temperature during the nighttime rest phase. The body temperature rhythms were robust (71% of maximal strength) with a daily range …

Word-List Intrusion Errors Predict Progression To Mild Cognitive Impairment, Kelsey R Thomas, Joel Eppig, Emily C Edmonds, Diane M Jacobs, David J Libon, Rhoda Au, David P Salmon, Mark W Bondi, Alzheimer’S Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

OBJECTIVE: Preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) defined by a positive AD biomarker in the presence of normal cognition is presumed to precede mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Subtle cognitive deficits and cognitive inefficiencies in preclinical AD may be detected through process and error scores on neuropsychological tests in those at risk for progression to MCI.

METHOD: Cognitively normal participants (n = 525) from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative were followed for up to 5 years and classified as either stable normal (n = 305) or progressed to MCI (n = 220). Cox regressions were used to determine whether baseline process scores on …

Sensory, Motor And Process Skills As Compared To Symptom Severity In Adult Patients With Schizophrenia, Lola Halperin

Occupational Therapy Faculty Publications

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness affecting millions of Americans. It is characterized by positive and negative symptoms; cognitive impairments; and sensory, motor, and process skill deficits; as well as compromised motor learning, functional difficulties, and diminished quality of life. Neuroscientists attribute the above deficits to abnormal brain development, exaggerated synaptic pruning, and neurodegenerative processes, causing disrupted connectivity and diminished plasticity in the brain, neurotransmitter dysfunction, and impaired sensory processing.

Presently, there is no cure for schizophrenia. Numerous medications and rehabilitation modalities exist; however, many of the affected individuals continue to struggle daily. Recovery of these individuals implies symptom management …

Memory In Memoir & Biography: Science, Place, And Agency, Johnathan E. Longo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores modern scientific understanding of memory in humans and how it affects works of life writing. Scientific research shows that memory is unreliable and often misunderstood by the general public, and this has implications for different forms of life writing. This paper uses biographies, memoirs, and hybrid forms of life writing to explore how memory, with all its limitations, is used in service of a life story. How do writers of these sub-genres use memory and why are those strategies different from one another? Questions of agency and authority over written and spoken material make the issues still …

Psychosocial Correlates Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms And Well-Being Among Hispanic World Trade Center Rescue And Recovery Workers, Dianne Ciro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Thousands of first responders are estimated to have endured extremely distressing experiences during their recovery efforts at the 9/11 World Trade Center (WTC) site. While the effects of 9/11 continue to be studied, few studies have examined how rescue and recovery workers have been coping since 9/11 and how their coping is associated with their psychological well-being. Moreover, we do not know how distinct coping patterns may be associated with post-traumatic growth, experiences of positive emotion, or quality of life among WTC responders.

This study compared coping differences among Hispanic, Non-Hispanic White, and Non-Hispanic Black first responders. In addition, it …

Development Of Body Emotion Perception In Infancy: From Discrimination To Recognition, Alison Heck, Alyson Chroust, Hannah B. White, Rachel Lynn Jubran, Ramesh S. Bhatt

Psychology Faculty Publications

Research suggests that infants progress from discrimination to recognition of emotions in faces during the first half year of life. It is unknown whether the perception of emotions from bodies develops in a similar manner. In the current study, when presented with happy and angry body videos and voices, 5-month-olds looked longer at the matching video when they were presented upright but not when they were inverted. In contrast, 3.5-month-olds failed to match even with upright videos. Thus, 5-month-olds but not 3.5-month-olds exhibited evidence of recognition of emotions from bodies by demonstrating intermodal matching. In a subsequent experiment, younger infants …

Help-Seeking On Facebook Versus More Traditional Sources Of Help: Cross-Sectional Survey Of Military Veterans, Alan R. Teo, Heather E. Marsh, Samuel B.L. Liebow, Jason I. Chen, Christopher W. Forsberg, Christina Nicolaidis, Somnath Saha, Steven K. Dobscha

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The media has devoted significant attention to anecdotes of individuals who post messages on Facebook prior to suicide. However, it is unclear to what extent social media is perceived as a source of help or how it compares to other sources of potential support for mental health problems.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the degree to which military veterans with depression use social media for help-seeking in comparison to other more traditional sources of help.

Methods: Cross-sectional self-report survey of 270 adult military veterans with probable major depression. Help-seeking intentions were measured with a modified General Help-Seeking Questionnaire. …

Economic And Health Predictors Of National Postpartum Depression Prevalence: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis And Meta-Regression Of 308 Studies From 56 Countries, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Taylor Cornwell-Hinrichs, Itzel Anaya

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) poses a major global public health challenge. PPD is the most common complication associated with childbirth and exerts harmful effects on children. Although hundreds of PPD studies have been published, we lack accurate global or national PPD prevalence estimates and have no clear account of why PPD appears to vary so dramatically between nations. Accordingly, we conducted a meta-analysis to estimate the global and national prevalence of PPD and a meta-regression to identify economic, health, social, or policy factors associated with national PPD prevalence.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of all papers reporting …

Relationships Between Clinical Scales And Binge Eating Days In Adults With Moderate To Severe Binge Eating Disorder In Two Phase Iii Studies, Leslie L. Citrome, Judith C. Kando, Caleb Bliss

NYMC Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVES:

In two Phase III studies, lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) reduced binge eating (BE) days/week in adults with moderate to severe binge eating disorder (BED) and was associated with improvement based on the Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement (CGI-I) scale. In this study, post hoc analyses examined the relationships between clinical observations and clinical rating scales in individuals with BED.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:

NCT01718483 (ClinicalTrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01718483); NCT01718509(ClinicalTrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01718509).

METHODS:

Two 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies randomized (1:1) adults meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision, BED criteria and with protocol-defined moderate to severe BED (study …

Chronic Voluntary Oral Methamphetamine Induces Deficits In Spatial Learning And Hippocampal Protein Kinase Mzeta With Enhanced Astrogliosis And Cyclooxygenase-2 Levels, Jorge A. Avila, Roseanna M. Zanca, Denis Shor, Nicholas Paleologos, Amber A. Alliger, Maria E. Figueiredo-Pereira, Peter A. Serrano

Publications and Research

Methamphetamine (MA) is an addictive drug with neurotoxic effects on the brain producing cognitive impairment and increasing the risk for neurodegenerative disease. Research has focused largely on examining the neurochemical and behavioral deficits induced by injecting relatively high doses of MA [30 mg/kg of body weight (bw)] identifying the upper limits of MA-induced neurotoxicity. Accordingly, we have developed an appetitive mouse model of voluntary oral MA administration (VOMA) based on the consumption of a palatable sweetened oatmeal mash containing a known amount of MA. This VOMA model is useful for determining the lower limits necessary to produce neurotoxicity in the …

The Proposed Etiologies Of Dissociative Identity Disorder, Jillian Blueford

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) evolves after suffering consecutive, traumatizing forms of abuse during an individual's early years. Repetitive abuse can lead an individual to develop two or more personalities, and then experience memory loss or other cognitive gaps in his or her early childhood that continue to the present day. This can have devastating effects on millions of people because a significant percentage of affected individuals do not recognize the symptoms or choose to believe that DID does not exist. By analyzing the literature currently available, this article creates a central base of popular and emerging models that clinicians use …

Similar Neural Responses Predict Friendship, Carolyn Parkinson, Adam M. Kleinbaum, Thalia Wheatley

Dartmouth Scholarship

Human social networks are overwhelmingly homophilous: individuals tend to befriend others who are similar to them in terms of a range of physical attributes (e.g., age, gender). Do similarities among friends reflect deeper similarities in how we perceive, interpret, and respond to the world? To test whether friendship, and more generally, social network proximity, is associated with increased similarity of real-time mental responding, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan subjects’ brains during free viewing of naturalistic movies. Here we show evidence for neural homophily: neural responses when viewing audiovisual movies are exceptionally similar among friends, and that similarity …

Direct And Indirect Influences Of Defendant Mental Illness On Jury Decision Making, Marie Sabbagh

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

It is a common misconception that individuals with schizophrenia are significantly more dangerous and violent than individuals free of mental illness. This stigmatization may lead to harsher sentences when people with schizophrenia are involved in criminal activities and sentenced by a jury. This study presented four conditions to which participants were randomly assigned, alone or in a group of three, and were asked to sentence a defendant, either with or without schizophrenia. It was hypothesized that group deliberations would result in more lenient sentences for defendants with schizophrenia as compared to individual deliberations. Furthermore, it was predicted that both group …

The Backward Masking Red Light Effect And Schizotypy: The Influence Of Sex, Diana C. Hernandez, Andrea Y. Ranieri

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Previous research has shown a unique effect of red light on visual processing related to both schizophrenia and positive schizotypy. The current study examines whether this effect is influenced by sex in a more broadly-defined schizotypy sample. A location backward masking (BM) task with three color background conditions (red, green, and gray) was administered to 34 undergraduate students (59% female) with a high score on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) and 39 students (51% female) with a low score. Results revealed that the group by color interaction was significant for the male participants, while it did not approach significance in …

A Multi-Functional View Of Moral Disengagement: Exploring The Effects Of Learning The Consequences, C. Justice Tillman, Katerina Gonzalez, Marilyn V. Whitman, Wayne S. Crawford, Anthony C. Hood

Publications and Research

This paper takes us beyond the unethical act and explores the use of moral disengagement as a multi-stage, multi-functional regulatory, and coping mechanism that not only allows individuals to engage in unethical behavior, but also manage the negative emotions (i.e., guilt and shame) from learning the consequences of such behavior. A resource-based lens is applied to the moral disengagement process, suggesting that individuals not only morally disengage prior to committing an unethical act in order to conserve their own resources, but also morally disengage as a coping mechanism to reduce emotional duress upon learning of the consequences of their actions, …

Objective Coding Of Content And Techniques In Workplace-Based Supervision Of An Ebt In Public Mental Health, Shannon Dorsey, Suzanne E U Kerns, Leah Lucid, Michael D Pullmann, Julie P Harrison, Lucy Berliner, Kelly Thompson, Esther Deblinger

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

BACKGROUND: Workplace-based clinical supervision as an implementation strategy to support evidence-based treatment (EBT) in public mental health has received limited research attention. A commonly provided infrastructure support, it may offer a relatively cost-neutral implementation strategy for organizations. However, research has not objectively examined workplace-based supervision of EBT and specifically how it might differ from EBT supervision provided in efficacy and effectiveness trials.

METHODS: Data come from a descriptive study of supervision in the context of a state-funded EBT implementation effort. Verbal interactions from audio recordings of 438 supervision sessions between 28 supervisors and 70 clinicians from 17 public mental health …

Specific Relationship Between The Shape Of The Readiness Potential, Subjective Decision Time, And Waiting Time Predicted By An Accumulator Model With Temporally Autocorrelated Input Noise, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Self-initiated movements are reliably preceded by a gradual buildup of neuronal activity known as the readiness potential (RP). Recent evidence suggests that the RP may reflect subthreshold stochastic fluctuations in neural activity that can be modeled as a process of accumulation to bound. One element of accumulator models that has been largely overlooked in the literature is the stochastic term, which is traditionally modeled as Gaussian white noise. While there may be practical reasons for this choice, we have long known that noise in neural systems is not white – it is long-term correlated with spectral density of the form …

Emotion Regulation And Positive Affect In The Context Of Salivary Alpha-Amylase Response To Pain In Children With Cancer, Brooke N. Jenkins, Douglas A. Granger, Ryan J. Roemer, Ariana Martinez, Tara K. Torres, Michelle A. Fortier

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Children with cancer routinely undergo painful medical procedures invoking strong physiological stress responses. Resilience to this pain may be conferred through resources such as emotion regulation strategies and positive affect.

Procedure

This study measured dispositional positive affect in children with cancer (N = 73) and randomly assigned participants to one of three emotion regulation strategy conditions (distraction, reappraisal, or reassurance). Children applied their assigned strategy during an experimental pain procedure (the cold pressor task [CPT]) and provided saliva samples before, immediately after, and 15 min after the CPT. Saliva samples were later assayed for salivary alpha amylase (sAA)—a surrogate …

Outpatient Psychiatry Utililzation Management, Patrick Maidman, Kathy Burk, Andrew Carpenter, Stacey Ouellette, Michael Abbatiello, Kristie Worster

MaineHealth Behavioral Health

Refine and implement a standard process that provides clinical evaluation at admission, review and discharge for each patient. Clinical evaluation will lend to appropriate length of stay for patients with common diagnoses allowing for easier access into care and smoother transition back to the Primary Medical Home. Target reduction in length of stay (engaging those with less than 7 appointments that need longer treatment while shifting those who exceed standard 7 sessions back to PCP when appropriate such as primary dx ADHD).

The Rewarding Nature Of Provocation-Focused Rumination In Women With Borderline Personality Disorder: A Preliminary Fmri Investigation, Jessica R. Peters, David S. Chester, Erin C. Walsh, C. Nathan Dewall, Ruth A. Baer

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Understanding why individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) ruminate on prior provocations, despite its negative outcomes, is crucial to improving interventions. Provocation-focused rumination may be rewarding in the short term by amplifying anger and producing feelings of justification, validation, and increased energy, while reducing self-directed negative affect. If provocation-focused rumination is utilized regularly as a rewarding emotion regulation strategy, it could result in increased activation in reward-related neural regions. The present pilot study examined neural correlates of provocation-focused rumination, relative to other forms of thought, in BPD.

Method: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was utilized to examine this theory …

Precocious Development Of Self-Awareness In Dolphins, Rachel Morrison, Diana Reiss

Publications and Research

Mirror-self recognition (MSR) is a behavioral indicator of self-awareness in young children and only a few other species, including the great apes, dolphins, elephants and magpies. The emergence of self-awareness in children typically occurs during the second year and has been correlated with sensorimotor development and growing social and self-awareness. Comparative studies of MSR in chimpanzees report that the onset of this ability occurs between 2 years 4 months and 3 years 9 months of age. Studies of wild and captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have reported precocious sensorimotor and social awareness during the first weeks of life, but no …

Investigating Prosodic Accommodation In Clinical Interviews With Depressed Patients, Brian Vaughan, Carolina De Pasquale, Lorna Wilson, Charlie Cullen, Brian Lawlor

Conference Papers

Six in-depth clinical interviews, involving six elderly female patients (aged 60+) and one female psychiatrist, were recorded and analysed for a number of prosodic accommodation variables.

Our analysis focused on pitch, speaking time, and vowel-space ratio. Findings indicate that there is a dynamic manifestation of prosodic accommodation over the course of the interactions. There is clear adaptation on the part of the psychiatrist, even going so far as to have a reduced vowel-space ratio, mirroring a reduced vowel-space ratio in the depressed patients. Previous research has found a reduced vowel-space ratio to be associated with psychological distress; however, we suggest …

Affect, Interpersonal Behaviour And Interpersonal Perception During Open-Label, Uncontrolled Paroxetine Treatment Of People With Social Anxiety Disorder: A Pilot Study, Lance M. Rappaport, Jennifer J. Russell, Donald Hedeker, Gilbert Pinard, Pierre Bleau, Debbie S. Moskowitz

Psychiatry Publications

Background: Laboratory-based research with community samples has suggested changes in affective, behavioural and cognitive processes as possible explanations for the effects of serotonergic medications. Examining the effects of serotonergic medications using an ecological momentary measure (such as event-contingent recording) in the daily lives of people with social anxiety disorder would contribute to establishing the effects of these medications on affect, behaviour and one form of cognition: perception of others’ behaviour.

Methods: The present study assessed changes in affect, interpersonal behaviour and perception of others’ behaviour in adults with social anxiety disorder using ecological momentary assessment at baseline and over 4 …

Why Worry About It? Clinicians’ Acceptance, Preference, And Use Of Imaginal Exposure And Other Techniques To Treat Generalized Anxiety, Marina Ellen Ross

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is challenging to treat; only approximately 50% of patients have been identified as having meaningful anxiety symptom reduction, with high relapse rates (e.g., Borkovec et al., 2002; Rapgay, Bystritsky, Dafter, & Spearman, 2011). Imaginal exposure (IE) has been shown to decrease behavioral avoidance of emotions as well as anxiety symptoms (Fracalanza, Koerner, & Antony, 2014; Hoyer & Beesdo-Baum, 2012), yet clinicians often do not use exposure treatments due to their attitudes about evidence-based practice, treatment preferences, and beliefs about client discomfort (e.g., Harned, Dimeff, Woodcock, & Contreras, 2013; Meyer, Farrell, Kemp, Blakey, & Deacon, 2014; Whiteside, …

Reducing Stigma Among Healthcare Providers To Improve Mental Health Services (Reshape): Protocol For A Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Stigma Reduction Intervention For Training Primary Healthcare Workers In Nepal., Brandon A Kohrt, Mark J D Jordans, Elizabeth L Turner, Kathleen J Sikkema, Nagendra P Luitel, Sauharda Rai, Daisy R Singla, Jagannath Lamichhane, Crick Lund, Vikram Patel

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Non-specialist healthcare providers, including primary and community healthcare workers, in low- and middle-income countries can effectively treat mental illness. However, scaling-up mental health services within existing health systems has been limited by barriers such as stigma against people with mental illness. Therefore, interventions are needed to address attitudes and behaviors among non-specialists. Aimed at addressing this gap, REducing Stigma among HealthcAre Providers to ImprovE mental health services (RESHAPE) is an intervention in which social contact with mental health service users is added to training for non-specialist healthcare workers integrating mental health services …

Interpersonal Violence And Suicidality Among Former Child Soldiers And War-Exposed Civilian Children In Nepal., Anvita Bhardwaj, Christine Bourey, Sauharda Rai, Ramesh Prasad Adhikari, Carol M Worthman, Brandon A Kohrt

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Suicide risk reduction is crucial for 15-29-year-old youth, who account for 46% of suicide deaths in low- and middle-income countries. Suicide predictors in high-resource settings, specifically depression, do not adequately predict suicidality in these settings. We explored if interpersonal violence (IPV) was associated with suicidality, independent of depression, in Nepal.

Methods: A longitudinal cohort of child soldiers and matched civilian children, enrolled in 2007 after the People's War in Nepal, were re-interviewed in 2012. The Depression Self-Rating Scale and Composite International Diagnostic Interview assessed depression and suicidality, respectively. Non-verbal response cards were used to capture experiences of sexual and …

Neural Correlates Of Taste Reactivity In Autism Spectrum Disorder., Jason A Avery, John E Ingeholm, Sophie Wohltjen, Meghan Collins, Cameron D Riddell, Stephen J Gotts, Lauren Kenworthy, Gregory L Wallace, W Kyle Simmons, Alex Martin

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Faculty Publications

Selective or 'picky' eating habits are common among those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These behaviors are often related to aberrant sensory experience in individuals with ASD, including heightened reactivity to food taste and texture. However, very little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie taste reactivity in ASD. In the present study, food-related neural responses were evaluated in 21 young adult and adolescent males diagnosed with ASD without intellectual disability, and 21 typically-developing (TD) controls. Taste reactivity was assessed using the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile, a clinical self-report measure. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to evaluate hemodynamic responses …

Do Gender Differences In Perceived Prototypical Computer Scientists And Engineers Contribute To Gender Gaps In Computer Science And Engineering?, Joyce Ehrlinger, E. Ashby Plant, Marissa K. Hartwig, Jordan J. Vossen, Corey J. Columb, Lauren E. Brewer

Faculty Publications

Women are vastly underrepresented in the fields of computer science and engineering (CS&E). We examined whether women might view the intellectual characteristics of prototypical individuals in CS&E in more stereotype-consistent ways than men might and, consequently, show less interest in CS&E. We asked 269 U.S. college students (187, 69.5% women) to describe the prototypical computer scientist (Study 1) or engineer (Study 2) through open-ended descriptions as well as through a set of trait ratings. Participants also rated themselves on the same set of traits and rated their similarity to the prototype. Finally, participants in both studies were asked to describe …

Is Self-Interest At The Root Of Political Behavior? An Examination Of The Effects Of Dark Personality And Demographics On Political Beliefs And Actions, Nathan A. S. Frishberg

Dissertations

Prediction of political behavior is of interest to scientists in the fields of psychology, sociology, and politics, as well as to the lay public. Previous research has connected personality to broad political leanings, but little if any published research has examined how personality relates to voting behavior. The current study built on earlier work by examining the connections among the Dark Triad of personality (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism), demographics, specific political beliefs, and political behaviors. We hypothesized that dark personality would relate to political beliefs such that those higher on the Dark Triad would show stronger support for policies that …