Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

An Initial Trial Of Opt-In-Early: An Online Training Program For Caregivers Of Autistic Children, Yael G Dai, Rebecca P Thomas, Lynn Brennan, My-Linh Luu, Jamie Hughes-Lika, Molly Reilly, Paula Moreno, Brenda Obe, Kelli B Ahmed, Leandra N Berry, Robin P Goin-Kochel, Molly S Helt, Marianne L Barton, Thyde Dumont-Mathieu, Diana L Robins, Deborah A Fein

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Early intervention can help children learn language and improve social communication. However, many barriers, including the expense of services and an insufficient number of providers, prohibit families from accessing services when their children are young. We developed a comprehensive online program for caregivers of autistic children. The program, Online Parent Training in Early Behavioral Intervention (OPT-In-Early), uses text and video demonstrations to teach caregivers effective methods for improving their children's language, social, and adaptive skills (e.g. using utensils, toilet training), and reducing their children's disruptive behavior. Sixty-three parents from three states participated in the study. Half of the parents received …

Patient-Reported Ability To Walk 4 M And To Wash: New Clinical Endpoints And Predictors Of Survival In Patients With Pre-Terminal Cancer, Markus S Anker, Alessia Lena, Eric J Roeland, Jan Porthun, Sebastian Schmitz, Sara Hadzibegovic, Philipp Sikorski, Ursula Wilkenshoff, Ann-Kathrin Fröhlich, Luisa Valentina Ramer, Matthias Rose, Jan Eucker, Tienush Rassaf, Matthias Totzeck, Lorenz H Lehmann, Stephan Von Haehling, Andrew J S Coats, Tim Friede, Javed Butler, Stefan D Anker, Hanno Riess, Ulf Landmesser, Lars Bullinger, Ulrich Keller, Johann Ahn

Staff and Researcher Publications

Background: Maintaining the ability to perform self-care is a critical goal in patients with cancer. We assessed whether the patient-reported ability to walk 4 m and wash oneself predict survival in patients with pre-terminal cancer.

Methods: We performed a prospective observational study on 169 consecutive hospitalized patients with cancer (52% female, 64 ± 12 years) and an estimated 1-12 months prognosis at an academic, inpatient palliative care unit. Patients answered functional questions for 'today', 'last week', and 'last month', performed patient-reported outcomes (PROs), and physical function assessments.

Results: Ninety-two (54%) patients reported the ability to independently walk 4 m and …

Racial Disparities In Mental Health Disorders In Youth With Chronic Medical Conditions, Vincent J Gonzalez, Rachel T Kimbro, John C Shabosky, Stefan Kostelyna, Titilope Fasipe, Natalie Villafranco, Katherine E Cutitta, Keila N Lopez

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between race/ethnicity, poverty, and mental health in youth with chronic conditions.

STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional comparative study was performed using the records of a tertiary care center from 2011 to 2015.

INCLUSION CRITERIA: children aged 4-17 years with ≥1 hospitalization or emergency department visit. Exclusion criteria were those with arrhythmias or treatment with clonidine/benzodiazepines. The primary outcome variable was diagnosis or medication for anxiety, depression, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The primary predictor variable was diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF), sickle cell disease (SCD), or congenital heart disease (CHD).

RESULTS: We identified 112 313 patients, …

Psychometric Properties Of The Revised Children’S Anxiety And Depression Scale (Rcads) For Autistic Youth Without Co-Occurring Intellectual Disability, Nasim Khalfe, Amy R Goetz, Erika S Trent, Andrew G Guzick, Orri Smarason, Minjee Kook, Sean Olsen, Ana C Ramirez, Saira A Weinzimmer, Leandra Berry, Sophie C Schneider, Wayne K Goodman, Eric A Storch

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Autistic youth often present with comorbid anxiety and depression yet there is a dearth of validated assessment tools. The Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) assesses internalizing symptoms but there is little psychometric data in autistic youth. Treatment-seeking autistic youth with anxiety or obsessive-compulsive symptoms (N = 74; age 6–14 years), and caregivers, were administered the RCADS-Parent, RCADS-Child, and assessments of internalizing, externalizing symptoms and social impairment indicative of autism. RCADS-Parent and RCADS-Child total anxiety scores demonstrated excellent internal consistency, and the six subscales demonstrated acceptable-to-good internal consistency. The RCADS-Child and Parent total anxiety scores were weakly correlated, …

Twelve-Month Psychosocial Outcomes Of Continuous Glucose Monitoring With Behavioural Support In Parents Of Young Children With Type 1 Diabetes, Persis V Commissariat, Linda A Dimeglio, Lauren G Kanapka, Lori M Laffel, Kellee M Miller, Barbara J Anderson, Marisa E Hilliard

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

AIM: Managing type 1 diabetes in young children can cause significant stress for parents. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) may reduce parental burden. The Strategies to Enhance CGM Use in Early Childhood (SENCE) trial randomized parents of children (ages 2 to <8 >years) with type 1 diabetes to CGM with family behavioural intervention (CGM + FBI), CGM alone (Standard-CGM) or blood glucose monitoring for 26 weeks before receiving CGM + FBI (BGM-Crossover). This report assesses changes in psychosocial outcomes for all groups over 52 weeks.

METHODS: CGM + FBI (n = 45), Standard-CGM (n = 42) and BGM-Crossover (n = 44) participants …

Association Of Delirium And Depression With Respiratory And Outcome Measures In Covid-19 Inpatients, Alessio Simonetti, Cristina Pais, Vezio Savoia, Maria Camilla Cipriani, Matteo Tosato, Delfina Janiri, Evelina Bernardi, Ottavia Marianna Ferrara, Stella Margoni, Georgios D Kotzalidis, Daniela Chieffo, Massimo Fantoni, Rosa Liperoti, Francesco Landi, Roberto Bernabei, Gabriele Sani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Delirium (DEL) and depression (DEP) may impair the course and severity of acute respiratory illness. The impact of such syndromes on respiratory and outcome parameters in inpatients with COVID-19 needs clarification. To clarify the relationship between DEL and DEP and respiratory outcome measures, we enrolled 100 inpatients from COVID-19 units of the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS of Rome. Participants were divided into those with DEL, DEP, or absence of either delirium or depression (CONT). Delirium severity was assessed with the Neelson and Champagne Confusion Scale (NEECHAM). Psychopathology was assessed with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D), the …

Aggressive End-Of-Life Care Across Gradients Of Cognitive Impairment In Nursing Home Patients With Metastatic Cancer, Siran M. Koroukian, Sara L. Douglas, Long Vu, Hannah L. Fein, Nicholas K. Schiltz, Jennifer Cullen, Cynthia Owusu, Martha Sajatovic, Johnie Rose

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Studies examining end-of-life (EOL) care in older cancer patients are scarce, and prior studies have not accounted for gradients of cognitive impairment (COG-I). We examine EOL care patterns across COG-I gradients, hypothesizing that greater COG-I severity is associated with lower odds of receiving aggressive EOL care. Methods: Using data from the linked Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) -Medicare -Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0, we identified patients with nursing facility stays (NFS) and who died with metastatic cancer from 2013 to 2017. Markers of aggressive EOL care were: cancer-directed treatment, intensive care unit admission, >1 emergency department visit, or …

Increasing Character Strength Knowledge, Interest, And Skill: Preliminary Evidence For A Collaborative And Multimethod Assessment Procedure, Jeff J. Klibert, Michaela D. Simpson, Brandon J. Weiss, C. Thresa Yancey, Calla Pritulsky, Amy Luna, Hayley Houseman, Hani M. Samawi

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Introduction: The study’s objective was to evaluate whether a qualitative, collaborative, and multimethod assessment protocol increased reports of character strength interest, knowledge, and perceived skills.

Methods: Thirty-two participants completed three phases of data collection. Participants were first screened for well-being, which was used as an auxiliary covariate to order participants into experimental conditions. Selected participants were randomly assigned to a control or collaborative and multimethod assessment (card sort × qualitative interview) condition. Participants completed pre- and post-measures of strength interest, knowledge, and perceived skill. In the final phase, second phase participants were invited to report on strength-related outcomes 24 h …

A Review On Anatomical And Surgical Importance Of Mammary Gland, Sneha Jm Sneha Jm Dr, Pushpa Nb Dr, Vidya Cs Dr, Manjappa M Dr

Digital Journal of Clinical Medicine

ABSTRACT

The mammary gland is an exocrine gland present in female mammals responsible for the production and secretion of milk during the process of lactation. It is mainly composed by epithelial cells and adipocytes. The features that make mammary gland unique are 1) its highly plastic properties displayed during pregnancy, lactation and involution (all steps belonging to the lactation cycle) and 2) its requirement to grow in close association with adipocytes which are absolutely necessary to ensure mammary gland development at puberty and remodelling during the lactation cycle. (Georgia colleluori, Jessica perugini, Giorgio barbatelli, and saverio cintr (2021).

Conclusion

The …

Using Behavior Sequence Analysis To Study Teams During Long- Duration Isolation And Confinement, Andres Käosaar, Dr. Nathan Smith, Dr. David A. Keatley, Pranav Ambhorkar, Dr. Moritz Von Looz, Konstantinos Konstantinidis

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

With a renewed impetus and appetite for human space exploration, both government-funded agencies and private companies are focusing on longer and farther crewed missions into the solar system. Such space missions rely on highly interdependent teams living and working together in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments. Understanding the behavioral patterns of teams in ICE environments is, thus, paramount for the future success of such missions. Due to the complexity of studying ICE teams, several researchers have called for methodological innovations to advance knowledge in this area. In the current research, a proof-of-concept methodological approach is introduced that provides a …

Descriptive Norms Caused Increases In Mask Wearing During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Samantha L. Heiman, Scott Claessens, Jessica D. Ayers, Diego Guevara Beltrán, Andrew Van Horn, Edward R. Hirt, Athena Aktipis, Peter M. Todd

Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Human sociality is governed by two types of social norms: injunctive norms, which prescribe what people ought to do, and descriptive norms, which reflect what people actually do. The process by which these norms emerge and their causal influences on cooperative behavior over time are not well understood. Here, we study these questions through social norms influencing mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging 2 years of data from the United States (18 time points; n = 915), we tracked mask wearing and perceived injunctive and descriptive mask wearing norms as the pandemic unfolded. Longitudinal trends suggested that norms and …

Satisfaction With Participation In The First Steps Behavioral Intervention: Experiences Of Parents Of Young Children With Newly Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes, Marissa N Baudino, Hailey Inverso, Christine Wang, Carrie Tully, Wendy Levy, Lauren Clary, Katherine A Gallagher, Maureen Monaghan, Randi Streisand, Marisa E Hilliard

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: Parents of young children with new-onset type 1 diabetes (T1D) often experience significant distress and struggle with T1D management during a challenging developmental stage. The First STEPS (Study of Type 1 in Early childhood and Parenting Support) trial evaluated a stepped-care behavioral intervention comprising increasingly intensive intervention steps (peer parent coach, cognitive-behavioral counseling, consultations with diabetes educator and psychologist) based on need. The intervention improved parental depressive symptoms compared to usual care. Subsequently, we examined parent satisfaction with the intervention to guide potential implementation and refinement for future trials.

METHODS: Participants were 157 parents of young children newly diagnosed …

The Experiences Of Autistic Doctors: A Cross-Sectional Study, Sebastian C.K. Shaw, Alexander Fossi, Laura A. Carravallah, Kai Rabenstein, Wendy Ross, Mary Doherty

Jefferson Autism Center of Excellence Faculty Papers

Introduction: Medicine may select for autistic characteristics. As awareness and diagnosis of autism are growing, more medical students and doctors may be discovering they are autistic. No studies have explored the experiences of autistic doctors. This study aimed to fill that gap.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. A participatory approach was used to identify the need for the project and to modify a pre-existing survey for use exploring the experiences of autistic doctors.

Results: We received 225 responses. 64% had a formal diagnosis of autism. The mean age of receiving a formal diagnosis was 36 (range 3–61). Most were …

Previous Health Care Experiences’ Influence On Health Care Perceptions Among Residents In Six Homeless Shelters In Seattle, Washington, July–October 2021, Ashley A. Meehan, Sarah N. Cox, Nicholas B. Thuo, Julia H. Rogers, Amy C. Link, Miguel A. Martinez, Natalie K. Lo, Brian J. Manns, Melissa A. Rolfes, Eric J. Chow, Helen Y. Chu, Emily Mosites, Morhaf Al Achkar

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Purpose: The study purpose was to learn and describe 1) where homeless shelter residents receive health care, 2) what contributes to positive or negative health care experiences among shelter residents, and 3) shelter resident perceptions toward health care.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews (SSIs) utilizing purposive sampling and focus group discussions (FGDs) utilizing convenience sampling were conducted at 6 homeless shelters in Seattle-King County, Washington, during July–October 2021. All residents (age ≥ 18) were eligible to participate. SSIs were conducted with 25 residents, and 8 FGDs were held. Thematic analysis was conducted using Dedoose.

Results: Participants received health care …

Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms In Depression: A Review, Danyon J. Anderson, Alise Aucoin, Colton R. Toups, Devin Cormier, Matthew Mcdonald, Jamal Hasoon, Omar Viswanath, Alan D. Kaye, Ivan Urits

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) are frequently present in the general population as patients age with approximately a third of individuals experiencing LUTS during their lifetime. LUTS can be further defined as having any of the following symptoms: urinary hesitancy, straining, nocturia, increased urination frequency, and dysuria. LUTS has the potential for patients to contribute their symptoms to what can normally occur as we age. This can lead to a decrease in patients seeking care and could negatively impact patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQL). In conjunction with LUTS, we obtained from our analysis that LUTS and depression are closely …

Are The Post-Covid-19 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) Symptoms Justified By The Effects Of Covid-19 On Brain Structure? A Systematic Review, Georgios D Kotzalidis, Ottavia Marianna Ferrara, Stella Margoni, Valentina Ieritano, Antonio Restaino, Evelina Bernardi, Alessia Fischetti, Antonello Catinari, Laura Monti, Daniela Pia Rosaria Chieffo, Alessio Simonetti, Gabriele Sani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

COVID-19 affects brain function, as deduced by the "brain fog" that is often encountered in COVID-19 patients and some cognitive impairment that is observed in many a patient in the post-COVID-19 period. Approximately one-third of patients, even when they have recovered from the acute somatic disease, continue to show posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. We hypothesized that the persistent changes induced by COVID-19 on brain structure would overlap with those associated with PTSD. We performed a thorough PubMed search on 25 April 2023 using the following strategy: ((posttraumatic OR PTSD) AND COVID-19 AND (neuroimaging OR voxel OR VBM OR freesurfer …

Incorporating Poi As A Therapeutic Modality For Preschool Aged Children In The Care Clinic, Danielle Zirkle

Department of Occupational Therapy Entry-Level Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Longitudinal Relationship Between Social Motivation And Depression In Autistic Adults, Robyn H. Himelstein

Theses and Dissertations

Autism affects individuals across the lifespan, yet there tends to be limited research and services for autistic adults. This is especially concerning given that autistic adults have high mental health needs, with depression being one of the most common and clinically significant co-occurring conditions. We explored the longitudinal relationships between social motivation, social access (i.e., having opportunities for meaningful social interactions), loneliness, and depression in N=303 autistic adults ages 18-65. Participants completed online surveys about social behavior and wellbeing three times over 3–4 months. We hypothesized that an interaction between higher social motivation and lower social access at Time 1 …

Acute Agitation Intervention Tool For Reduction Of Polypharmacy, Brooks J. Propst

Dissertations

Introduction: Patients with behavioral health diagnoses are among the highest risk for
aggression. For pediatric patients with behavioral health needs, urgent treatment is
needed for aggressive behavior, due to the potential unwanted outcomes. The purpose of this Quality Improvement (QI) pilot project was to implement an Acute Agitation Intervention Tool that uses the Broset Violence Checklist (BVC) to guide
pharmacological intervention for mild and moderate to severe agitation in pediatric
patients with behavioral health needs ages 8 to 18 to decrease the number of medications that patients are getting per agitation event over a 12-week period.

Methods: This QI included …

Self-Care Practices In Doctoral Nursing Students And Effects On Educational Experience, Megan Lutman

Dissertations

Problem: Doctoral nursing students are often faced with stressors on top of their schooling, one of which is continuing to work while pursuing their education. This in combination with normal life stressors can be challenging. The purpose of this project was to survey doctoral nursing students on what their current self-care practices.

Methods: An exploratory needs assessment project was created to gather data from Doctor of Nursing practice (DNP) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) nursing students in an urban, mid-sized, Midwestern, public university to identify current self-care practices, barriers to self-care, preference of self-care practices, and the impact these …

Specialized Late Cingulo-Opercular Network Activation Elucidates The Mechanisms Underlying Decisions About Ambiguity, Jordan E. Pierce, Nathan M. Petro, Elizabeth Clancy, Caterina Gratton, Steven E. Petersen, Maital Neta

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Cortical task control networks, including the cingulo-opercular (CO) network play a key role in decision-making across a variety of functional domains. In particular, the CO network functions in a performance reporting capacity that supports successful task performance, especially in response to errors and ambiguity. In two studies testing the contribution of the CO network to ambiguity processing, we presented a valence bias task in which masked clearly and ambiguously valenced emotional expressions were slowly revealed over several seconds. This slow reveal task design provides a window into the decision-making mechanisms as they unfold over the course of a trial. In …

Affect Variability And Physical Health: The Moderating Role Of Mean Affect, Brooke N. Jenkins, Lydia Q. Ong, Hee Youn (Helen) Lee, Anthony D. Ong, Julia K. Boehm

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Research has only begun to explore how affect variability relates to physical health and has typically not assessed long-term associations nor considered the moderating role of mean affect. Therefore, we used data from the Midlife in the United States Study waves 2 (N = 1512) and 3 (N = 1499) to test how affect variability predicted concurrent and long-term physical health while also testing the moderating role of mean affect. Results indicated that greater negative affect variability was associated concurrently with a greater number of chronic conditions (p = .03) and longitudinally with worse self-rated physical health (p …

Dynamic Functional Thalamocortical Dysconnectivity In Schizophrenia Correlates To Antipsychotics Response, Mi Yang, Liju Liu, Hongmei Cui, Chijun Deng, Weisen Xiong, Guocheng Zhao, Shulin Du, Thomas R Kosten, Huafu Chen, Zezhi Li, Xiangyang Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Although many studies have showed abnormal thalamocortical networks in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ), the dynamic functional thalamocortical connectivity of individuals with SCZ and the effect of antipsychotics on this connectivity have not been investigated. Drug-naïve first-episode individuals with SCZ and healthy controls were recruited. Patients were treated with risperidone for 12 weeks. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was acquired at baseline and week 12. We identified six functional thalamic subdivisions. The sliding window strategy was used to determine the dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) of each functional thalamic subdivision. Individuals with SCZ displayed decreased or increased dFC variance in different thalamic …

Effects Of Sex And Estrous Cycle On Intravenous Oxycodone Self-Administration And The Reinstatement Of Oxycodone-Seeking Behavior In Rats, Nicole M. Hinds, Ireneusz D. Wojtas, Corinne A. Gallagher, Claire M. Corbett, Daniel F. Manvich

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

The increasing misuse of both prescription and illicit opioids has culminated in a national healthcare crisis in the United States. Oxycodone is among the most widely prescribed and misused opioid pain relievers and has been associated with a high risk for transition to compulsive opioid use. Here, we sought to examine potential sex differences and estrous cycle-dependent effects on the reinforcing efficacy of oxycodone, as well as on stress-induced or cue-induced oxycodone-seeking behavior, using intravenous (IV) oxycodone self-administration and reinstatement procedures. In experiment 1, adult male and female Long-Evans rats were trained to self-administer 0.03 mg/kg/inf oxycodone according to a …

Psychological Perspectives On The Presentation Of Video Evidence: How Perceivers Weight What Is Seen And Unseen, Yael Granot, David Igliozzi

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Video evidence is proliferating in the courtroom, outpacing the incremental advances in policies governing its use. Psychological research on attention and perception indicates that people are vulnerable to numerous biases in how they interpret video. The dynamic format of such evidence directs attention in distinct ways, and the visual system selectively captures some pieces of information at the expense of others. Thus, perceivers who must make decisions about video evidence are vulnerable to overweighting the information they see, underweighting the information they do not see, and being overconfident about their interpretation of what they see. We marshal emerging research on …

Unmet Needs And Coping Strategies Of Older Underserved Veterans During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Trenton M. Haltom, Joyce Tiong, Tracy L. Evans, Nipa Kamdar, Gala True, Mark E. Kunik

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on people with diabetes, a group with high morbidity and mortality. Factors like race, age, income, Veteran-status, and limited or interrupted resources early in the COVID-19 pandemic compounded risks for negative health outcomes. Our objective was to characterize the experiences and needs of under-resourced Veterans with type 2 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews (March through September 2021) with U.S. military Veterans with diabetes. Transcripts were analyzed using a team-based, iterative process of summarizing and coding to identify key themes. Participants included Veterans (n = 25) who …

What Is Reciprocity?: A Review And Expert-Based Classification Of Cooperative Transfers, Diego Guevara Beltran, Jessica D. Ayers, Andres Munoz, Lee Cronk, Athena Aktipis

Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

After decades of research on the topic of reciprocity, there is still no consensus about the meaning of the term. Instead, there has been a proliferation of reciprocity terms with varied definitions, some of which overlap in ways that lead to confusion for scholars studying cooperation. In this paper, we provide a summary of 34 reciprocity terms and their definitions from across a variety of disciplines. We then report the results of a survey of cooperation experts spanning biology, anthropology, economics, sociology, and psychology (N = 85) about the extent to which they consider 30 of these definitions of …

Bridging The Transition To Housing: A Social Justice Framework To Guide The Practice Of Occupational Therapists And Other Professionals Who Support Individuals With Experiences Of Homelessness (2nd Ed), Carrie Marshall, Rebecca Gewurtz, Skye Barbic, Laurence Roy, Abrial Cooke, Rosemary Lysaght

Occupational Therapy Publications

Occupational therapists have been supporting individuals who experience homelessness for several decades in their roles as community mental health therapists, on in-patient units, in traumatic brain injury programs, and in multiple other roles. Only recently, however, has this area of practice been acknowledged as distinct. Homelessness is growing in several high and middle-income countries worldwide. Occupational therapists have increasingly expressed an interest in gaining the knowledge and skills to effectively support individuals who experience homelessness, and in recent years, research in occupational therapy that focuses specifically on persons who experience homelessness has grown. The majority of individuals who have been …

Socioeconomic Status And Home Affordances Moderate Effects Of Motor Delay And Intervention, Iryna Babik, Andrea B. Cunha, Dongho Choi, Natalie A. Koziol, Lin-Ya Hsu, Regina T. Harbourne, Stacey C. Dusing, Sarah W. Mccoy, James A. Bovaird, Sandra L. Willett, Michele A. Lobo

Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study explored effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and home affordances on motor, language, and cognitive development in children with motor delays; it also tested whether SES and home affordances moderate the effect of the novel START-Play early intervention or motor delay severity on development. Participants were 112 children (64 males, 36.6% low SES) with motor delays tested longitudinally across 12 months (baseline age: Mean = 10.80, SD = 2.59 months). The results showed that more advanced motor, language, and cognitive development of children with motor delays is associated with high SES and enriched home affordances. Importantly, SES and home …

A Longitudinal Investigation Of Blood Neurofilament Light Chain Levels In Chronic Cocaine Users, Francesco Bavato, Ann-Kathrin Kexel, Bruno Kluwe-Schiavon, Aleksandra Maceski, Markus R Baumgartner, Erich Seifritz, Jens Kuhle, Boris B Quednow

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The identification of a blood marker of brain pathology that is sensitive to substance-induced neurotoxicity and dynamically responds to longitudinal changes in substance intake would substantially improve clinical monitoring in the field of substance use and addiction. Here, we explored the hypothesis that plasma levels of neurofilament light chain (NfL), a promising marker of neuroaxonal pathology, are elevated in chronic cocaine users and longitudinally associated with changes in cocaine use. Plasma NfL levels were determined using single molecule array (SIMOA) technology at baseline and at a 4-month follow-up. Substance use was subjectively assessed with an extensive interview and objectively measured …