Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons^™

Healthcare Disparities In The Lgbtqia+ Community: A Scoping Review Of Community Vs Provider Experiences, Uttara Hardikar, Alisha Vincent, Venkateswar Venkataman, Millicent Channell

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background: It is well-established that healthcare disparities exist in the LGBTQIA+ community. The divide is a growing concern exacerbated by recent changes in the healthcare and sociopolitical climate. To eliminate this divide and find ways to deliver better outcomes to the LGBTQIA+ is a dire need. This report analyzes the possible reasons from the community as well as the providers perspective, with a goal to find best practices that could be implemented in both components.

Methods: A scoping literature review was carried out as described below to collect perspectives from both sides: patients as well as providers.

Results: From patient …

The Effect Of Perceived Weight Status And Bmi On Food Attitudes And Food Relationships, Sahil Patel, Ryan Gericke, Jaime Dougherty, Adarsh Gupta

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The findings of this study have shed light on the intricate relationship that exists between perceived weight status from a “non-obese/obese” perspective and attitudes towards food and the overconsumption of particular food items. Participants who perceived their weight status as “obese” despite having a calculated BMI below the CDC threshold and classification for “obesity” had poorer relationships with food, consumption behaviors, and on average consumed food items that were detrimental to overall health. Comprehending a patient’s weight status perception and conducting a thorough history of their food intake could play a crucial role in addressing the patient’s overall health and …

Factors That Influence The Decision To Get Vaccinated Against Covid-19, Rhea Bhargava, Meghan H. Foos, Brandy M. Gotti, Alexandra L. Mulvenna, Taylor O. Smith, Danielle Cooley, Venkateswar Venkataman

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the launch of the vaccine, healthcare workers have been encouraging people to get vaccinated to prevent the spread of the virus. However, there is a significant number of people who are vaccine hesitant, or uncertain about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and its booster. Vaccine hesitancy represents a state of opportunity to make positive change; therefore, it is crucial for healthcare workers to identify those who are in this population. When factors contributing to the vaccine hesitancy, including gender, age, ethnicity, education level, and income were studied, it was found that women, those …

Effect Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Hpv Vaccination Rates, Jennifer Sepede, Kathy Chen

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection that potentiates cancer in both males and females. There are over 200 different types of HPV and while some strains, specifically HPV 6 and 11, may result in genital and skin warts, others remain clinically silent. High risk strains, HPV 16 and 18, are most associated with cervical cancer in women. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was widespread hesitancy and rejection towards vaccination. Similarly, the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine has also been met with distrust since it’s release. Studies have shown that there is a low vaccination rate due to …

Does Accountability Affect Adherence To Moisturizer Treatment In Atopic Patients With Xerosis?, Stuti Prajapati, Christina Kontzias, Steven Feldman

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Introduction: Xerosis is common in atopic dermatitis (AD). Adherence depends on factors such as complexity of treatments, disease understanding and accountability. Accountability is a psychobehavioral construct, referring to the expectation that one must be responsible for their actions or inactions.

Objective: We sought to assess whether interventions expected to improve accountability would be associated with improved adherence to xerosis treatment.

Method: This is a prospective study of 30 patients diagnosed with xerosis . Patients were given moisturizer with an electronic monitor to record adherence and asked to apply it once daily for three months. Subjects were randomized into one of …

Comorbidities, Behaviors, And Socioeconomic Factors And Mortality From Diseases Of The Heart In New Jersey, Matthew Guariglia, Stephen Poos, Ahmed Gawash, David Lo, Aayush Visaria

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Mortality from diseases of the heart claimed the lives of 186,074 New Jerseyans from 2010 to 2019. This study aims to establish correlations between each of health-related risk factors and death from heart disease in each of six New Jersey counties. Each of the counties ranked by age-adjusted mortality per 100,000 from diseases of the heart. The six counties were divided by the least (Hunterdon, Somerset, Bergen) and greatest (Cape May, Salem, and Cumberland) mortality rates from heart disease. Additionally, this data was broken down into three main categories that include comorbidities, socioeconomic status, and behavior patterns. Each main category …

Brief Review: Patient Pill Splitting. What Is The Appropriate Advice To Provide Patients In The Emergency Department?, Mohammad Rattu, James Espinosa, Gabriel Meister, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

A number of patients have inquired about the practice of pill splitting. Cutting or splitting of pills can be used by patients to create an intermediate dose or to save on money where a higher dose is priced at relatively the same cost as a lower dose. In this review we discuss a number of issues related to medication safety and table splitting.

Assessing Correlation Between Manual Dexterity, Specialty Choice And Desire To Practice Omt In Newly Admitted Osteopathic Medical Students, Valerie Rome, Nils Brolis

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Is there any relationship between manual dexterity, specialty choice, and the use of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) in newly-admitted osteopathic medical students? Hand dexterity has previously been associated with surgical skill development in medical residents. There is currently a gap in the scientific literature in regards to the use of one’s hands and the career choice they ultimately pursue, in addition to interest in performing OMT in their respective fields. To help elucidate the answer this question, this SMRF project aimed to evaluate the relationship between manual dexterity, specialty choice, and use of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) in newly admitted …

Caretaker Burnout In Nj In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Study Focusing On Quality Of Life, Challenges And Coping Strategies., Abdullah Junayed, Joanna Petrides

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

There is a scarcity of literature regarding caretaker burnout in response to Covid-19, however one cross section survey study in Italy explored the perceived burden of caretakers of patients with Alzheimer’s disease during the pandemic.1 Maria G. Maggio et al showed that an increase in caregiver burden allowed for a deterioration in personal health conditions causing an increase in perceived stress levels. 1 Along with impaired management of stress and low quality of life, many caretakers were found to utilize avoidance strategies.1 However, the authors pointed out that the dysfunctional coping strategies did not affect stress levels and this study …

The Correlation Between Traumatic Brain Injury And Incarceration Among Adult Males In The United States, Shadi Shams

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The United States has one of the largest growing prison populations in the world. A large amount of social and economic resources go towards the cost and maintenance of correctional facilities each year. Additionally, the current correctional programs are insufficient in assisting inmates with getting back to society; especially those with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who often remain undiagnosed and are usually treated unfairly in the prison system instead of receiving the appropriate help. Prior scholarly work has shown that patients in the post-TBI stage are more likely to enter the judicial system. In the recent population-based cohort study, the …

A 5-Year Clinical Course Of Phenocopy Syndrome Of Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia: Case Report And Literature Review, Joseph Melillo, Keyur Patel, Christian White

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Frontotemporal dementia is a neurocognitive disease which affects language, behavior, or executive functioning. This disease includes a spectrum of presentations which includes multiple variants. The phenocopy syndrome of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia is one which mimics the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia. Patients with this condition show a decline in personality, social conduct and cognitive ability but often display no signs of neurological imaging and exhibit slow progression. This case focuses on a now 70-year-old male who has shown signs of behavioral changes with a slowly progressive clinical course and minimal findings on PET scan, but moderate changes seen on …

Case Report: Abrupt Psychosis Or Nmda Receptor Encephalitis?, Alexis Dunn, Neelesh Parikh, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

We report a case of a 46-year-old female who was initially committed to a psychiatric facility for new onset schizophrenia symptoms. She later had an extensive workup in the hospital due to leukocytosis and was believed to have NMDA Receptor Encephalitis as the cause for her new behavioral symptoms. This case report aims to educate EM (emergency medicine) physicians to keep a broad differential diagnosis on patients who present with new onset, unprovoked psychosis later in life.

Targeting Social Connection In The Context Of Trauma: Functional Outcomes And Mechanisms Of Change, Andrew J. Smith, David Pincus, Bernard P. Ricca

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The current study presents and preliminarily tests a brief, theory driven intervention designed to target social connectivity as a transdiagnostic mechanism of health. We tested four hypotheses to examine whether and how explicitly targeting social behavior engagement (activating values-led behaviors towards specific network members) may improve other downstream aspects of social connectivity (i.e., social cognitions measured as loneliness, interpersonal closeness, perceived social support) and functioning (quality of life [QOL] and posttraumatic stress symptoms [PTS]). Methods. Participants included 15 patients (10 veterans, 5 firefighters) who completed the six-session intervention. Demographics: age (M = 46, SD = 17), 87% male, race (80% …

An Erp Measure Of Non-Conscious Memory Reveals Dissociable Implicit Processes In Human Recognition Using An Open-Source Automated Analytic Pipeline, Richard J. Addante, Javier Lopez-Calderon, Nathaniel Allen, Carter Luck, Alana Muller, Lindsey Sirianni, Cory S. Inman, Daniel L. Drane

Psychology Faculty Publications

Non-conscious processing of human memory has traditionally been difficult to objectively measure and thus understand. A prior study on a group of hippocampal amnesia (N = 3) patients and healthy controls (N = 6) used a novel procedure for capturing neural correlates of implicit memory using event-related potentials (ERPs): old and new items were equated for varying levels of memory awareness, with ERP differences observed from 400 to 800 ms in bilateral parietal regions that were hippocampal-dependent. The current investigation sought to address the limitations of that study by increasing the sample of healthy subjects (N = 54), applying new …

Characterization Of Differential Rearing And Sex On 5-Ht2ar Receptor Activation, Kelsey Lowe

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The prevalence of substance use disorders (SUDs) continues to rise while the number of medications to combat this deadly disorder remains stagnant. Entirely new thinking about what exemplifies a possible therapeutic is needed. Hallucinogens are continually being studied more as possible treatments for many psychological conditions, including SUDs. Classic hallucinogens engage many serotonin and monoamine systems, but the hallucinogenic effects are driven by serotonin 5-HT_2A receptor (5-HT_2AR) activation. Forced social isolation induces chronic stress, increases 5-HT_2AR expression in the cortex and have been suggested to play a role in the comorbidity between stress, maladaptive coping, …

Examining The Effects Of A Zoom Interview On Cortisol, Bennett Perkins

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The stress response is an essential physiological process that facilitates survival in threatening conditions. Stress impacts numerous bodily systems, and prior work has focused on cortisol, a steroid derived from cholesterol, as a key biomarker for assessing biological stress reactivity in humans. Social stressors are known to contribute to marked increased in cortisol levels, but to date little work has examined whether social situations known to be stressful in person can influence cortisol when those situations occur remotely. In this study, I investigated the effects of a Zoom-based social stressor on salivary cortisol. Participants were randomly assigned to the Zoom-stress …

Children’S Disclosure Of School Bullying: The Relation Between Peer Victimization, Internalizing Symptoms, Negative Affect, And Gender, Julia L. Kiefer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children who are bullied by their peers are at risk for several negative developmental outcomes and are therefore advised to tell an adult when they are. However, victims of school bullying are often reluctant to disclose to adults that they are being bullied. Some bullied children also experience symptoms of anxiety or depression, which could further reduce their likelihood of telling an adult. In this study, I tested the degree to which children’s internalizing symptoms predicted their likelihood of telling adults about being bullied at school, and if this relation was exacerbated by children’s negative feelings associated with telling an …

What Cognitive Processes Drive Attentional Bias, And How Does Stress Affect Them?, Colton L. Hunter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Attentional biases toward or away from emotionally evocative stimuli have been well documented and related to clinical outcomes such as social anxiety. Some work has suggested that stress modulates attentional biases, but there are a number of inconsistencies in this literature regarding the direction of that modulation, highlighting a need to examine moderators of that effect. Sex differences in stress effects could potentially explain this inconsistency, as acute stress can affect males and females differently. It is also possible that stress differentially influences multiple component processes underpinning attentional bias, but these processes have not been well character, and to date …

The Impact Of Nutrition On The Mental And Physical Health Of Young Adults, Dareena El-Far

WRIT: Journal of First-Year Writing

Upon close examination by nutritional professionals, concern has arisen regarding the typical contents of a young adult diet. In terms of the rate at which young adults choose to consume nutritionally-dense food items, the rate at which nutrition-deficient junk food items are chosen over the former is significantly higher. Among further examinations of this issue by researchers, it has become evident that the nutritional decisions made by young adults are increasingly associated with several social, commercial, mental, educational, and economic influences. As a consequence of these factors, research has uncovered a connection between the consumption of a poor diet and …

Phq -9 Utilization In The Primary Care Setting, Michael Armstrong, Ramisa Rahman, Ceferino Cruz Iv, Afsha Rais Kaisani

North Texas GME Research Forum 2023

INTRODUCTION: The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is a tool used to help diagnose depression and assess a patient’s response to treatment. Quality metric (QM) 371 is a measure of PHQ-9 utilization in patients with depression, and Medical City Family Medicine tracks QM 371 in order to improve the quality of care provided to our patients. This project sought to assess utilization of the PHQ-9 in our clinical practice. At the time of this QI project’s inception, QM 371 was reporting at 0%.

METHODS: Our intervention was to give an educational presentation regarding depression, the PHQ-9, as well as how to …

Cardiovascular Disease In The Active Service: Incidence Rates And Implications For Intervention, Sophie R. Vincent

Symposium of Student Scholars

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death in the United States. Common risk factors associated with CVD are obesity, hypertension, alcohol use, tobacco use, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity. Other factors such as genetics, race, age, and gender also play a role in the development of CVD. Based on current literature, the increasing trend of obesity impacts even active-duty military service members who are paid to maintain their physical fitness. Due to the lack of literature surrounding incidences of CVDs in active service members, the present study provides insight into this topic. The present research conducted a …

Dental Fear, Anxiety, And Phobia – Behavioral Management And Implications For Dentists, Nadya Tsetsova Avramova

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Clinical management of patients with dental fear, anxiety, and phobia could be a major challenge to daily practice of dental professionals. The aim of the current review was to expand the modern consideration with respect to these issues, and therefore to discuss basic approaches and psychological techniques for management of oral health behaviors that should be employed in dentistry. This paper presents detailed description of the characteristics of dentist-patient therapeutic relationship as well as the most used techniques to cope with dental fear, anxiety, and phobia - relaxation techniques, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), hypnosis and melotherapy. We can still argue that …

Achievement Motivation And Body Competence As Predictors For Nonhypnotic Suggestibility, Ethan Cohen

Honors Projects in Applied Psychology

The present study aims to discover relationships between suggestibility and two predictor variables identified as achievement motivation, and body consciousness. The significance of this study is immense in placebo research due to the studied relationship of suggestibility as a predictor for placebo susceptibility. Relationships between both predictor variables and placebo susceptibility have also been established through research, but there remains a gap in the connection between these variables and suggestibility. The present study administered a survey to participants (N=103), using the Shortened Suggestibility Scale (SSS), Body Consciousness Questionnaire (BCQ), and the Achievement Motives Scale (AMS-R) as the measure of suggestibility, …

Awareness And Implementation Of Tobacco Control Practices In Rural Louisiana Federally Qualified Health Centers, Michael D. Celestin, Runet Bryant, Tung-Sung Tseng, Krysten Jones-Winn, Qingzhao Yu

School of Public Health Faculty Publications

Association for Clinical and Translational Science, ACTS 2023, April 18 - 20, 2023, Washington DC

Low-Dose Psilocybin Enhances Novel Object Recognition But Not Inhibitory Avoidance In Adult Rats, Claire E. Miller, Colin R. Del Valle, Margaret M. Naylor, Heather R. Sparkman, Connor M. Cruea, Rachel E. Rice, Brooke E. Bramlage, Lillianna P. Puppel, Madison L. Brown, Aleece K. Al-Olimat, Elizabeth S. Dietz, Phillip R. Zoladz

ONU Student Research Colloquium

Given the recently renewed interest in using psychedelics to aid in the treatment of psychological disorders, we aimed to examine the impact of psilocybin, a 5-HT_2A agonist, on learning and memory in rodents. Previous work has demonstrated that psilocybin and other 5-HT_2A agonists can enhance fear conditioning, fear extinction, and novel object recognition (NOR). Thus, we predicted that low doses of psilocybin would enhance inhibitory avoidance (IA) and NOR memory. In the first experiment, adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats underwent step-through IA training (involving 0.45, 0.65, or 1 mA scrambled footshock) and were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with …

Tunnel Vision, False Memories, And Intrusive Memories Following Exposure To The Trier Social Stress Test, Chloe N. Cordes, Cassidy L. Pfister, Kayla M. Boaz, Taylor D. Niese, Sydney L. Parker, Kristen E. Long, Mercedes L. Stanek, Matthew S. Risner, John G. Blasco, Koen N. Suzelis, Kelsey M. Siereveld, Shannon B. Carnes, Boyd R. Rorabaugh, Phillip R. Zoladz

ONU Student Research Colloquium

Most research examining the impact of stress on learning and memory has exposed participants to a stressor and measured how it affects learning and memory for unrelated material (e.g., list of words). Such work has been helpful, but it has not been the most translational to the human condition. When considering phenomena such as intrusive memories in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or an eyewitness's memory for a crime, it is most useful to know what an individual remembers about the stress experience itself, not unrelated information. In prior work, investigators used a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test …

Impact Of Acute Stress, Sex, And Childhood Maltreatment On Fear Learning And Fear Generalization In A Fear-Potentiated Startle Paradigm, Kayla M. Boaz, Chloe N. Cordes, Cassidy L. Pfister, Taylor D. Niese, Sydney L. Parker, Kristen E. Long, Mercedes L. Stanek, Boyd R. Rorabaugh, Seth D. Norrholm, Phillip R. Zoladz

ONU Student Research Colloquium

Many researchers approach the etiology of trauma-, stressor-, and anxiety-related mental disorders from the perspective of classical conditioning processes gone awry. According to this view, abnormal associative relationships between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli may underlie pathological anxiety and result in unusually intense fear memories or fear memories that cannot be properly extinguished. Recent work has expanded on this view by showing that many psychological disorders involving pathological anxiety are associated with an exaggerated form of stimulus generalization, leading individuals with such disorders to respond with fear and anxiety to a variety of contexts and cues that should not be threatening. …

Psilocybin Prevents Symptoms Of Hyperarousal And Enhances Novel Object Recognition In Rats Exposed To The Single Prolonged Stress Paradigm, Colin R. Del Valle, Heather R. Sparkman, Margaret M. Naylor, Connor M. Cruea, Rachel E. Rice, Claire E. Miller, Brooke E. Bramlage, Lillianna P. Puppel, Madison L. Brown, Aleece K. Al-Olimat, Elizabeth S. Dietz, Phillip R. Zoladz

ONU Student Research Colloquium

Pharmacotherapy for stress-related psychological disorders remains inadequate. Patients who are treated with conventional pharmacological agents frequently report negligeable symptom reduction, and, in most cases, less than 50% experience full remission. Clearly, there is a need for additional pharmaceutical research into both established and novel approaches to alleviate these conditions. Over the past several years, there has been a renewed interest in the use of psychedelics to aid in the treatment of psychological disorders. Several studies have reported promising results in patients with major depression, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following treatment with psychedelic agents such as lysergic acid …

Sexual Education In Adolescence: Contraception Education For Adolescents Leads To Improved Sexual Practices, Marie Poellinger, Erica Jade Fong

Nursing | Student Research Posters

Adolescents of low socioeconomic status from 13-18 years of age face many challenges when it comes to maintaining safe sexual health practices, leading to unwanted pregnancies and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases (STI’s). Challenges include:

• economic barriers → limited access to health care or lack of health insurance

• lack of proper sex education and therefore limited knowledge around contraceptive

Addressing these challenges is crucial for better sexual health outcomes. The nurse’s role is essential in providing education about contraceptive options, access to local resources, and guidance pertaining to safe sexual health practices (Dixon, 2014)

Healthcare Service Use, Help-Seeking Behaviors, And Health And Wellbeing In Attenuated Psychosis, Jasmine Ranjbari-Sisan, William D. Spaulding, Tierney K. Lorenz

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Persons with serious mental illness (SMI) receive poorer-than-standard healthcare, contributing to a 20-year reduction in the average life expectancy of persons with SMI. While extant literature describes the health disparities experienced by persons with SMI, little research examines the relationship between attenuated psychotic symptoms, healthcare service use, and help-seeking behaviors that may contribute to the disparities in this vulnerable population. This study explores the relationships between attenuated psychotic symptoms, physical health symptoms and related distress, healthcare service use, and help-seeking intentions to better understand health disparities in vulnerable and marginalized populations, such as individuals with SMI. Only a portion of …