Mental and Social Health Commons^™

Mama! I Hear Your Silence: Grief And Covid-19 On The Global North And South Disparity, Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

In this conversation with Mama, I use my mother’s voice as a reflexive mirror to explore the social work silences that the COVID-19 pandemic expresses so eloquently in my own life and work. I seek to highlight the intimate link between Mama’s silence and social work silence.

Psychological And Physiological Stress And Burnout Among Maternity Providers In A Rural County In Kenya: Individual And Situational Predictors, Patience A. Afulani, Linnet Ongeri, Joyceline Kinyua, Marleen Temmerman, Wendy Berry Mendes, Sandra J. Weiss

Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Africa

Background: Stress and burnout among healthcare workers has been recognized as a global crisis needing urgent attention. Yet few studies have examined stress and burnout among healthcare providers in sub-Saharan Africa, and even fewer among maternity providers who work under very stressful conditions. To address these gaps, we examined self-reported stress and burnout levels as well as stress-related physiologic measures of these providers, along with their potential predictors.

Methods: Participants included 101 maternity providers (62 nurses/midwives, 16 clinical officers/doctors, and 23 support staff) in western Kenya. Respondents completed Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale, the Shirom-Melamed Burnout scale, and other …

Exploring Attentional And Emotional Biases As A Function Of Trauma And Dissociation Symptomology, Claudia Clinchard

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is evidence that threatening facial expressions (e.g., angry faces) direct attention toward the target, and that for facial expressions that are less threatening but still convey negative valence (e.g., fear faces) direct attention outward and to one’s environment, therefore causing a shift in memory performance and attentional bias depending on the level of threat in emotional facial expressions presented. Extant literature provides evidence for attentional biases both towards and away from threat in those with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomology. The current study aimed to replicate the previous findings of the effects stimulus and emotion have on memory performance …

Suicide Prevention And Mood Disorders: Self-Exclusion Agreements For Firearms As A Suicide Prevention Strategy, Melvin G. Mcinnis, Stephen B. Thompson, Sofia D. Merajver, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

Suicide involves a complex set of behaviors and emotions that lead up to actions that may be based on planning and forethought or the result of impulse. While there are a host of antecedent circumstances the presence of a mood disorder, primarily depression, is the most common factor in suicide. While management of depression is recognized as important prevention strategy in depression, the means by which suicide occurs must be a critical element of prevention. Policies that lower access to the means for suicide will decrease the fatality. Guns are associated with half of suicides and the case fatality rate …

A Coupled Hazard Simulation And Post-Disaster Resource Optimization Framework, Stephen M. Cunningham

Theses and Dissertations

Extreme events, such as natural or human-caused disasters, cause mental health stress in affected communities. While the severity of these outcomes varies based on socioeconomic standing, age group, and degree of exposure, disaster planners can mitigate potential stress-induced mental health outcomes by assessing early, intermediate, and long-term treatment interventions by social workers and psychologists. However, local and state authorities are typically underfunded, understaffed, and have ongoing health and social service obligations that constrain mitigation and response activities. A resource assignment framework is developed as a coupled-state transition and linear optimization model that assists planners in optimally allocating constrained resources and …

Income Inequality And Opioid Prescribing Rates: Exploring Rural/Urban Differences In Pathways Via Residential Stability And Social Isolation, Tse-Chuan Yang, Seulki Kim, Carla Shoff

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

While opioid prescribing rates have drawn researchers’ attention, little is known about the mechanisms through which income inequality affects opioid prescribing rates and even less focuses on whether there is a rural/urban difference in mediating pathways. Applying mediation analysis techniques to a unique ZIP code–level dataset from several sources maintained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, we explicitly examine two mechanisms through residential stability and social isolation by rural/urban status and find that (1) income inequality is not directly related to opioid prescribing rates, but it exerts its influence on opioid prescribing via poor residential stability and elevated …

Assisted Reproductive Technologies And Health-Related Issues Among Women And Children: A Research Review, Laura Maria Corradi

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

From their first use in the late 1970s until the mid-1990s, Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) gave rise to serious concerns by feminists internationally. Their questions ranged from asking about health risks to ethical and political problems inherent in these technologies. However, over the last 25 years, interest in women’s health which used to be central to feminist theory and politics, progressively decreased and with it concerns about ART. Today, while the medical literature about health risks in ART is increasing, the topic of women’s health in relation to reproductive technologies remains marginal in feminist discourse, social sciences, and the mainstream …

Mental Health Disorders Among Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction In The United States, Jayakumar Sreenivasan, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, Safi U Khan, Urvashi Hooda, Wilbert S Aronow, Julio A Panza, Glenn N Levine, Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, Roger S Blumenthal, Erin D Michos

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence, temporal trends and sex- and racial/ethnic differences in the burden of mental health disorders (MHD) and outcomes among patients with myocardial infarction (MI) in the United States.

METHODS: Using the National Inpatient Sample Database, we evaluated a contemporary cohort of patients hospitalized for acute MI in the United States over 10 years period from 2008 to 2017. We used multivariable logistic regression analysis for in-hospital outcomes, yearly trends and estimated annual percent change (APC) in odds of MHD among MI patients.

RESULTS: We included a total sample of 6,117,804 hospitalizations for MI (ST elevation MI …

A Biallelic Pathogenic Variant In The Ogdh Gene Results In A Neurological Disorder With Features Of A Mitochondrial Disease, Zheng Yie Yap, Klaudia Strucinska, Satoshi Matsuzaki, Sukyeong Lee, Yue Si, Kenneth Humphries, Mark A Tarnopolsky, Wan Hee Yoon

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

2-Oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (OGDH) is a rate-limiting enzyme in the mitochondrial TCA cycle, encoded by the OGDH gene. α-Ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (OGDH) deficiency was previously reported in association with developmental delay, hypotonia, and movement disorders and metabolic decompensation, with no genetic data provided. Using whole exome sequencing, we identified two individuals carrying a homozygous missense variant c.959A>G (p.N320S) in the OGDH gene. These individuals presented with global developmental delay, elevated lactate, ataxia and seizure. Fibroblast analysis and modeling of the mutation in Drosophila were used to evaluate pathogenicity of the variant. Skin fibroblasts from subject # 2 showed a decrease in …

Training Needs Of Counseling Trainees In Corrections: A Survey Of Clinical Directors, Frank Dicataldo, Brett Dejesus, Don Whitworth

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

As the mental health treatment needs of adults and adolescents within the criminal justice system has garnered increasing attention, the training of mental health professionals has increasingly focused on serving individuals in forensic and correctional settings. We surveyed 55 clinical directors of mental health programs in forensic and correctional settings in a New England state. Respondents reported that Clinical Mental Health Counselors (CMHCs) broadly participated in assessment, treatment and supervision within these programs. Counseling experience emerged as the most important knowledge/experience domain for prospective job applicants and CMHCs were rated as providing a large share of the treatment within these …

Dnp Final Report: Breaking The Cycle: Care Coordination Interventions And Sickle Cell Readmissions, Naphtali Edge

DNP Final Reports

Background

Approximately 100,000 people in the United States are affected by Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Sickle Cell Disease represents the second highest readmitting diagnosis at Houston Methodist Hospital. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of implementing care coordination interventions to reduce hospital readmissions of patients with SCD.

PICOT

In adult patients with SCD in the acute care hospital setting, how does care coordination intervention compared to no care coordination intervention affect the readmission rate for patients with SCD over a 3 – 6-month period?

Body of Evidence

Eleven studies were critical appraised and included in the …

Methamphetamine Associated Cardiomyopathy In Pregnancy: The Distinctions And The Implications, Ashan Hatharasinghe, Hossein Akhondi

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Introduction

Methamphetamine associated cardiomyopathy (MAC) and peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) are both rare obstetric conditions. Literature regarding methamphetamine associated cardiomyopathy in the obstetric population is limited, and it can be difficult to make the distinction between the two given the similarities in clinical presentation. However similar, there are significant distinctions in the pathophysiology of these two that can help clinicians with the management process.

Clinical Findings and Outcomes

This case involves a 35-year-old Hispanic G6P5005 at 37 weeks gestation presenting with acute respiratory failure secondary to acute decompensated heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and superimposed preeclampsia leading to urgent cesarean …

Experiences Of Shame, Exclusion, & Appropriation In Mindfulness-Based Wellness Culture, Charlotte Grace Starling

University Honors Theses

Yoga, meditation, and other mindfulness practices provide numerous benefits both physical and mental health to their practitioners. There is less research exploring the role mindfulness-based wellness programs and practices fit within the cultural environment of the United States and how the mindfulness movement influences wellness culture and practices. These practices and spaces have been accused of harming folks who don't fit the dominant social narrative of thin, white, upper-middle-class participants. This paper aims to explore how the United State’s commodification of mindfulness practices contributes to experiences of shame, exclusion, and appropriation in wellness culture. This is done by a literature …

Oxytocin, Cortisol, And Cognitive Control During Acute And Naturalistic Stress, Shari Young Kuchenbecker, Sarah D. Pressman, Jared Celniker, Karen M. Grewen, Ken D. Sumida, Naveen Jonathan, Brendan Everett, George M. Slavich

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Although stress is a strong risk factor for poor health, especially for women, it remains unclear how stress affects the key neurohormones cortisol and oxytocin, which influence stress-related risk and resilience. Whereas cortisol mediates energy mobilization during stress, oxytocin has anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic, and analgesic effects that support social connection and survival across the lifespan. However, how these neurohormones interrelate and are associated with cognitive control of emotional information during stress remains unclear. To address these issues, we recruited 37 college-aged women (M_age = 19.19, SD = 1.58) and randomly assigned each to a one-hour experimental session consisting of …

Impact Of School-Based Mindfulness Programs In Elementary Schools, Hannah Rosholt

Graduate Teacher Education

Educators in the 21st Century face a myriad of emerging concerns with child and adolescent behavior. Surfacing educational issues include increased anxiety disorders, cyber bullying, students who have experienced trauma, increased aggressive behavior, absenteeism, and suicide ideation. As new concerns arise, educators seek ways to support students in these challenges. Mindfulness practice in schools has become more and more prevalent in the past twenty years. Research on adults who practice mindfulness has revealed lowered stress, increased resilience, and clearer focus. Researchers aim to understand the effects of mindfulness on children and adolescents. This paper analyzes how mindfulness practice impacts students’ …

Addressing Psychosocial Outcomes Of Social Isolation In Older Adults, Megan Friesen, Madeline M. Christensen

Nursing DNP Projects

Purpose and Rationale

The aim of the evidence-based practice (EBP) project is to improve psychological outcomes for socially isolated older adults enrolled in a Homebound Program (HP) through the implementation of an EBP intervention. Social isolation has a multitude of negative consequences, including impacting the psychological health (e.g. depression, loneliness, anxiety) of the older adult population.

Synthesis of Evidence

Meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials addressing the clinical problem of social isolation were identified. Through critical appraisal of the evidence, physical activity, psychotherapy, and socialization interventions have shown to decrease depression and loneliness in older adults. There were mixed …

A Crisis Of Her Own: Fatal Opioid Overdose, Opioid Use Disorder, And Intimate Partner Violence Among Rural Utah Women, Timothy Light, Erin Fanning Madden, Debasree Das Gupta, Hilary Disch, Katie Zaman, Suzanne Prevedel, Sandra H. Sulzer

All Current Publications

The Centers for Disease Control report that the rate of overdose deaths among women is rapidly increasing, with women experiencing a 532% increase in fatal opioid overdose deaths between 1999 and 2017, compared to a 355% increase for men. Among women, those in rural areas have disproportionately higher drug overdose death rates than women in urban areas (Mazure & Fiellin, 2018), indicating an opportunity for targeted rural public health interventions to slow overdose fatality increases among women. This fact sheet reviews Utah trends, potential factors increasing fatal opioid overdose, intimate partner violence and substance use disorders, and provides resources for …

The Relevance Of Modern Stoicism, Maximillian V. Kutch

Journal of Wellness

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Depression And Cardiovascular Disease, Jomaries O. Gomez

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

While there has been extensive research on the link between depression and cardiovascular disease, few reviews have summarized the array of findings. In this literature review, we examined approximately 50 clinical papers and research studies to determine if reducing depression could reduce the risk of having a cardiovascular incident and if reducing the severity of cardiovascular disease could reduce depression. We identified two major mechanisms through which depression affects the cardiovascular system. We present evidence that depression and cardiovascular disease may have a reciprocal relationship. For instance, depression is as much of a risk factor for heart disease as smoking …

Unmet Needs Are Associated With Increased Stress And Poor Physical And Mental Health In Early Adulthood, Colleen Heflin, Katie Green, Ying Huang, Asiya Validova

Population Health Research Brief Series

Material hardship, such as not being able to pay bills, negatively affects both physical and mental health. This research brief examines how different types of material hardship (difficulty paying for food, bills, and health care) are associated with self-rated health, depression, sleep problems, and suicidal thoughts among U.S. young adults (ages 24-32).