Attitudes about Future Genetic Testing for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Addiction among Community-Based Veterans.

This study explored attitudes toward hypothetical genetic testing for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction among veterans. We surveyed a random sample of community-based veterans (n = 700) by telephone. One year later, we asked the veterans to provide a DNA sample for analysis and 41.9% of them returned the DNA samples. Overall, most veterans were not interested in genetic testing neither for PTSD (61.7%) nor for addiction (68.7%). However, bivariate analyses suggested there was an association between having the condition of interest and the likelihood of genetic testing on a 5-point scale (p \u3c 0.001 for PTSD; p = 0.001 for alcohol dependence). While ordinal regressions confirmed these associations, the models with the best statistical fit were bivariate models of whether the veteran would likely test or not. Using logistic regressions, significant predictors for PTSD testing were receiving recent mental health treatment, history of a concussion, younger age, having PTSD, having alcohol dependence, currently taking opioids for pain, and returning the DNA sample during the follow-up. For addiction testing, significant predictors were history of concussion, younger age, psychotropic medication use, having alcohol dependence, and currently taking opioids for pain. Altogether, 25.9% of veterans reported that they would have liked to have known their genetic results before deployment, 15.6% reported after deployment, and 58.6% reported they did not want to know neither before nor after deployment. As advancements in genetic testing continue to evolve, our study suggests that consumer attitudes toward genetic testing for mental disorders are complex and better understanding of these attitudes and beliefs will be crucial to successfully promote utilization

Can Genetic Research Involvement Motivate Parents to Pursue CMA Genetic Testing for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Chromosomal Microarray Analysis is a first-tier genetic test for Autism Spectrum Disorde, particularly in cases with a complex etiolog

The role of disease characteristics in the ethical debate on personal genome testing

Background: Companies are currently marketing personal genome tests directly-to-consumer that provide genetic susceptibility testing for a range of multifactorial diseases simultaneously. As these tests comprise multiple risk analyses for multiple diseases, they may be difficult to evaluate. Insight into morally relevant differences between diseases will assist researchers, healthcare professionals, policy-makers and other stakeholders in the ethical evaluation of personal genome tests. Discussion. In this paper, we identify and discuss four disease characteristics - severity, actionability, age of onset, and the somatic/psychiatric nature of disease - and show how these lead to specific ethical issues. By way of illustration, we apply this framework to genetic susceptibility testing for three diseases: type 2 diabetes, age-related macular degeneration and clinical depression. For these three diseases, we point out the ethical issues that are relevant to the question whether it is morally justifiable to offer genetic susceptibility testing to adults or to children or minors, and on what conditions. Summary. We conclude that the ethical evaluation of personal genome tests is challenging, for the ethical issues differ with the diseases tested for. An understanding of the ethical significance of disease characteristics will improve the ethical, legal and societal debate on personal genome testing

Examining the Interaction Between Mental Health Stigma, COVID-19 Traumatic Stress, and Race in Predicting Help-Seeking

Mental health stigma is a major barrier to seeking professional psychological services (Corrigan, 2004). Black college students in particular endorse higher rates of mental health stigma and also have fewer positive attitudes toward seeking mental health help (Cheng et al., 2013; Kuo et al., 2006). As a result, Black young adults underutilize mental health services at higher rates than older Black individuals and White young adults (SAMHSA, 2015). The Black community has also experienced greater adversity from the pandemic, having more coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths compared to White people in the United States (CDC, 2020). This has led to Black individuals experiencing increased stress and trauma (Kujawa et al., 2020; Sneed et al., 2020). As a result, it is important to explore variables that may prevent use of psychological services among the Black community, and specifically among Black young adults. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between mental health stigma, COVID-19 traumatic stress, and race in predicting help-seeking among a Black and White college student sample. Results showed that, contrary to the study hypothesis, when controlling for gender and depression a three-way interaction of self-stigma by race by COVID-19 traumatic stress was not significant. Results also showed that, as hypothesized, when controlling for gender and depression, there was a positive relationship between depression anxiety and COVID-19 traumatic stress. This study can inform outreach and intervention strategies for mental health professionals to combat stigma and address pandemic trauma among Black young adults specifically

Attitudes 2 voices: interactions between clinicians and voice hearers

Research has shown that voice hearers wish to discuss their voices, but often feel ashamed of disclosing their voice-hearing experience. Interactions with clinicians can be destigmatising, but unhelpful responses may exacerbate stigma. A systematic review of qualitative studies used a thematic synthesis to explore voice hearers’ and clinicians’ perspectives on helpful and unhelpful care. A large-scale mixed-methods study explored clinician attitudes to voice hearers and self-reported responses in interactions. Clinicians in both parts of the MRP reported difficulties working with voice hearers, including fears and a risk focus, frustration with dominance of the medical paradigm and a lack of availability of other approaches and lacking knowledge of helpful techniques. In addition to these frustrations, research reported that patients thought that unavailable services and coercive or paternalistic practices undermined trust. Voice hearers and clinicians described helpful approaches, including hopefulness, honesty, empathy, respect and common ground, validation, psychoeducation and normalising. Supervision and reflective practice, values-based work and creativity helped clinicians cope. Training, personal experience with voice hearers and psychosocial professional training were associated with less stigma. Recommendations include expansion of the peer role, increased staff support and specific voice hearing training, especially for staff in biomedical professions or support worker roles

Information Technology's Role in Global Healthcare Systems

Over the past few decades, modern information technology has made a significant impact on people’s daily lives worldwide. In the field of health care and prevention, there has been a progressing penetration of assistive health services such as personal health records, supporting apps for chronic diseases, or preventive cardiological monitoring. In 2020, the range of personal health services appeared to be almost unmanageable, accompanied by a multitude of different data formats and technical interfaces. The exchange of health-related data between different healthcare providers or platforms may therefore be difficult or even impossible. In addition, health professionals are increasingly confronted with medical data that were not acquired by themselves, but by an algorithmic “black box”. Even further, externally recorded data tend to be incompatible with the data models of classical healthcare information systems.From the individual’s perspective, digital services allow for the monitoring of their own health status. However, such services can also overwhelm their users, especially elderly people, with too many features or barely comprehensible information. It therefore seems highly relevant to examine whether such “always at hand” services exceed the digital literacy levels of average citizens.In this context, this reprint presents innovative, health-related applications or services emphasizing the role of user-centered information technology, with a special focus on one of the aforementioned aspects

Representativeness of Data from an Online Sample of Individuals with Severe Alcohol Use Disorder

Understanding the characteristics of research participants who provide DNA is crucial to ensuring sample representativeness and generalizability of findings of genetics studies of substance use disorders. Using anonymous survey data, the present study had a unique opportunity to compare participants who provided DNA (n=2,414) with those that did not provide DNA (n=1,515). The present study found numerous differences between groups across demographic, substance use, and personality domains. Using multivariate regression, the most parsimonious model found that being male, a non-smoker, and endorsing perseverance was associated with providing DNA. The present study provides benchmark data on sample representativeness in a genome wide association study