Impact of Study Skills and Parent Education on First-Year GPA Among College Students With and Without ADHD: A Moderated Mediation Model

Objective: To test if the relationship between ADHD and academic achievement is mediated by service utilization and/or study skills, and if these mediation effects are moderated by parental education level. Method: A bootstrapping method within structural equation modeling was used with data from 355 first year college students meeting strict criteria for ADHD or clearly without ADHD to test the mediation and moderation effects. Results: Study skills, but not service utilization, significantly mediated the relationship between ADHD status and GPA; however, this relationship was not significant among students with at least one parent holding a master’s degree or higher. Conclusion: Among first year college students study skills may be a more salient predictor of educational outcomes relative to ADHD status. Additional research into support services for college students with ADHD is needed, however, results suggest interventions targeting study skills may hold particular promise for these students

An investigation into the effectiveness of functional behavioural assessment based interventions for sleep disturbance in children with Rare Genetic Neurodevelopmental Disorders (RGND).

Sleep disturbance is recognized in the literature as a highly prevalent feature of Rare Genetic Neurodevelopmental Disorders (RGND) in children. Despite the considerable number of studies that have reported the presence of sleep difficulties within this cohort, limited attention has been paid to the treatment of these sleep problems, and even less so investigating the effectiveness of FBA-based behavioural interventions, and the outcomes of such treatment methods on general child behaviour and parental wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to determine whether FBA-based behavioural sleep interventions are effective with children with RGND, to examine the impact that intervention may have on secondary outcome variables pertaining to general child behaviour and parental wellbeing, sleep, and relationship satisfaction, and to ultimately establish the acceptability of this form of treatment amongst parents. Three children aged between six and 12 took part in the study. The study followed a multiple-baseline-within-participants design and included measures taken at pre- and post-intervention time-points. The FBA-based behavioural interventions were found to be effective in the treatment of the children’s sleep difficulties overall, with improvements observed across sleep onset latency, night wakings, and co-sleeping. General child behaviour, as measured by the VABS- II and the CBCL at pre- and post-treatment, had variable patterns of change across participants and across specific variables. Similarly, parental wellbeing, sleep, and relationship satisfaction, as measured at pre- and post-treatment by the DASS-21, PSQI, and the RQI, were mixed in their results. Despite the variability seen in these findings, the parents of all three children rated their acceptability of treatment highly on the TARF-R, and their post-treatment interviews reiterated their satisfaction with their child’s intervention, most aspects of the study process, and the secondary outcomes that they noticed. The present findings contribute to the limited existing literature concerning the utilization of FBA-based behavioural sleep intervention with children with RGND, and the secondary effects of treatment on general child behaviour and parental wellbeing following such interventions. However, future research should endevour to address and rectify the limitations encountered in the current study, in order to further the evidence-base to an even greater extent

Academic Trajectories of College Students with and without ADHD: Predictors of Four-Year Outcomes

Objective: Completing a college degree is associated with success in employment, financial earnings, and life satisfaction. Mental health difficulties, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), can compromise degree completion. Method: We examined 4-year academic performance trajectories of 201 college students with ADHD (97 receiving medication [ADHD-Med], 104 not receiving medication [ADHD-NoMed]) relative to 205 non-ADHD Comparison students. Demographic (e.g., sex, race/ethnicity), psychological (e.g., self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms), and service-related (e.g., receipt of academic support) variables were included as predictors of intercept (i.e., Year 1 performance) and slope (yearly change) of semester GPA, progress toward graduation, and self-reported study skill strategies. Results: College students with ADHD obtained significantly lower GPAs (Hedge’s g = −0.46 and −0.63) and reported less frequent use of study skills strategies (Hedge’s g range from −1.00 to −2.28) than Comparison students. Significantly more Comparison students (59.1%) persisted through eight semesters relative to ADHD-NoMed students (49%). Multiple variables predicted outcomes with parent education, fewer depressive symptoms, better executive functioning, and receipt of high school Section 504 accommodations and college academic support services among the strongest predictors. Conclusions: Findings suggest support services for students with ADHD should begin prior to college matriculation and focus on improving executive functioning skills and depressive symptoms to increase chances of academic success

A highly multiplexed droplet digital PCR assay to measure the intact HIV-1 proviral reservoir.

Quantifying the replication-competent HIV reservoir is essential for evaluating curative strategies. Viral outgrowth assays (VOAs) underestimate the reservoir because they fail to induce all replication-competent proviruses. Single- or double-region HIV DNA assays overestimate it because they fail to exclude many defective proviruses. We designed two triplex droplet digital PCR assays, each with 2 unique targets and 1 in common, and normalize the results to PCR-based T cell counts. Both HIV assays are specific, sensitive, and reproducible. Together, they estimate the number of proviruses containing all five primer-probe regions. Our 5-target results are on average 12.1-fold higher than and correlate with paired quantitative VOA (Spearman's ρ = 0.48) but estimate a markedly smaller reservoir than previous DNA assays. In patients on antiretroviral therapy, decay rates in blood CD4+ T cells are faster for intact than for defective proviruses, and intact provirus frequencies are similar in mucosal and circulating T cells

Analysis of Outcomes in Ischemic vs Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation A Report From the GARFIELD-AF Registry

IMPORTANCE Congestive heart failure (CHF) is commonly associated with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF), and their combination may affect treatment strategies and outcomes