Improving Coping Research: Raze the Slum before Any More Building!

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67019/2/10.1177_135910539700200203.pd

Are we witnessing the decline effect in the Type D personality literature? What can be learned?

After an unbroken series of positive, but underpowered studies seemed to demonstrate Type D personality predicting mortality in cardiovascular disease patients, initial claims now appear at least exaggerated and probably false. Larger studies with consistently null findings are accumulating. Conceptual, methodological, and statistical issues can be raised concerning the construction of Type D personality as a categorical variable, whether Type D is sufficiently distinct from other negative affect variables, and if it could be plausibly assumed to predict mortality independent of depressive symptoms and known biomedical factors, including disease severity. The existing literature concerning negative affect and health suggests a low likelihood of discovering a new negative affect variable that independently predicts mortality better than its many rivals. The apparent decline effect in the Type D literature is discussed in terms of the need to reduce the persistence of false positive findings in the psychosomatic medicine literature, even while preserving a context allowing risk-taking and discovery. Recommendations include greater transparency concerning research design and analytic strategy; insistence on replication with larger samples before accepting "discoveries" from small samples; reduced confirmatory bias; and availability of all relevant data. Such changes would take time to implement, face practical difficulties, and run counter to established practices. An interim solution is for readers to maintain a sense of pre-discovery probabilities, to be sensitized to the pervasiveness of the decline effect, and to be skeptical of claims based on findings reaching significance in small-scale studies that have not been independently replicated. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Parents' Sense of “Entitlement” in Adoptive and Nonadoptive Families

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72242/1/j.1545-5300.1996.00441.x.pd

THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PARTNERS' EXPRESSED EMOTION AND DEPRESSION:MEDIATED BY PATIENTS' DYSFUNCTIONAL ATTITUDES?

The respective roles of expressed emotion and dysfunctional cognitive processes are well documented in depression, but their interplay has seldom been given attention. We examined the patients' and partners' expressed emotion (EE) and dysfunctional attitudes in predicting depressive symptoms in a sample of N = 63 couples with one clinically-depressed partner (37 females and 26 males). Partners' EE played a more important role for patients' dysfunctional attitudes and their depressive symptoms; nondepressed partners' dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms were unaffected by patients' EE. In contrasting two models that predict self-reported and clinician-rated depression, we found more support for dysfunctional attitudes serving as a mediator rather than a moderator for the association between partners' EE and patients' depressive symptoms. Partners' criticism may play a role worthy of more attention in depressed patients' dysfunctional attitudes and maintenance of their depres

Screening and Referral for Postpartum Depression among Low-Income Women: A Qualitative Perspective from Community Health Workers

Postpartum depression is a serious and common psychiatric illness. Mothers living in poverty are more likely to be depressed and have greater barriers to accessing treatment than the general population. Mental health utilization is particularly limited for women with postpartum depression and low-income, minority women. As part of an academic-community partnership, focus groups were utilized to examine staff practices, barriers, and facilitators in mental health referrals for women with depression within a community nonprofit agency serving low-income pregnant and postpartum women. The focus groups were analyzed through content analyses and NVIVO-8. Three focus groups with 16 community health workers were conducted. Six themes were identified: (1) screening and referral, (2) facilitators to referral, (3) barriers to referral, (4) culture and language, (5) life events, and (6) support. The study identified several barriers and facilitators for referring postpartum women with depression to mental health services

Potato cyst nematodes Globodera rostochiensis and G. pallida

Innovate UK. Grant Number: 105653 (RESOLVE) Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division. Grant Number: WP2.1 Scottish Funding Council. Grant Number: ODA GCRF XFC105Taxonomy: Phylum Nematoda; class Chromadorea; order Rhabditida; suborder Tylenchina; infraorder Tylenchomorpha; superfamily Tylenchoidea; family Heteroderidae; subfamily Heteroderinae; Genus Globodera. Biology: Potato cyst nematodes (PCN) are biotrophic, sedentary endoparasitic nematodes. Invasive (second) stage juveniles (J2) hatch from eggs in response to the presence of host root exudates and subsequently locate and invade the host. The nematodes induce the formation of a large, multinucleate syncytium in host roots, formed by fusion of up to 300 root cell protoplasts. The nematodes rely on this single syncytium for the nutrients required to develop through a further three moults to the adult male or female stage. This extended period of biotrophy?between 4 and 6 weeks in total?is almost unparalleled in plant?pathogen interactions. Females remain at the root while adult males revert to the vermiform body plan of the J2 and leave the root to locate and fertilize the female nematodes. The female body forms a cyst that contains the next generation of eggs. Host range: The host range of PCN is limited to plants of the Solanaceae family. While the most economically important hosts are potato (Solanum tuberosum), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), and aubergine (Solanum melongena), over 170 species of Solanaceae are thought to be potential hosts for PCN (Sullivan et al., 2007). Disease symptoms: Symptoms are similar to those associated with nutrient deficiency, such as stunted growth, yellowing of leaves and reduced yields. This absence of specific symptoms reduces awareness of the disease among growers. Disease control: Resistance genes (where available in suitable cultivars), application of nematicides, crop rotation. Great effort is put into reducing the spread of PCN through quarantine measures and use of certified seed stocks. Useful websites: Genomic information for PCN is accessible through WormBase ParaSite.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

How men view genetic testing for prostate cancer risk: findings from focus groups

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65567/1/j.1399-0004.2000.580303.x.pd

The predictable instability of psychological distress in college students: A comment on Flett, Vredenburg, and Krames

Flett, Vredenburg, and Krames (1995) claim that their data support the view that the apparent instability in distress among college students is artifactual. However, they have merely demonstrated that distress among college students is an unstable phenomena. Their argument that changes in distress scores have statistical rather than substantive explanations erroneously assumes that instability in distress scores is equivalent to error of measurement.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44791/1/10862_2005_Article_BF02229116.pd

Social Support and Self-Care of Patients with Heart Failure

Background Social support can influence treatment adherence of patients with chronic illnesses, which may explain the positive effects of social support on heart failure (HF) outcomes. Purpose To investigate the effects of social support among patients with HF, we examined whether aspects of social support were associated with self-care, including medication adherence, dietary adherence, and HF symptom monitoring functions. Methods We recruited 74 patients with HF from cardiology clinics of a Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a university-affiliated hospital, and tested the relationships between social support and the patients\u27 self-care. Results Consistent with previous research in older adults, family members, especially spouses, were often involved in the medical care of patients with chronic HF and provided a range of levels of support to patients. Self-care was generally poor, as measured across several self-care domains. Perceived social support was moderately associated with relatively better self-reported medication and dietary adherence, and other aspects of self-care such as daily weighing. Conclusions These findings suggest that a relatively higher level of self-care is an important correlate of social support and may explain how social support influences HF outcomes. This study also suggests that family members should play a greater part in clinical care focused on improving self-care