Family-focused treatment for childhood depression: model and case illustrations

Although the evidence base for treatment of depressive disorders in adolescents has strengthened in recent years, less is known about the treatment of depression in middle to late childhood. A family-based treatment may be optimal in addressing the interpersonal problems and symptoms frequently evident among depressed children during this developmental phase, particularly given data indicating that attributes of the family environment predict recovery versus continuing depression among depressed children. Family-Focused Treatment for Childhood Depression (FFT-CD) is designed as a 15-session family treatment with both the youth and parents targeting two putative mechanisms involved in recovery: (a) enhancing family support, specifically decreasing criticism and increasing supportive interactions; and (b) strengthening specific cognitive-behavioral skills within a family context that have been central to CBT for depression, specifically behavioral activation, communication, and problem solving. This article describes in detail the FFT-CD protocol and illustrates its implementation with three depressed children and their families. Common themes/challenges in treatment included family stressors, comorbidity, parental mental health challenges, and inclusion/integration of siblings into sessions. These three children experienced positive changes from pre- to posttreatment on assessor-rated depressive symptoms, parent- and child-rated depressive symptoms, and parent-rated internalizing and externalizing symptoms. These changes were maintained at follow-up evaluations 4 and 9 months following treatment completion.K23 MH101238 - NIMH NIH HHS; R01 MH082856 - NIMH NIH HHS; R01 MH082861 - NIMH NIH HH

Exercise-induced tendon and bone injury in recreational runners: A test-retest reliability study

Background: Long-distance runners are prone to injuries including Achilles tendinopathy and medial tibial stress syndrome. We have developed an Internet comprehensive self-report questionnaire examining the medical history, injury history, and running habits of adult recreational runners. Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate two alternative forms of test-retest reliability of a comprehensive self-report Internet questionnaire retrospectively examining the medical history, injury history, and running habits among a sample of adult recreational runners. This will contribute to the broad aims of a wider study investigating genetics and running injury. Methods: Invitations to complete an Internet questionnaire were sent by email to a convenience pilot population (test group 1). Inclusion criteria required participants to be a recreational runner age 18 or over, who ran over 15 km per week on a consistent basis. The survey questions addressed regular running habits and any injuries (including signs, symptoms, and diagnosis) of the lower limbs that resulted in discontinuation of running for a period of 2 consecutive weeks or more, within the last 2 years. Questions also addressed general health, age, sex, height, weight, and ethnic background. Participants were then asked to repeat the survey using the Internet platform again after 10-14 days. Following analysis of test group 1, we soft-launched the survey to a larger population (test group 2), through a local running club of 900 members via email platform. The same inclusion criteria applied, however, participants were asked to complete a repeat of the survey by telephone interview after 7-10 days. Selected key questions, important to clarify inclusion or exclusion from the wider genetics study, were selected to evaluate test-retest reliability. Reliability was quantified using the kappa coefficient for categorical data. Results: In response to the invitation, 28 participants accessed the survey from test group 1, 23 completed the Internet survey on the first occasion, and 20 completed the Internet retest within 10-21 days. Test-retest reliability scored moderate to almost perfect (kappa=.41 to .99) for 19/19 of the key questions analyzed. Following the invitation, 122 participants accessed the survey from test group 2, 101 completed the Internet survey on the first occasion, and 50 were randomly selected and contacted by email inviting them to repeat the survey by telephone interview. There were 33 participants that consented to the telephone interview and 30 completed the questionnaire within 7-10 days. Test-retest reliability scored moderate to almost perfect for 18/19 (kappa=.41 to .99) and slight for 1/19 of the key questions analyzed. Conclusions: We successfully developed a self-reported, retrospective questionnaire, delivered using Internet software, providing stable and reliable answers. We demonstrate that our survey provides a relatively quick, easy to complete, and cost effective method to collect epidemiological data from recreational runners and evaluate these participants for inclusion into a genetic study

Enantioselective synthesis and application to the allylic imidate rearrangement of amine-coordinated palladacycle catalysts of cobalt sandwich complexes

The reaction of (η5-(N,N-dimethylaminomethyl)cyclopentadien-yl)(η4-tetraphenylcyclobutadiene)cobalt with sodium tetrachloropalladate and (R)-N-acetylphenylalanine gave planar chiral palladacycle di-μ-chloridebis[(η5-(Sp)-2-(N,N-dimethylaminomethyl)cyclopentadienyl,1-C,3′-N)(η4-tetraphenylcyclobutadiene)cobalt]dipalladium [(Sp)-Me2-CAP-Cl] in 92 % ee and 64 % yield. Enantiopurity (>98 % ee) was achieved by purification of the monomeric (R)-proline adducts and conversion back to the chloride dimer. Treatment with AgOAc gave (Sp)-Me2-CAP-OAc which was applied to asymmetric transcyclopalladation (up to 78 % ee). The (R)-N-acetylphenylalanine mediated palladation methodology was applicable also to the corresponding N,N-diethyl (82 % ee, 39 % yield) and pyrrolidinyl (>98 % ee, 43 % yield) cobalt sandwich complexes. A combination of 5 mol % of the latter [(Sp)-Pyrr-CAP-Cl] and AgNO3 (3.8 equiv) is a catalyst for the allylic imidate rearrangement of an (E)-N-aryltrifluoroacetimidate (up to 83 % ee), and this catalyst system is also applicable to the rearrangement of a range of (E)-trichloroacetimidates (up to 99 % ee). This asymmetric efficiency combined with the simplicity of catalyst synthesis provides accessible solutions to the generation of non-racemic allylic amine derivatives

Synthesis and crystal structure of bis(furan-2-ylmethanaminium)-catena-[bis(μ2-phthalato-κ2O:O′)cobalt(II)], C26H24CoN2O10

Abstract C26H24CoN2O10, monoclinic, F2/d (equiv. to no. 15), a = 23.7125(7) Å, b = 10.7325(4) Å, c = 39.5740(15) Å, β = 90.324(3)°, V = 10071.2(6) Å3, Z = 16, R gt(F) = 0.0514, wR ref(F 2) = 0.1048, T = 140(1) K.</jats:p

Carbon-sulfur bond formation by reductive elimination of gold(III) thiolates

Whereas the reaction of the gold(III) pincer complex (C^N^C)AuCl with 1-adamantyl thiol (AdSH) in the presence of base affords (C^N^C)AuSAd, the same reaction in in the absence of base leads to formation of aryl thioethers as the products of reductive elimination of the Au-C and Au-S ligands (C^N^C = dianion of 2-6-diphenylpyridine or 2-6-diphenylpyrazine). Although high chemical stability is usually taken as a characteristic of pincer complexes, results show that thiols are capable of cleaving one of the pincer Au-C bonds. This reaction is not simply a function of S-H acidity, since no cleavage takes place with other more acidic X-H compounds, such as carbazole, amides, phenols and malonates. The reductive C-S elimination follows a second-order rate law, d[1a]/dt = k[1a][AdSH] and requires at least two molar equivalents of RSH per Au. Reductive elimination is enabled by displacement of the N-donor by thiol; this provides the conformational flexibility necessary for C-S bond formation to occur. Alternatively, reductive C-S bond formation can be induced by reaction of pre-formed thiolates (C^N^C)AuSR with a strong Brønsted acid, followed by addition of SMe2 as base. On the other hand, treatment of (C^N^C)AuR (R = Me, aryl, alkynyl) with thiols under similar conditions leads to selective C-C rather than C-S bond formation. The reaction of (C^N^C)AuSAd with H+ in the absence of a donor ligand affords the thiolato-bridged complex [{(C^N-CH)Au(μ-SAd)}2]2+ which was crystallographically characterised

Planar chiral palladacycle precatalysts for asymmetric synthesis

Chiral non-racemic palladacycles were employed as precatalysts for Pd(0) mediated asymmetric synthesis. Addition of HPAr2/base to a ferrocenyloxazoline planar chiral palladacycle resulted in ligand synthesis and palladium capture to give a bidentate Phosferrox/Pd(0) complex. A series of these complexes were generated in situ and applied successfully as catalysts for asymmetric allylic alkylation