Manualized therapy for PTSD: Flexing the structure of cognitive processing therapy.

Abstract. This paper reports our research in the Web page filtering process in specialized search engine development. We propose a machine-learning-based approach that combines Web content analysis and Web structure analysis. Instead of a bag of words, each Web page is represented by a set of contentbased and link-based features, which can be used as the input for various machine learning algorithms. The proposed approach was implemented using both a feedforward/backpropagation neural network and a support vector machine. An evaluation study was conducted and showed that the proposed approaches performed better than the benchmark approaches.

The impact of perceived everyday discrimination and income on racial and ethnic disparities in PTSD, depression, and anxiety among veterans.

ObjectivesBlack and Hispanic/Latinx individuals experience a greater burden of mental health symptoms as compared to White individuals in the general population. Examination of ethnoracial disparities and mechanisms explaining these disparities among veterans is still in its nascence. The current study examined perceived everyday discrimination and income as parallel mediators of the association between race/ethnicity and PTSD, depression, and general anxiety symptoms in a sample of White, Black, and Hispanic/Latinx veterans stratified by gender.MethodsA random sample of 3,060 veterans living across the U.S. (oversampled for veterans living in high crime communities) completed a mail-based survey. Veterans completed self-report measures of perceived discrimination via the Everyday Discrimination Scale, PTSD symptoms via the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-5, depressive symptoms via the Patient Health Questionnaire, and anxiety symptoms via the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire.ResultsModels comparing Black vs. White veterans found that the significant effect of race on PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms was mediated by both perceived discrimination and income for both male and female veterans. Results were less consistent in models comparing Hispanic/Latinx vs. White veterans. Income, but not perceived discrimination, mediated the relationship between ethnicity/race and depression and anxiety symptoms, but only among women.ConclusionsResults suggest that discrimination and socioeconomic status are important mechanisms through which marginalized social status negatively impacts mental health

Psychophysiological reactivity of aggressive drivers: an exploratory study

In the United States, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of accidental death and injury. Aggressive driving, which has been identified as a major risk factor for motor vehicle accidents by transportation authorities, is thus an important topic of study. This study compared the physiological reactivity of self-referred aggressive and nonaggressive drivers. Heart rate, blood pressure, facial muscle activity, and skin resistance were monitored as participants listened to idiosyncratic vignettes of driving and fear-provoking scenarios, as well as during a standard stressor task (mental arithmetic). The results were that aggressive drivers exhibited significant increases in muscle tension and blood pressure during the driving vignettes, relative to controls. They also responded to the fear vignette and mental arithmetic in a qualitatively different fashion from that of controls. The aggressive drivers responded to these stimuli with less overall heart rate and electrodermal reactivity, but increased blood pressure and muscle tension. In contrast, the controls responded to the fear vignette and mental arithmetic primarily with increased heart rates and decreased skin resistance. The findings suggest that both physiological hyperarousal as well as differential responses to stressful stimuli may contribute to aggressive driving. Implications for interventions with this population are discussed

Mediating effects of everyday discrimination (EDS) and income on the association between race/ethnicity (Hispanic/Latinx vs. Non-Hispanic/Latinx White and Black vs. White) within male and female veterans on the PCL-5, PHQ-9, and GAD-7.

a. PCL-5, b. PHQ-9, c. GAD-7. Note. *p p p < .001; covariates: age, education.</p

Bootstrap confidence intervals of direct and indirect effects in parallel mediation models.

Bootstrap confidence intervals of direct and indirect effects in parallel mediation models.</p

EDS total score, EDS items, and EDS reasons by race/ethnicity and gender for entire sample and trauma-exposed sample.

EDS total score, EDS items, and EDS reasons by race/ethnicity and gender for entire sample and trauma-exposed sample.</p