Validation of the Maladaptive Behavior Scale in three samples

Brief and efficient measures of maladaptive behaviors are needed for screening purposes in a variety of health care settings. There currently are no brief broadband measures that assess the frequency of maladaptive behaviors as most of the existing measures assess a narrow set of behaviors, or assess urges, rather than actual behaviors. The current study seeks to revise and validate the Maladaptive Behavior Scale (MBS; DeShong, Helle, & Mullins-Sweatt, in preparation) in three adult samples. Field data collection (community sample) and online recruitment methods (college student sample) were utilized to collect to examine convergent and discriminant validity of the MBS with measures of general and maladaptive personality, personality disorders, impulsivity, and general functioning. The MBS was revised and administered to an online (Amazon Mturk) sample. The revised scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency and convergence with self-report measures of behavioral outcomes, general personality, and impulsivity. The MBS may be considered for use in health care or treatment settings to screen for and identify at-risk behaviors associated with psychopathology and health outcomes

Multi-method Approach for Assessing the Alternative Dsm-5 Model for Personality Disorders

The current conceptualization of personality disorders (PDs) includes a categorical model with ten PDs. This approach has many documented limitations including diagnostic co-occurrence, arbitrary boundaries, heterogeneity of diagnoses, and inadequate coverage. Efforts to mend these limitations have included a call for a dimensional model of PDs. The Five-Factor Model (FFM) is a viable approach to diagnosing PDs. An alternative, hybrid categorical-dimensional model is included in Section III of the DSM-5 (Emerging Models and Measures). This model is considered to be an extension of the FFM and research has demonstrated similarities between the two models using self-report measures of the FFM. A self-report measure, the Personality Inventory for DSM-5, was designed to assess the traits of the alternative model. The current study utilized a multi-method approach to examine the relationship between the two models. The Structured Interview for the FFM (SIFFM) can assess more maladaptive aspects of personality, while the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) assesses more adaptive variants of the traits. The SIFFM, NEO PI-R and the PID-5 were administrated to participants. It was hypothesized that the models would be related on respective domains (e.g., PID-5 negative affectivity and FFM neuroticism). It was also hypothesized that the SIFFM would predict respective PID-5 domains above and beyond the self-report NEO PI-R based on the maladaptive aspects of the SIFFM. The two models converged as predicted when using the SIFFM or the NEO PI-R. The SIFFM did not predict the PID-5 domains above and beyond the NEO PI-R. The NEO PI-R predicted above and beyond the SIFFM for four of the five PID-5 domains. Both FFM measures were significant independent predictors of the PID-5 and taken together they predicted a large amount of variance in the PID-5 domains. This study provides support for the relationship between two measures of the FFM and the alternative model for PDs. The method variance between the self-report measures in the study is a limitation and should be considered when interpreting the results. Clinical implications from this study include the application of multiple methods of FFM assessment to capture the most variance in alternative model personality domains.Psycholog

The positive link between executive function and lifetime cannabis use in schizophrenia is not explained by current levels of superior social cognition

There has been a growing link between a history of cannabis use and neurocognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia. Fewer neurocognitive deficits may be a marker of the superior social cognition needed to obtain illicit substances, or cannabis use may indicate a distinct path to schizophrenia with less neurocognitive vulnerability. This study sought to determine whether the relationship of cannabis use and executive function exists independently of social cognition. Eighty-seven patients with schizophrenia were administered measures of social cognition and executive function. Social cognition was assessed using the Bell-Lysaker Emotion Recognition Test to measure affect recognition, and the Eyes and Hinting Tests to measure theory of mind. Executive function was assessed by the Mental Flexibility component of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Functioning Scale. The relations between the variables were examined with structural equation modeling. Cannabis use positively related to executive function, negatively related to affect recognition, and had no relationship with theory of mind. There were no indirect effects of other illicit substances on amount of regular cannabis use. Alcohol use was related to worse affect recognition. The relationship between cannabis use and better executive function was supported and was not explained by superior social cognitio

The Forum: Fall 2003

Fall 2003 journal of the Honors Program at the University of North Dakota. The issue includes stories, poems, essays and art by undergraduate students.https://commons.und.edu/und-books/1052/thumbnail.jp

Low-Frequency and Rare-Coding Variation Contributes to Multiple Sclerosis Risk

Multiple sclerosis is a complex neurological disease, with 3c20% of risk heritability attributable to common genetic variants, including >230 identified by genome-wide association studies. Multiple strands of evidence suggest that much of the remaining heritability is also due to additive effects of common variants rather than epistasis between these variants or mutations exclusive to individual families. Here, we show in 68,379 cases and controls that up to 5% of this heritability is explained by low-frequency variation in gene coding sequence. We identify four novel genes driving MS risk independently of common-variant signals, highlighting key pathogenic roles for regulatory T cell homeostasis and regulation, IFN\u3b3 biology, and NF\u3baB signaling. As low-frequency variants do not show substantial linkage disequilibrium with other variants, and as coding variants are more interpretable and experimentally tractable than non-coding variation, our discoveries constitute a rich resource for dissecting the pathobiology of MS. In a large multi-cohort study, unexplained heritability for multiple sclerosis is detected in low-frequency coding variants that are missed by GWAS analyses, further underscoring the role of immune genes in MS pathology

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI): a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Remote ischaemic conditioning with transient ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). We investigated whether remote ischaemic conditioning could reduce the incidence of cardiac death and hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. METHODS: We did an international investigator-initiated, prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI) at 33 centres across the UK, Denmark, Spain, and Serbia. Patients (age >18 years) with suspected STEMI and who were eligible for PPCI were randomly allocated (1:1, stratified by centre with a permuted block method) to receive standard treatment (including a sham simulated remote ischaemic conditioning intervention at UK sites only) or remote ischaemic conditioning treatment (intermittent ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of an automated cuff device) before PPCI. Investigators responsible for data collection and outcome assessment were masked to treatment allocation. The primary combined endpoint was cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02342522) and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 6, 2013, and March 31, 2018, 5401 patients were randomly allocated to either the control group (n=2701) or the remote ischaemic conditioning group (n=2700). After exclusion of patients upon hospital arrival or loss to follow-up, 2569 patients in the control group and 2546 in the intervention group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At 12 months post-PPCI, the Kaplan-Meier-estimated frequencies of cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure (the primary endpoint) were 220 (8·6%) patients in the control group and 239 (9·4%) in the remote ischaemic conditioning group (hazard ratio 1·10 [95% CI 0·91-1·32], p=0·32 for intervention versus control). No important unexpected adverse events or side effects of remote ischaemic conditioning were observed. INTERPRETATION: Remote ischaemic conditioning does not improve clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure) at 12 months in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, University College London Hospitals/University College London Biomedical Research Centre, Danish Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, TrygFonden

Crisis Line Services: A 12-Month Descriptive Analysis of Callers, Call Content, and Referrals

Crisis lines are a valuable community resource that anonymously and freely serve those in acute crisis. As a result of anonymity, it has been difficult to fully characterize crisis line services. However, appraising and improving crisis line services for the communities they serve is essential, even with the additional difficulty anonymity poses. This study seeks to increase our understanding of current crisis services and utilization via a characterization of various aspects of a United States crisis line service center over 12-months including features of calls (e.g., call length), callers (e.g., victimization history), and information provided to the caller (e.g., referrals). We examine five crisis lines totaling 5,001 calls from October 2018 to September 2019. Descriptive information is provided on call volume, patterns across time, caller characteristics, victimization types, and referrals. Although we were unable to assess prospective outcomes due to anonymity, 99.5% of callers that were asked (61.35% of all calls; n = 3,068) reported the call as helpful. This provides an important overview of crisis line services and suggests they are a valuable community health resource serving a range of callers. Given the findings of the present study, we conclude with a discussion of recommendations and implications for community crisis line centers and future research