Beyond Anxious Predisposition: Do Padecer de Nervios and Ataque de Nervios Add Incremental Validity to Predictions of Current Distress among Mexican Mothers?

Background Nervios (PNRV) and ataque de nervios (ATQ) are culture-bound syndromes with overlapping symptoms of anxiety, depression, and dissociation, shown to have inconsistent associations to psychiatric disorder. Few studies test the basic assumption that PNRV and ATQ are uniformly linked to distress outcomes across Latina/o immigrant groups. This study examined: (a) the extent to which acculturative stress, Latino/US American acculturation, and anxious predisposition were associated with lifetime history of ATQ and PNRV, and (b) the extent to which ATQ and PNRV add incremental validity in explaining acculturative stress and psychological distress beyond measures of anxious predisposition. Method Participants (n = 82) included Mexican mothers who completed surveys on acculturation, trait anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, lifetime ATQ/PNRV, psychological distress, and acculturative stress. Results Lifetime PNRV, but not lifetime ATQ, was significantly predictive of psychological distress. PNRV was also linked to trait anxiety. Psychometric measures of anxious predisposition (trait anxiety and anxiety sensitivity) were more robust predictors of distress outcomes than lifetime history of ATQ/PNRV. Conclusion Inquiry into lifetime history of nervios may be a useful point of entry in talking to Mexican immigrant mothers about stress and distress. However, standard tools for assessing anxiety sensitivity and trait anxiety appear most useful in identifying and explaining the presence of psychological distress. Further research is needed to determine the cross-cultural relevance of trait anxiety and anxiety sensitivity, and its implications for the development of anxiety treatments that are effective across cultures

Identifying key predictors of recidivism among offenders attending a batterer intervention program: A survival analysis

Strategies to reduce intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) can be targeted at different levels. Batterer intervention programs (BIPs) are among the main treatment approaches for IPVAW offenders. The most common outcome used in the evaluation of BIP effectiveness is recidivism. Efforts to increase BIP effectiveness in reducing recidivism should focus on key predictive variables of this outcome. The aim of this study was to identify key predictors of official recidivism from a large set of variables drawn from a sample of IPVAW offenders court-mandated to a community-based BIP (N = 393), with a follow-up period of between 0 and 69 months. To this end, a survival analysis was conducted using four sets of variables: individual-level, relational- and contextual-level, violence-related, and intervention process-related variables. To include all variables in the analysis simultaneously, a Cox regression model was estimated with the adaptive least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (ALASSO). From a pool of eighty-nine variables, six were selected as key predictors of recidivism: dropout, risk of future violence against non-partners, family violence exposure, immigrant status, accumulation of stressful life events, and trait anger. The area under the receiving operator characteristic (ROC) curve was .808, indicating good prediction of the model. The key predictors of recidivism found in this study should be considered by professionals and researchers in the BIP field to improve their evaluation and intervention strategies. Practical implications for future research are also discussed

Estudio del correlato paraparesia espástica del pacifico y el virus humano linfotrópico de células T adultas (HTLV-1) en Colombia

IP 1106-05-070-87ARTICULO(S) EN REVISTA: Linfocitos y monolitos anormales en lasangre periferica como factores predictivos;de paraparesia espastica tropical asociada con el virus linfotropico humano tipo I en Tumaco, Colombia / Cesar;Arango Jaramillo. ... [et. al]. -- En: Colombia Medica. --Vol.22, no 3 (1991); p. 88-93. -- CAPITULO(S) EN;LIBRO: Tropical spastic paraparesis-associated risk factors inTumaco, Colombia / Cesar Arango. ... [et. al].; p. 377-383. -- En: Human Retrovirology: HTLV / editor WilliamA. Blattner. -- New York : 28 cm. ISBN;0881676616