Impact of Interoceptive Accuracy and Upward Physical Appearance Comparison on Adaptive and Maladaptive Eating Behaviors

Eating disorders are a global concern with severe mental and physical health consequences, such as osteoporosis, anemia, heart damage, and organ failure in anorexia nervosa, and sore throat, tooth enamel erosion, gastrointestinal problems, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance in bulimia nervosa (Himmerich et al., 2021). Even subclinical cases pose a serious threat to mental and physical health. Intuitive eating, as a non-dieting approach, focuses on recognizing hunger and fullness cues for maintaining health. Using cross-sectional data from a sample of 364 young adults surveyed in a university setting in a small Midwestern city, the current study employs structural equation modeling to investigate the links among interoceptive accuracy, upward physical appearance comparison, and adaptive (i.e., intuitive eating) and maladaptive eating behaviors (i.e., bulimia, restrained eating, and binge eating). Better understanding of the connections among these concepts has implications for clinical intervention targeting individuals struggling with disordered eating. It was hypothesized that interoceptive accuracy would be negatively associated with upward physical appearance comparison and positively associated with intuitive eating, while negatively associated with binge eating, restricted eating, and bulimia. Additionally, statistically significant indirect effects were anticipated, wherein heightened interoceptive accuracy was linked to a decrease in upward physical appearance comparison, ultimately leading to a reduction in disordered eating behaviors and an increase in intuitive eating. Structural equation modeling revealed significant associations between interoceptive accuracy, physical appearance comparison, and each of the four eating behaviors. Interoceptive accuracy was negatively associated with upward physical appearance comparison and maladaptive eating behaviors, while positively associated with intuitive eating. Indirect effects analysis showed that interoceptive accuracy reduced upward physical appearance comparison, subsequently decreasing disordered eating behaviors and promoting intuitive eating. These findings underscore the importance of interoceptive accuracy and upward physical appearance comparison in understanding and addressing disordered eating, emphasizing the potential of interventions targeting these factors for promoting healthier eating behaviors

Bidirectional Maternal Mental Health and Adolescent Internalizing

Emerging evidence indicates the existence of bidirectional relations between mothers’ mental health and adolescent adjustment, but few studies have examined these relations in contexts of high environmental adversity, including economic deprivation and political violence. Given other empirical connections between political violence and adolescent adjustment problems (Cummings et al., 2017), the impact of child adjustment problems on maternal mental health may be exacerbated in contexts of sectarian violence. Addressing this gap, latent change score modeling was used to examine interrelations between trajectories of maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing symptoms over time in communities afflicted by political conflict. Over six years, a total of 999 adolescent-mother dyads participated in a longitudinal study in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Six-hundred ninety-five families were originally recruited in year 1, with 304 recruited to supplement the sample in year 3; the largest available sample for a given year was 760 families. Models including maternal mental health, adolescent internalizing symptomatology, and political violence (i.e., sectarian antisocial behavior) as a time-varying covariate were tested. Results demonstrated that for both mothers and adolescents in a dyadic pairing, higher rates of symptomology in one member of the dyad were related to symptoms observed in the other member. Results also suggest that political violence and factors related to social deprivation increased symptoms across the dyad. This study advances understanding of the bidirectional impact between maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing over time in contexts of political violence.National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentOffice of First Minister & Deputy First Minister, Government of Northern Irelan

Sex-specific impairment of spatial memory in rats following a reminder of predator stress

Abstract It has been suggested that cognitive impairments exhibited by people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) result from intrusive, flashback memories transiently interfering with ongoing cognitive processing. Researchers have further speculated that females are more susceptible to developing PTSD because they form stronger traumatic memories than males, hence females may be more sensitive to the negative effects of intrusive memories on cognition. We have examined how the reminder of a naturalistic stress experience would affect rat spatial memory and if sex was a contributing factor to such effects. Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed, without contact, to an adult female cat for 30 min. Five weeks later, the rats were trained to locate a hidden platform in the radial-arm water maze and given a single long-term memory test trial 24 h later. Before long-term memory testing, the rats were given a 30-min reminder of the cat exposure experienced 5 weeks earlier. The results indicated that the stress reminder impaired spatial memory in the female rats only. Control manipulations revealed that this effect was not attributable to the original cat exposure adversely impacting learning that occurred 5 weeks later, or to merely exposing rats to a novel environment or predator-related cues immediately before testing. These findings provide evidence that the reminder of a naturalistic stressful experience can impair cognitive processing in rats; moreover, since female rats were more susceptible to the memory-impairing effects of the stress reminder, the findings could lend insight into the existing sex differences in susceptibility to PTSD

Bidirectional effects between maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing problems across six years in Northern Ireland.

BackgroundEmerging evidence indicates the existence of bidirectional relations between mothers' mental health and adolescent adjustment, but few studies have examined these relations in contexts of high environmental adversity, including economic deprivation and political violence. Given other empirical connections between political violence and adolescent adjustment problems, the impact of child adjustment problems on maternal mental health may be exacerbated in contexts of sectarian violence.MethodsAddressing this gap, latent change score modeling was used to examine interrelations between trajectories of maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing symptoms over time in communities afflicted by political conflict. Over six years, 999 adolescent-mother dyads participated in a longitudinal study in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Six-hundred ninety-five families were originally recruited in year 1, with 304 recruited to supplement the sample in year 3; the largest available sample for a given year was 760 dyads. Models including maternal mental health, adolescent internalizing symptomatology, and political violence (i.e., sectarian antisocial behavior) as a time-varying covariate were tested.ResultsResults demonstrated that for both mothers and adolescents in a dyadic pairing, higher rates of symptomology in one member of the dyad were related to symptoms observed in the other member. Results also suggest that political violence and factors related to social deprivation increased symptoms across the dyad.ConclusionThis study advances understanding of the bidirectional impact between maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing over time in contexts of political violence

The Apathy in Dementia Methylphenidate Trial 2 (ADMET 2): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) is characterized not only by cognitive and functional decline, but also often by the presence of neuropsychiatric symptoms. Apathy, which can be defined as a lack of motivation, is one of the most prevalent neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD and typically leads to a worse quality of life and greater burden for caregivers. Treatment options for apathy in AD are limited, but studies have examined the use of the amphetamine, methylphenidate. The Apathy in Dementia Methylphenidate Trial (ADMET) found that treatment of apathy in AD with methylphenidate was associated with significant improvement in apathy in two of three outcome measures, some evidence of improvement in global cognition, and minimal adverse events. However, the trial only enrolled 60 participants who were followed for only 6 weeks. A larger, longer-lasting trial is required to confirm these promising findings. Methods: The Apathy in Dementia Methylphenidate Trial 2 (ADMET 2) is a phase III, placebo-controlled, masked, 6-month, multi-center, randomized clinical trial targeted to enroll 200 participants with AD and apathy. Participants are randomly assigned 1:1 to 20 mg methylphenidate per day prepared as four over-encapsulated tablets or to matching placebo. The primary outcomes include (1) the mean difference in the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Apathy subscale scores measured as change from baseline to 6 months, and (2) the odds of having a given rating or better on the modified AD Cooperative Study Clinical Global Impression of Change ratings at month 6 compared with the baseline rating. Other outcomes include change in cognition, safety, and cost-effectiveness measured at monthly follow-up visits up to 6 months. Discussion: Given the prevalence of apathy in AD and its impact on both patients and caregivers, an intervention to alleviate apathy would be of great benefit to society. ADMET 2 follows on the promising results from the original ADMET to evaluate the efficacy of methylphenidate as a treatment for apathy in AD. With a larger sample size and longer follow up, ADMET 2 is poised to confirm or refute the original ADMET findings. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02346201. Registered on 26 January 2015