Posttraumatic stress disorder diagnostic criteria and suicidal ideation in a South African Police sample

Objective: Exposure to traumatic events may precipitate suicidal ideation. Once an individual is diagnosed with PTSD, a suicide risk assessment often follows. This study explores how PTSD symptom criteria correlate with suicidal ideation in a sample of police officers. While the psychometric measures of PTSD often mirror the DSM-IV-TR criteria, focusing on exposure, symptom, and duration criteria, suicidal ideation measures often focus on concepts quite different from that. In this report the focus was on investigating how PTSD symptom criteria correlate with the suicidal ideation.Method: A group of South African police officers (N = 217) were assessed by means of the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale and a short version of the Adult Suicide Ideation Questionnaire. Linear and hierarchical regressions were used to determine which PTSD symptom criteria best predict suicidalideation.Results: Hyperarousal was the primary predictor of suicidal ideation (R2 [adjusted] = 0.249). Intrusive thoughts added only marginally to the model, contributing a further 2.5% to the declared variance. The contributions of the other two symptom types were negligible.Conclusion: In this study hyperarousal correlated significantly with suicidal ideation. It is suggested that practitioners be alert to these symptoms as possible indicators of suicidal ideation. Implications for suicide risk assessment and prevention measures are discussed.Keywords: Stress Disorders; Post-Traumatic; Suicidal ideation; Police; South Afric

Depressive and post-traumatic stress symptoms following termination of pregnancy in South African women: A longitudinal study measuring the effects of chronic burden, crisis support and resilience

 Background. Termination of pregnancy (TOP) remains a controversial issue, regardless of legislation. Access to services as well as psychological effects may vary across the world.Objectives and methods. To better understand the psychological effects of TOP, this study describes the circumstances of 102 women who underwent a TOP from two socioeconomic sites in Johannesburg, South Africa, one serving women with few economic resources and the other serving women with adequate resources. The relationship between demographic characteristics, resilience and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression before, 1 month after and 3 months after the procedure was also examined.Results. Time since TOP, age, chronic burden, resilience and the interaction of site with religion and site with chronic burden were significant. In addition, site differences were found for religion and chronic burden in predicting depression scores. Women from both sites had significant decreases in depression scores over time. The interaction of time with site was not significant. Higher chronic burden scores correlated with higher depression scores. No variables were significant in the bivariate analysis for PTSD.Conclusion. Resilience, religion and chronic burden emerge as significant variables in women undergoing a first-trimester TOP, and warrant further assessment in studies of this nature

X-Ray Phase-Contrast Imaging with Three 2D Gratings

X-ray imaging is of paramount importance for clinical and preclinical imaging but it is fundamentally restricted by the attenuation-based contrast mechanism, which has remained essentially the same since Roentgen's discovery a century ago. Recently, based on the Talbot effect, groundbreaking work was reported using 1D gratings for X-ray phase-contrast imaging with a hospital-grade X-ray tube instead of a synchrotron or microfocused source. In this paper, we report an extension using 2D gratings that reduces the imaging time and increases the accuracy and robustness of phase retrieval compared to current grating-based phase-contrast techniques. Feasibility is demonstrated via numerical simulation

Fast colon centreline calculation using optimised 3D topological thinning

Topological thinning can be used to accurately identify the central path through a computer model of the colon generated using computed tomography colonography. The central path can subsequently be used to simplify the task of navigation within the colon model. Unfortunately standard topological thinning is an extremely inefficient process. We present an optimised version of topological thinning that significantly improves the performance of centreline calculation without compromising the accuracy of the result. This is achieved by using lookup tables to reduce the computational burden associated with the thinning process

Children and older adults exhibit distinct sub-optimal cost-benefit functions when preparing to move their eyes and hands

"© 2015 Gonzalez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited"Numerous activities require an individual to respond quickly to the correct stimulus. The provision of advance information allows response priming but heightened responses can cause errors (responding too early or reacting to the wrong stimulus). Thus, a balance is required between the online cognitive mechanisms (inhibitory and anticipatory) used to prepare and execute a motor response at the appropriate time. We investigated the use of advance information in 71 participants across four different age groups: (i) children, (ii) young adults, (iii) middle-aged adults, and (iv) older adults. We implemented 'cued' and 'non-cued' conditions to assess age-related changes in saccadic and touch responses to targets in three movement conditions: (a) Eyes only; (b) Hands only; (c) Eyes and Hand. Children made less saccade errors compared to young adults, but they also exhibited longer response times in cued versus non-cued conditions. In contrast, older adults showed faster responses in cued conditions but exhibited more errors. The results indicate that young adults (18 -25 years) achieve an optimal balance between anticipation and execution. In contrast, children show benefits (few errors) and costs (slow responses) of good inhibition when preparing a motor response based on advance information; whilst older adults show the benefits and costs associated with a prospective response strategy (i.e., good anticipation)

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and HIV Risk Among Poor, Inner-City Women Receiving Care in an Emergency Department

Objectives. We examined the associations between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and HIV risk behaviors among a random sample of 241 low-income women receiving care in an urban emergency department. Methods. We recruited participants from the emergency department waiting room during randomly selected 6-hour blocks of time. Multivariate analyses and propensity score weighting were used to examine the associations between PTSD and HIV risk after adjustment for potentially confounding sociodemographic variables, substance use, childhood sexual abuse, and intimate partner violence. Results. A large majority of the sample self-identified as Latina (49%) or African American (44%). Almost one third (29%) of the participants met PTSD criteria. Women who exhibited symptoms in 1 or more PTSD symptom clusters were more likely than women who did not to report having had sex with multiple sexual partners, having had sex with a risky partner, and having experienced partner violence related to condom use in the preceding 6 months. Conclusions. The high rate of PTSD found in this sample and the significant associations between PTSD symptom clusters and partner-related risk behaviors highlight the need to take PTSD into account when designing HIV prevention interventions for low-income, urban women

Radiation Campaign of HPK Prototype LGAD sensors for the High-Granularity Timing Detector (HGTD)

We report on the results of a radiation campaign with neutrons and protons of Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD) produced by Hamamatsu (HPK) as prototypes for the High-Granularity Timing Detector (HGTD) in ATLAS. Sensors with an active thickness of 50~$\mu$m were irradiated in steps of roughly 2$\times$ up to a fluence of $3\times10^{15}~\mathrm{n_{eq}cm^{-2}}$. As a function of the fluence, the collected charge and time resolution of the irradiated sensors will be reported for operation at $-30^{\circ}$

Talking Less during Social Interactions Predicts Enjoyment: A Mobile Sensing Pilot Study

Can we predict which conversations are enjoyable without hearing the words that are spoken? A total of 36 participants used a mobile app, My Social Ties, which collected data about 473 conversations that the participants engaged in as they went about their daily lives. We tested whether conversational properties (conversation length, rate of turn taking, proportion of speaking time) and acoustical properties (volume, pitch) could predict enjoyment of a conversation. Surprisingly, people enjoyed their conversations more when they spoke a smaller proportion of the time. This pilot study demonstrates how conversational properties of social interactions can predict psychologically meaningful outcomes, such as how much a person enjoys the conversation. It also illustrates how mobile phones can provide a window into everyday social experiences and well-being

Adverse childhood experiences and prescription drug use in a cohort study of adult HMO patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Prescription drugs account for approximately 11% of national health expenditures. Prior research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), which include common forms of child maltreatment and related traumatic stressors, has linked them to numerous health problems. However, data about the relationship of these experiences to prescription drug use are scarce.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>We used the ACE Score (an integer count of 8 different categories of ACEs) as a measure of cumulative exposure to traumatic stress during childhood. We prospectively assessed the relationship of the Score to prescription drug use in a cohort of 15,033 adult HMO patients (mean follow-up: 6.1 years) and assessed mediation of this relationship by documented ACE-related health and social problems.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nearly 1.2 million prescriptions were recorded; prescriptions rates increased in a graded fashion as the ACE Score increased (p for trend < 0.0001). Compared to persons with an ACE Score of 0, persons with a Score ≥ 5 had rates increased by 40%; graded relationships were seen for all age groups (18–44, 45–64, and 65–89 years) (p for trend < 0.01). Graded relationships were observed for the risk of being in the upper decile of number of classes of drugs used; persons with scores of ≥ 5 had this risk increased 2-fold. Adjustment for ACE-related health problems reduced the strength of the associations by more than 60%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>ACEs substantially increase the number of prescriptions and classes of drugs used for as long as 7 or 8 decades after their occurrence. The increases in prescription drug use were largely mediated by documented ACE-related health and social problems.</p

Adverse childhood experiences are associated with the risk of lung cancer: a prospective cohort study

Background. Strong relationships between exposure to childhood traumatic stressors and smoking behaviours inspire the question whether these adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with an increased risk of lung cancer during adulthood. Methods. Baseline survey data on health behaviours, health status and exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were collected from 17,337 adults during 1995-1997. ACEs included abuse (emotional, physical, sexual), witnessing domestic violence, parental separation or divorce, or growing up in a household where members with mentally ill, substance abusers, or sent to prison. We used the ACE score (an integer count of the 8 categories of ACEs) as a measure of cumulative exposure to traumatic stress during childhood. Two methods of case ascertainment were used to identify incident lung cancer through 2005 follow-up: 1) hospital discharge records and 2) mortality records obtained from the National Death Index. Results. The ACE score showed a graded relationship to smoking behaviors. We identified 64 cases of lung cancer through hospital discharge records (age-standardized risk = 201 × 100,000-1 population) and 111 cases of lung cancer through mortality records (age-standardized mortality rate = 31.1 × 100,000 -1 person-years). The ACE score also showed a graded relationship to the incidence of lung cancer for cases identified through hospital discharge (P = 0.0004), mortality (P = 0.025), and both methods combined (P = 0.001). Compared to persons without ACEs, the risk of lung cancer for those with 6 ACEs was increased approximately 3-fold (hospital records: RR = 3.18, 95%CI = 0.71-14.15; mortality records: RR = 3.55, 95%CI = 1.25-10.09; hospital or mortality records: RR = 2.70, 95%CI = 0.94-7.72). After a priori consideration of a causal pathway (i.e., ACEs smoking lung cancer), risk ratios were attenuated toward the null, although not completely. For lung cancer identified through hospital or mortality records, persons with 6 ACEs were roughly 13 years younger on average at presentation than those without ACEs. Conclusions. Adverse childhood experiences may be associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, particularly premature death from lung cancer. The increase in risk may only be partly explained by smoking suggesting other possible mechanisms by which ACEs may contribute to the occurrence of lung cancer