Behavioral Health Services Influence Medical Treatment Utilization Among Primary Care Patients with Comorbid Substance Use and Depression

Although research has shown benefits of integrating psychological care in primary care settings, it is unclear how this form of treatment impacts individuals with comorbid substance use and depression. The findings are also mixed concerning how frequently this comorbid population seeks primary care services. This study examined the associations between substance use, depression, and medical treatment utilization among 224 primary care patients. The aim of the investigation was twofold. First, to determine if depression increases medical treatment utilization among patients with substance use disorders; second, to evaluate if behavioral health treatment reduces medical service utilization. A moderated mediation model with bootstrapping analyses revealed that depression strengthened the relationship between substance use and primary care treatment utilization (both medical and behavioral health). The model also indicated that behavioral health services were associated with fewer primary care visits for individuals with comorbid substance use and depression. Clinical and social implications are discussed.     

Magnitude effects for experienced rewards at short delays in the escalating interest task

A first-person shooter video game was adapted for the study of choice between smaller sooner and larger later rewards. Participants chose when to fire a weapon that increased in damage potential over a short interval. When the delay to maximum damage was shorter (5–8 s), people showed greater sensitivity to the consequences of their choices than when the delay was longer (17–20 s). Participants also evidenced a magnitude effect by waiting proportionally longer when the damage magnitudes were doubled for all rewards. The experiment replicated the standard magnitude effect with this new video game preparation over time scales similar to those typically used in nonhuman animal studies and without complications due to satiation or cost.     

Acceptability of Psychotherapy, Pharmacotherapy, and Self-Directed Therapies in Australians Living with Chronic Hepatitis C

Despite the prevalence of psychiatric co-morbidity in chronic hepatitis C (CHC), treatment is under-researched. Patient preferences are likely to affect treatment uptake, adherence, and success. Thus, the acceptability of psychological supports was explored. A postal survey of Australian CHC outpatients of the Royal Adelaide Hospital and online survey of Australians living with CHC was conducted, assessing demographic and disease-related variables, psychosocial characteristics, past experience with psychological support, and psychological support acceptability. The final sample of 156 patients (58 % male) had significantly worse depression, anxiety, stress, and social support than norms. The most acceptable support type was individual psychotherapy (83 %), followed by bibliotherapy (61 %), pharmacotherapy (56 %), online therapy (45 %), and group psychotherapy (37 %). The most prominent predictor of support acceptability was satisfaction with past use. While individual psychotherapy acceptability was encouragingly high, potentially less costly modalities including group psychotherapy or online therapy may be hampered by low acceptability, the reasons for which need to be further explored.     

Brief Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxious Youth: Feasibility and Initial Outcomes

We developed and evaluated a brief (8-session) version of cognitive-behavioral therapy (BCBT) for anxiety disorders in youth ages 6 to 13. This report describes the design and development of the BCBT program and intervention materials (therapist treatment manual and child treatment workbook) and an initial evaluation of child treatment outcomes. Twenty-six children who met diagnostic criteria for a principal anxiety diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and/or social phobia were enrolled. Results suggest that BCBT is a feasible, acceptable, and beneficial treatment for anxious youth. Future research is needed to examine the relative efficacy of BCBT and CBT for child anxiety in a randomized controlled trial.     

A Mind-Body Approach to Domestic Violence Perpetrator Treatment: Program Overview and Preliminary Outcomes

Conventional interventions with perpetrators of domestic violence are marginally effective. Given these results, researchers and practitioners are beginning to focus on identifying ways to improve domestic violence treatment outcomes. This article describes how a rural state-sponsored domestic violence offender program utilizes a treatment approach known as Mind-Body Bridging to help its clients overcome their abusive behaviors. Preliminary findings from an ongoing outcome study are also reported. According to these findings, the program has a high completion rate coupled with a low recidivism rate. Ninety-three percent (82 of 88) of the clients who have participated in this program completed the program, and just 7%?(6 of 82) of those who completed the program reoffended during the follow-up period, which ranged from 9 to 27 months.     

Investigating Leader Role Congruity and Counterproductive Work Behavior

The present study sought to examine the role of fulfilled vs. unfulfilled expectations in work-related and non-work domains. Specifically, we examined how congruence and incongruence between implicit leadership theories across multiple categories of leaders (typical, ideal, and effective leaders) and characteristics recognized on one’s supervisor affect leader-member exchange (LMX), work-family conflict, and subsequent counter-productive work behavior. We tested our hypotheses using polynomial regression and response surface modeling. The results of this study showed that congruence between implicit leadership theories (ILT’s) of typical, ideal, and effective leaders and supervisor recognition, as well as incongruity between ILT’s of ideal leaders and characteristics recognized in one’s supervisor, significantly impacts perceived LMX quality with supervisors. Incongruity between ILT’s of typical and ideal leaders and supervisor recognition was also associated with higher ratings of work-family conflict (WFC). Finally, the results showed support for a significant indirect effect of congruence between ILTs of typical and ideal leaders and characteristics recognized in one’s supervisor on CWB through WFC. These results add meaningful depth to literature on congruent implicit theories in two ways: (a) we add to existing knowledge of outcomes associated with congruence on ILT’s, and, (b) we examine these associations using ILT’s across multiple categories of leaders. Implications are also discussed.     

Reconstructive Memory and Stereotyped Biasing

I examined the reconstructive processes of remembering past events when new information is made available. Analyses with a variety of materials and conditions failed to reveal effects for distortion in recognition memory for retrospective label manipulations. Effects of prior knowledge were consistently strong and highly resistant to subsequent biasing information. The results suggest that people are less susceptible to thematic-based, stereotypic information and possess a memory network more flexible than traditional research implies.     

The Longitudinal Interplay of Adolescents' Self-Esteem and Body Image: A Conditional Autoregressive Latent Trajectory Analysis

Suppose P_I and P₂ are two competing discrimination procedures. 1Co com-, its are pare the relative discriminatory power of both procedures, test statistics are suggested for the hypothesis that P_l and P₂ performed no better than, random assignment versus the alternative that P₁ did significantly better than P_e.