Treatment, Age, and Time-Related Predictors of Behavioral Outcome in Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors

The research has shown that children surviving cancer are at risk for long-term emotional and behavioral problems secondary to the cumulative effects of cranial irradiation and chemotherapy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the emotional and behavioral outcome of children diagnosed with brain tumor and treated with cranial irradiation and chemotherapy by looking at the association between treatment, time, age, and cognitive-related variables on externalizing and internalizing behaviors at 3 years posttreatment. Fifty-four brain tumor survivors were administered a neuropsychological test battery, whereas the parents filled out the CBCL and Conners' Parent Rating Scale. The results indicate that chemotherapy treatment with vincristine, cytoxan, cisplantinum, and/or VP16 was related to poorer internalizing and externalizing behavioral outcome, especially attention, social withdrawal, and anxious–depressive symptomatology. Age at time of diagnosis or treatment, time since discontinuation of treatment, type and/or total dose of radiation therapy was not significantly correlated with any of the behavioral outcome scales. Verbal memory and learning deficits accounted for a significant portion of the variance in social withdrawal, whereas lower scores in overall intellectual functioning and verbal fluency was related to disturbances in attention, inhibition, and social functioning. The findings suggest that children treated with 1 or a combination of any of the aforementioned chemotherapy agents who exhibit declines in intellectual functioning and memory are at increased risk for long-term behavioral problems 3 years after treatment cessation. These findings support the importance for early psychotherapeutic and supportive intervention services immediately after treatment cessation, with the goal of circumventing these potentially debilitating emotional problems.     

Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration Between Basic Behavioral Scientists and Public Health Scientists in Research on Mental Disorders

The behavioral and public health sciences both have a long and rich history supporting basic, translational, and applied research aimed at improving human lives and reducing human suffering. Through the complementary expertise of these disciplines, investigators have contributed to significant, worldwide improvements in mental and physical health. Further gains can be achieved through collaborative research among scientists in these 2 fields. Unfortunately, there are a number of barriers to such collaboration originating in different intellectual traditions, research methods, and the structure and values of academia. We identify these barriers and potential strategies for overcoming them. Several areas for future collaborative research appear promising, especially comorbid mental and physical disorders, adherence to interventions, stigma, and emotional processes. Theory-guided preventive interventions may represent especially fertile areas of collaborative effort.     

Increasing Behavioral Skills and Level of Understanding in Adults: A Brief Method Integrating Dennison's Brain Gym & #x00AE; Balance with Piaget's Reflective Processes

A single session intervention was given individually to 4 adults in order to assist them in achieving their personal goals by improving their behavioral skills for achieving the goals and their conceptual understanding of & #x201C;how to & #x201D; attain these goals. The method was based on a brain-ability analysis of understanding & #x201C;conservation & #x201D; on Jean Piaget's conservation tasks combined with Paul and Gail Dennison's Brain Gym & #x201C;balance & #x201D; procedure. My & #x201C;whole brain understanding & #x201D; model (C. A. Wolfsont, 1999, 2000) and M. L. Commons et al.'s Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System manual were used to analyze the verbal protocols (M. L. Commons et al., 1992; Commons, Danaher, & Meaney, 2000). Increases were found in the participants' conceptual understanding and in the complexity of their performance.     

Behavior in adulthood and during aging is affected by contaminant exposure in utero

Environmental contaminants can alter the course of neural development, with consequences that appear in behavior. Such effects extend into adulthood and sometimes accelerate the rate of aging, even when exposure ceases by birth. The neurotoxicant methylmercury provides an interesting case study that reveals much about how disrupted neural development has lifelong consequences. Methylmercury also provides an example of the assessment and management of risks associated with exposure to developmental neurotoxicants.     

The role of therapy productiveness on MFT clients’ intentions to persist in therapy

Many clients drop out of therapy before reaching their goals (Bohart &; Wade, 2013 Bohart, A. C., &; Wade, A. M. (2013). The client variables in psychotherapy. In M. Lambert (Ed.) Bergin &; Garfield’s Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change. (p. 219–257). New York: Wiley. [Google Scholar]), though being in therapy produces more change than not being in therapy (Lambert, 1992 Lambert, M. J. (1992). Implications of outcome research for psychotherapy integration. In J. C. Norcross &; M. R. Goldfried (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy integration (pp. 94–129). New York: Basic Books. [Google Scholar]). To investigate the factors that affect clients’ decisions to persist in therapy, we surveyed a convenience sample of 72 clients of MFTs in individual, couple or family therapy currently in treatment in a community-based therapy center. We tested moderation using regression analysis to determine the extent to which productiveness moderates the relationship between therapeutic alliance and intended persistence. Results showed that productiveness moderated the relationship between therapeutic alliance and intended persistence. Specifically, higher levels of therapy productiveness strengthened the relationship between therapeutic alliance and therapy persistence. Implications for future research and practice are presented and discussed.     

Psychological Interventions and Genetic Testing: Facilitating Informed Decisions About BRCA1/2 Cancer Susceptibility

Genetic testing for inherited cancer susceptibility, based on the recently identified. BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, will soon be available on a large scale. However, at present, genetic test results do not lead to clearly indicated diagnostic or preventive measures, and the nature of the psychological impact of BRCA1/2 testing is still largely unknown. This uncertainty, combined with preliminary evidence suggesting significant individual differences in reactions to genetic susceptibility feedback, constitutes a unique challenge for any individual contemplating such testing. We outline the nature of this challenge and then propose an intervention strategy designed to help individuals make deeply processed and psychologically well-informed decisions with regard to their genetic susceptibility. The intervention is guided by recent research findings and theory on the cognitive–emotional processing of cancer-risk information. Specifically, the goal is to prepare the individual for genetic testing by (1) cognitively and emotionally activating, or preliving, the individual's potential reactions to testing feedback; (2) facilitating accurate appraisal of the individual's cognitive–emotional reactions; and (3) enabling the individual to process these reactions through the use of well-established clinical techniques.     

Understanding and Treating Pain in Ethnically Diverse Patients

A revolution has taken place during the past 25 years in the understanding and treatment of chronic pain. Psychologists have contributed tremendously to this revolution. However, the primary psychological models of pain treatment have failed to adequately integrate the empirical findings and theoretical understanding of the role of ethnic factors. The goal of this paper is to address this problem by demonstrating the importance of understanding ethnic factors in treating pain, providing an overview of ethnic factors in pain, and proposing guidelines for Clinical Psychologists who treat pain patients from ethnically diverse backgrounds.     

Response persistence under ratio and interval reinforcement schedules

In Experiment 1, rats were exposed to progressive-ratio schedules of food reinforcement while other rats were exposed simultaneously to yoked-interval schedules that arranged equivalent interreinforcer intervals but required only a single response at the end of the interval for food delivery. In Experiment 2, a within-subject yoked-control procedure was employed in which pigeons were exposed to alternating sessions (one per day) of progressive-ratio schedules and yoked-interval schedules as described above. In both experiments, responding under the yoked-interval schedule persisted beyond the point at which responding under the progressive-ratio schedule had ceased. The progressive-ratio schedules controlled break-and-run distributions, and the yoked-interval schedules controlled more even distributions of responses in time. Response rates decreased and postreinforcement pauses increased over time within individual sessions under both schedules. The results suggest that responding maintained by interval schedules is more persistent than that maintained by ratio schedules. The limitations and implications of this conclusion are discussed in the context of other investigations of response strength and behavioral momentum.     

Role of Mental Simulations in the Weight Loss Process

Two experiments were conducted to verify the influence of various mental simulations on the effectiveness and persistence of weight loss processes. In study one, 40 female students (aged 19–27, M = 23) who were eager to lose weight were randomly assigned to one of four groups: positive outcome simulation, process simulations, mixed simulations (process followed by negative outcome), and control (no simulations). Students from the mixed and process simulation groups lost significantly more weight after five weeks than participants from the outcome simulation and control groups. A total of 106 females (aged 19–45, M = 29) participated in study two, in which five types of mental simulations were tested. Besides the images used in study one, process followed by positive outcome simulations and negative outcome simulations were implemented. Results showed that process followed by positive outcome simulations lead to the highest persistence in the weight loss process, while process followed by negative outcome simulations induced the greatest reduction in weight. Both studies revealed self-regulatory benefits from mental simulations in difficult and long-term personal goal attainment.