Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVE:Although several treatments have been shown to be effective in treatment of youth suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs), there is a pressing need to account for the substantial variation in adolescents' response to and outcomes from these treatments. METHOD:Secondary analyses of data from a 16-week randomized trial of Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT) and Family-Enhanced NonDirective Supportive Therapy (FE-NST) identified distinct classes of adolescents' treatment response. Established risk factors for STBs, along with treatment condition and sociodemographic variables, were then tested as predictors of class membership. RESULTS:Three patterns of adolescents' treatment response and outcome were identified: a) nonresponders (15.8%), b) good responders (57.5%), and c) partial responders (26.7%). After controlling for initial symptom severity, nonresponders were more likely to have higher levels of nonsuicidal self-injury and pessimism and were more likely to meet diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) than good or partial responders. Partial responders were more likely than good responders to meet criteria for MDD and to have higher perceived burdensomeness. CONCLUSION:Although most adolescents showed significant symptom reductions with both treatments, adolescents with higher pretreatment levels of pessimism, MDD, nonsuicidal self-injury, and perceived burdensomeness were less likely to show an optimal pattern of treatment benefit. The findings point to heterogeneity in treatment response that may require adapting treatments for adolescents with these pretreatment profiles. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION:Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Suicidal Adolescents; http://clinicaltrials.gov; NCT01537419.

The current study examined emotional awareness as a predictor of differential outcomes for youth treated for an anxiety disorder. 37 youth ages 7-15 received either individual cognitive-behavioral therapy or family cognitive-behavioral therapy to treat generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and/or social phobia. Diagnoses were determined by independent evaluators, following semi-structured interviews (ADIS-IV-C/P) with youth and their parents. Self-report questionnaires, including the multidimensional anxiety scale for children and the emotion expressivity scale for children, were completed at pre- and posttreatment. Youth with higher levels of pretreatment emotional awareness had better treatment outcomes than youth with lower levels of emotional awareness, with specific regard to improved ability to cope with worry. Findings suggest that higher levels of emotional awareness facilitate better specific outcomes for anxious youth. Findings highlight the importance of understanding the emotions associated with worry during the treatment process.

This study evaluated the impact on young women's body satisfaction of an advertising campaign: Aerie Real, which included images of models who were not digitally modified. In total, 200 female students were randomly allocated to view either Aerie Real images or digitally modified images from previous campaigns. In the total sample, no condition differences appeared. However, participants with high appearance comparison reported a smaller decrease in body satisfaction after viewing the Aerie Real images as compared to those viewing previous images ( p = .003). Findings provide preliminary support for the Aerie Real campaign as less deleterious form of media for body image.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the factors associated with the adoption of research-supported interventions (RSIs) in outpatient mental health clinics serving youth in order to inform implementation efforts and ultimately improve treatment outcomes. Method: This explanatory cross-sectional study includes secondary data from a clinical trial of an innovative group-based RSI in public mental health clinics for youth in New York City. Structural Equation Modeling examined the relationships between attitudes toward and beliefs of RSIs and uptake/use of RSIs in practice among providers in mental health settings. Results: As providers attitudes toward and beliefs about RSIs became more favorable, on average, RSIs were used more in practice in mental health settings serving youth. Conclusion: These findings indicate attitudes toward, and beliefs about innovation can be a precursor to the decision whether or not to use an innovative RSI in clinical practice in these settings. Implications and future directions are discussed.

This study examined the effect of an interference task on the consolidation of duration in long-term memory. In a temporal generalization task, the participants performed a learning phase with a reference duration that either was, or was not, followed 30 min later by a 15-min interference task. They were then given a memory test, 24 h later. Using different participant groups, several reference durations were examined, from several hundred milliseconds (600 ms) to several seconds (2.5, 4, and 8 s). The results showed that the scalar timing property (i.e., precision proportional to judged duration) was preserved despite the interference task given during the memory consolidation process. However, the interference task increased the variability of time judgment and tended to produce a lengthening effect in all reference duration conditions. The modeling of individual data with parameters derived from scalar expectancy theory suggests that disrupting the memory consolidation of learned reference durations introduces noise in their representation in memory, with time being specifically distorted toward a lengthened duration.

Precise timing makes the difference between harmony and cacophony, but how the brain achieves precision during timing is unknown. In this study, human participants (7 females, 5 males) generated a time interval while being recorded with magnetoencephalography. Building on the proposal that the coupling of neural oscillations provides a temporal code for information processing in the brain, we tested whether the strength of oscillatory coupling was sensitive to self-generated temporal precision. On a per individual basis, we show the presence of alpha-beta phase-amplitude coupling whose strength was associated with the temporal precision of self-generated time intervals, not with their absolute duration. Our results provide evidence that active oscillatory coupling engages α oscillations in maintaining the precision of an endogenous temporal motor goal encoded in β power; the when of self-timed actions. We propose that oscillatory coupling indexes the variance of neuronal computations, which translates into the precision of an individual's behavioral performance.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Which neural mechanisms enable precise volitional timing in the brain is unknown, yet accurate and precise timing is essential in every realm of life. In this study, we build on the hypothesis that neural oscillations, and their coupling across time scales, are essential for the coding and for the transmission of information in the brain. We show the presence of alpha-beta phase-amplitude coupling (α-β PAC) whose strength was associated with the temporal precision of self-generated time intervals, not with their absolute duration. α-β PAC indexes the temporal precision with which information is represented in an individual's brain. Our results link large-scale neuronal variability on the one hand, and individuals' timing precision, on the other.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative disorder, caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the gene encoding the huntingtin protein. At the premanifest phase, before motor symptoms occur, psychiatric and emotional disorders are observed with high prevalence in HD patients. Agitation, anxiety and irritability are often described but also depression and/or apathy, associated with a lack of emotional control. The aim of the present study was to better circumscribe and understand the emotional symptoms and assess their evolution according to the progression of the disease using a transgenic HD model, BACHD rats, at the age of 4, 12 and 18 months. To achieve this goal, we confronted animals to two types of tests: first, tests assessing anxiety like the light/dark box and the conflict test, which are situations that did not involve an obvious threat and tests assessing the reactivity to a present threat using confrontation with an unknown conspecific (social behavior test) or with an aversive stimulus (fear conditioning test). In all animals, results show an age-dependent anxiety-like behavior, particularly marked in situation requiring passive responses (light/dark box and fear conditioning tests). BACHD rats exhibited a more profound alteration than WT animals in these tests from an early stage of the disease whereas, in tasks requiring some kind of motivation (for food or for social contacts), only old BACHD rats showed high anxiety-like behavior compared to WT, may be partly due to the other symptoms' occurrence at this stage: locomotor difficulties and/or apathy.