Faculty Bibliography

AIMS/UNASSIGNED:) to impute missing alcohol data in a prospective study among pregnant women. METHODS/UNASSIGNED:imputed values were weighted for the distances and matched for the day of the week. Since participants with no missing days were not comparable to those with missing data, segments of non-missing data from all participants were included as a reference. Validation was done after randomly deleting data for 5-15 consecutive days from the first trimester. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:We found that data from 5 nearest neighbors (i.e., K = 5) and segments of 55 days provided imputed values with least imputation error. After deleting data segments from the first trimester data set with no missing days, there was no difference between actual and predicted values for 64% of deleted segments. For 31% of the segments, imputed data were within +/-1 drink/day of the actual. Imputation accuracy varied by study site because of the differences in the magnitude of drinking and proportion of missing data. CONCLUSION/UNASSIGNED:

Healthcare workers (HCWs) were at increased risk for mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, with prior data suggesting women may be particularly vulnerable. Our global mental health study aimed to examine factors associated with gender differences in psychological distress and depressive symptoms among HCWs during COVID-19. Across 22 countries in South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, 32,410 HCWs participated in the COVID-19 HEalth caRe wOrkErS (HEROES) study between March 2020 and February 2021. They completed the General Health Questionnaire-12, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and questions about pandemic-relevant exposures. Consistently across countries, women reported elevated mental health problems compared to men. Women also reported increased COVID-19-relevant stressors, including insufficient personal protective equipment and less support from colleagues, while men reported increased contact with COVID-19 patients. At the country level, HCWs in countries with higher gender inequality reported less mental health problems. Higher COVID-19 mortality rates were associated with increased psychological distress merely among women. Our findings suggest that among HCWs, women may have been disproportionately exposed to COVID-19-relevant stressors at the individual and country level. This highlights the importance of considering gender in emergency response efforts to safeguard women's well-being and ensure healthcare system preparedness during future public health crises.

Premenstrual exacerbation of an existing psychiatric disorder refers to the worsening of symptoms inherent to the condition during the premenstrual phase. Research consistently indicates that hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle present a unique period of vulnerability for the onset or exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms, impacting diagnosis, risk assessment, and treatment. This review sought to elucidate the phenomenon of premenstrual exacerbation and its impact across a spectrum of psychiatric illnesses, including mood, anxiety, psychotic, obsessive-compulsive, personality, and trauma-related disorders. Despite the expanded research in recent years on premenstrual dysphoric disorder and premenstrual syndrome, premenstrual exacerbation remains underexplored and poorly defined. This review offers significant contributions to the diagnosis and management of psychiatric conditions, advocating for heightened awareness and novel treatment approaches in the context of premenstrual exacerbation.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW/UNASSIGNED:The incorporation of digital technologies and their use in youth's everyday lives has been increasing rapidly over the past several decades with possible impacts on youth development and mental health. This narrative review aimed to consider how the use of digital technologies may be influencing brain development underlying adaptive and maladaptive screen-related behaviors. RECENT FINDINGS/UNASSIGNED:To explore and provide direction for further scientific inquiry, an international group of experts considered what is known, important gaps in knowledge, and how a research agenda might be pursued regarding relationships between screen media activity and neurodevelopment from infancy through childhood and adolescence. While an understanding of brain-behavior relationships involving screen media activity has been emerging, significant gaps exist that have important implications for the health of developing youth. SUMMARY/UNASSIGNED:Specific considerations regarding brain-behavior relationships involving screen media activity exist for infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood; middle childhood; and adolescence. Transdiagnostic frameworks may provide a foundation for guiding future research efforts. Translating knowledge gained into better interventions and policy to promote healthy development is important in a rapidly changing digital technology environment.

The promise of individually tailored care for autism has driven efforts to establish biomarkers. This chapter appraises the state of precision-medicine research focused on biomarkers based on the functional brain connectome. This work is grounded on abundant evidence supporting the brain dysconnection model of autism and the advantages of resting-state functional MRI (R-fMRI) for studying the brain in vivo. After considering biomarker requirements of consistency and clinical relevance, we provide a scoping review of R-fMRI studies of individual prediction in autism. In the past 10 years, responding to the availability of open data through the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange, machine learning studies have surged. Nearly all have focused on diagnostic label classification. These efforts have shown that autism prediction is feasible using functional connectome markers, with accuracy reported well above chance. In parallel, emerging approaches more directly addressing autism heterogeneity are paving the way for much-needed biomarkers of longitudinal outcome and treatment response. We conclude with key challenges to be addressed by the next generation of studies.

Immigrant communities in the United States are diverse and have many assets. Yet, they often experience stressors that can undermine the mental health of residents. To fully promote mental health and well-being among immigrant communities, it is important to emphasize population-level policies and practices that may serve to mitigate stress and prevent mental health disorders. In this paper, we describe the stressors and stress experienced by immigrant families, using Sunset Park, Brooklyn as an example. We discuss ways to build structures and policies in support of equitable environments that promote mental health at the population level and enable families and their children to thrive.

BACKGROUND:We examined neighborhood characteristics concerning breast cancer screening annual adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS:We analyzed 6673 female patients aged 40 or older at increased inherited cancer risk in 2 large health care systems (NYU Langone Health [NYULH] and the University of Utah Health [UHealth]). Multinomial models were used to identify predictors of mammogram screening groups (non-adherent, pre-pandemic adherent, pandemic period adherent) in comparison to adherent females. Potential determinants included sociodemographic characteristics and neighborhood factors. RESULTS:Comparing each cancer group in reference to the adherent group, a reduced likelihood of being non-adherent was associated with older age (OR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.95, 0.99), a greater number of relatives with cancer (OR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.75, 0.86), and being seen at NYULH study site (OR: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.29, 0.60). More relatives with cancer were correlated with a lesser likelihood of being pandemic period adherent (OR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.81, 0.97). A lower likelihood of being pre-pandemic adherent was seen in areas with less education (OR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.62, 0.96) and NYULH study site (OR: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.22, 0.55). Finally, greater neighborhood deprivation (OR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.08, 2.01) was associated with being non-adherent. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Breast screening during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with being older, having more relatives with cancer, residing in areas with less educational attainment, and being seen at NYULH; non-adherence was linked with greater neighborhood deprivation. These findings may mitigate risk of clinically important screening delays at times of disruptions in a population at greater risk for breast cancer.