Screening for trauma-related symptoms via a smartphone app : The validity of Smart Assessment on your Mobile in referred police officers

To facilitate easily accessible screening for trauma-related symptoms, a web-based application called Smart Assessment on your Mobile (SAM) was developed. In this study, we examined whether SAM was able to accurately identify posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in adults.

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The assessment of psychopathology among traumatized refugees : measurement invariance of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 across five linguistic groups

Background: Questionnaires are widely used to assess the mental health status of refugees, whereas their construct validity largely remains unexplored.

Objective: This study examined the construct validity of two widely-used instruments for the assessment of PTSD symptoms (Harvard Trauma Questionnaire [HTQ]; 16 items) and symptoms of anxiety and depression (Hopkins Symptom Check list-25 [HSCL-25]; 25 items) among Dutch and refugee patients with different linguistic backgrounds.

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Grief following homicidal loss

Homicidally bereaved individuals have to deal with the notion that their loved one

is deliberately taken from them: the death is caused by the premeditated action of

another individual, most often unexpected. While the psychological consequences

for the people left behind are assumed to be great, few studies systematically

examined psychopathology following homicidal bereavement. The aim of this

dissertation was threefold. First of all, adaptation to homicidal loss was examined,

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Treating posttraumatic stress disorder with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy : A preliminary meta-analysis and comparison to prolonged exposure therapy

Abstract

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Trauma-Focused Therapy for Older Adults

Improvements in biomedicine and public health have resulted in a substantial growth of the older adult population in the United States and other industrialized countries. Indeed, 12.4% of Americans, or over 40 million individuals, are currently 65 and over, with the fastest growing segment of older adults those between the ages of 85 to 94. This will likely mean an increased need for mental health services for olderadults (Karel, Gatz, & Smyer, 2012).

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Sex differences in the association between area deprivation and generalised anxiety disorder : British population study

Abstract

Objective Studies have shown that area-level deprivation measured by factors, such as non-home ownership, non-car ownership and household overcrowding, can increase the risk for mental disorders over and above individual-level circumstances, such as education and social class. Whether area-level deprivation is associated with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) independent of personal circumstances, and whether this association is different between British women and men is unknown.

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Does the Vulnerability Paradox in PTSD Apply to Women and Men? An Exploratory Study

Abstract

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Disturbed grief : prolonged grief disorder and persistent complex bereavement disorder

What you need to know

  • When confronted with the death of a loved one, most people experience transient rather than persistent distress, and do not develop a mental health condition.

  • Bereavement, specifically the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one is associated with an elevated risk for multiple psychiatric disorders.

  • Consider prolonged grief disorder (PGD) in people with ongoing separation distress beyond the first six to 12 months of bereavement.

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Resilience in refugee and Dutch adolescents : Genetic variability in the corticotropin releasing hormone receptor 1

Relationships between the corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 (CRHR1) [rs878886] and serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR), with resilience and satisfaction with life were examined in 172 adolescents; 70 refugee adolescents living in the Netherlands and 102 non-refugee (Dutch) adolescents. Genetic variation in the CRHR1 was related with self-reported resilience and satisfaction with life, while the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism was not.

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Intranasal oxytocin increases neural responses to social reward in post-traumatic stress disorder

Therapeutic alliance and perceived social support are important predictors of treatment response for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Intranasal oxytocin administration may enhance treatment response by increasing sensitivity for social reward and thereby therapeutic alliance and perceived social support. As a first step to investigate this therapeutical potential, we investigated whether intranasal oxytocin enhances neural sensitivity to social reward in PTSD patients.

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