Nancy Amodei

Reactions of dysmenorrheic and nondysmenorrheic women to experimentally induced pain throughout the menstrual cycle

It has been proposed that dysmenorrheic women have a heightened pain sensitivity compared to nondysmenorrheic women, although previous studies investigating this hypothesis have yielded conflicting results. This study investigated the pain sensitivity of nondysmenorrheic women and of women suffering from spasmodic, congestive, and combined dysmenorrhea, across three phases of the menstrual cycle: premenstrual, menstrual, and intermenstrual. No interaction between type of dysmenorrhea and menstrual phase was found for either pain threshold or pain tolerance, using three procedures of experimentally induced pain. On a self-report measure of pain, however, the congestive and combined dysmenorrheics reported the highest degree of pain and distress, especially during the premenstrual and menstrual phases; nonsufferers reported the lowest degree and were stable across phases.

Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity in Youth With Recent Onset of Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE: With the rise of type 2 diabetes in youth, it is critical to investigate factors such as physical activity (PA) and time spent sedentary that may be contributing to this public health problem. This article describes PA and sedentary time in a large cohort of youth with type 2 diabetes and compares these levels with other large-scale investigations. METHODS: The Treatment Options for Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth (TODAY) trial is a study in 699 youth, recruited from 15 US clinical centers, aged 10 to 17 years with <2 years of type 2 diabetes and a BMI ≥85th percentile. RESULTS: In comparison with the subset of the NHANES cohort who were obese (BMI ≥95th percentile), TODAY youth spent significantly more time being sedentary (difference averaging 56 minutes per day; P < .001) as assessed by accelerometry. Although moderate to vigorous activity levels in both obese cohorts for all age groups were exceptionally low, younger TODAY boys were still significantly less active than similarly aged NHANES youth. Comparisons between the TODAY girls and other investigations suggest that the TODAY girls also had relatively lower PA and fitness levels. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with type 2 diabetes from the large TODAY cohort appear to be less physically active and tend to spend more time being sedentary than similarly aged youth without diabetes identified from other large national investigations. Treatment efforts in adolescents with type 2 diabetes should include decreasing sitting along with efforts to increase PA levels.

Blocking acquisition of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response to serial conditioned stimuli

Abstract Three experiments demonstrated that prior training with one stimulus (CS1) would block acquisition of the rabbits nictitating membrane response (NMR) to another stimulus (CS2) which was more contiguous to the US during serial compound training (CS1-CS2-US). Specifically, the CS1-US interval was 800 msec, which produces only a modest rate of CR acquisition, while the CS2-US interval was 400 msec, which is an optimal value for the NMR preparation. Experiment 1 demonstrated blocking when CS1 overlapped CS2, and Experiment 3 demonstrated blocking when CS1 and CS2 were presented in a strictly sequential fashion. Experiment 2 showed that the magnitude of blocking in the serial compound was comparable to that obtained in a simultaneous compound in which both the CS1-US and CS2-US intervals were 800 msec, thus making CS2 less contiguous with the US than in the serial compound. Moreover, the level of responding to CS2 in all serial compound groups (blocking and control) was lower than in the simultaneous compound groups. The present findings provide further evidence that the associative consequences of CS-US contiguity can be highly attenuated by processes of attention or competition for associative strength.

Psychologists' contribution to the prevention of youth violence

Abstract Psychologists began their scientific study of violence and aggression during the first half of last century. Since then, much psychological knowledge has been assembled regarding the causes of violence as well as its prevention. This paper will provide an overview of the contribution of psychology to our present understanding of the causes of youth violence as well the contribution of this discipline to the development of effective prevention strategies. The first section will briefly review current epidemiological data regarding youth violence in the U.S. and the consequences of such violence for the individual and society. The second section will address the major psychological theories of youth violence, as well as provide an overview of the various individual and contextual factors that may influence the expression of violence. A third segment of the article will review some promising and effective preventive interventions emanating from the psychological research literature. In addition, we will provide a brief overview of our own applied research and discuss how these studies contribute to the gradually increasing armamentarium of effective solutions to this hugely significant societal problem.

Predictors of initial abstinence in smokers enrolled in a smoking cessation program.

The present study examined the relative contribution of nicotine dependence, self-efficacy, and stages of change variables in predicting the initial abstinence of 102 smokers enrolled in a smoking cessation program. Over half the participants were female, the majority were White, and about half were married or living with a partner. Data were collected between 2000 and 2002. When smoking abstinence was defined as having a breath carbon monoxide (CO) level < 4 ppm within 24 hours of enrollment in the study, low nicotine dependence and a higher level of contemplation both predicted abstinence. When other potentially confounding variables were included in the analysis, neither nicotine dependence nor contemplation was predictive of abstinence. When abstinence was defined as the number of study baseline days in which the participant had a breath CO level < 4 ppm, multiple-regression analysis revealed that self-efficacy predicted abstinence. Self-efficacy remained predictive when other potentially confounding variables were included in the analysis. These results suggest that all three types of constructs are useful in predicting initial smoking abstinence.

Unilateral knife cuts produce ipsilateral suppression of responsiveness to pain in the formalin test.

Abstract The present experiment investigated the possibility that unilateral brain interventions would produce unilateral deficits in responsiveness to painful stimulation. One hundred and four male rats were subjected to coronal knife cuts in the right or left hemisphere or to control operations. All rats were injected subdermally in the dorsal surface of both forepaws with 0.05 ml of 5% formalin. Responsiveness to pain was scored on a 4-point scale by rating the spatial position of each injected forepaw relative to the floor. Rats subjected to cuts through (a) the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) and the medial portion of the internal capsule (IC), (b) the thalamus, and (c) through both of these regions obtained greatly reduced pain scores on the ipsilateral forepaw. Most of these rats did not orient to innocuous tactile stimuli applied to the contralateral side of the body and turned ipsilaterally in a rotation bowl. Cuts involving the IC and MFB produced accumulation of substance P-like immunoreactivity in the IC rostral to the cut and accumulation of acetylcholinesterase in the MFB caudal to the cut. A motor deficit cannot be excluded as a factor contributing to the asymmetry observed in the formalin test. However, it is possible that the lower pain scores on the ipsilateral forepaw indicate a disturbance in the neural projections involved in transmission and perception of pain induced by formalin.

Over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy: can its impact on smoking cessation be enhanced?

Nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) are efficacious smoking-cessation aids. However, only minimal increases in smoking cessation followed NRTs being made available over-the-counter (OTC), which presumably made these treatments more readily available. To better understand why the United States did not experience improvements in smoking cessation following the OTC availability of NRTs, it is useful to review factors that determine NRTs impact on smoking cessation and how these factors played out with the introduction of OTC NRT. The authors contend that for NRTs to have a greater impact on public health, increases are needed in the number of individuals making a quit attempt, the proportion using NRTs in a quit attempt, and the effectiveness of each quit attempt. Even small increases in the impact of OTC NRTs could yield significant benefits in terms of morbidity and mortality. The remainder of this article provides examples of interventions designed to target each of the aforementioned factors individually as well as examples of interventions that link increased cessation attempts, increased NRT reach, and increased NRT efficacy in order to synergistically enhance the impact of OTC NRTs.

Self-Reported Dietary Intake of Youth with Recent Onset of Type 2 Diabetes: Results from the TODAY Study

Despite the widely recognized importance of diet in managing diabetes, few studies have documented usual dietary intake in young people with type 2 diabetes. The objectives of our study were to assess dietary intake among a large, ethnically diverse cohort of young people with type 2 diabetes and compare intake to current recommendations. The Treatment Options for Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth (TODAY) study is a multicenter randomized clinical trial of 699 youth aged 10 to 17 years. At baseline, following a run-in period that included standard diabetes education, diet was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire between 2004 and 2009. Analysis of variance and nonparametric tests were used to compare mean and median nutrient intakes; logistic regression was used to compare the odds of meeting predefined dietary intake recommendation cutpoints between subgroups of age, sex, and race-ethnicity. Percent of energy from saturated fat was consistently 13% to 14% across all subgroups-substantially exceeding national recommendations. Overall, only 12% of youth met Healthy People 2010 guidelines for intake of <10% of energy from saturated fat and only 1% of youth met American Diabetes Association recommendations for intake of <7% of energy from saturated fat. Dietary intake fell substantially below other Healthy People 2010 targets; only 3% met calcium intake goals, 11% met fruit consumption goals, 5% met vegetable consumption goals, and 67% met grain intake goals. Overall, dietary intake in this large cohort of young people with type 2 diabetes fell substantially short of recommendations, in ways that were consistent by sex, age, and race-ethnicity. The data suggest a critical need for better approaches to improve dietary intake of these young people.

Psychological adaptation and distress among HIV+ latina women: Adaptation to HIV in a Mexican American cultural context

Abstract In order to examine the relative importance of general individual orientations (mastery and self-esteem) and specific coping styles with regard to psychological distress among women with HIV, data are examined from a pilot study involving in-depth face-to-face interviews with 32 HIV+ Latinas receiving care at 4 clinics serving the South Texas population. Interviews were conducted to provide preliminary psychometric information on coping and distress instruments in this predominantly Mexican American population as well as to examine psychosocial factors related to individual adjustment to HIV among Latina females. Refusal rates were low in this study (approximately 10%) and measurement instruments generally had acceptable internal consistency reliability. Results of exploratory multiple regression analyses suggest that self-esteem and mastery may be more salient predictors of depression and anxiety symptoms than are specific coping strategies.

PSYCHOMETRIC ASSESSMENT OF MEASURES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS, FUNCTIONAL STATUS, LIFE EVENTS, AND CONTEXT FOR LOW INCOME HISPANIC PATIENTS IN A PRIMARY CARE SETTING

This study assessed the psychometric properties of a set of nine commonly used lists in an English-speaking Hispanic sample taken from a primary care setting. These were the General Health Questionnaire-12, the Anxiety, Depression, and Somatization scales from the SCL-90, the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36, the Holmes and Rahe Family Life Changes, abbreviated versions of the Daily Hassles and Uplifts, the Herth Hope Index, Duke Social Support and Stress scales, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, and Marlowe-Crowne Brief Social Desirability Scale. 68 adult patients completed the measures via structured interview. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach alpha and the Kuder-Richardson-20. Construct validity was assessed using Pearson correlations among sets of scores. Internal consistencies were good-to-excellent for all measures except for the Duke Social Support and Stress scales (Stress scale), and the Brief Social Desirability Scale. Construct validity was suggested for all except the Mental Health and Energy/Fatigue scales of the Short Form-36. Further study is needed to verify these results in other Hispanic populations and to address other forms of reliability and validity.