A Model for Providing Psychological Support to Healthcare Leaders and Teams in Times of Crisis.

OBJECTIVE: Pre-pandemic, the healthcare workforce was already at risk for higher burnout than the general population and, in some roles (e.g., physicians, nurses), at higher risk for clinical distress and suicide. Studies of healthcare workforce well-being during and after past pandemics reflect that distress can persist after a pandemic subsides, if adequate support within the workplace is not forthcoming and accessible. The current report presents the rationale for and development of a wellness consult service to provide support to leaders and teams in an academic medical center during the COVID-19 pandemic and now as teams work to recover and rebuild after years of significant pandemic and other stressors. METHODS: Healthcare workers who participated in supportive Listening Sessions or Interactive Workshops facilitated by the wellness consult service were invited to complete an anonymous post-session survey. RESULTS: Between March 2020 and November 2022, 185 leaders and teams participated in 342 supportive Listening Sessions and Interactive Workshops. Of the respondents to the post-session survey (N = 701), 89% rated the intervention as "good to excellent" and 84% were likely or very likely to recommend this service. Leaders rated the experience more highly than non-leaders (F (1,307) = 13.99, p < 0.001) and were more likely to report feeling emotionally supported (F (1,304) = 19.836, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Supporting leader and team well-being may be critical to post-pandemic recovery of the healthcare workforce. The current report presents a feasible, theory-driven model for doing so, which was rated as highly satisfactory by participants.

The Relationships Between Spiritual Well-Being, Quality of Life, and Psychological Factors Before Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer.

Given shifting trends of religious identities in the USA, better understanding the impact of patients' religious identities on health-related quality of life (QOL) may help tailor the use of psychological interventions. Men with prostate cancer (N = 43) completed measures of quality of life (QOL), spiritual well-being in two domains (i.e., Faith and Meaning/Peace), psychological state, and psychological trait before undergoing radiotherapy. We hypothesized that (1) higher existential Meaning/Peace would correlate with higher QOL and psychological trait protective factors (e.g., Agreeableness) and that (2) higher existential Meaning/Peace would correlate with lower depression, anxiety, and Neuroticism (i.e., a psychological trait risk factor). We did not anticipate similar relationships between religious Faith and QOL, depression, anxiety, or psychological traits and consider related analyses to be exploratory in nature. Meaning/Peace was indeed negatively associated with depression, anxiety, and Neuroticism. Meaning/Peace was positively correlated with Physical, Social, Functional, and Emotional well-being, as well as Extraversion. Religious Faith was positively associated with Functional well-being, but not the other state, trait, or QOL domains. In sum, prostate cancer patients' sense of existential Meaning/Peace prior to radiotherapy was associated with well-being in many domains, whereas religious Faith appeared less so.

Decreased Fronto-Limbic Activation and Disrupted Semantic-Cued List Learning in Major Depressive Disorder.

OBJECTIVES: Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) demonstrate poorer learning and memory skills relative to never-depressed comparisons (NDC). Previous studies report decreased volume and disrupted function of frontal lobes and hippocampi in MDD during memory challenge. However, it has been difficult to dissociate contributions of short-term memory and executive functioning to memory difficulties from those that might be attributable to long-term memory deficits. METHODS: Adult males (MDD, n=19; NDC, n=22) and females (MDD, n=23; NDC, n=19) performed the Semantic List Learning Task (SLLT) during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The SLLT Encoding condition consists of 15 lists, each containing 14 words. After each list, a Distractor condition occurs, followed by cued Silent Rehearsal instructions. Post-scan recall and recognition were collected. Groups were compared using block (Encoding-Silent Rehearsal) and event-related (Words Recalled) models. RESULTS: MDD displayed lower recall relative to NDC. NDC displayed greater activation in several temporal, frontal, and parietal regions, for both Encoding-Silent Rehearsal and the Words Recalled analyses. Groups also differed in activation patterns in regions of the Papez circuit in planned analyses. The majority of activation differences were not related to performance, presence of medications, presence of comorbid anxiety disorder, or decreased gray matter volume in MDD. CONCLUSIONS: Adults with MDD exhibit memory difficulties during a task designed to reduce the contribution of individual variability from short-term memory and executive functioning processes, parallel with decreased activation in memory and executive functioning circuits. Ecologically valid long-term memory tasks are imperative for uncovering neural correlates of memory performance deficits in adults with MDD.

Comorbid anxiety increases cognitive control activation in Major Depressive Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders often co-occur, with poorer treatment response and long-term outcomes. However, little is known about the shared and distinct neural mechanisms of comorbid MDD and anxiety (MDD+Anx). This study examined how MDD and MDD+Anx differentially impact cognitive control. METHODS: Eighteen MDD, 29 MDD+Anx, and 54 healthy controls (HC) completed the Parametric Go/No-Go (PGNG) during fMRI, including Target, Commission, and Rejection trials. RESULTS: MDD+Anx had more activation in the anterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and caudate during Rejections, and inferior parietal lobule during correct Targets than MDD and HC. During Rejections HC had greater activation in a number of cognitive control regions compared to MDD; in the posterior cingulate compared to MDD+Anx; and in the fusiform gyrus compared to all MDD. During Commissions HC had greater activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus than all MDD. MDD had more activation in the mid-cingulate, inferior parietal lobule, and superior temporal gyrus than MDD+Anx during Commissions. CONCLUSIONS: Despite similar performance, MDD and MDD+Anx showed distinct differences in neural mechanisms of cognitive control in relation to each other, as well as some shared differences in relation to HC. The results were consistent with our hypothesis of hypervigilance in MDD+Anx within the cognitive control network, but inconsistent with our hypothesis that there would be greater engagement of salience and emotion network regions. Comorbidity of depression and anxiety may cause increased heterogeneity in study samples, requiring further specificity in detection and measurement of intermediate phenotypes and treatment Targets.

The contributions of self-reported injury characteristics and psychiatric symptoms to cognitive functioning in OEF/OIF veterans with mild traumatic brain injury.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) affects a significant number of combat veterans returning from Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). Although resolution of mTBI symptoms is expected over time, some individuals continue to report lingering cognitive difficulties. This study examined the contributions of self-reported mTBI injury characteristics (e.g., loss of consciousness, post-traumatic amnesia) and psychiatric symptoms to both subjective and objective cognitive functioning in a sample of 167 OEF/OIF veterans seen in a TBI clinic. Injury characteristics were not associated with performance on neuropsychological tests but were variably related to subjective ratings of cognitive functioning. Psychiatric symptoms were highly prevalent and fully mediated most of the relationships between injury characteristics and cognitive ratings. This indicates that mTBI characteristics such as longer time since injury and loss of consciousness or post-traumatic amnesia can lead to increased perceived cognitive deficits despite having no objective effects on cognitive performance. Psychiatric symptoms were associated with both cognitive ratings and neuropsychological performance, illustrating the important role that psychiatric treatment can potentially play in optimizing functioning. Finally, subjective cognitive ratings were not predictive of neuropsychological performance once psychiatric functioning was statistically controlled, suggesting that neuropsychological assessment provides valuable information that cannot be gleaned from self-report alone.

Multidimensional imaging techniques for prediction of treatment response in major depressive disorder.

A large number of studies have attempted to use neuroimaging tools to aid in treatment prediction models for major depressive disorder (MDD). Most such studies have reported on only one dimension of function and prediction at a time. In this study, we used three different tasks across domains of function (emotion processing, reward anticipation, and cognitive control, plus resting state connectivity completed prior to start of medication to predict treatment response in 13-36 adults with MDD. For each experiment, adults with MDD were prescribed only label duloxetine (all experiments), whereas another subset were prescribed escitalopram. We used a KeyNet (both Task derived masks and Key intrinsic Network derived masks) approach to targeting brain systems in a specific match to tasks. The most robust predictors were (Dichter et al., 2010) positive response to anger and (Gong et al., 2011) negative response to fear within relevant anger and fear TaskNets and Salience and Emotion KeyNet (Langenecker et al., 2018) cognitive control (correct rejections) within Inhibition TaskNet (negative) and Cognitive Control KeyNet (positive). Resting state analyses were most robust for Cognitive control Network (positive) and Salience and Emotion Network (negative). Results differed by whether an -fwhm or -acf (more conservative) adjustment for multiple comparisons was used. Together, these results implicate the importance of future studies with larger sample sizes, multidimensional predictive models, and the importance of using empirically derived masks for search areas.

A new semantic list learning task to probe functioning of the Papez circuit.

INTRODUCTION: List learning tasks are powerful clinical tools for studying memory, yet have been relatively underutilized within the functional imaging literature. This limits understanding of regions such as the Papez circuit that support memory performance in healthy, nondemented adults. METHOD: The current study characterized list learning performance in 40 adults who completed a semantic list learning task (SLLT) with a Brown-Peterson manipulation during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Cued recall with semantic cues and recognition memory were assessed after imaging. Internal reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity were evaluated. RESULTS: Subjects averaged 38% accuracy in recall (62% for recognition), with primacy but no recency effects observed. Validity and reliability were demonstrated by showing that the SLLT was correlated with the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), but not with executive functioning tests, and by high intraclass correlation coefficient across lists for recall (.91). fMRI measurements during encoding (vs. silent rehearsal) revealed significant activation in bilateral hippocampus, parahippocampus, and bilateral anterior and posterior cingulate cortex. Post hoc analyses showed increased activation in anterior and middle hippocampus, subgenual cingulate, and mammillary bodies specific to encoding. In addition, increasing age was positively associated with increased activation in a diffuse network, particularly frontal cortex and specific Papez regions for correctly recalled words. Gender differences were specific to left inferior and superior frontal cortex. CONCLUSIONS: This is a clinically relevant list learning task that can be used in studies of groups for which the Papez circuit is damaged or disrupted, in mixed or crossover studies at imaging and clinical sites.

Greater executive and visual memory dysfunction in comorbid bipolar disorder and substance use disorder.

Measures of cognitive dysfunction in Bipolar Disorder (BD) have identified state and trait dependent metrics. An influence of substance abuse (SUD) on BD has been suggested. This study investigates potential differential, additive, or interactive cognitive dysfunction in bipolar patients with or without a history of SUD. Two hundred fifty-six individuals with BD, 98 without SUD and 158 with SUD, and 97 Healthy Controls (HC) completed diagnostic interviews, neuropsychological testing, and symptom severity scales. The BD groups exhibited poorer performance than the HC group on most cognitive factors. The BD with SUD exhibited significantly poorer performance than BD without SUD in visual memory and conceptual reasoning/set-shifting. In addition, a significant interaction effect between substance use and depressive symptoms was found for auditory memory and emotion processing. BD patients with a history of SUD demonstrated worse visual memory and conceptual reasoning skills above and beyond the dysfunction observed in these domains among individuals with BD without SUD, suggesting greater impact on integrative, gestalt-driven processing domains. Future research might address longitudinal outcome as a function of BD, SUD, and combined BD/SUD to evaluate neural systems involved in risk for, and effects of, these illnesses.

Serum osteoprotegerin is increased and predicts survival in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.

We previously reported that osteoprotegerin (OPG) is regulated by pathways associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and is present at elevated levels within pulmonary vascular lesions and sera from patients with idiopathic PAH (IPAH). Since OPG is a naturally secreted protein, we investigated the relationship between serum OPG and disease severity and outcome in patients with IPAH and animal models. OPG mRNA expression was measured in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMC) from pulmonary arteries of patients with and without IPAH. Serum concentrations of OPG were measured in a retrospective and prospective group of patients. OPG levels were compared with phenotypic data and other putative PAH biomarkers. Prognostic significance was assessed and levels compared with healthy controls. Correlation of OPG and pulmonary vascular remodeling was also performed in rodent models of PAH. OPG mRNA was significantly increased 2-fold in PASMC isolated from explanted PAH lungs compared with control. Serum OPG concentrations were markedly elevated in IPAH compared with controls. In Cohort 1 OPG levels significantly correlated with mean right atrial pressure and cardiac index, while in Cohort 2 significant correlations existed between age-adjusted OPG levels and gas transfer. In both cohorts an OPG concentration above a ROC-derived threshold of 4728 pg/ml predicted poorer survival. In two rodent models, OPG correlated with the degree of pulmonary vascular remodeling. OPG levels are significantly elevated in patients with idiopathic PAH and are of prognostic significance. The role of OPG as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target merits further investigation.

Auditory memory decrements, without dissimulation, among patients with major depressive disorder.

Questions have been raised about whether poor performance on memory tasks by individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) might be the result of poor or variable effort or disease-related disruption of neural circuits supporting memory functions. The present study examined performance on a measure of task engagement and on an auditory memory task among 45 patients with MDD (M age = 47.82, SD = 19.55) relative to 32 healthy controls (HC; M age = 51.03, SD = 22.09). One-hundred percent of HC and MDD volunteers performed above the threshold for adequate effort on a formal measure of task engagement. The MDD subjects performed significantly more poorly than the HC subjects on an auditory learning and memory test. The present results suggest that auditory memory difficulties do occur among those with MDD and that decrements in performance in this group may be related to factors other than lack of effort.

Self-reported cognitive symptoms following mild traumatic brain injury are poorly associated with neuropsychological performance in OIF/OEF veterans.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is not uncommon among Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) veterans, and many individuals within this group report lingering cognitive difficulties following their injury. For Department of Veterans Affairs clinicians, an accurate assessment of cognitive symptoms is important in providing appropriate clinical care. Although self-assessment is commonly employed to screen for difficulties in cognitive functioning, little is known about the accuracy of self-report in this population. This study collected cognitive, psychiatric, and self-report data from 105 OIF/OEF veterans with mTBI to examine the relationship between self-reported cognitive functioning and objective neuropsychological test performance. Additionally, clinicians who frequently work with OIF/OEF veterans were asked to predict the magnitude of these associations. Self-reported cognitive functioning was not significantly correlated with objective cognitive abilities, suggesting that objective neuropsychological testing should be used when cognitive weakness is suspected. Perceived cognitive deficits were associated with depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder, illustrating the additional importance of adequate assessment and treatment of psychiatric symptoms. Clinicians tended to overestimate the association between self-report and test performance.

Psychometrics of a simple method for scoring organizational approach on the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure.

The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) is a commonly used neuropsychological measure that assesses visuospatial processing, planning and visuomotor integration. Using samples of clinically referred (N = 20) and non-clinical (N = 44) adults, the present study examines the psychometric properties of a simple method of scoring organizational approach to the ROCF. Developed by Savage et al. (1999) and refined by Deckersbach et al. (2000), this simple 5-point organizational scoring system allows for the quick and accurate assessment of organizational quality. Results suggest that this system is internally consistent and can be scored reliably. Correlations with measures of visuomotor integration and accuracy of rendition after a delay provide evidence of convergent validity. Organization scores were independent of both Verbal and Performance IQ estimates. However, discriminant validity analyses found that high-functioning patients referred for a neuropsychological assessment did not score significantly different from a non-clinical sample, raising questions about the diagnostic utility of this measure with less impaired populations. Implications for clinical practice are discussed, as are directions for future research.