Depression Treatment: School Placement and Perceived Quality of Life in Youth Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

School Placement and Perceived Quality of Life in Youth Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2012 Nov 26;
Schick B, Skalicky A, Edwards T, Kushalnagar P, Topolski T, Patrick D

In the education of students who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH), there is much debate about how placement affects educational outcomes and quality of life. This study examined the relationship between quality of life and educational placement that include and do not include other DHH youth. Participants included 221 DHH youth, ages 11-18 with bilateral hearing loss. Results showed that there were few differences in quality of life related to school placement (with age, gender, depression symptoms, and hearing level as covariates). For both participation and perceived stigma, there was an interaction between school placement and parent hearing status, with no single school placement showing the best results. DHH youth with hearing parents in schools specifically for DHH students scored lower than DHH with deaf parents in some domains (Participation and Perceived Stigma). When the DHH youth were compared with the general population, those in schools that included DHH students scored lower in some aspects of quality of life, particularly Self and Relationships. This study demonstrates that DHH students may not differ much in terms of quality of life across schools placements, but that there may be differences in subsets of DHH youth.
HubMed – depression

DIAGNOSTIC OVERLAP OF GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER AND MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER IN A PRIMARY CARE SAMPLE.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

Depress Anxiety. 2012 Nov 26;
Zbozinek TD, Rose RD, Wolitzky-Taylor KB, Sherbourne C, Sullivan G, Stein MB, Roy-Byrne PP, Craske MG

BACKGROUND: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are highly comorbid. A possible explanation is that they share four symptoms according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition-Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). The present study addressed the symptom overlap of people meeting DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for GAD, MDD, or both to investigate whether comorbidity might be explained by overlapping diagnostic criteria. METHODS: Participants (N = 1,218) were enrolled in the Coordinated Anxiety Learning and Management study (a randomized effectiveness clinical trial in primary care). Hypotheses were (1) the comorbid GAD/MDD group endorses the overlapping symptoms more than the nonoverlapping symptoms, and (2) the comorbid GAD/MDD group endorses the overlapping symptoms more than GAD only or MDD only groups, whereas differences would not occur for nonoverlapping symptoms. RESULTS: The overlapping GAD/MDD symptoms were endorsed more by the comorbid group than the MDD group but not the GAD group when covarying for total symptom endorsement. Similarly, the comorbid group endorsed the overlapping symptoms more than the nonoverlapping symptoms and did not endorse the nonoverlapping symptoms more than the GAD or MDD groups when covarying for total symptom endorsement. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that comorbidity of GAD and MDD is strongly influenced by diagnostic overlap. Results are discussed in terms of errors of diagnostic criteria, as well as models of shared psychopathology that account for diagnostic criteria overlap.
HubMed – depression

ABERRANT AMYGDALA-FRONTAL CORTEX CONNECTIVITY DURING PERCEPTION OF FEARFUL FACES AND AT REST IN GENERALIZED SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

Depress Anxiety. 2012 Nov 26;
Prater KE, Hosanagar A, Klumpp H, Angstadt M, Luan Phan K

BACKGROUND: Generalized social anxiety disorder (gSAD) is characterized by exaggerated amygdala reactivity to social signals of threat, but if and how the amygdala interacts with functionally and anatomically connected prefrontal cortex (PFC) remains largely unknown. Recent evidence points to aberrant amygdala connectivity to medial PFC in gSAD at rest, but it is difficult to attribute functional relevance without the context of threat processing. Here, we address this by studying amygdala-frontal cortex connectivity during viewing of fearful faces and at rest in gSAD patients. METHODS: Twenty patients with gSAD and 17 matched healthy controls (HCs) participated in functional magnetic resonance imaging of an emotional face matching task and a resting state task. Functional connectivity and psychophysiological interaction analysis were used to assess amygdala connectivity. RESULTS: Compared to HCs, gSAD patients exhibited less connectivity between amygdala and the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) while viewing fearful faces. gSAD patients also showed less connectivity between amygdala and rostral ACC at rest in the absence of fearful faces. DLPFC connectivity was negatively correlated with LSAS(Fear) (where LSAS is Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale). CONCLUSIONS: Task and rest paradigms provide unique and important information about discrete and overlapping functional networks. In particular, amygdala coupling to DLPFC may be a phasic abnormality, emerging only in the presence of a social predictor of threat, whereas amygdala coupling to the rostral ACC may reflect both phasic and tonic abnormalities. These findings prompt further studies to better delineate intrinsic and externally evoked brain connectivity in anxiety and depression in relation to amygdala dysfunction.
HubMed – depression

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