Notes

Maternal high-fat diet during pregnancy with contingency phthalate publicity leads to irregular placentation.
Stepped mental health care requires a rapid method for nonspecialists to detect illness. This study aimed to develop and validate a brief instrument, the Mental Wellness Tool (mwTool), for identification and classification.

Cross-sectional development and validation samples included adults at six health facilities in Mozambique. Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview diagnoses were the criterion standard. Candidate items were from nine mental disorder and functioning assessments. Regression modeling and expert consultation determined best items for identifying any mental disorder and classifying positives into disorder categories (severe mental disorder, common mental disorder, substance use disorder, and suicide risk). For validation, sensitivity and specificity were calculated for any mental disorder (index and proxy respondents) and disorder categories (index).

From the development sample (911 participants, mean±SD age=32.0±11 years, 63% female), 13 items were selected-three with 0.83 sensitivity (95% confidence interval [CI]=0.79-0.86) for any mental disorder and 10 additional items classifying participants with a specificity that ranged from 0.72 (severe mental disorder) to 0.90 (suicide risk). For validation (453 participants, age 31±11 years, 65% female), sensitivity for any mental disorder was 0.94 (95% CI=0.89-0.97) with index responses and 0.73 (95% CI=0.58-0.85) with family proxy responses. Specificity for categories ranged from 0.47 (severe mental disorder) to 0.93 (suicide risk). Removing one item increased severe mental disorder specificity to 0.63 (95% CI=0.58-0.68).

The mwTool performed well for identification of any mental disorder with index and proxy responses to three items and for classification into treatment categories with index responses to nine additional items.
The mwTool performed well for identification of any mental disorder with index and proxy responses to three items and for classification into treatment categories with index responses to nine additional items.
The author examined patient demographic, clinical, payment, and geographic factors associated with admission to low-safety inpatient psychiatric facilities.

Massachusetts all-payer 2017 discharge data (N=39,128 psychiatric patients) were linked to facility-level indicators of safety (N=38 facilities). A composite of safety was created by averaging standardized measures of restraint and seclusion as well as 5-year averages of overall, substantiated, and abuse-related (i.e., verbal, physical, or sexual) complaints per 1,000 discharges (α=0.73). This composite informed quintile groups of safety performance. A series of multinomial regression models were fit, with payment and geography added separately.

Notable factors independently associated with admission to low-safety facilities were belonging to a racial or ethnic minority group compared with being a White patient (for non-Hispanic Black, relative risk ratio [RRR]=1.71, p<0.01; for non-Hispanic Asian, RRR=5.60, p<0.01; for non-Hispanic "other" ran after accounting for potential clinical, geographic, and insurance mediators of structural racism, stark racial and ethnic inequities were found in admission to low-safety inpatient psychiatric facilities. In addition to addressing safety performance, policy makers should invest in gaining a better understanding of how differences in community-based referrals, mode of transport (e.g., police or self), and deliberate or unintentional steering and selection affect admissions and outcomes.
Preventing aggression and reducing restrictive practices in mental health units rely on routine, accurate risk assessment accompanied by appropriate and timely intervention. The authors studied the use of an electronic clinical decision support system that combines two elements, the Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression instrument and an aggression prevention protocol (eDASA+APP), in acute forensic mental health units for men.

The authors conducted a cluster-randomized controlled trial incorporating a crossover design with baseline, intervention, and washout periods in a statewide, secure forensic mental health service. The study included 36 mental health nurses (13 men and 23 women, ages 20-65 years) with direct patient care responsibility and 77 male patients (ages 21-77 years) admitted to one of two acute mental health units during the baseline and intervention periods.

eDASA+APP implementation was associated with a significant reduction in the odds of an aggressive incident (OR=0.56, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]=0.45-0.70, p<0.001) and a significant decrease in the odds of administration of as-needed medication (OR=0.64, 95% CI=0.50-0.83, p<0.001). Physical aggression was too infrequent for statistical significance of any effects of eDASA+APP to be determined; however, incidents of physical aggression tended to be fewer during the eDASA+APP phase.

These results support the use of the eDASA+APP to help reduce incidents of aggression and restrictive practices in mental health units.
These results support the use of the eDASA+APP to help reduce incidents of aggression and restrictive practices in mental health units.African American clergy provide informal counseling for community members with depression. Through a qualitative case study with two African American clergy and 25 community members in New York City, the authors explored perspectives on training clergy in interpersonal counseling (IPC). Data were analyzed by using thematic analysis. Results were grouped into three themes mistrust of institutions, depression stigma, and feasibility of training clergy in IPC. Clergy members wanted IPC training but did not want to counsel more people. Thus, training clergy may be insufficient to reduce racial disparities in access to evidence-based depression services.
The authors sought to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and initial outcomes of the delivery of a group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) mental health intervention for mothers in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

An 8-week group CBT program was made available to parenting women (N=40) in a large, urban TANF system from April to August 2019. Participants completed baseline and endpoint measures to assess depressive symptoms, perceived stress, social support, employment, and program acceptability. TANF administrative data were examined to assess TANF engagement.

TANF staff were successfully trained to deliver CBT. The participants reported significantly reduced depressive symptoms and perceived stress; perceived social support significantly increased from the beginning to the end of the intervention.

A model that fully embedded CBT delivery in a TANF system was acceptable to low-income parenting women and TANF staff and reduced depressive symptoms among the women. read more The scalability of interventions to address maternal depression among low-income women has presented a challenge.
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