There are many reasons why individuals with depression may not seek help. Among those with elevated depressive symptomatology, some previous interventions aimed at increasing help-seeking have ...unintentionally decreased help-seeking intentions. Beck's cognitive theory of depression posits that individuals with elevated depressive symptomatology process information differently from those without depression (i.e., increased cognitive errors, negative bias); potentially explaining the iatrogenic results of previous interventions. Mental contrasting and implementation intentions (MCII; a self-regulatory strategy) interventions have successfully influenced physical and mental health behaviors. However, MCII has not been used specifically for initiating help-seeking for depression. The goal of this research was to ascertain whether an online MCII intervention could increase
help-seeking or the
to seek help for depression.
Two online randomized pre-post experiments were conducted to measure the primary outcome measures 2 weeks post-intervention (Study 1 collected Summer 2019: information-only control "C", help-seeking MCII intervention "HS", and comparison MCII intervention "E"; Study 2 collected Winter 2020: "C" and "HS"). At Time 1, adults recruited from MTurk had a minimum Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) score of 14 (mild depressive symptoms) and were not seeking professional help.
Study 1 (
= 74) indicated that the intervention was feasible, provided preliminary support, and clarified intervention components for Study 2. Study 2 (
= 224) indicated that the HS group reported greater
to seek help and
help-seeking than the C group. Proportionally,
help-seeking was more likely among individuals who received the HS intervention and either did not
themselves as depressed at Time 2 or had BDI-II scores indicating that their depressive symptomatology decreased from Time 1.
Participation was limited to US residents who self-reported data.
These studies indicate that a brief online MCII intervention to encourage help-seeking is feasible and preliminarily successful. Future studies should consider using ecological momentary assessment measurements to establish the temporal precedence of intervention effects and whether MCII is effective for encouraging help-seeking among individuals prone to experiencing cognitive errors who may not be experiencing negative bias (e.g., bipolar disorder or anxiety). Clinicians may find this method successful in encouraging ongoing treatment engagement.
Abstract Introduction Guided by Beck's (1967) cognitive theory of depression, we assessed whether perceived family functioning (PFF) mediated the relationship between depressive symptomatology and ...help-seeking inclinations. Methods Study 1 included 130 Spanish-Dominant Hispanics and Study 2 included 124 Non-Hispanic Whites obtained using online crowd sourcing. Participants completed measures of depressive symptomatology, PFF, and several scales measuring aspects of help seeking inclinations and self-stigma. Study 2 also included an experiment. With an eye toward potential future interventions, we assessed the malleability of PFF. Specifically, participants were randomly assigned to recall positive or negative family experiences and then PFF was measures for a second time. Results Both studies found PFF mediates the relationship between depressive symptomatology and the help seeking scales. Among non-depressed people, the positive manipulation improved PFF; however, among participants with elevated depressive symptomatology, writing about a positive family experience worsened PFF. Limitation With the exception of the experiment, most of the data was cross-sectional. For the experiment, it is possible that different manipulations or primes could have different effects. Conclusion Whether investigating responses from Spanish-Dominant Hispanics or Non-Hispanic Whites, PFF mediates the negative relationship between heightened depressive symptomatology and familial help-seeking beliefs, as well as self-stigma. However, even though the mediation analysis offers preliminary support that increasing PFF can potentially increase help-seeking behaviors of Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White people with depression, the results of the interaction analysis, specifically the negative impact of writing about positive family memories on people with elevated depression, illustrates the challenges of persuading people with depression.
Increased depression symptomatology results in a reduced willingness to seek help from family. Focusing on Mexican–Americans, the current study hypothesized that the a reduction in favorable ...perceptions of familial relations could be partially to blame for limited help seeking among people with depression. Data were collected from 84 Mexican–Americans. Measures assessed depression symptomatology, familism, perceptions of help seeking from family, and demographics. As predicted: (1) depression symptomatology was negatively associated with perceptions of help seeking from family; (2) familism was positively associated with perceptions of help seeking from family; and, (3) depression symptomatology was negatively associated with familism. Further, familism partially mediated the relationship between depression symptomatology and help seeking comfort, as well as between depression symptomatology and the perceived utility of familial help seeking. The results indicate a reduction in familistic values may be partially responsible for reduced help seeking among Mexican–Americans with depression.
Approximately 36% of HIV cases are related to substance abuse. Substance abusers, including non-injection drug users, are at a high-risk for contracting HIV due to risky behaviors, including ...unprotected sex. Due to these behavioral and infection risks, feasible interventions that focus on condom use within this population are imperative. The current study involved the development of brief intervention designed to increase implementation intentions (situation-linked action plans) to use condoms in convicted non-violent drug offenders participating in drug diversion programs in Southern California. Participants (n = 143) were randomized at the individual level to either waitlist control or experimental conditions. The randomized waitlist control group received the HIV survey for the pre-test before the intervention, while the experimental group received a neutral, non-HIV-related, survey at pre-test. The experimental group received the HIV survey as the post-test after the intervention (waitlist control group received the neutral, non-HIV-related, survey). One-tailed Mann Whitney U tests were used to compare the waitlist control and experimental groups. The experimental group was more likely to report stronger implementation intentions to use condoms (p <0.001). These results indicate in the short term that a brief, easily disseminated HIV intervention can be effective for increasing implementation intentions to use condoms in an extremely high HIV-risk population.
Interview with Thomas G. Smith about his educational filmmaking - a neglected aspect of his career - particularly his work with Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation (EB), Churchill Films, ...Bailey Film Associates and Public Broadcasting Service. A critical aspect of the discussion is the fate of the educational film industry's products and the current status of these untold numbers of films, seen by millions in classrooms and other places across the country and around the world. As Smith explains, "in the 1980s, EB decided film was out and tape was in. So they took the 16mm internegatives of their films and transferred them to tape. I think they chose U-matic as a master stock, a Sony three-quarter-inch analogue magnetic tape medium. The resolution was worse than Hi-8 video. So, after they made these horrible transfers, they saw no reason to keep the 16mm internegatives and tossed them out". The author hopes the interview will be read as a call to action regarding the location of these missing films. Such interviews help us to understand and document our audiovisual heritage, even when we find ourselves scrambling to salvage it. (Quotes from original text)
Each emergence of a new media technology in the United States has historically prompted interest in the classroom functions and broader educational uses of media. The significant interest in ...successive new media speaks to the importance and promise of progressive education in American culture, as well as to the envisioned utopian potential of "new" media by educators, cultural commentators, and various sectors of the media industries. Looking broadly across the first half of the twentieth century, this dissertation examines classroom media, a long overlooked popular nontheatrical form, in light of the discourse concerning the educational uses of film, radio, and television that circulated widely through the public sphere. Using archival research and period discourse that appeared in general interest magazines, trade journals, books, and newspapers, this project explores the moments when new media technologies are debated in a public forum. By investigating the three media forms in conjunction with one another, the dissertation underscores the historical interconnections between and across media technologies, including how the cultural reception of each medium influenced the introductions of subsequent media forms. The combination of archival research and technology studies further serves as an example of the possibilities of using interdisciplinary media inquiries to uncover vibrant, but heretofore overlooked moments in American cultural history, and to better understand the historical context of educational debates that continue to this day.
Poor delivery and systemic toxicity of many cytotoxic agents, such as the recent promising combination chemotherapy regimen of folinic acid (leucovorin), fluorouracil, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin ...(FOLFIRINOX), restrict their full utility in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Local delivery of chemotherapies has become possible using iontophoretic devices that are implanted directly onto pancreatic tumors. We have fabricated implantable iontophoretic devices and tested the local iontophoretic delivery of FOLFIRINOX for the treatment of pancreatic cancer in an orthotopic patient-derived xenograft model. Iontophoretic delivery of FOLFIRINOX was found to increase tumor exposure by almost an order of magnitude compared with i.v. delivery with substantially lower plasma concentrations. Mice treated for 7 wk with device FOLFIRINOX experienced significantly greater tumor growth inhibition compared with i.v. FOLFIRINOX. A marker of cell proliferation, K
i-67, was stained, showing a significant reduction in tumor cell proliferation. These data capitalize on the unique ability of an implantable iontophoretic device to deliver much higher concentrations of drug to the tumor compared with i.v. delivery. Local iontophoretic delivery of cytotoxic agents should be considered for the treatment of patients with unresectable nonmetastatic disease and for patients with the need for palliation of local symptoms, and may be considered as a neoadjuvant approach to improve resection rates and outcome in patients with localized and locally advanced pancreatic cancer.
Platinum (Pt) based chemotherapy is widely used to treat many types of cancer. Pt therapy faces challenges such as dose limiting toxicities, cumulative side effects, and multidrug resistance. ...Nanoemulsions (NEs) have tremendous potential in overcoming these challenges as they can be designed to improve circulation time, limit non-disease tissue uptake, and enhance tumor uptake by surface modification. We designed novel synthesis of three difattyacid platins, dimyrisplatin, dipalmiplatin, and distearyplatin, suitable for encapsulation in the oil core of an NE. The dimyrisplatin, dipalmiplatin, and distearyplatin were synthesized, characterized, and loaded into the oil core of our NEs, NMI-350, NMI-351, and NMI-352 respectively. Sequestration of the difattyacid platins was accomplished through high energy microfluidization. To target the NE, FA-PEG3400-DSPE was incorporated into the surface during microfluidization. The FA-NEs selectively bind the folate receptor α (FR-α) and utilize receptor mediated endocytosis to deliver Pt past cell surface resistance mechanisms. FR-α is overexpressed in a number of oncological conditions including ovarian cancer. The difattyacid platins, lipidated Gd-DTPA, and lipidated folate were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry (MS), and elemental analysis. NEs were synthesized using high shear microfluidization process and characterized for size, zeta-potential, and loading efficiency. In vitro cytotoxicity was determined using KB-WT (Pt-sensitive) and KBCR-1000 (Pt-resistant) cancer cells and measured by MTT assay. Pharmacokinetic profiles were studied in CD-1 mice. NEs loaded with difattyacid platins are highly stable and had size distribution in the range of ∼120 to 150 nm with low PDI. Cytotoxicity data indicates the longer the fatty acid chains, the less potent the NEs. The inclusion of C6-ceramide, an apoptosis enhancer, and surface functionalization with folate molecules significantly increased in vitro potency. Pharmacokinetic studies show that the circulation time for all three difattyacid platins encapsulated in NE remained identical, thus indicating that chain length did not influence circulation time. A stable NMI-350 family of NEs were successfully designed, formulated, and characterized. The Pt–resistance in KBCR-1000 cells was reversed with the NMI-350 family. Dimyrisplatin loaded NE (NMI-350) was most potent in vitro. The NMI-350 family demonstrated identical pharmacokinetic profiles to one another and circulated much longer than cisplatin. These data indicate that NMI-350 warrants further preclinical and clinical development as a replacement for current Pt regimens especially for those afflicted with multi drug resistant cancers.
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