Publications by authors named "Adam D Brown"
The impact of task-sharing scalable mental health interventions on non-specialist providers: a scoping review.
Manaswi Sangraula
,
Josheka Chauhan
,
Chynere Best
,
Caroline McEneaney
,
Cheenar Shah
,
Adam D Brown
Glob Ment Health (Camb)
January 2025
Task-sharing approaches that train non-specialist providers (NSPs), people without specialized clinical training, are increasingly utilized to address the global mental health treatment gap. This review consolidates findings from peer reviewed articles on the impact of task-sharing mental health interventions on NSPs at the individual, family and community level. Studies that highlighted facilitators, barriers and recommendations for improving the experiences of NSPs were also included in the review.
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- Recalling positive autobiographical memories is linked to better mental well-being and self-confidence, and this study looked into how stress impacts this memory recall during a self-efficacy training.
- Participants (N = 54) reported more difficulty and less vividness in recalling mastery memories under stress, while being relaxed made recall easier and clearer.
- The findings suggest that interventions should consider stress levels and may benefit from combining memory recall with relaxation techniques, especially when stress is low, to improve mental health outcomes.
Article Synopsis
- A digital self-efficacy training program was developed to help university students recall personal successes to improve mental health outcomes.
- In a study involving 93 students with high stress, those who completed the training reported lower levels of hopelessness and anxiety compared to a control group.
- The training was linked to increased self-efficacy and showed promising results, but more research is needed to confirm its long-term benefits and potential use in clinical settings.
Article Synopsis
- The study examines how military couples in Israel handle sharing or hiding their deployment-related experiences and how this affects their mental health and relationship adjustment.
- Researchers found that veterans tended to disclose less and conceal more about their experiences than their spouses, affecting both partners' mental health and relationship quality.
- The results suggest that both veterans and spouses should improve communication about their deployment experiences to enhance mental health and strengthen their relationships.
Comparing Mediators and Moderators of Mental Health Outcomes from the Implementation of Group Problem Management Plus (PM+) among Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants and Colombian Returnees in Northern Colombia.
Lucy Miller-Suchet
,
Natalia Camargo
,
Manaswi Sangraula
,
Diany Castellar
,
Jennifer Diaz
,
Adam D Brown
Int J Environ Res Public Health
April 2024
Article Synopsis
- Colombia is hosting a large number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants who are facing significant mental health challenges due to trauma and displacement, but existing mental health services in Colombia are inadequate to meet their needs.
- Group Problem Management Plus (Group PM+) is a scalable mental health intervention that could help address this gap by training community members to provide support, yet there is limited understanding of its effectiveness across different groups.
- A study involving 128 migrant and refugee women in northern Colombia found that those in more stable conditions benefited the most from Group PM+, and additional research is needed to explore other factors that impact the effectiveness of such psychological interventions.
Transforming mental healthcare in higher education through scalable mental health interventions.
Glob Ment Health (Camb)
June 2023
Article Synopsis
- - Many young people globally face mental health issues, particularly while attending college, but resources for support often fall short due to stigma and limited availability.
- - These unmet mental health needs can result in poor academic and social outcomes for students.
- - Non-specialist interventions could help bridge the gap in mental health support at universities by complementing existing services and potentially offering scalable strategies applicable beyond higher education.
Article Synopsis
- * Researchers aimed to evaluate the effects of daily moods and social contact dissatisfaction on self-efficacy and analyze what factors influenced participants' moods throughout a week-long study period.
- * Findings revealed a connection between positive mood and higher self-efficacy, while participants with greater self-efficacy at the start experienced less negative mood, indicating the importance of self-efficacy in mental health outcomes.
Purpose: Manipulating perceived self-efficacy can mitigate the negative impact of trauma and increase ability to adapt to stress. It is possible that a similar domain-based manipulation aimed at anxiety around the pandemic might mitigate the negative mental health impact of COVID-19. The current experimental study assessed whether a self-efficacy induction would be effective in reducing COVID-19 distress.
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- The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted psychological support from in-person to remote methods, like phone and video calls, often without sufficient training for practitioners.
- A qualitative study was conducted with 27 practitioners from Nepal, Peru, and the USA to explore their experiences adapting to this new remote delivery system during the pandemic.
- Key findings indicate that while remote support presents safety concerns, it also enhances practitioners' skills and highlights the need for new training approaches, suggesting that simulated role plays could help ensure effective care delivery.
Cardiovascular Considerations in the Management of People With Suspected Long COVID.
Can J Cardiol
June 2023
Article Synopsis
- About 15% of adult Canadians with COVID-19 experience lingering symptoms, termed long COVID, for over 12 weeks, often including cardiovascular issues like fatigue, chest pain, and palpitations.
- * The diagnosis and treatment of these long COVID symptoms can be complicated, requiring clinicians to consider related conditions like myalgic encephalomyelitis, dysautonomia, and others.
- * This review provides an overview of the latest evidence on managing long COVID's cardiac effects, incorporating insights from Canadian experts and aiming to guide clinicians in treatment strategies.
Article Synopsis
- * Traditional models of climate-related anxiety often overlook essential ethical issues and inequalities, complicating our understanding of responsibility and distress stemming from social dynamics.
- * The concept of moral injury highlights the significance of social position and ethics, providing a framework that helps recognize the influence of power on psychological responses to climate issues, while guiding clinicians and policymakers on fostering proactive care and action.
Article Synopsis
- Social support and coping abilities can influence the severity of PTSD symptoms, with higher support and coping linked to less severe symptoms.
- A study analyzed data from 100 World Trade Center responders and survivors, showing that better coping and social support correlated with lower PTSD severity.
- Perceived social support was found to significantly moderate the relationship between coping style and PTSD severity, suggesting that enhancing social support could help reduce PTSD symptoms, particularly for those with a forward-focused coping style.
Shame-induced dissociation: An experimental study of experiential avoidance.
Psychol Trauma
May 2023
Article Synopsis
- The study explored how feelings of shame can lead to dissociation, particularly focusing on the impact of childhood maltreatment on this process.!* -
- Fifty female participants recalled shame-related and neutral memories while engaging in a mirror-viewing task, revealing that shame memories caused greater dissociation compared to neutral ones.!* -
- Findings emphasize the need for clinicians to be mindful of patients' emotions when addressing shame to avoid reinforcing dissociative behaviors, which may hinder effective treatment.!*
The chemokine receptor CCR2 plays a key role in cellular migration and inflammatory processes. While tremendous progress has been made in elucidating CCR2 function and inhibition, the majority of approaches target its N-terminal domain and less is known about the function of the remaining extracellular loops and their potential as targets. Here, we used phage display to identify an antibody-derived scFv (single chain variable fragment) clone that specifically targets the second extracellular epitope of CCR2 (ECL2) for inhibition.
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- The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for remote psychological interventions, but there is no consensus on key competencies needed for effective training and supervision in this area.
- A rapid review identified 10 essential skill categories necessary for delivering remote psychological services, focusing on communication, safety, confidentiality, and technology use.
- The findings aim to inform global best practices for training in remote psychological interventions, highlighting the need for further research on standardized competencies.
Moral injury in human rights advocates.
Charlotte Pfeffer
,
Roland Hart
,
Margaret Satterthwaite
,
Richard Bryant
,
Sarah Knuckey
,
Adam D Brown
Psychol Trauma
September 2023
Article Synopsis
- * Researchers conducted an exploratory factor analysis to refine a set of questions about moral injury, leading to the identification of two subscales for further analysis.
- * Results showed that moral injury is linked to higher PTSD symptoms, and has independent associations with self-efficacy and perfectionism, highlighting the unique mental health challenges of those in this field.
Article Synopsis
- * Findings revealed significant differences in the types and severity of injuries: Swiss nationals had more injuries from road traffic and work incidents, while asylum seekers faced higher rates of injuries from suicide attempts and assaults.
- * The results suggest that injury prevention and health promotion strategies need to be specifically designed for different populations, highlighting the role of Emergency Departments as primary care providers.
The role of intergenerational family stories in mental health and wellbeing.
Front Psychol
September 2022
Article Synopsis
- Memory sharing is a vital part of early life, shaping relationships, personal history, and cultural identity.
- Research shows a positive link between knowledge of family history and mental health, highlighting the benefits of intergenerational memory sharing.
- Ongoing studies focus on how culture and gender influence storytelling, which could inform mental health treatments by incorporating family narratives.
Article Synopsis
- The study examined the prevalence of PTSD and adjustment disorder (AD) among 5,913 adults during the early COVID-19 pandemic, revealing that while many met the criteria for mental health disorders, only a small percentage were classified as having PTSD.
- Findings indicated that 61.7% of participants showed significant symptoms, but only 6.7% had PTSD when considering life-threatening circumstances, with the majority (55%) being classified with AD.
- Three distinct profiles of AD emerged, characterized by intense fear without life-threat, feelings of sadness or grief, and significant worry about loved ones' safety.
Asian American mental health during COVID-19: A call for task-sharing interventions.
SSM Ment Health
December 2021
Article Synopsis
- * Structural challenges hinder access to traditional mental health services, making it difficult for many Asian Americans to receive the care they need.
- * Utilizing Asian American peer networks and community organizations through task-sharing programs can improve mental health care access and strengthen the community's resources.
Article Synopsis
- Nucleotide excision repair is essential for removing bulky DNA damage, such as UV-induced lesions, and the study used eXcision Repair sequencing (XR-seq) to profile this repair process in the gray mouse lemur compared to humans.
- Researchers found differences in UV sensitivity and repair efficiency between mouse lemurs and humans, but the repair patterns in homologous DNA regions were highly correlated, particularly for actively expressed genes.
- The study concludes that mouse lemurs and humans share a similar DNA repair mechanism despite variations in efficiency, highlighting evolutionary similarities across primates.
Article Synopsis
- BRCA2 is a tumor suppressor that helps prevent genome instability in normal tissues, but its role in non-cancerous cells has been less understood compared to its assessment in cancer cell models.
- The study used a specific mouse model to look at the effects of deleting a part of the BRCA2 gene, finding that this deletion led to a lower frequency of precise DNA repair events.
- The findings confirm that BRCA2 is essential for efficient DNA repair in normal tissues, indicating its critical role during normal cell development and proliferation.
Article Synopsis
- - Recent research indicates that understanding one's family history is linked to better wellbeing in adolescents, but there's a gap in exploring this in marginalized groups like the LGBTQIA+ community, where family rejection is common.
- - This study investigates how knowledge of a close non-family member affects the wellbeing of emerging adult sexual minority women (SMW), comparing them to heterosexual women and analyzing their levels of depression and emotion regulation.
- - Findings show that while family knowledge relates to lower depression in heterosexual women, both heterosexual and SMW benefit from knowing about their chosen family, with emotion regulation playing a key role—especially for SMW who are open about their sexuality.
Article Synopsis
- Health care workers and first responders faced increased mental health risks due to COVID-19, highlighting a need for remote, unguided mental health interventions that are evidence-based and easily accessible during crises.
- This study developed and tested COAST (COVID-19 Anxiety and Stress Resilience Training), an unguided electronic program designed specifically for first responders, focusing on key resilience areas like mindfulness and positive thinking.
- Out of 702 first responders contacted, only 7% engaged with the program, showing that factors like testing positive for COVID-19 or being quarantined increased participation, while user engagement was unaffected by demographic or baseline psychological factors.
Article Synopsis
- * Researchers modified specific carboxylate interactions in the protein, leading to different stability and assembly behaviors of the virus-like rods under varying pH and ionic conditions.
- * The engineered coat proteins allow for flexible assembly and disassembly in both solution and on surfaces, paving the way for innovative applications in nanotechnology.