Journal of anxiety disorders
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This paper describes the development and psychometric evaluation of a parent and child report measure of life interference and impairment associated with childhood anxiety, the Child Anxiety Life Interference Scale (CALIS). The CALIS is designed to measure life interference and impairment experienced by the child from the child (9 items) and parent (16 items) point of view and also the interference experienced by the parent in their own life. ⋯ Results indicated that the CALIS has good internal consistency, moderate-to-high test re-test reliability, significant inter rater reliability, good convergent and divergent validity and is sensitive to treatment change. The CALIS is a reliable and valid tool for the assessment of life interference and impairment associated with anxiety disorders in childhood.
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Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a moderately heritable anxiety disorder that may develop after exposure to trauma. However, only few genetic variants that relate to PTSD have been studied. This study examined the relationship between 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 gene (CRHR1) and post-disaster PTSD symptoms and diagnosis in adults exposed to 2004 Florida hurricanes. ⋯ Additionally, rs12938031 was associated with post-hurricane diagnosis of PTSD. This study is the first to examine CRHR1 in relation to PTSD in adults, and provides evidence for the importance of CRHR1 variation in the etiology of PTSD. Although results are preliminary and require replication, they justify follow-up efforts to characterize how this gene relates to PTSD.
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A strong positive association between emotion regulation difficulties (ERD) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) has been consistently evidenced in cross-sectional research. However, a lack of prospective research has limited hypotheses regarding the temporal relationship between trauma exposure, ERD, and PTSS. The present prospective study investigated the role of pre-trauma difficulties with emotion regulation in the development of PTSS following exposure to a potentially traumatic event. ⋯ Further, results suggest that emotion dysregulation in the aftermath of a potentially traumatic event influences one's ability to recover from PTSS over time, even after accounting for the effects of existing symptomatology. To examine the specificity of temporal relations between ERD and PTSS a second cross-lagged panel design, in which a general distress construct was substituted for PTSS, was conducted. Results of this analysis, as well as conceptual and clinical implications, will be discussed.
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We aimed to find a valid cutoff score for the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders, child (SCARED-C) and parent (SCARED-P) Spanish versions for detecting Anxiety Disorders (AD) in a non-clinical population. The predictive accuracy of the SCARED-C and SCARED-P was assessed using the Area Under the Curve (AUC) of ROC curves. In general, the predictive accuracy of the SCARED-C (full version, short version, and four factors) was good and better than that of the SCARED-P. ⋯ The SCARED-C factor that had the best predictive accuracy was Somatic panic followed by Separation Anxiety, Generalized Anxiety and Social Phobia. The SCARED-P factor with the best predictive accuracy was Separation Anxiety. The results support the use of SCARED-C as a screening test for Anxiety disorders while SCARED-P should only be used as complementary information.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
An analogue trial of inoculation/resilience training for emergency services personnel: proof of concept.
This analogue study served as a proof of concept trial for inoculation/resilience training with emergency services personnel. ⋯ With organisations wishing to engage in resilience training, this analogue study suggests that inoculation training at least does no harm and may be beneficial. It is, therefore, a viable option for emergency services personnel during pre-deployment training.