A new study from researchers at C.C.N.Y. (City College of New York) examined the connection between improvements in posttraumatic stress and improvement in substance abuse over the course of time in 353 women diagnosed with both conditions.

Participants were randomly assigned to 12 sessions of either trauma-focused treatment or health education.  Assessments were made on the PTS and the substance use during treatment at 1 week and posttreatment after 3, 6, and 12 months.

Subjects showing no improvement, an improvement in the substance use only, or a total, global improvement early on, tended to maintain their original diagnosis over time; but subjects initially exhibiting improvement in their PTSD symptoms were significantly more likely to transition into a global response over time, indicating that they maintained their PTSD improvement, and that it was associated with subsequent improvements in substance use.
 

Researchers from the Integrative Medicine Program at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons gathered preliminary information regarding the feasibility of implementing a brief meditation-based stress management (MBSM) program for patients with CHD, and those at high risk for CHD, at a major metropolitan hospital that serves a predominately non-local patient population. The secondary aim of the study was to see if such an intervention could reduce depression, as well as perceived stress, anxiety, and hostility, while improving general health scores.

Researchers from the College of Nursing, Wayne State University in Detroit looked at who uses CAM practices (Complementary & Alternative medicine or the preferred term these days: Integrative Medicine) among survivors in the U.S. cancer population.
 
The study used the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), with a sample of 2,262 adults (aged 18 years and older) diagnosed with cancer, representing more than 14.3 million cancer survivors in the United States .

Investigators from the Chronic Fatigue Center at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in The Netherlands tested the usefulness of a minimal, cognitive behavioral intervention consisting of guided self-instructions combined with email contact on 171 chronic fatigue patients in a randomized, controlled trial.

Eighty-five were randomized to the intervention condition, and 86 to a wait list control condition.  All subjects . met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome.

Researchers from the Oregon Center for Applied Science in Eugene, OR, evaluated the efficacy of a psycho-educational internet self-help tool to educate and support recently (1-6 months) bereaved individuals. The goal of the website was to help users normalize their grief to enhance their adaptive adjustment.

A randomized controlled trial evaluated the gains in social cognitive theory constructs and state anxiety. Compared to the control group (N = 34), treatment participants (N = 33) reported significant multivariate gains (eta-square = .191).

Researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia conducted a systematic review of studies that compare the impact of various techniques on reducing pain and distress in children getting shots for immunization.

The investigators identified randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCTs that measured the impact of these interventions during the injection of vaccines in children 0 to 18 years of age. Both self-report and observer assessments were used as measures.

We thought, given the terrible situation in Haiti, it might be useful to post the results of this classic study of survivors of the great Turkish earthquake of 1999, which points to what makes survivors more vulnerable to PTSD.  Subsequent surveys from China, Japan, Italy, El Salvador and Iceland support these findings. , Additional factors appear to be dislocation, subsequent financial difficulties, disruption of social networks, injury, the intensity of fear and/or presence of dissociation at the time of the trauma. Loss of family and friends appear to be more associated with depression rather than posttraumatic stress.  Difficulties appear to be fairly longstanding, according to most of these surveys.

Researchers from King's College at the University of London in the UK examined the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in 586 earthquake survivors living in prefabricated housing, an average of 20 months after the 1999 Marmara earthquake in Turkey. 

Researchers from the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined the efficacy of a podcasting program to promote weight loss.

The study sample was made up of 78 overweight men and women in the Raleigh-Durham NC area. They were randomly assigned to receive 24 episodes of a currently available weight-loss podcast (control podcast) or a 12-week weight-loss podcast based on social cognitive theory (SCT), designed by the researchers (enhanced podcast).

Outcomes were measured by weight on a digital scale at baseline and follow-up. Both groups also completed questionnaires assessing demographic information, food intake, physical activity, and SCT constructs at the introductory and 12-week meetings. Additional questionnaires at the 12-week meeting assessed perceptions of the intervention.

Researchers at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston conducted a meta-analysis of studies examining whether EEG (electroencephalographic) biofeedback (AKA neurofeedback) is a viable treatment for epilepsy. About one third of epilepsy patients do not benefit from standard medical treatment.

Of 63 published studies, 10 provided enough outcome information to be included in the meta-analysis. All studies consisted of patients whose seizures were not controlled by medical therapies.  Nine of 10 studies reinforced sensorimotor rhythms (SMR) while 1 study trained slow cortical potentials (SCP).

In a really fascinating and important meta-analysis, researchers from Tufts University studied identical twins to see whether resting functional brain abnormalities found in combat-related PTSD are acquired characteristics or familial risk factors.

Recent neuroimaging research has shown functional abnormalities in the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus in people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

This study compares the PET scans (of resting regional cerebral metabolic rate for glucose) in fourteen combat-exposed veterans with PTSD and their fourteen identical co-twins, not exposed to combat, as well as nineteen combat-exposed veterans without PTSD (n = 19) and their nineteen identical co-twins, not exposed to combat.