MIRECC / CoE

Publication Highlights

Articles and books authored by our affiliates enable us to share research and knowledge about mental health treatment with our Veteran, caregiver, provider and research communities.

Highlighted Articles

Drs. Jeffrey (Jeff) Pyne (first author), Marcela (Marci) Weber and Kent Hinkson, Jr. published “Predicting post-traumatic stress disorder treatment response using heart rate variability to virtual reality environment and modified stroop task: An exploratory study” in Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking. The authors found that heart rate variability recovery variables in the context of a standardized virtual reality stressor were significant predictors of PTSD treatment response after controlling for baseline Clinician Administered PTSD Scale and number of combat experiences. The direction of this relationship indicates that greater baseline heart rate variability recovery predicts lower 6-month PTSD symptom severity.

Drs. Amy Amspoker, Kyler Godwin, and Ali Abbas Asghar-Ali coauthored “Outcomes from an interprofessional, dementia-focused, telementoring program: a brief report” in Gerontology and Geriatrics Education (J. Fernandez first author). The authors concluded that there was a significant improvement in learner intentions to change medication prescribing by midpoint assessment (p = 0.04). Learners reported few barriers to incorporating skills they learned. An interprofessional telementoring program can help nongeriatric practitioners improve skills in caring for older adults.

Drs. Mara Ferrie (first author) and Amanda Raines published “Co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and alcohol use behaviors: The mediating role of drinking to cope with PTSD symptoms” in the Journal of Dual Diagnosis. Results revealed a significant indirect effect of PTSD symptom severity on alcohol use frequency and alcohol use-related problems via drinking to cope with PTSD symptoms but not alcohol use quantity or binge drinking frequency. Drinking to cope with negative affect did not indirectly mediate the relations between PTSD symptom severity and any of the alcohol use-related outcomes.

Last updated: October 18, 2024