Cross-Lagged Analysis of COVID-19-Related Worry and Media Consumption in a Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Sample of Community Adults

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in an array of mental health problems. Previous research has shown that media exposure to stressful situations is often related to anxiety and stress. However, given that most existing work has used cross-sectional designs, less is known about the interplay of media exposure and worry as they unfold during sustained exposure to a collective stressor. The current study examined bidirectional associations between COVID-related worry and media consumption over a three-month period. Participants were 87 community adults, the majority of whom were recruited from communities heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For three consecutive months, participants asked to indicate how much time they spent worrying and consuming news about the COVID-19 pandemic on a scale from 1 (“never”) to 5 (“most of the day”). Cross-lagged analyses revealed that Pandemic Worry at Month 1 predicted increases in Pandemic Media Consumption at Month 2, which in turn predicted increases in Pandemic Worry at Month 3. Findings suggest that media consumption may be a maladaptive coping strategy that has the iatrogenic effect of increasing worry. Clarifying the causal associations between anxiety-perpetuating processes and media consumption may have important clinical implications for understanding and treating mental health during health pandemics.

The Role of Magnesium in the Development of Cardiovascular Diseases and the Possibility of their Prevention and Correction with Magnesium Preparations (Part 2)

Data on the effect of magnesium on the homeostasis of the body and on the cardiovascular system, are presented in the article. These data supplement information on studies of the role of magnesium in many body processes. The influence of lifestyle on magnesium metabolism, the pathological processes that cause its deficiency, and the clinical picture of hypomagnesemia are presented in the article. The necessary daily amount of magnesium, ways to restore the magnesium deficiency, both nutritional and with the help of magnesium-containing pharmacological preparations, their form, bioavailability and dosage regimen are discussed. Diseases that occur and/or worsen with hypomagnesemia are considered. Data on the iatrogenic effect of many drugs, including cardiological, removing magnesium from the body and ways to solve this issue, are also presented. Hypomagnesemia exacerbates the course of cardiovascular disease. Elimination of magnesium deficiency can contribute a lot to the prevention of morbidity and the optimization of treatment of patients.

Outcomes of In Situ Training for Disclosure as a Standalone and a Booster to a Child Protective Behaviors Education Program

In this study, the effectiveness of the Observed Protective Behaviors behaviors test, a single-session, disclosure-focused, in situ skills training (IST), was evaluated as a standalone program (IST only) or as a booster to the child protective education program, Learn to be safe with Emmy and friends ™ (program + IST). Participants included 281 Year 1 children (5–7 years; 52% male), randomly assigned to IST only, program + IST, program only or waitlist, and followed across 6 months. At each assessment, children completed interviews to assess their intention and confidence to disclose unsafe situations (disclosure intentions and confidence) and their ability to identify unsafe situations (safety identification skills). Children also reported their anxiety symptoms to assess for a possible iatrogenic effect. The IST-only condition was effective, with children showing increased disclosure intentions relative to waitlist children. The program + IST condition was also effective, with children showing increased disclosure intentions relative to children in the waitlist or program-only conditions as well as greater increases in disclosure confidence relative to waitlist children. No differences were observed between conditions in children’s safety identification skills, and no iatrogenic effect on anxiety was found. Future research may seek to develop an IST that will also boost children’s safety identification skills.

Is There a Dark Side to Mindfulness? Relation of Mindfulness to Criminogenic Cognitions

In recent years, mindfulness-based interventions have been modified for use with inmate populations, but how this might relate to specific criminogenic cognitions has not been examined empirically. Theoretically, characteristics of mindfulness should be incompatible with distorted patterns of criminal thinking, but is this in fact the case? Among both 259 male jail inmates and 516 undergraduates, mindfulness was inversely related to the Criminogenic Cognitions Scale (CCS) through a latent variable of emotion regulation. However, in the jail sample, this mediational model also showed a direct, positive path from mindfulness to CCS, with an analogous, but nonsignificant trend in the college sample. Post hoc analyses indicate that the Nonjudgment of Self scale derived from the Mindfulness Inventory: Nine Dimensions (MI:ND) largely accounts for this apparently iatrogenic effect in both samples. Some degree of self-judgment is perhaps necessary and useful, especially among individuals involved in the criminal justice system.

Illicit Tactics as Substitutes

What is the relationship between ballot reforms and electoral malpractice? This article contributes to the growing comparative politics literature on the causes of election fraud in democratizing countries using the case of the 19th-century United States. We examine the adoption of the Australian ballot and disenfranchisement laws, and estimate their effects on multiple types of election fraud. Using a new measure of fraud in elections to the House of Representatives from 1860 to 1930, we find that the Australian ballot and disenfranchisement measures reduced vote-buying and voter intimidation. However, we further find that the Australian ballot had an “iatrogenic effect” of increasing registration and ballot fraud. Voting secrecy therefore led to substitution of one illicit electoral tactic for another.

An Illustration of Using Multiple Imputation Versus Listwise Deletion Analyses: The Effect of Hanen's “More Than Words” on Parenting Stress

This investigation illustrates the effects of using different missing data analysis techniques to analyze effects of a parent-implemented treatment on stress in parents of toddlers with autism symptomatology. The analysis approaches yielded similar results when analyzing main effects of the intervention, but different findings for moderation effects. Using listwise deletion, the data supported an iatrogenic effect of Hanen's “More Than Words” on stress in parents with high levels of pretreatment depressive symptoms. Using multiple imputation, a significant moderated treatment effect with uninterpretable regions of significance did not support an iatrogenic effect of treatment on parenting stress. Results highlight the need for caution in interpreting analyses that do not involve validated methods of handling missing data.

Declínio Cognitivo de Etiologia Medicamentosa

In the elderly there is a high risk of inappropriate medication and adverse effects of polypharmacy. A 68 year-old female patient resorted to the Emergency Room for suspected stroke. According to the husband, in the six months prior to admission, she became progressively disorientated and dependent. She had resorted to various appointments from different specialties and was polymedicated. It was impossible to clarify the exact dosage. On neurological examination she presented disturbance in attention and memory, disorientation, constructional apraxia, myoclonus and gait imbalance. After the suspension of all chronic medication, she showed gradual improvement. By the time of discharge, her neurological examination was completely normal. Iatrogenic effect of drugs as a cause of reversible dementia should be considered. All patients, particularly the elderly and their caregivers, should be suitably informed about the drugs that are prescribed and the dosages used. Using the biopsychosocial model could prevent inappropriate polypharmacy and iatrogeny.