Background: This study assessed the association between cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death in the United States, among parents and child mental health. Methods: Our sample included 9076 children aged 6 to 17 years. Data were pooled from the 2016–2018 waves of the National Health Interview Survey. We fitted a logistic regression to obtain the odds ratios in favor of child mental health problems for parental CVD. We also fitted a multinomial logistic regression to obtain the odds in favor of the severity of mental health problems (i.e., minor, definite, and severe). Results: The adjusted odds of facing difficulties for a child of a parent with CVD were 1.64 (95% CI: 1.28–2.11) times that of their peers whose parents did not have CVD. The adjusted relative risk of facing minor and definite difficulties for a child of a parent with CVD were 1.48 (95% CI: 1.13–1.94) and 2.25 (95% CI: 1.47–3.46) times that of their peers of parents without CVD. Conclusions: The results suggest a strong association between child mental health and parental cardiovascular morbidity, demonstrating the need for the development or adaptation of existing public health interventions to facilitate mental health support for children of parents with CVD.

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is the second most commonly used performance-based task in clinical practice. However, traditional TAT administration is time-consuming and raises accessibility issues. This study examines the effect of administration modifications (i.e., examiner handwriting versus typing, examiner recording versus participant recording, and re-prompting versus no re-prompting) on narrative length and richness as measured by the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global Rating Method (SCORS-G). A four-card TAT protocol was administered to 150 college students under one of five conditions. The resulting narratives were scored by two trained raters using the SCORS-G. MANOVA procedures showed (a) no significant differences between examiner handwriting versus typing; (b) the shortest, blandest narratives were produced when the examiner recorded the narratives without re-prompting; and (c) the longest, richest narratives were produced when the participant typed the narratives with re-prompts on the computer screen. Clinical and research implications and future directions will be discussed.

Marital disruption defined as widowhood, divorce, or separation, has adverse consequences for women’s health and wellbeing. Extant evidence, however, is primarily available for older women or in developed country settings. Consequences of marital disruption for younger women in the developing countries is relatively less visited. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to assess whether maritally disrupted women of reproductive age (18–49 years) had differential risk of tobacco-use compared to their married counterparts. Using nationally representative data from India, we estimated multivariable logistic regressions to obtain the odds in favor of tobacco-use for maritally disrupted women. We found that compared to women remained in marriage, maritally disrupted women were 1.5 times (95% CI: 1.4–1.6) more likely to consume tobacco. The higher risk of tobacco-use of maritally disrupted women was evident in both younger (age 18–34) and older (age 35–49) cohorts. The results were robust across urban and rural areas, high- and low- education groups, and poor- and non-poor households. The higher odds of tobacco-use among maritally disrupted women persisted even after accounting for household fixed effects. The study findings thus, have implications for strengthening targeted tobacco control policies and health promotion among maritally disrupted women in low-and-middle income countries.

Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has been studied for its neuroprotective benefits in disease and its ability to improve HIV-1-related symptoms in clinical and preclinical models. Chronic THC administration may cause reduced sensitivity to antinociceptive, hypothermic, and anxiolytic effects following acute THC administration, and HIV status may further influence these effects. Thus, the present study investigated the effects of an acute THC challenge after chronic THC exposure on behavioral and neuroinflammatory measures using the HIV-1 Tg26 neuroHIV mouse model. HIV-1 Tg26 transgenic [Tg26(+/-), n = 32(16f)] mice and their control littermates [Tg26(-/-), n = 31(16f)] received subcutaneous injections of vehicle solution or THC (3 mg/kg), once a day, 5 days per week, for 90 days. After a 7-day drug-free period, all mice were given a high dose of THC (10 mg/kg; intraperitoneally), and their body temperature, antinociception, locomotor activity, and elevated plus maze data were collected. To assess inflammation, cytokine/chemokine levels were assessed via Bio-Plex, and microglial quantification and microglial CCL3/MIP-1α were assessed via immunohistochemistry in various brain regions. THC metabolite levels in the plasma were also collected. A chronic THC history resulted in minor behavioral/physiological changes (e.g., increase in body temperature but no effects on antinociception or locomotor activity) but overall decreases in proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines in various brain regions of female mice. Importantly, across behavioral measures, a chronic THC history attenuated the efficacy of the acute high THC challenge dose, resulting in reduced THC-induced hypothermia, antinociception, and hypolocomotion, especially in females, and occasionally in a genotype-dependent manner. In the elevated plus maze, the acute THC challenge increased anxiety-like behavior in female mice with a chronic THC history compared to chronic vehicle history females, whereas no effects were noted in males. Further, regardless of microglial quantity, Tg26(+/-) mice showed high microglial-CCL3/MIP-1α co-occurrence in a sex- and brain-region dependent manner (e.g., basolateral nucleus of the amygdala in females & dorsal striatum in males). The data suggest that female mice may develop reduced sensitivity to THC's hypothermic, antinociceptive, and anxiolytic effects, and that this insensitivity development may depend on HIV genotype. The sex and genotype effects seen in the behavioral assays may be elucidated by differential effects in the inflammatory measures.

Alfred Tennyson's poem, Maud, was written from the perspective of a narrator madly in love with the titular character. The narrator goes through different phases throughout the text during which his interpretations of his surroundings, including his natural and relational environments, change with each passing event. During these changes, the narrator exhibits symptoms of mental disorders, including PTSD, bipolar disorder, and various delusional disorders. The narrator's depressive yet frenzied moods and his obsessive thoughts, the majority of which point to delusional disorder evident in the erotomaniac and persecutory types, begin to push him towards insanity. This presentation aims to delve into each of the symptoms of the narrator and how his delusions distort his interpretations of his relationships. An analysis of the text shows multiple instances in which the narrator shares his intense feelings. The narrator has been scarred by his father's death to such an extent that the beauty of nature around him morphs into a disfigured, bleeding landscape. He loves Maud obsessively; he will do almost anything to be with her. Finally, he loathes her brother for obstructing his relationship with Maud. Eventually, his delusions leave him a tormented individual who cannot find respite from his troubled mind.