Induced optimism to lessen hopelessness-related cognitions among young adults at risk for suicidal thoughts and behavior.

Background: Hopelessness is one of the best-studied cognitive predictors of depression and suicide. Previous research suggests that hopelessness may develop through repetitive thinking about the occurrence of positive and negative future outcomes. The present study sought to investigate whether mental rehearsal in making optimistic future-event predictions, or induced optimism, would lead to reductions in hopelessness, particularly among individuals with a history of suicide ideation or suicide attempts. Methods: Participants with (n = 58) and without (n = 76) a history of suicide ideation or attempts were randomly assigned to either practice making optimistic future-event predictions or to a control condition in which they practiced making a lexical decision (using the same stimuli) over three study sessions, each separated by one week. Results: Findings offered modest support for the hypothesis that induced optimism would decrease hopelessness but not improve mood; this was regardless of history of suicide ideation or attempts. Limitations: The sample was predominantly female, and assessment of suicide ideation and attempt history was not confirmed by clinical interview, which may limit generalizability. Conclusion: Practice in making optimistic future-event predictions over time may be one way to reduce the hopelessness-related cognitions that confer vulnerability to suicide ideation and behavior.

Future-oriented repetitive thought, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation severity: Role of future-event fluency and depressive predictive certainty.

BACKGROUND: Knowing how future-oriented repetitive thought - i.e., repeated consideration of whether positive or negative outcomes will happen in one's future - leads to hopelessness-related cognitions may elucidate the role of anticipating the future in depressive symptoms and suicide ideation. This study examined future-event fluency and depressive predictive certainty - i.e., the tendency to make pessimistic future-event predictions with certainty - as mechanisms explaining the relation between future-oriented repetitive thought, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation. METHODS: Young adults (N = 354), oversampled for suicide ideation or attempt history, completed baseline measures of pessimistic future-oriented repetitive thought (i.e., the degree to which people consider whether negative outcomes will happen or positive outcomes will not happen in their futures), future-event fluency, depressive predictive certainty, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation severity and were followed up 6 months later (N = 324). RESULTS: Pessimistic future-oriented repetitive thought predicted depressive predictive certainty at 6-months, partially mediated by lower positive but not increased negative future-event fluency. There was an indirect relationship between pessimistic future-oriented repetitive thought and 6-month suicide ideation severity via 6-month depressive predictive certainty through 6-month depressive symptoms, and also via 6-month depressive symptoms (but not depressive predictive certainty) alone. LIMITATIONS: Lack of an experimental design limits inferences about causality, and a predominantly female sample may limit generalizability by sex. CONCLUSION: Clinical interventions should address pessimistic future-oriented repetitive thought - and its impact on how easily people can think about positive future outcomes - as one potential way to reduce depressive symptoms and, indirectly, suicide ideation.

Spatial and Seasonal Patterns of the Mosquito Community in Central Oklahoma.

Mosquitoes (Culicidae) are ubiquitous flying insects that function as vectors for several viruses that cause disease in humans. Mosquito abundance and diversity are influenced by landscape features and environmental factors such as temperature and precipitation and vary across seasons and years. The range and phenology of many mosquito species that vector viruses relevant to human health are changing. We sampled mosquito communities in central Oklahoma for four years at thirteen sites, collecting over 25,000 mosquitoes; among these, we identified 27 different species, including several that transmit human pathogens and were collected in suburban backyards. Community composition differed across the landscape and changed from early season to late season and year to year. This effort to describe mosquito communities in Oklahoma is a first step toward assessing and predicting arbovirus risk, an ongoing and dynamic public health challenge.

The future-oriented repetitive thought (FoRT) scale: A measure of repetitive thinking about the future.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Repetitive thinking about the future has been suggested as one way in which individuals may become hopeless about the future. We report on a new scale assessing future-oriented repetitive thinking, termed the Future-Oriented Repetitive Thought (FoRT) Scale. METHODS: In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted with data from 1071 individuals who completed the scale. Study 2 describes a confirmatory factor analysis with a revised version of the scale on a sample of 612 individuals, a subsample of whom (N=99) also completed measures of repetitive thought (rumination, worry), hopelessness-related cognitions, and symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety disorder in order to examine evidence for the measure's convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity. Study 3 examined the scale's concurrent validity in distinguishing between individuals with and without a history of suicidal ideation and attempts. RESULTS: A three-factor solution emerged in Study 1, and this solution was confirmed in Study 2. In addition, the FoRT scale demonstrated moderate associations with other measures of repetitive thought (rumination, worry), with hopelessness-related cognitions, and with symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety. Finally, the FoRT scale distinguished between individuals with and without a history of suicidal ideation and attempts. LIMITATIONS: Cross-sectional data limit conclusions that can be drawn about directionality. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the newly developed FoRT scale is a reliable and valid measure of future-oriented repetitive thought.

Echolocating Big Brown Bats, Eptesicus fuscus, Modulate Pulse Intervals to Overcome Range Ambiguity in Cluttered Surroundings.

Big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) emit trains of brief, wideband frequency-modulated (FM) echolocation sounds and use echoes of these sounds to orient, find insects, and guide flight through vegetation. They are observed to emit sounds that alternate between short and long inter-pulse intervals (IPIs), forming sonar sound groups. The occurrence of these strobe groups has been linked to flight in cluttered acoustic environments, but how exactly bats use sonar sound groups to orient and navigate is still a mystery. Here, the production of sound groups during clutter navigation was examined. Controlled flight experiments were conducted where the proximity of the nearest obstacles was systematically decreased while the extended scene was kept constant. Four bats flew along a corridor of varying widths (100, 70, and 40 cm) bounded by rows of vertically hanging plastic chains while in-flight echolocation calls were recorded. Bats shortened their IPIs for more rapid spatial sampling and also grouped their sounds more tightly when flying in narrower corridors. Bats emitted echolocation calls with progressively shorter IPIs over the course of a flight, and began their flights by emitting shorter starting IPI calls when clutter was denser. The percentage of sound groups containing 3 or more calls increased with increasing clutter proximity. Moreover, IPI sequences having internal structure become more pronounced when corridor width narrows. A novel metric for analyzing the temporal organization of sound sequences was developed, and the results indicate that the time interval between echolocation calls depends heavily on the preceding time interval. The occurrence of specific IPI patterns were dependent upon clutter, which suggests that sonar sound grouping may be an adaptive strategy for coping with pulse-echo ambiguity in cluttered surroundings.

Mental Health Treatment Barriers Among Racial/Ethnic Minority Versus White Young Adults 6 Months After Intake at a College Counseling Center.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined mental health treatment barriers following intake at a counseling center among racially/ethnically diverse college students. METHODS: College students (N = 122) seen for intake at a college counseling center in 2012-2013 completed self-reports of depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and mental health treatment barriers 6 months later. RESULTS: Racial/ethnic minority students less often reported previous mental health treatment and treatment after being seen at the counseling center, compared with white students. They also endorsed more treatment barriers--most commonly, financial concerns and lack of time--and more often endorsed stigma-related concerns. Treatment barriers were associated with not following through with counseling center recommendations and with greater depressive symptom severity but not with suicidal ideation during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Improving mental health treatment seeking among racial/ethnic minority college students should involve decreasing treatment barriers, improving access to affordable options, providing flexible scheduling or time-limited options, and decreasing stigma.

Rumination and pessimistic certainty as mediators of the relation between lifetime suicide attempt history and future suicidal ideation.

This study examined whether rumination and certainty about pessimistic future-event predictions (P-Certainty) would mediate the relation between lifetime suicide attempt history and future suicidal ideation. Young adults, ages 18-25 (N = 143), with a suicide attempt history (n = 32) or no previous suicide attempt history (n = 111) at baseline, were followed up 2-3 years later and completed measures of rumination, depressive symptoms, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, and pessimistic future-event certainty. Lifetime suicide attempts at baseline were associated with higher suicidal ideation at follow up, and this relation was mediated by rumination and P-Certainty. Suicide attempters may be vulnerable to later ideation due to higher levels of rumination and also certainty in their pessimistic future expectations.