Developmental Outcomes of Infants Adopted from Foster Care: Predictive Associations from Perinatal and Preplacement Risk Factors.

Infants adopted domestically from foster care often present with prenatal substance exposure and risky birth outcomes such as prematurity and low birth weight. Because few longitudinal studies of foster-adoptive infants exist, it is unclear how these preplacement risk factors influence development over time. The present study examined associations between perinatal risk factors and developmental outcomes among an ethnically/racially-diverse sample of 97 infants in foster-care (56% boys) placed into adoptive homes at ages 0-19 months. Relative to population-norms, foster-adoptive infants showed comparable cognitive but lower language and motor functioning at baseline and one-year follow-up. Age-adjusted language scores significantly improved one year following placement, consistent with a developmental "catch-up" effect. Low birth weight uniquely predicted lower language scores at baseline, but this association was no longer significant at follow-up. Prenatal substance exposure was associated with lower baseline cognitive scores, but only for infants placed after six months of age. In contrast, infants with low birth weight and later placement age (>12 months) showed the most accelerated motor development. Sex differences emerged at follow-up when predicting motor and language outcomes, suggesting potential sex-specific pathways of risk. Overall, results support adoption as an early intervention that may buffer vulnerability to perinatal risk on development.

In the trauma-informed care trenches: Teacher compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and intent to leave education within underserved elementary schools.

BACKGROUND: School-based trauma-informed care (TIC) represents a novel way of supporting children with trauma histories. However, minimal research has focused on how TIC impacts teacher wellbeing, which is concerning given the relationship between occupational stress and turnover from education. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated teacher characteristics associated with perceived effectiveness of TIC and intent to leave education. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The study included 163 teachers in underserved elementary schools serving a high percentage of low-income, English-language learner Latinx students. METHODS: Teachers completed a survey regarding an ongoing TIC program and quality of life for helping professionals. RESULTS: Higher compassion satisfaction and secondary traumatic stress (STS), as well as lower burnout, were associated with perceived effectiveness of TIC. Older teachers, and those with lower compassion satisfaction and higher burnout, were more likely to report intentions to leave education. STS and perceived effectiveness of TIC were not associated with turnover intent. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that teacher occupational wellbeing, particularly compassion satisfaction, plays a role in buy-in to TIC and retention among teachers.

When Treatment is Traumatic: An Empirical Review of Interventions for Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress.

Pediatric medical traumatic stress (PMTS) is common among injured/ill children and is associated with elevated distress, treatment non-adherence, and poor health outcomes. As survivorship of life-threatening pediatric injury and illness continues to increase alongside rapid medical advancements, rates of PMTS and negative sequelae are expected to grow; however, research on prevention and treatment of PMTS is limited. The current study sought to systematically review the literature using a developmental framework to highlight research gaps. Sixteen peer-reviewed studies were identified via a systematic literature search. Consistent with best practices for treatment of childhood trauma, caregiver involvement and CBT principles served as the foundation for most interventions. All studies reported improvements in PMTS; however, among the most methodologically rigorous, few found statistically superior reductions in PMTS between intervention and control groups. While many studies focused on a specific developmental stage and discussed developmental considerations, others took a "one-size-fits" approach. Interventions that demonstrated the most promising findings were online, self-guided, or time-limited. Future research would benefit from expanding diversity of participants, continuing to evaluate novel delivery methods, and integrating developmental considerations along with trauma-informed care (TIC) approaches, given their useful framework for understanding child traumatic stress responses and avenues for prevention and treatment.

Altered functional connectivity between sub-regions in the thalamus and cortex in schizophrenia patients measured by resting state BOLD fMRI at 7T.

The thalamus is a small brain structure that relays neuronal signals between subcortical and cortical regions. Abnormal thalamocortical connectivity in schizophrenia has been reported in previous studies using blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) performed at 3T. However, anatomically the thalamus is not a single entity, but is subdivided into multiple distinct nuclei with different connections to various cortical regions. We sought to determine the potential benefit of using the enhanced sensitivity of BOLD fMRI at ultra-high magnetic field (7T) in exploring thalamo-cortical connectivity in schizophrenia based on subregions in the thalamus. Seeds placed in thalamic subregions of 14 patients and 14 matched controls were used to calculate whole-brain functional connectivity. Our results demonstrate impaired thalamic connectivity to the prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum, but enhanced thalamic connectivity to the motor/sensory cortex in schizophrenia. This altered functional connectivity significantly correlated with disease duration in the patients. Remarkably, comparable effect sizes observed in previous 3T studies were detected in the current 7T study with a heterogeneous and much smaller cohort, providing evidence that ultra-high field fMRI may be a powerful tool for measuring functional connectivity abnormalities in schizophrenia. Further investigation with a larger cohort is merited to validate the current findings.

Abnormal Grey Matter Arteriolar Cerebral Blood Volume in Schizophrenia Measured With 3D Inflow-Based Vascular-Space-Occupancy MRI at 7T.

Metabolic dysfunction and microvascular abnormality may contribute to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Most previous studies of cerebral perfusion in schizophrenia measured total cerebral blood volume (CBV) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the brain, which reflect the ensemble signal from the arteriolar, capillary, and venular compartments of the microvasculature. As the arterioles are the most actively regulated blood vessels among these compartments, they may be the most sensitive component of the microvasculature to metabolic disturbances. In this study, we adopted the inflow-based vascular-space-occupancy (iVASO) MRI approach to investigate alterations in the volume of small arterial (pial) and arteriolar vessels (arteriolar cerebral blood volume [CBVa]) in the brain of schizophrenia patients. The iVASO approach was extended to 3-dimensional (3D) whole brain coverage, and CBVa was measured in the brains of 12 schizophrenia patients and 12 matched controls at ultra-high magnetic field (7T). Significant reduction in grey matter (GM) CBVa was found in multiple areas across the whole brain in patients (relative changes of 14%-51% and effect sizes of 0.7-2.3). GM CBVa values in several regions in the temporal cortex showed significant negative correlations with disease duration in patients. GM CBVa increase was also found in a few brain regions. Our results imply that microvascular abnormality may play a role in schizophrenia, and suggest GM CBVa as a potential marker for the disease. Further investigation is needed to elucidate whether such effects are due to primary vascular impairment or secondary to other causes, such as metabolic dysfunction.

Age-related changes in anterior cingulate cortex glutamate in schizophrenia: A (1)H MRS Study at 7 Tesla.

The extent of age-related changes in glutamate and other neurometabolites in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in individuals with schizophrenia remain unclear. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) at 7 T, which yields precise measurements of various metabolites and can distinguish glutamate from glutamine, was used to determine levels of ACC glutamate and other metabolites in 24 individuals with schizophrenia and 24 matched controls. Multiple regression analysis revealed that ACC glutamate decreased with age in patients but not controls. No changes were detected in levels of glutamine, N-acetylaspartate, N-acetylaspartylglutamic acid, myo-inositol, GABA, glutathione, total creatine, and total choline. These results suggest that age may be an important modifier of ACC glutamate in schizophrenia.

An empirical analysis of overlap publication in Chinese language and English research manuscripts.

BACKGROUND: There are a number of sound justifications for publishing nearly identical information in Chinese and English medical journals, assuming several conditions are met. Although overlap publication is perceived as undesirable and ethically questionable in Europe and North America, it may serve an important function in some regions where English is not the native tongue. There is no empirical data on the nature and degree of overlap publication in English and Chinese language journals. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A random sample of 100 English manuscripts from Chinese institutions was selected from PubMed. Key words and institutions were searched in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, a comprehensive Chinese language research database. Unacknowledged overlap was a priori defined according to International Committee of Medical Journal Editor (ICMJE) guidelines following examination by two individuals. 19% (95% CI 11-27) of English manuscripts from Chinese institutions were found to have substantial overlap with Chinese published work based on full text examination. None of the manuscripts met all of the criteria established by the ICMJE for an acknowledged overlap publication. Individual-level, journal-level, and institutional factors seem to influence overlap publication. Manuscripts associated with an institution outside of China and with more than one institution were significantly less likely to have substantial overlap (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Overlap publication was common in this context, but instances of standard ICMJE notations to acknowledge this practice were rare. This research did not cite the identified overlap manuscripts with the hope that these empirical data will inform journal policy changes and structural initiatives to promote clearer policies and manuscripts.