<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<recommendedContent xmlns="http://api.mspoke.com">
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_463"
                     title="AAPM: Online Program Helps Manage Pain (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.011"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AAPM/tb/18393?impressionId=1265808908667"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;SAN ANTONIO  --  A personalized, online self-management program helped patients with pain syndromes improve coping skills and reduce stress and depression in two studies reported here.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Patients randomized to the self-management program demonstrated significant improvement in multiple social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes after six months (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.05 to &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01). Improvement in some parameters occurred within one month. A control group that was not exposed to the program showed no significant improvement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Our goal is to help people communicate better with providers, understand better how they can use social support, understand the comorbid conditions, like anxiety and depression, and develop cognitive skills to help get them through their pain episodes,&quot; said Emil Chiauzzi, PhD, of Inflexxion, the Newton, Mass. company that developed the program.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although the studies involved patients with migraine or low-back pain, programs are being developed for other types of pain condition, including several forms of neuropathic pain.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The online program, demonstrated at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.painACTION.com&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.painACTION.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;www.painACTION.com&lt;/a&gt;, employs patient-specific information to generate individualized self-management strategies.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Patient responses to assessments are analyzed by a &quot;recommendation engine,&quot; which produces content recommendations designed to address each patient&apos;s informational and self-management needs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Elements on the Web site include multimedia education units, a pain inventory, interactive tools that provide information based on patient-provider communication, and medication risk management.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The content on the Web site is focused on teaching people practical skills to manage the behavioral side of pain,&quot; Jonas Bromberg, PsyD, also of Inflexxion, said in an interview.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Bromberg presented results of a randomized study involving 210 patients, all of whom met International Headache Society diagnostic criteria for migraine, with or without aura.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Patients assigned to the online program completed at least eight 30-minute session during the first month of the study and at least five more 30-minute sessions during the five-month follow-up period. Patients in the control group continued to receive usual care without exposure to the Web site.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Participants assigned to the online program had a minimum set of requirements for each session, which were provided at log-in. Follow-up assessments occurred at one, three, and six months.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The two groups were balanced with respect to sex and headache frequency and severity, the researchers said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Bromberg reported that patients assigned to the self-management program demonstrated significant improvement in: &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Headache self-efficacy (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01 compared with baseline)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Use of relaxation (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.05 to &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Use of social support (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Pain catastrophizing (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Depression (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.05 to &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Stress (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Chiauzzi presented results from a randomized study of 209 patients with low-back pain. The design was similar to that of the migraine study, except results were analyzed for between-group differences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The results showed significant improvement in the study group versus control group with respect to: &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Stress (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Coping (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Social supports (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.05)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The data showed significant effects of both treatment (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01) and time (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.01) favoring the Web site versus control. Chiauzzi said patients assigned to the Web site had greater mean improvement at posttest, three months, and six months.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Qualitative analysis suggested that Web site participants had clinically meaningful improvement in depression, anxiety, and stress.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Additionally, patients in the self-management program reported a 12.3% decrease in pain from baseline, versus 7% in the control group.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Access to the Web site did not improve physical functioning.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The studies were funded by the National Institutes of Health.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chiauzzi and Bromberg are employees of Inflexxion, developer of the online program.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_424"
                     title="AAPM: Facet Graft Quells Refractory Back Pain (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.011"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AAPM/tb/18343?impressionId=1265808908667"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;SAN ANTONIO  --  Minimally invasive facet arthrodesis significantly reduced pain and improved physical function for one&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;year in patients with medically refractory facet arthropathy, according to data from a prospective clinical series.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Most patients discontinued narcotic pain relievers, researchers reported here, and only one of 28 patients in the series had no appreciable change in pain after the noninstrumented spinal surgery.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The procedure does not disrupt stabilizing ligaments or muscular structures of the posterior spine, allowing unimpeded physiotherapy for low back muscular strengthening after 16 weeks,&quot; Daniel Bennett, MD, of Integrative Treatment Centers in Denver, told attendees at the American Academy of Pain Medicine meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;If fusion occurs, symptoms should not return, as with traditional treatment modalities, such as thermal radiofrequency neurolysis.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The results have provided the foundation for a prospective, multicenter, randomized clinical trial to compare radiofrequency neurolysis and minimally invasive spine facet arthrodesis, he added.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Medical management of low back pain related to facet degeneration often provides minimal pain relief and can interfere with functioning. Direct injection of anesthesia into an affected joint also leads to negligible long-term benefits, said Bennett. Radiofrequency neurolysis provides only temporary pain relief and must be repeated because of nerve regeneration.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All the patients had a return of pain after previous radiofrequency neurolysis and were eligible for repeat neurolytic procedures. Affected areas were confirmed by anesthetic injection, followed by a provocatory examination.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The patients underwent a standardized procedure that included a small incision at the affected area, insertion of surgical pins to stabilize the joint, use of a surgical drill to achieve joint separation, and insertion of 5-mm or 7-mm Morse tapered cortical allografts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After surgery, patients wore a rigid brace for 16 weeks, at which point they began physical therapy to strengthen back muscles.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The patients received a total of 102 grafts at 51 levels, and four dislodgements (3.9%) occurred. None of the patients had a return of pain after dislodgement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Among patients who retained grafts, all showed callus formation of the posterior joint and incorporation of the cortical allograft,&quot; said Bennett.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At the 52-week follow-up, the average score on a 100-point visual analog pain scale was 23, down from an average of 79 prior to the intervention. Patients&apos; scores on the Oswestry Disability Index averaged 8.32, compared with 33.46 at baseline.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All but four patients discontinued narcotic medication, and the morphine dose required by those four decreased from a baseline range of 150 to 360 mg to a range of 10 to 30 mg at one year.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was supported by Prism Healthcare Foundation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bennett disclosed relationships with Alphatec Spine, miniSURG, Boston Scientific, Cephalon, Nevro, and Paylon.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_413"
                     title="ICAO: In Obesity, Fat Legs Better than Fat Middles (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.01"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/Obesity/tb/18322?impressionId=1265808908667"
                     
      Having less abdominal fat but more leg fat may play a role in maintaining metabolic health in obese women, but not in heavy men, researchers found.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Metabolically healthy obese women had significantly more leg fat compared with metabolically unfit women, and smaller waist circumference (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.05), Sarah Appleton, a postgraduate student at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and colleagues reported at the International Congress on Abdominal Obesity in Hong Kong.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;When there&apos;s no significant differences in total body fat, the high levels of leg fat but low levels of central fat &quot;makes you think this is a protective factor against developing metabolic complications of their obesity, including diabetes,&quot; Appleton told &lt;em&gt;MedPage Today&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Smaller studies have shown that metabolically healthy obese patients have less visceral fat compared with insulin-resistant obese patients, suggesting these may be protective factors that limit the development of metabolic disease.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, normal-weight patients with cardiometabolic risk factors, who are labeled as &quot;metabolically obese,&quot; have higher abdominal adiposity compared with metabolically healthy normal-weight patients. They&apos;re also at increased risk for diabetes and heart disease.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To examine the relationship, the researchers conducted dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans of body composition in 1,604 patients who were over age 50 and participated in the North West Adelaide Health Study. They were stratified in four categories: metabolically obese normal-weight, metabolically healthy normal weight, metabolically healthy obese, and metabolically unfit obese.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Metabolic obesity was defined by having two or more metabolic risk factors including high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, high fasting plasma glucose, or diabetes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers also measured waist circumference.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They found that among normal-weight women, the metabolically obese had significantly more total fat and more trunk fat compared with those who were metabolically healthy (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.05). There were no differences in waist circumference or lean mass.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Among obese women, the metabolically healthy had no significant differences in total body fat, compared with the metabolically unfit. But they had significantly more leg fat, a smaller waist circumference, and the same amounts of lean mass.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;We would have expected to see that metabolically healthy obese ladies would have more leg fat, but also more lean mass and less central fat, since this combination is protective against developing diabetes,&quot; Appleton said, &quot;but we didn&apos;t see that related to lean mass, which was surprising.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Normal-weight men who had metabolic problems had significantly more total fat and trunk (chest and abdominal) fat than metabolically healthy ones, but no differences in lean mass.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And for obese men, there were no significant differences between the metabolically fit and unfit, which &quot;was a surprise,&quot; Appleton said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Men generally have much less fat and more lean mass,&quot; she added. &quot;Women are the other way around, so maybe it&apos;s not so surprising to see these effects specifically in women.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers did find that among all overweight patients, both male and female, metabolic health was associated with significantly lower waist circumference.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;We know specifically that fat around the abdomen is dangerous because it can drain into your blood very easily and have direct effects on organs including the liver and pancreas,&quot; Appleton said. &quot;The theory is that distribution of fat and maybe an alternative inflammatory profile protects obese ladies from developing the metabolic consequences you&apos;d expect to see in people who are obese.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appleton said the study may have implications for clinical practice, adding that physicians should assess both BMI and waist circumference to determine disease risk. Moreover, physicians &quot;need to focus on healthy weight loss in a way that protects lean mass but also reduces dangerous fat deposits including central adiposity.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It also goes to show that &quot;just because somebody looks thin,&quot; Appleton added, &quot;doesn&apos;t mean they&apos;re healthy.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The researchers reported no conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_412"
                     title="Depression During Pregnancy Linked to Kids&apos; Behavior Problems (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.01"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Depression/tb/18321?impressionId=1265808908667"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;Children born to mothers who were depressed during pregnancy were more than twice as likely to display antisocial behavior by age 16 as children whose mothers had not been depressed, researchers found.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Of 120 mothers from South London who were followed from pregnancy through their children&apos;s teen years, 31% had depression during pregnancy, according to Dale Hay, PhD, of Cardiff University in Wales, and colleagues.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Children born to these women were significantly more likely to display antisocial behavior (OR 2.46, 95% CI 1.10 to 5.48) and commit violent acts (OR 4.36, 95% CI 1.54 to 12.41) before age 16, the researchers reported in the January/February issue of &lt;em&gt;Child Development&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The associations were magnified in women who also had a history of behavior problems when they were children.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;A focus on mothers&apos; history of conduct problems and depression during pregnancy, as opposed to broader measures of the social environment, would hold promise for more targeted early interventions to prevent the development of serious antisocial behavior,&quot; Hay&apos;s group wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Previous studies have linked mothers&apos; mental health problems in pregnancy with disruptive behaviors in their children, but it&apos;s unclear what explains the relationship, according to the researchers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To explore the issue, they turned to the South London Child Development Study, which prospectively followed 120 pregnant women and their children into the teenage years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All families came from a relatively disadvantaged urban area. These families were more likely to belong to the working class and to be from ethnic minority groups than the general U.K. population.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One-third of the children had been arrested or diagnosed with a conduct disorder by age 16. Of these 88.9% had been arrested and 45% had committed violent acts, including theft from a person, violent disorder, fighting, carrying a weapon, and assault.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The association between maternal depression during pregnancy and risk of antisocial behavior remained relatively constant in analyses controlling for family environment, a child&apos;s exposure to maternal depression after birth, mothers&apos; substance use during pregnancy, and parental antisocial behavior.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;None of the factors fully explained the relationship. Neither did the arrest history of the biological father.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, the researchers wrote in the paper, &quot;it would be unwise to conclude that paternal risk factors are unimportant, given that we did not have more detailed information about the father&apos;s own history of conduct disorders.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They explored several potential mechanisms for the link between maternal depression and a child&apos;s behavior problems: &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Direct effects on the fetus from biological correlates of the mothers&apos; depressive symptoms&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Depression in pregnancy as a sign of environmental adversity&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Re-exposure to maternal depression after birth&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Indirect effects of depression on the developing fetus driven by mothers&apos; smoking, drinking, and drug taking during pregnancy &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;A genetic explanation whereby women who experience depression in pregnancy may also have a greater genetic risk for antisocial behavior, which they pass on to their offspring &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hay and her colleagues noted that these explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They also acknowledged some limitations of the study, including the lack of information about fetal growth and neuroendocrine measures on the mother and child and the relatively small sample size.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The SLCDS has been funded by U.K. project grants from the Medical Research Council, by the Psychiatric Research Trust, and by the South West G.P. Trust. The current analysis was partially supported by an Economic and Social Research Council studentship to one of Hay&apos;s co-authors and by a Medical Research Council U.K. Program Grant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The authors did not report any conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_405"
                     title="Difficult Childhood Lingers in the Mind (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.009"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/GeneralPsychiatry/tb/18312?impressionId=1265808908667"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;Adversities faced in childhood have effects on mental health far into the future, researchers affirmed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mental illness in adulthood was increasingly likely the more traumas faced in childhood, Ronald C. Kessler, PhD, of Harvard, and colleagues reported in the February issue of the &lt;em&gt;Archives of General Psychiatry&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Childhood difficulties potentially explained 32.4% of all the psychiatric disorders examined, they said, based on analyses of the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Adversities relating to family dysfunction  --  substance-abusing parents, sexual or physical abuse in the home, neglect, etc.  --  appeared to have the strongest link to onset and persistence of psychiatric disorders, they reported.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These findings match folk wisdom and decades of research into the negative effects of child maltreatment, commented John McGrath, MD, PhD, of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research in Wacol, Australia, and colleagues in an accompanying editorial.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But the lack of specificity between certain exposures to particular mental health outcomes  --  such as the death of one&apos;s mother leading to depression  --  was notable, the editorialists said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Thus, childhood trauma upsets the orderly psychological and biological cascades of development, leaving the affected individual at increased risk of a wide range of adverse mental health outcomes,&quot; they wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Rather than continue to rehash the epidemiology, it&apos;s time to focus on prevention and intervention, McGrath&apos;s group emphasized.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;It is unrealistic to think that we could protect all children from all adversities, but can we identify factors that bolster resilience and focus our efforts on the most vulnerable subgroups?&quot; they asked.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers examined joint associations of 12 retrospectively reported childhood adversities with lifetime incidence of disorders meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication I, a cross-sectional survey of a nationally-representative sample of adults in 9,282 American households.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Among the respondents, 53.4% reported at least one childhood adversity, most commonly parental divorce (17.5%), family violence (14.0%), family economic problems (10.6%), and parental mental illness (10.3%).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These adversities were all individually and significantly linked to first onset of psychiatric disorders with odds ratios of 1.5 to 1.9 for dysfunctional family factors (physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, parental mental illness, parental substance abuse, parental criminality, or family violence) and 1.0 to 1.5 for other factors like life-threatening childhood physical illness, extreme poverty, parental divorce, or loss of or separation from parents.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Despite some apparent but not significantly meaningful variation in type of adversity with type of psychiatric disorder, the researchers said they could rule out that all types were the same for future mental health risk (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.001).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Problems tended to cluster, though. Among people who faced one adversity in childhood, 51.2% to 95.1% faced others as well, depending on the adversity.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Risk of mental illness rose with number of issues faced in childhood from an odds ratio of 1.3 for one up to 3.4 for six and 3.2 for seven or more adversities.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;This subadditive pattern has important implications for intervention because it means that prevention or amelioration of only a single childhood adversity in youths exposed to many childhood adversities is unlikely to have important preventive effects,&quot; the researchers wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overall, childhood adversities were projected to account for 44.6% of childhood-onset disorders, 32.0% of adolescent-onset disorders, and 28.6% of adult-onset disorders.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers also looked at persistence through the second part of the National Comorbidity Survey Replication which went beyond just core diagnostic assessment in 5,692 respondents.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In a complex multivariate interactive analysis, childhood adversity from dysfunctional family factors appeared significantly linked to persistence in a given year (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.001) whereas the number of factors was not significant.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These significant factors were parental mental illness, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect, but they carried modest effects individually with odds ratios of 1.2.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But in one simulation, not being exposed to childhood trauma would only increase the time since the most recent episode of psychiatric illness by 1.6%, suggesting &quot;quite modest&quot; substantive importance in determining persistence.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;These results indirectly suggest that the public health implications of childhood adversities are greater for primary than for secondary prevention because the associations of childhood adversities with disorder onset are much stronger than the associations with persistence,&quot; Kessler&apos;s group wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers cautioned that recall bias may have limited their study such that the results could be considered an &quot;upper bound&quot; for the real association and that the study could not prove causality.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The National Comorbidity Survey Replication is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health with supplemental support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the John W. Alden Trust.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The analyses were supported by a grant from the NIMH; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the Pfizer Foundation; grants from the U.S. Public Health Service; an award from the Fogarty International Center; the Pan American Health Organization; Eli Lilly; Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical; GlaxoSmithKline; and Bristol-Myers Squibb.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kessler reported financial conflicts of interest with GlaxoSmithKline, Kaiser Permanente, Pfizer, sanofi-aventis, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth-Ayerst, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson &amp;amp; Johnson Pharmaceuticals, and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The editorialists reported no conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
</recommendedContent>
