Globally, significant progress toward ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic includes advances in HIV treatment, converting a fatal infection to a chronic disease. Adolescents living with HIV (AWHIV) continue to underachievein HIV viral suppression (VS) needed to remain healthy. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the role of self-management and related factors in VS among AWHIV aged 15-19 years in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A total of 658 AWHIV from ten large HIV care and treatment sites were assessed on HIV-related self-management, depression, HIV stigma, physical quality of life and social support. HIV viral load was abstracted from clinical records. Generalized linear models were used to examine unadjusted and adjusted mean differences in self-management scores between the two groups. Over half of the AWHIV, 403(78%), had achieved VS. Overall, sub-scale self-management scores did not differ significantly between groups (p > .05); however, three self-management items significantly differed by VS status: health self-efficacy (p = 0.049), life ambitions/goals (p = 0.031) and ART administration knowledge (p = 0.044). Adjusted models attenuated self-efficacy and ambition differences while ART knowledge differences persisted (p = 0.005). Physical quality of life, social support and stigma significantly moderated relationships between self-management items and VS. These findings suggest that focusing on targeted self-management behaviors may provide a more accurate understanding of their influence on VS than aggregated self-management scores.

This study examined the relative contributions of various facets of internalized racism (IR) to anxious arousal and depressive symptoms. A racially diverse sample of 205 U.S.-based racial/ethnic minority adults (M age = 27.96, 60% female, 55.6% Black/African American, 18.5% Asian, 14.6% multiracial, and 11.3% other) completed validated measures of IR, anxiety, and depression. Hierarchical regressions were conducted to assess the unique effects of four IR facets across affective and cognitive dimensions: emotional reactions (affective) with group devaluation, adoption of dominant cultural standards, and patterns of thinking (cognitive), above and beyond sociodemographic information. Global IR was significantly and positively associated with both anxiety and depression, with affective facets being significantly associated with anxiety, whereas the cognitive process of group devaluation was significantly associated with both anxiety and depressive symptomatology. These findings suggest that specific cognitive and affective facets may be implicated in the development of internalizing symptoms among minoritized individuals, particularly shame-based emotional responses and intragroup devaluation. Clinical implications suggest that cognitive restructuring and acceptance-based approaches may help address maladaptive beliefs and emotions tied to racial identity. This study extends the existing literature by exploring how cognitive and affective forms of IR may differentially relate to anxious and depressive presentations, providing direction for refining theoretical models of race-related stress and psychopathology.

Misophonia is a sound intolerance disorder characterized by strong emotional and physiological reactions to specific everyday sounds. Emerging research suggests that stress may play an important role in misophonia, yet little work has examined whether stress uniquely contributes to misophonia severity or influences treatment response. The present study examined the role of stress in misophonia using data from a randomized clinical trial of treatment-seeking adults (N = 60) comparing acceptance and commitment therapy and progressive relaxation training. First, we examined whether stress symptoms were uniquely associated with misophonia severity and impairment at baseline when accounting for anger, disgust propensity and sensitivity, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and demographic variables. Second, we examined whether baseline stress influenced trajectories of change in misophonia outcomes over time and whether these differed across treatment conditions. Results suggested that, at baseline, stress symptoms were the only clinical correlate that uniquely predicted misophonia symptom severity and misophonia-related impairment. Baseline stress was also associated with differences in treatment trajectories, such that individuals reporting lower stress showed greater improvement in misophonia symptoms and impairment by the 6-month follow-up compared with those with higher stress. However, stress did not interact with treatment condition; both treatments performed equally regardless of stress levels. These findings suggest that stress may represent a broader psychological process associated with misophonia severity and the durability of treatment gains.

In contrast to the well-documented phenomena of inter-male aggression and competition in nature, the long-term consequences for females involuntarily exposed to persistent male-initiated social threat remain inadequately understood. In the present study, we demonstrate that C57BL/6J female mice co-housed with CD1 male mice for 14 days developed anxiety-like behaviors and cognitive deficits, without exhibiting depressive-like phenotypes. Concurrently, these females displayed a significant decrease in serum estrogen levels and dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Furthermore, co-housing with CD1 males profoundly disrupted sleep architecture in C57BL/6J females, as evidenced by reduced wakefulness and prolonged durations of both non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Mechanistically, these behavioral and physiological alterations were associated with substantial a reduction in cell density in the CA1 and CA3 subregions of the ventral hippocampus, accompanied by a marked downregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) within these same areas. Collectively, our findings provide experimental evidence for the adverse effects of chronic exposure to persistent male-initiated social threat on female recipients in a mammalian model, thereby offering a theoretical framework for understanding the enduring psychological trauma that may arise from sustained environments of psychological harassment, domestic violence, or sexual coercion-circumstances frequently encountered by women in human society.

Measuring the concentration of ethanol in blood and other biological specimens provides important forensic information whenever alcohol-related crimes and alcohol-related deaths are investigated. A dose-response relationship holds between a person's blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) and the degree of impairment of the central nervous system (CNS): When their BAC reaches 0.3-0.5 g/L, most people feel less inhibited and experience mild euphoria, while heavy drinking resulting in a BAC of 3.0-4.0 g/L is sufficient to cause death by depression of respiratory centers in the brainstem. After the consumption of alcoholic beverages, the ethanol they contain is distributed into the total body water (TBW) compartment without significant binding to plasma proteins or other macro-molecules. When absorption and distribution are complete, the concentrations of ethanol in blood and other body fluids and tissues depend on their relative water contents. Other factors influencing BAC are the dose ingested and the rate of drinking, as well as the person's age, sex, body weight, ethnicity, and degree of adiposity. Concentration-time profiles of ethanol in the blood also depend upon the route of administration (oral or intravenous) and upon whether ingested as a bolus dose or through repetitive drinking over several hours. Factors influencing gastric emptying are also important considerations, such as whether the ethanol was consumed on an empty stomach or after a meal. Blood is the most important biological specimen in forensic casework, because BAC serves as a proxy for the concentration of ethanol influencing the brain. This forensic science review deals with the distribution of ethanol between the blood and the total body water compartment, and the role played by body composition (obesity), which is an important consideration when blood-alcohol calculations are performed.

Depression is closely associated with alterations in concentration levels and release dynamics of a specific neurotransmitter, such as norepinephrine (NE), in the brain. Visualizing these dynamic changes is essential for understanding depression-associated neurotransmitter dysregulation. Herein, we developed a novel near-infrared fluorescent probe DIPCl-NE by employing a near-infrared fluorophore DIPCl-OH (Em = 689 nm) as the signal reporter and introducing a carbonothioate group as the recognition unit for selective NE detection. DIPCl-NE exhibits high sensitivity, excellent selectivity, good photostability, and effective tissue penetration capability. Using this probe, we visualized NE release dynamics in normal and CORT-induced depressive-like models and revealed that impaired NE exocytosis is associated with reduced mTOR phosphorylation levels. Pharmacological regulation of mTOR signaling further demonstrated its role in modulating NE release dynamics. Moreover, DIPCl-NE enabled visualization of NE alterations in mouse brains and revealed decreased NE availability in depressive model mice. This work provides a valuable chemical tool for monitoring NE dynamics and offers new insights into the relationship between mTOR signaling and depression-associated neurotransmitter dysfunction.