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Browsing by Author "Cyders, Melissa Anne"
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Item Depressive Symptom Severity, Stressful Life Events, and Subclinical Atherosclerosis in African American Adults(2015) Berntson, Jessica; Stewart, Jesse; Cyders, Melissa Anne; Rand, Kevin L.; Grahame, Nicholas J.Prospective epidemiologic evidence indicates that both stressful life events (SLEs) and depression are associated with an increased risk of subclinical atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. Even though stressful life events (SLEs) and depression co-occur and may act together to influence cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, these psychosocial factors have been mainly examined in isolation. For instance, depression may moderate the relationship between SLEs and CVD outcomes. I hypothesized that depressive symptoms would potentiate the deleterious effect of SLEs on subclinical atherosclerosis. This hypothesis is plausible, given that depressed adults exhibit exaggerated and prolonged sympathetic nervous system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and inflammatory responses to stress, which in turn could promote atherosclerosis. As compared to their nondepressed counterparts, depressed individuals may also be more likely to engage in maladaptive methods to cope with SLEs (e.g., increased tobacco use, alcohol use, and consumption of low-nutrient, energy dense foods), which could also promote atherosclerosis. I examined cross-sectional data from 274 to 279 (depending on the outcome measure) older, African American adults (mean age = 66 years, 67% female) with no evidence of clinical CVD or dementia who participated in the St. Louis African American Health-Heart study (2009–2011). Number of SLEs was assessed using the Life Events Calendar, a structured interview. From this interview, a continuous SLEs variable was computed (number of adult SLEs: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11+). Severity of depression symptoms was measured using the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D). Two measures of subclinical atherosclerosis were obtained: carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT; assessed by ultrasonography) and coronary artery calcification (CAC; assessed by multi-detector computerized tomography). I conducted linear (CIMT) and logistic (CAC) regression models, first adjusted for demographics (age, sex, education) and then fully-adjusted (demographics; mean arterial pressure; low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C); hemoglobin A1c; BMI; tobacco use; diabetes diagnosis; and use of antihypertensitve, lipid lowering, antidiabetic, and antidepressant medications). No main effects of SLEs or HAM-D were found for CIMT or CAC. There were also no SLEs by HAM-D interactions for CIMT or CAC. Because the current results are largely inconsistent with prior literature and there is a paucity of studies utilizing African American samples, future research is needed to examine the independent and interactive associations of SLEs and depressive symptoms with measures of subclinical atherosclerosis. If the present results are replicated, it may suggest that SLEs, depressive symptoms, and their interactive effect are not cardiotoxic among African American adults.Item Food attentional biases and adiposity: are energy intake and external eating mediators of this relationship?(2015-08) Vrany, Elizabeth; Stewart, Jesse C.; Cyders, Melissa Anne; Mosher, Catherine EstherObesity is a substantial threat to the health of over a third of adults in the United States. Some evidence suggests that food attentional bias, or the tendency to automatically direct attention toward food-related stimuli in the environment, may contribute to the development of obesity in susceptible individuals. This study hypothesized that (1) food attentional bias would be positively associated with adiposity, (2) food attentional bias would be positively associated with energy intake and external eating, and (3) energy intake and external eating would partially mediate the association between food attentional bias and adiposity. Data were collected from a sample of 120 undergraduate students. Three measures of food attentional bias were obtained: reaction time bias obtained from a visual dot-probe task and direction bias and duration bias obtained from eye tracking. Adiposity indices of body mass index (kg/m2) and body fat percent were measured using standard medical devices. Data were obtained for two mediators: 1) energy intake was assessed by web-based automated 24-hour dietary recall and 2) external eating was assessed using the External Eating Subscale of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Separate linear regression models examining the association between each measure of food attentional bias with each measure of adiposity (adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and subjective hunger) indicated no associations. Similarly, linear regression analyses revealed no associations between measures of food attentional bias and energy intake or external eating. Models testing for statistical mediation demonstrated that energy intake and external eating were not significant mediators. However, mediation analyses demonstrated a significant overall effect and direct effect between direction bias and BMI in a reduced sample used to test for energy intake as a mediator, suggesting the presence of an association which may not have been detected in the larger sample due to methodological issues, measurement error, or type I error. Despite the overall null results, these findings, in conjunction with previous studies on food attentional biases and adiposity, highlight the need for future investigations examining prospective associations between food attentional bias and adiposity.Item HPA Axis Reactivity: Physiological Underpinnings of Negative Urgency?(2015-10-05) VanderVeen, John Davis; Cyders, Melissa Anne; Hirsh, Adam Todd; Lapish, Christopher C.; Grahame, Nicholas J.Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction is found in heavy alcohol users. Negative urgency is a personality trait reflecting the tendency to act rashly in response to negative emotional states, and is associated with problematic alcohol consumption. The current study examined the relationship between negative urgency and HPA axis functioning following (1) negative mood induction and (2) intravenous alcohol administration among heavy social drinkers (proposed n = 40). I hypothesized the following: (1) Negative mood induction would result in an increase of cortisol release as compared to neutral mood induction; (1a) Negative urgency would be related to increased cortisol release in response to negative mood induction; (1b) Negative urgency would partially mediate the relationship between mood induction and cortisol release; (2) Acute IV alcohol administration would result in increased cortisol levels in the neutral mood condition, but decreased cortisol levels in the negative mood condition; and (2a) Negative urgency would be related to the suppression of cortisol release in the negative mood condition in response to acute IV alcohol administration. Repeated measures analyses of variance, the PROCESS macro, and paired samples t-tests were used to examine study hypotheses. Hypotheses were largely unsupported. Writing mood induction procedures reduced salivary cortisol levels in negative mood (t(35)= 2.49, p= 0.02) and there was a trend decrease in neutral mood (t(35)= 1.87, p= 0.07). Alcohol administration also reduced salivary cortisol levels in both negative mood (t(35)= 3.99, p< 0.01) and neutral mood (t(35)= 2.60, p= 0.01). However, salivary cortisol changes were no different than typical circadian patterns in response to mood induction (t(231)= 0.37, p=0.71) or in response to acute alcohol administration (t(231)= 0.44, p= 0.64). Negative urgency had a trend main effect on salivary cortisol level in response to acute IV alcohol administration, such that those higher in negative urgency were more similar to typical circadian patterns (F(19,28)= 1.59, p=0.13). This could serve as preliminary support for a psychological mechanism for the alcohol sensitivity hypothesis. Overall these findings suggest the current study failed to sufficiently manipulate salivary cortisol levels. Future studies should consider methodological techniques when exploring these relationships, including IV compared to oral alcohol administration, mood compared to stress manipulations, and cortisol compared to other HPA axis biomarkers.Item The relationship between e-cig use, alcohol consumption, and smoking prohibition where alcohol is consumed(2015-11-09) Hershberger, Alexandra Raemin; Cyders, Melissa Anne; Stewart, Jesse; Zapolski, Tamika C.; Grahame, Nicholas J.Smoke-free legislation in the United States has unintentionally resulted in a decline in alcohol consumption. However, more recently electronic-cigarettes (e-cigs), which are associated with alcohol use, are reportedly being used to circumvent smoking bans. The present study surveyed community dwelling individuals in the United States reporting e-cigs may be used where they drink (N=365, mean age=33.63, SD=9.91, 53.2% female, 78.9% Caucasian) to examine how e-cig use and alcohol consumption varies by the presence of smoking prohibition where one consumes alcohol. Results indicated that smoking prohibition was associated with a greater likelihood of being an ecig user than a cigarette user (OR=3.40, p<.001) and a higher likelihood of being an e-cig user than a dual user (OR=3.37, p<.001). Smoking prohibition was not associated with AUDIT scores (B=-0.06, p=.21), total drinks (B=-.07, p=.19), or average drinks (B=-0.02, p=.76). E-cig users reported significantly fewer average drinks when smoking is prohibited as compared to allowed, t(55)=3.26, p=.002. Overall, current results suggest smoking prohibition is associated with a greater likelihood of being an e-cig user; however, smoking prohibitions are not associated with alcohol consumption and related problems in the current participants, who all reported being able to use e-cigs where they consume alcohol. Future research should address potential conceptual, methodological, and sample limitations in order to better discern this relationship, as this line of research could have important implications for e-cig policy and alcohol use treatmentItem SUD treatment in the context of COVID-19(2020) Cyders, Melissa Anne; Department of Psychology, Purdue School of Science