Browsing by Author "Bakhshaie, Jafar"
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Item Anxiety sensitivity and hazardous drinking among persons living with HIV/AIDS: An examination of the role of emotion dysregulation(Addictive Behaviors, 2016-12) Paulus, Daniel J.; Jardin, Charles; Bakhshaie, Jafar; Sharp, Carla; Woods, Steven P.; Lemaire, Chad; Leonard, Amy; Neighbors, Clayton; Brandt, Charles Philip; Zvolensky, Michael J.Hazardous drinking is prevalent among persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Anxiety sensitivity is a vulnerability factor that is highly associated with hazardous drinking among seronegatives, but has yet to be tested in PLWHA. Additionally, there is a need to examine potential mechanisms underlying associations of anxiety sensitivity and hazardous drinking. Emotion dysregulation is one potential construct that may explain the association between anxiety sensitivity and hazardous drinking. The current study examined emotion dysregulation as a potential explanatory variable between anxiety sensitivity and four, clinically significant alcohol-related outcomes among PLWHA: hazardous drinking, symptoms of alcohol dependence, number of days consuming alcohol within the past month, and degree of past heavy episodic drinking. The sample included 126 PLWHA (Mage=48.3; SD=7.5; 65.9% male). Results indicated significant indirect effects of anxiety sensitivity via emotion dysregulation in all models. Indirect effects (κ2) were of medium effect size. Alternative models were run reversing the predictor with mediator and, separately, reversing the mediator with the proposed outcome(s); alternative models yielded non-significant indirect effects in all but one case. Together, the current results indicate that anxiety sensitivity is associated emotion dysregulation, which, in turn, is associated with hazardous drinking outcomes. Overall, these findings may provide initial empirical evidence that emotion dysregulation may be a clinical intervention target for hazardous drinking.Item Anxiety Sensitivity and Smoking Behavior Among Trauma-Exposed Daily Smokers: The Explanatory Role of Smoking-Related Avoidance and Inflexibility(2017-10-12) Jones, Jenna; Mayorga, Angelina; Bakhshaie, JafarWork suggests anxiety sensitivity (AS) plays an important role in understanding the smoking-trauma association. AS is thought to serve as a transdiagnostic risk factor in both smoking and trauma, resulting in poorer outcomes in both domains. Cognitive inflexibility reflects a lack of ability to disengage attention from one task to another. In relation to smoking, a decrease in smoking-specific avoidance and inflexibility is associated with increased likelihood of smoking abstinence after treatment. Our aim was to examine whether smoking-specific avoidance and inflexibility explains the relation of AS and smoking severity among trauma-exposed smokers. It was hypothesized AS would have a significant indirect effect within this relation. The findings show empirical evidence of the explanatory effect of smoking-specific avoidance and inflexibility in the relation between AS and smoking severity among trauma-exposed smokers. This relation impacted number of cigarettes per day, years of being a daily smoker, number of failed quit attempts, and even heaviness of smoking index.Item Development and Initial Validation of a Bio-behavioral Measure of Anxiety Sensitivity(2019-05) Bakhshaie, Jafar; Zvolensky, Michael J.; Gallagher, Matthew W.; Viana, Andres G.; Lu, Qian; Pavlidis, Ioannis T.Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a relatively stable individual difference factor reflecting the fear of anxiety-related sensations. AS is a transdiagnostic factor of psychopathology. Despite well-validated self-report methods to measure AS, no study to date has used AS-specific stimuli to measure threat responses from a motoric fashion. Using a dual-task attentional control paradigm (i.e., approach versus avoidance) that employs AS-specific stimuli and motion-tracking technology, we sought to develop an easy-to-use bio-behavioral index of AS in sample of young adults (58.3% female, M age = 25.3, SD = 8.3; range = 18-56 years). Participants completed a self-report measure of AS (ASI-3) and subsequently took part in a virtual reality ball catching game to index their measures of approach and avoidance towards the AS-specific and neutral stimuli presented at either side of the game environment. The ASI-3 total score as well as the subscales cognitive and physical concerns showed significant bivariate correlations with the behavioral engagement with AS-specific stimuli, but not behavioral engagement with the neutral stimuli. After adjusting for age, gender, race, handedness, physical functioning, and negative affectivity, ASI-3 total score and the AS cognitive concern demonstrated significant relations with behavioral engagement with AS-specific stimuli. The present study provides preliminary, yet novel, evidence regarding the association between facets of AS with behavioral responses to AS-specific images. Future work is needed to replicate and extend the current results to clinical samples and test associations over larger periods of time.Item DIFFERENTIAL EXPLANATORY EFFECTS OF ANXIETY SENSITVITY IN THE RELATION BETWEEN EMOTIONAL NON-ACCEPTANCE AND POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS SYMPTOMS AMONG TRAUMA-EXPOSED TREATMENT-SEEKING SMOKERS(2014-12) Bakhshaie, Jafar; Zvolensky, Michael J.; Neighbors, Clayton; Knee, C. RaymondAnxiety sensitivity, defined as the extent to which individuals believe anxiety-related sensations have harmful consequences, may play an important explanatory role in the relation between emotional non-acceptance and the expression of traumatic stress symptoms among trauma-exposed smokers. The current investigation examined whether lower-order facets of anxiety sensitivity (cognitive, physical, and social concerns) differentially explain the relation between emotional non-acceptance and posttraumatic stress symptom clusters (re-experiencing, avoidance, arousal) among trauma-exposed daily smokers (N = 169, 46% female; Mage = 41, SD = 12.3). Anxiety sensitivity and its lower order facets of cognitive and social concerns were found to explain the relations between emotional non-acceptance and avoidance and arousal posttraumatic stress symptoms. Moreover, anxiety sensitivity cognitive concerns explained these relations above and beyond the other two facets. The present findings suggest cognitive-based anxiety sensitivity concerns may play a mechainistic role in the expression of certain posttraumatic stress symptoms among trauma-exposed daily smokers.Item Mindful Attention and Eating Expectancies Among Trauma-Exposed Latinx College Students(2019) Eades, Natasha D.; Kauffman, Brooke Y.Rates of trauma exposure among college students are high, and extant work suggests that greater trauma-exposure risk is associated with ethnic minority status. Moreover, maladaptive health behaviors (e.g., disordered eating) are common among trauma-exposed individuals, as well as college students and Latinx individuals. There is a need, however, to further understand the cognitive processes that underlie maladaptive eating among these populations, such as the expectations related to the function of eating. Mindful attention may be an important factor related to eating expectancies among trauma exposed, Latinx college students. The current study employed a cross-sectional design, examining mindful attention in relation to expectancies of eating to help manage negative affect, expectancies of eating to alleviate boredom, and expectancies of eating to lead to feeling out of control among Latinx, trauma-exposed college students. Participants included 304 undergraduate Latinx students who reported some amount of trauma exposure (84.5% females; Mage = 22.8 years, SD = 5.79). Results of our study indicated that lower levels of mindful attention were associated with strong expectancies that eating will manage negative affect, alleviate boredom, and lead to a loss of control. These results were observed over and above variance accounted for by sex, body mass index (BMI), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. These findings suggest that increased mindful attention may be a protective factor against eating expectancies and subsequent disordered eating among trauma-exposed, Latinx college students. This project was completed with contributions from Jafar Bakhshaie from Baylor College of Medicine.Item The Differential Role of Anxiety Sensitivity and its Components in the Relation Between Emotional Nonacceptance and Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms and Disorders among Latinos in Primary Care(2017-10-12) Lopez, Karina; Mayorga, Angelina; Bakhshaie, JafarLatinos are the second fastest growing minority group in the United States. Unfortunately, rates of depression and anxiety symptoms among Latinos may be as much as twice the rate of non-Latino White Americans. Due to cultural values such as emotional restraint and perceptions of emotional expression as a sign of weakness, emotional nonacceptance could play a major role in development and maintenance of mood and anxiety problems among the Latino population. Hypothesis. Anxiety sensitivity may explain the associations between emotional nonacceptance and symptoms of anxious arousal, social anxiety, depression and other mood/anxiety disorders. The sub-scales of AS: physical, cognitive and social concerns were expected to be mediators to anxious arousal, depressive symptoms and social anxiety symptoms respectively. AS was found to explain the relations between emotional nonacceptance and all dependent variables: social anxiety, anxious arousal, depressive symptoms, and number of mood/anxiety disorder diagnoses. AS may be an explanatory mechanism in the relation between emotional nonacceptance and a relatively broad array of anxiety and depressive symptoms and clinical disorders. This project was completed with contributions from Monica Garza from Legacy Community Health, Houston.Item The Explanatory Role of Insomnia in the Relationship between Pain Intensity and Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Severity among Trauma Exposed Latinos in a Federally Qualified Health Center(2020-09-29) Cerda, Olga; Rogers, Andrew H.; Mayorga, Nubia A.Latinos suffer from high rates of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTS) and its clinical correlates (e.g., disability). Although research suggests the experience of pain is closely related to PTS among trauma-exposed groups, there has been little exploration of the processes that may link pain intensity to greater PTS among trauma-exposed Latinos. The current study explored insomnia, a common problem associated with both pain intensity and PTS, as a mechanism in the association between pain intensity and PTS among trauma-exposed Latinos (N = 208, Mage = 39.39 years, SD = 11.48) attending a Federally Qualified Health Center. Results indicated that insomnia partially explained the relationship between pain intensity and PTS total score (B = 0.25, 95% CI [0.12, 0.43]), as well as re-experiencing (B = 0.09, 95% CI [0.04, 0.17]), avoidance (B = 0.09, 95% CI [0.04, 0.17]), and arousal symptoms (B = 0.10, 95% CI [0.04, 0.17]). Future work is needed to explore the extent to which insomnia accounts for relations between pain and PTS using longitudinal designs to further clarify theoretical health disparity models involving these comorbid conditions. This project was completed with contributions from Chad Lemaire, Monica Garza, and Melissa Ochoa-Perez from Legacy Community Health Center and Joseph W. Ditre from Syracuse University.