Schizotypy in an online sample: Associations with functioning, wellbeing, and stigma toward psychological treatment

poster abstractBackground: Social functioning and positive attitudes toward treatment have been strongly linked with recovery in people with schizophrenia, yet less is known for schizotypy – traits that are associated with risk for schizophrenia. Previous studies of schizotypy have used primarily undergraduate or small community samples. The aim of the current study was to investigate correlates of schizotypy in a large online sample. We hypothesized that people with schizotypy traits would report lower functioning, well-being, and greater stigmatizing attitudes regarding treatment. Methods: In a sample (N=856) recruited using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), participants were dichotomized into non-schizotypy or schizotypy groups based on their endorsement of schizotypal traits on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire – Brief Revised (SPQ-BR; schizotypy group n=101; non-schizotypy group n=431). Participants completed a demographic survey and several measures related to functioning, well-being, and stigma, including the Romantic Relationship Functioning Scale (RRFS), the Social Adjustment Scale – Self-Report: Screener (SAS-SR: Screener), the SPQ-BR, the Short Form-12 Health Survey (SF-12), and the Stigma Scale for Receiving Psychological Help (SSRPH). Independent-samples t-tests were conducted to compare schizotypy groups on these variables. Results: Those who reported high levels of schizotypy reported significantly poorer social functioning, t(122.74)=-10.66, p<.001; poorer romantic relationship functioning, t(129.01)=12.00, p<.001; poorer mental wellbeing ,t(132.58)=13.42, p=.001; and greater stigma toward receiving psychological treatment, t(137.06)=-3.89, p=.037. There was no significant difference in physical wellbeing. Discussion: These findings support the use of online samples and suggest schizotypy is associated with poorer functioning and wellbeing and increased stigma toward seeking treatment. Results support the emergence of deficits in key social domains among those at risk for developing greater psychosis symptoms. Given the links between these deficits and attitudes and poorer functioning in clinical samples, these findings suggest social functioning and help-seeking attitudes may be important targets of early intervention services

Public Wrongs and the ‘Criminal Law’s Business’: When Victims Won’t Share

Amongst the many valuable contributions that Professor Antony Duff has made to criminal law theory is his account of what it means for a wrong to be public in character. In this chapter, I sketch an alternative way of thinking about criminalization, one which attempts to remain true to the important insights that illuminate Duff’s account, while providing (it is hoped) a more satisfying explanation of cases involving victims who reject the criminal law’s intervention

Implementing CommonGround in a Community Mental Health Center: Lessons in a Computerized Decision Support System

Objective: Although shared decision making (SDM) is a key element of client-centered care, it has not been widely adopted. Accordingly, interventions have been developed to promote SDM. The aim of this study was to explore the implementation process of one SDM intervention, CommonGround, which utilizes peer specialists and a computerized decision support center to promote SDM. Method: As part of a larger study, CommonGround was implemented in 4 treatment teams in a community mental health center. The implementation process was examined by conducting semistructured interviews with 12 staff members that were integral to the CommonGround implementation. Responses were analyzed using content analysis. Program fidelity and client program use were also examined. Results: Although key informants identified several client and staff benefits to using CommonGround, including improved treatment engagement and availability of peer specialists, most clients did not use CommonGround consistently throughout the implementation. Key informants and fidelity reports indicated a number of program (e.g., technological difficulties, increased staff burden) and contextual barriers (e.g., poor fit with service structure, decision support center location, low staff investment and high turnover) to the successful implementation of CommonGround. Strategies to maximize the implementation by increasing awareness, buy-in, and utilization are also reported. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: This implementation of CommonGround was limited in its success partly as a result of program and contextual barriers. Future implementations may benefit from incorporating the strategies identified to maximize implementation in order to obtain the full program benefits

Authority, Obedience, and Justification

We have a duty to think for ourselves. The law claims authority over us. We have a duty, at least sometimes, to obey the law. Alone, each of these premises is fairly uncontroversial. Combined, they create some intriguing puzzles. Can law’s claim of authority be justified? If so, does justified legal authority entail an obligation to obey the law? If not, are we nonetheless justified, and perhaps even obligated, to act as if such an obligation exists? While this essay is hardly the first to address these questions, it is the first to do so by combining elements of Joseph Raz’s prominent “service conception of authority,” along with John Gardner’s influential account of justification, to defend a modest version of philosophical anarchism. These philosophical resources illuminate new explanations regarding the justification of law’s claims to authority and our obedience to those claims. This Article is an exercise in analytic legal philosophy. It clarifies the nature of authority, obedience, and justification to provide a framework for understanding when claims of authority and obedience to such claims are justified. This framework has at least three important implications for the practical attitude we should adopt toward the law in our current political climate. First, we should resist currently fashionable arguments grounded in the condemnation of “lawlessness.” Second, we should acknowledge the potential value of the law, and its claim to authority, when it comes to (re)establishing the trust required to maintain our political community. Third, we should recognize obligations to the law that extend beyond any supposed obligation to obey, including obligations both to know and improve the law. Applying the framework set out in this Article allows us to maintain a healthy skepticism toward law’s claim of authority over us, recognize the value of justified obedience to law’s authority, and identify the circumstances under which we may be obligated to obey law’s claim of authority over us

SRPK2 Phosphorylation by the AGC Kinases, and mTORC1 Regulation of Alternative Splicing

The mechanisms through which a cell controls its proliferation, differentiation, metabolism, motility, and ultimate survival in response to extracellular cues are largely controlled by the Ras-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Ras-ERK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase mammalian target of rapamycin (PI3K-mTOR) signaling pathways. Originally delineated as two separate and linear signaling pathways, multitudes of evidence through experimentation have shown that these pathways can co-regulate downstream targets and cellular outcomes. Here, we provide evidence for an additional point of pathway convergence the serine/arginine protein kinase 2 (SRPK2). Originally identified as a target of the mTORC1/S6K signaling pathway, we have shown SRPK2 to be a target of the Ras-ERK-Rsk pathway, as well as the PI3K-AKT. We discovered the S6K, AKT and RSK all phosphorylate SRPK2 at serine 494 in a cell-type, stimulus dependent manner, emphasizing the redundant nature of the AGC kinases. SRPK2 regulates the phosphorylation of the constitutive and alternative splicing factors the SR proteins. This led us to question mTORC1 involvement in splice site selection, and we discovered several alternative splicing events downstream of mTORC1 signaling. We found that the protein levels of the splicing factors ASF/SF2 and hnRNPa2b1 are regulated by mTORC1 signaling, and we hypothesize this is through regulated unproductive splicing and translation (RUST). Interestingly, we found that BIN1, a target of both ASF/SF2 and hnRNPa2b1, is alternatively spliced, following modulations in mTORC1 signaling. These biochemical studies and knowledge gleaned from them will lead to a better understanding of how the cell can regulate protein expression by controlling alternative splicing