PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Mary Ann Pentz

Publications and source records attributed to Mary Ann Pentz.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Misuse of "study drugs:" prevalence, consequences, and implications for policy.

BACKGROUND: Non-medical/illegal use of prescription stimulants popularly have been referred to as "study drugs". This paper discusses the current prevalence and consequences of misuse of these drugs and implications of this information for drug policy. RESULTS: Study drugs are being misused annually by approximately 4% of older teens and emerging adults. Yet, there are numerous consequences of misuse of prescription stimulants including addiction, negative reactions to high dosages, and medical complications. Policy implications include continuing to limit access to study drugs, finding more safe prescription drug alternatives, interdiction, and public education. CONCLUSION: Much more work is needed on prescription stimulant misuse assessment, identifying the extent of the social and economic costs of misuse, monitoring and reducing access, and developing prevention and cessation education efforts.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

The mediational role of neurocognition in the behavioral outcomes of a social-emotional prevention program in elementary school students: effects of the PATHS Curriculum.

Neuropsychology is one field that holds promise in the construction of comprehensive, developmental models for the promotion of social competence and prevention of problem behavior. Neuropsychological models of behavior suggest that children's neurological functioning affects the regulation of strong emotions, as well as performance in social, cognitive, and behavioral spheres. The current study examines the underlying neurocognitive conceptual theory of action of one social-emotional development program. Hypothesized was that inhibitory control and verbal fluency would mediate the relationship between program condition and teacher-reported externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Participants were 318 regular education students enrolled in the second or third grade. A series of regression analyses provided empirical support for (a) the effectiveness of the PATHS Curriculum in promoting inhibitory control and verbal fluency and (b) a partial mediating role for inhibitory control in the relation between prevention condition and behavioral outcomes. Implications are that programs designed to promote social and emotional development should consider comprehensive models that attend to neurocognitive functioning and development. Lack of consideration of neurocognitive pathways to the promotion of social competence may ignore important mechanisms through which prevention affects youth outcomes. Furthermore, the findings suggest that developers of social-emotional preventions should design curricula to explicitly promote the developmental integration of executive functioning, verbal processing, and emotional awareness. Doing so may enhance prevention outcomes particularly if those preventions are implemented during a time of peak neurocognitive development.

Child↗
PubMed2006

Parent program component analysis in a drug abuse prevention trial.

PURPOSE: The current study estimates the effects of the parent program component of an evidence-based multi-component drug abuse prevention program for adolescents, Project STAR. METHODS: A total of 351 parents of middle school students, who had been assigned by school to a program or comparison condition (n = 8 schools), completed self-report surveys at baseline and two years later. Analyses estimated effects of the overall parent program as well as its three key constituent activities (parent-school committee participation, parent skills training, and parent-child homework activities) on perceptions of parental influence over their children's substance use. RESULTS: Results demonstrate that parents who participated in the overall parent program demonstrated greater perceptions of influence over their children's substance use at two-year follow-up. Furthermore, parents who participated in parent-school committees and homework sessions demonstrated greater perceptions of influence over their children's substance use than those who did not. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that parent interventions may increase self-efficacy in parent-child management and communication skills. Results may help inform the development of more cost-effective and immediate prevention strategies for parents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Translation in the health professions: converting science into action.

The systematic translation of evidence-based research findings, tools, and information into practice is critical to improving the quality of our nation's health. However, despite several decades of advances in developing medical knowledge based on high-quality empirical evidence, widespread implementation of these findings into practice in diverse applied settings has not been achieved. This article reviews definitions and conceptual models that describe the translation of research from basic discovery to real-world applications, summarizes the various issues involved in the process of translation, discusses multiple barriers, and provides recommendations to surmount these hurdles. Areas of further research in this arena are suggested. Finally, the article concludes that translational research is an important area to continue to pursue requiring long-term collaborative commitment among researchers and practitioners.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2006

Translation in tobacco and drug abuse prevention research.

The purpose of this article is to describe the translation of research on tobacco and drug abuse prevention from basic science to program development to large-scale program dissemination, and from animal to human studies. Where relevant, continuity of translation is discussed by referring to two variables that have been studied for their potential relationship to drug use risk in both animals and humans: sensation and novelty seeking and low impulse control. Review of the research indicates relatively slow translation until the early 1990s. The authors recommend several mechanisms to promote more rapid translation across types of research that encourage reciprocal rather than unidirectional transmission of knowledge to expedite the development and diffusion of more timely, targeted drug abuse prevention programs.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Form follows function: designs for prevention effectiveness and diffusion research.

Prevention research is at a stage where evidence-based programs and strategies have been identified, and the next question is how to diffuse them. However, the context in which evidence-based programs were first tested and found to be effective may have changed, raising the question of whether the current burden of proof of effectiveness of these programs should be examined before, or at least in conjunction with, diffusion research. This paper discusses, first, contextual changes in testing the effectiveness of prevention programs that have been hitherto identified as evidence-based, and then suggests designs for the next generation of effectiveness trials. Following this, gaps in current diffusion research are discussed according to the four stages of diffusion: adoption, implementation, dissemination, and sustainability, with the major focus on implementation. Designs that may address these gaps in future research are considered, with particular application to prevention research in schools.

Diffusion of Innovation↗
PubMed2004

A transdisciplinary focus on drug abuse prevention: an introduction.

This article introduces the scope of the Special Issue. A variety of scientific disciplines are brought together to establish theoretical integration of the arenas of drug use, misuse, "abuse," and drug misuse prevention. Transdisciplinary scientific collaboration (TDSC) is utilized as a process of integration. Introductory comments regarding the strengths and limitations of TDSC are presented. Then, the relevance of genetics to substance misuse and substance misuse prevention is presented. Next, the relevance of cognition for prevention is discussed. Specifically, neurologically plausible distinctions in cognition and implicit cognition and their relevance for prevention are discussed. At a relatively molar social-level of analysis, social network theory, systems dynamic models, geographic information systems models, cultural psychology, and political science approaches to drug misuse and its prevention are introduced. The uses of both quantitative and qualitative statistical approaches to prevention are mentioned next. Finally, targeted prevention, bridging the efficacy-effectiveness gap, and a statement on overcoming disbalance round out the Special Issue. The bridges created will serve to propel drug misuse "prevention science" forward in the years to come. Advances in understanding etiological issues, translation to programs, and ecological fit of programming are desired results.

Cognition↗
PubMed2004

Political science, public policy, and drug use prevention.

Increasingly, drug use prevention programs and research are being considered in the environmental contexts in which they occur. One context that is rarely considered is the political context. This article examines the reciprocal effects of policy and prevention programs from four perspectives representing different contexts, beginning with political science, and followed by social work and public health administration, psychology, and education. Four specific issues are considered. First is how current national policies on drug use shape our nation's prevention efforts, from a political science perspective. Second is how effective prevention programs can affect and shape policy change. This issue is considered from a social and public health administration perspective. Third is how policy change can act as an intervention to prevent drug use, from the perspective of psychology. The fourth issue is how dissemination of prevention programs and policies can impact drug use prevention. This question considers an educational perspective. The perspectives are integrated into a general conceptual model to improve our understanding of how drug use prevention occurs in a national political context. Finally, examples are given of how this model might inform the other perspectives represented in this special issue on transdisciplinary drug abuse prevention research.

Humans↗
PubMed2003

Parallel developmental trajectories of sensation seeking and regular substance use in adolescents.

This study applied piecewise latent growth modeling to longitudinal survey data from 2 different samples of adolescents (N=1,002 and N=1,206) to examine the hypothesis that development of sensation seeking in middle school would predict development of substance use (cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana) in middle school and high school. Results showed that sensation seeking had strong predictive value for both concurrent and distal marijuana and alcohol use in both samples; however, initial level of sensation seeking predicted initial level of cigarette use during high school in 1 sample only. White participants scored consistently higher on both initial level and rate of increase in sensation seeking than did participants of other ethnicities. Advantages of this methodology are discussed in the context of substance use research.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Evidence-based prevention: characteristics, impact, and future direction.

Drug use has been gradually declining among early and mid-adolescents since 1997. The timing of the decline roughly matches the introduction and diffusion (spread) of evidence-based prevention to middle schools in the United States. Evidence-based prevention refers to prevention programs, strategies, and policies that have been rigorously tested under research conditions and found to be effective in changing adolescent drug use behavior and attitudes. Federal and state funding for prevention is increasingly tied to community and school commitments to use only evidence-based strategies. However, local interpretation of what constitutes evidence-based prevention is highly variable, and subject to lack of knowledge about characteristics of evidence-based prevention, local politics and preferences for the status quo, and attempts to change parameters of evidence-based programs to fit perceived local needs. The current article reviews and synthesizes the characteristics and impact of evidence-based prevention, including the use of theoretical, process, and structural models; content guided by risk and protective factors for drug use; and settings and components of prevention delivery. Issues of adoption, implementation, and diffusion of evidence-based prevention are discussed. Gaps in knowledge of how to move the U.S. from research to practice are presented in terms of future researchable questions. Finally, the changing nature of prevention research is discussed as "action research," involving the negotiated partnership of the researcher and the community, and feedback of research results to communities to use as a planning tool for prevention.

Diffusion of Innovation↗
PubMed2003

Motivation in tobacco use cessation research.

This paper summarizes four major conceptions of motivation that have been applied to cigarette smoking cessation. These conceptions are the direction-energy, transtheoretical, intrinsic/extrinsic, and self-regulation models. Constituents of each of these models are suggested. Implications of these theories of motivation for an integrative model of smoking cessation are discussed.

Humans↗
PubMed2002

Parental substance use as a modifier of adolescent substance use risk.

AIMS: A major question in national substance use prevention efforts is how much influence parents have on their children's substance use, answers to which could determine whether current school-based prevention programs that address peer pressure are sufficient or whether parents need to be involved. The present study examines whether parents act as gatekeepers by testing the moderator effects of parents' substance use on the relationships of friends' substance use to adolescent substance use (cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana). DESIGN: A longitudinal school-based trial for prevention of substance use in adolescents. SETTING: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. PARTICIPANTS: As part of a large substance use prevention trial, entering middle school students were surveyed prospectively at baseline, 6 months and 18 months (n = 1807 from 57 schools). MEASUREMENTS: A self-reported survey was used to measure behaviors, attitudes and social influences related to adolescent substance use. FINDINGS: Results of logistic regression analyses and multiple group structural equation modeling showed that increasing numbers of parents and friends using substances were associated with greater risk of adolescent substance use, as were more substance offers and lower levels of refusal self-efficacy. Additionally, refusal self-efficacy mediated the effects of baseline use and substance offers on subsequent use. However, non-using parents had a buffering effect on friends' influences to use substances, such that friends' use did not affect adolescent use when parents were non-users, and the effects of substance offers on refusal self-efficacy were weaker. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that parent substance use should be addressed in adolescent substance use prevention programs, and that continuing non-use by parents should be reinforced.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Motivational interviewing with adolescents and young adults for drug-related problems.

This article reviews studies of brief motivational interviewing (MI) interventions applied to adolescents (ages 13 to 18 years) and young adults (ages 19 to 25 years) using alcohol or other psychoactive substances. An overview of the principles of MI is provided followed by a review of 17 clinical studies reported in the literature. This review revealed mixed findings for the efficacy of brief MI among these populations. However, in 29% of the studies (5 of 17), there was a clear advantage of the brief MI demonstrated compared to standard care or other programming. Components common to successful brief MI interventions included one-on-one sessions and feedback on substance use compared to norms. Interviewer empathy has been shown to be a key component in studies with adults, but this was not measured in a standardized manner across the current studies. The studies reviewed here indicate that brief MI might be effective among these populations, but the key components necessary for successful MI interventions have not been fully identified.

Adolescent↗