The last mile of the way: understanding caregiving in African American families at the end-of-life

This research is based on in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups with 88 African American family caregivers from various regions of the United States during a stressful time in their family development--caregiving at the end-of-life--and the grieving during the aftermath. The study employed a stratified purposeful sampling strategy. Subjects were African Americans from the Northern, Southern, and Midwestern United States. Formal care is complicated by the distrust that many African Americans hold toward the health care system, which has resulted from years of exclusion, racism and discrimination. The findings highlight the importance of hearing from African American families to gain an understanding of what services, including family therapy and other psychotherapy, they will need during this process.     

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder: review of treatment techniques

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic, impairing condition with an estimated lifetime prevalence in adults of 2.5%. Controlled treatment trials have demonstrated that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective intervention for OCD. However, many individuals diagnosed with OCD do not receive appropriate, empirically validated interventions, perhaps due to limited knowledge of CBT among mental health practitioners. This article provides a review of CBT for OCD. Issues related to treatment delivery and assessment are presented and highlighted by an individual example.     

Effects of information on college students' perceptions of antidepressant medication

The authors examined the impact of pharmaceutical companies' advertisements on college students' perceptions of depression and concomitant treatment with antidepressants among 13 male and 31 female undergraduates from a midwestern university. The students were randomly assigned to groups that read either pharmaceutical company advertisements or scientific information about depression and its treatment. The analysis revealed that 40% of the women in the advertisement condition as opposed to 1 woman (6%) in the scientific condition rated themselves as having mild, moderate, or severe depression on the Beck Depression Inventory, second edition. Women in the advertisement condition were significantly more likely to believe that depression required treatment with antidepressant medication and were more willing than women in the scientific condition to suggest antidepressant treatment to others.