University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Postpartum anxiety is understudied and underdiagnosed. Given associations between postpartum anxiety and adverse maternal and infant outcomes, it is crucial to identify patterns and predictors of postpartum anxiety. We examined the associations between sleep duration and timing and postpartum anxiety over 6 months following delivery.

A convenience sample of pregnant women with a history of depression (n = 162; 30-39 weeks) completed self-report measures of sleep, anxiety, and depression in the third trimester and once/month for 6 months following delivery. Concurrent and prospective associations between sleep duration, sleep timing, and postpartum anxiety symptoms were tested via 2-level multilevel models. Depression symptoms and insomnia status were included as covariates.

Clinically significant anxiety symptoms were more common than clinically significant depression symptoms at 3 out of 6 postpartum months (p's < .05). Anxiety symptoms increased over time (p < .001). Shorter month-level sleep duration was associated with higher concurrent anxiety symptoms, particularly in early postpartum months. Sleep timing was not significantly associated with concurrent anxiety symptoms (p > .05). Neither prior month sleep duration nor timing significantly predicted subsequent month anxiety symptoms (p's > .05).

Acute reduction in sleep duration may signal the presence of elevated postpartum anxiety, particularly in the early postpartum months, but may not provide predictive utility for prospective increases in anxiety from month to month. Treatments for postpartum anxiety may benefit from targeting sleep duration. Future research should replicate these findings with objective sleep measures.

Filamentous cyanobacteria are multicellular organisms that perform oxygenic photosynthesis and frequently exhibit surface motility. This review discusses the underlying mechanism facilitating motility in these organisms, with a focus on recent molecular and genetic studies. While previous explanations for this motility have proposed exotic mechanisms, the current data indicate that all filamentous cyanobacteria produce a similar motility-associated extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) or slime essential for movement and employ a type IV pilus (T4P) motor to power motility. The ( a ) regulation of the motor to facilitate coordinated polarity and phototaxis and ( b ) possible bidirectional feedback between the T4P and motility-associated polysaccharide are discussed as well. Finally, the role of motility in promoting diverse biological phenomena, including dispersal, phototaxis, biofilm formation, granulation, and symbiosis, is explored.

This study sought to design, implement, and evaluate a 6-week skills-based telehealth group for dementia caregivers within a VA setting.

The protocol was designed based on a CBT skill-building approach and was evaluated using the four levels of evaluation developed by Kirkpatrick (1998). Eight spousal caregivers of individuals with MCI or dementia participated in the pilot group within a VA geriatric clinic. Methods included comparison of pre- and post-intervention outcome measures (caregiver burden, depression, anxiety, flourishing) and inductive narrative analysis of qualitative feedback from participants.

Qualitatively, the intervention was well received and participants identified several areas of subjective learning and skill implementation including increased behavioral and communication skills, knowledge, and connection with resources. However, paired-sample t-tests of group outcomes revealed no significant differences on measures of caregiver burden, depression, anxiety, and flourishing pre- and post-intervention.

Based on Kirkpatrick's levels of evaluation, this study revealed positive reception of a group-based intervention for dementia caregivers within a VA setting, but further investigation of intervention effectiveness is needed given the lack of significant change found on outcome measures. A virtual skills-based group may be a feasible option for dementia caregiver intervention within VA settings that warrants further investigation.