Deanna Mori

Boston University | BU · Department of Psychiatry

Background Many of the 700,000 American military personnel deployed to the Persian Gulf region in 1990 and 1991 have since reported health symptoms of unknown etiology. This cluster of symptoms has been labeled Gulf War Illness and include chronic musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, headaches, memory and attention difficulties, gastrointestinal complain...

Background Trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress are highly prevalent and comorbid with health problems. Despite the apparent systemic nature of posttraumatic stress, recommended treatments neglect trauma's deleterious effects on health. Integrative mind-body treatments for posttraumatic stress, such as Tai Chi and Qigong (TCQ), may offer a prom...

Background Evaluations to determine one’s readiness to initiate hormone therapy are often requested by endocrinologists or institutions who provide gender affirming hormone therapy for transgender adults. Unfortunately, many mental health providers report unfamiliarity in working with gender nonconforming individuals, the needs of this population,...

Physical activity (PA) is recommended in all patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Technology-based interventions can deliver effective, scalable behavior-change techniques; though feasibility and acceptability among older adults is not established. Veterans with COPD (N=112, aged 49-89 years, median=68) were randomized to a 1...

Background: Although there are effective evidence-based treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), many individuals drop out or do not benefit from treatment. There is a need for new treatments, including approaches that are nontrauma focused. Objective: The purpose of this program evaluation was to investigate the acceptability of a W...

Gulf War illness (GWI) is a chronic and multisymptom disorder affecting military veterans deployed to the 1991 Persian Gulf War. It is characterized by a range of acute and chronic symptoms, including but not limited to, fatigue, sleep disturbances, psychological problems, cognitive deficits, widespread pain, and respiratory and gastrointestinal di...

Background: Low physical activity (PA) is associated with adverse health outcomes independent of airflow limitation in COPD. Self-reported assessments are often limited to global estimates of PA and may not be directly translatable to patients' goals and motivations. We developed a task-oriented PA checklist and examined its performance relative t...

1 Objective To systematically review outcomes from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of mind–body treatments for PTSD. 2 Methods Inclusion criteria based on guidelines for assessing risk of bias were used to evaluate articles identified through electronic literature searches. 3 Results Twenty‐two RCTs met inclusion standards. In most of the nin...

Objective To examine feasibility, qualitative feedback and satisfaction associated with a 4-session introduction to Tai Chi for veterans with post-traumatic stress symptoms. Design We observed and reported recruitment and retention rates, participant characteristics, adherence, and satisfaction across 2 cohorts. We also examined qualitative feedba...

Abstract This educational tool kit has been developed for health professional learners to provide instruction on patient education practices in health care as well as to engage learners in designing patient education tools. Patient education refers to a range of different methods (e.g., teaching, counseling, behavioral modification) that have the g...

Recruiting sufficient numbers of participants for physical activity trials for individuals with diabetes can be difficult because there are often many behavioral demands for participants, and inclusion and exclusion criteria can be extensive. This study examined the recruitment strategies used for a randomized, controlled trial designed to investig...

The primary objective of this pilot study was to develop and implement a telephone intervention for veterans with diabetes and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Additional objectives were to evaluate study feasibility and to conduct exploratory analyses of the influence of the intervention on diabetic self-care, quality of life, treatment adher...

Background: Physical activity (PA) is significantly reduced in persons with COPD. Assessing reasons why persons with COPD do not engage in PA can guide development of effective interventions to promote PA. Methods: We queried 102 participants with stable COPD about disease-related and general reasons why they do not walk more. The StepWatch Acti...

The goal of this study was to explore sleep quality as a potential mediator between depression symptoms and diabetes quality of life (DQOL), and anxiety symptoms and DQOL. Participants were 83 male and 3 female veterans with type 2 diabetes (Mage = 62.4). Self-report measures were completed during the baseline assessment of a larger intervention st...

The standard treatment for chronic hepatitis C (pegylated interferon and ribavirin) causes challenging physical and psychological side effects. The current pilot study evaluated the efficacy of a brief, telephone-based, cognitive-behavioral self-management intervention designed to address mood and quality of life within a sample of veterans on anti...

“Health is the vital principle of bliss, and exercise, of health.” —James Thomson, 18th century Scottish poet Exercise is considered a crucial component of disease management for individuals with type 2 diabetes, and it is associated with extensive health and mental health benefits. Although the benefits of exercise are well established, most peopl...

Responds to the comments by L. R. Jewett, E. G. Newton, S. Smith, and B. D. Thombs (see record 2010-14873-001) on the current authors' original article, "Avoidant coping as predictor of mortality in veterans with end-stage renal disease" (see record 2009-06704-009). In their commentary, Jewett et al note that oddities often encountered in very smal...

The aim of this study was to examine the role of active and avoidant coping strategies in predicting mortality in 61 veterans with end-stage renal disease. Participants completed a self-report measure of coping strategies (The COPE; Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) and were interviewed as part of a structured assessment to determine their approp...

Mental health needs of patients with HCV are increasingly being addressed in medical contexts. The authors review the psychosocial issues relevant to patients with hepatitis C and provide mental health treatment recommendations. Patients with HCV are faced with a number of challenges, including adjustment to a chronic medical illness, management of...

The process of psychosocial evaluation for weight loss surgery (WLS) is one that goes beyond serving the function of information-gathering (Bauchowitz et al. in Surg Obes Relat Dis 3:554-558, 2007; Friedman et al. in Surg Obes Relat Dis 3:376-382, 2007; Lanyon and Maxwell in Obes Surg 17:321-328, 2007; Sogg and Mori in Obes Surg 14:370-380, 2004; S...

Although the health benefits of exercise for individuals with Persian Gulf War veterans illnesses (GWVI) are documented, many of these individuals do not exercise regularly enough to obtain benefits. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors predicting exercise compliance among individuals with GWVI in a multicenter, randomized, clinical...

Identifying and treating depression has been a major focus in primary care over the last decade. Unfortunately, treatments have not been as successful as originally hoped. The current study investigated factors that may contribute to poor outcomes in a sample of VA primary care patients. Results indicate that 15.5% of the patients in this investiga...

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Structured Interview for the Treatment of the Hepatitis C Virus (SIT-HCV). This comprehensive interview expands upon a standard psychiatric interview by including those medical, psychological, and behavioral factors that are essential to determining a patients psychological appropriateness for interfero...

Morbid obesity is a rapidly escalating problem in the United States, one with serious health ramifications. Due to the lack of empirical support for the long-term efficacy of non-surgical interventions for obesity, gastric bypass surgery has been pursued with increasing frequency as a treatment for morbid obesity. Because surgery is a high-risk, in...

Living unrelated kidney donors have been increasingly sought out as potential resources for patients with end-stage renal disease. Several psychiatric issues must be factored into the presurgical evaluation of prospective donors. This paper describes a proposed guideline intended to assist clinicians in the psychiatric evaluation of prospective kid...

Despite the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in medical settings, mental health problems often go undetected and patients do not receive appropriate treatment. The main goal of this study is to provide additional information about the Beck Anxiety Inventory – Primary Care (BAI–PC), a brief instrument that screens for patients with anxiety. This...

Gulf War veterans' illnesses (GWVI), multisymptom illnesses characterized by persistent pain, fatigue, and cognitive symptoms, have been reported by many Gulf War veterans. There are currently no effective therapies available to treat GWVI. To compare the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), exercise, and the combination of both for...

Despite the fact that the demand for psychiatric evaluations of organ transplant recipients is increasing, there is not a commonly agreed upon protocol that can guide clinicians. A standard psychiatric interview, although necessary, is not sufficient when interviewing transplant candidates. In addition, it is important to acquire information specif...

Generating a robust referral base from primary care clinics is an increasingly important and challenging task for professional psychologists. This article presents the direct contact model, an innovative system for generating this base without relying solely on traditional physician-initiated referral mechanisms. The direct contact model functions...

Generating a robust referral base from primary care clinics is an increasingly important and challenging task for professional psychologists. This article presents the direct contact model, an innovative system for generating this base without relying solely on traditional physician-initiated referral mechanisms. The direct contact model functions...

Psychosocial factors are presented which affect clinical decision-making regarding the allocation of renal organs. Patients were rated as being either High Risk or Low Risk transplant candidates. High Risk candidates were scored as being significantly different from the Low Risk candidates on many psychosocial variables. Interestingly, significant...

Histories of women in the US military and data from clinical settings suggest that women veterans confront life stressors both within and outside the military context. The extent and effect of these experiences on adjustment and their implications for treatment of women survivors, however, have not been systematically explored. This article describ...

Behavioral procedures have proven efficacious in the ward-wide treatment of psychiatric inpatients. These procedures are often recommended and administrated by behaviorally oriented staff who work as consultants. While numerous published reports show that behavioral consultation is effective for changing patients' targeted behavior, few data show w...

This study was designed to investigate the comparability of the original MMPI (1950) and the MMPI-2 (1989) with a psychiatric patient population. 34 male and 3 female patients, shortly after admission to one of two acute psychiatry units, completed the old and revised versions of the MMPI. Paired t tests indicated but scant differences for raw scor...

One hundred and twenty-one female students participated in a two-part experiment that was designed to investigate the impact of external, weight-related feedback on the body image of females with different levels of depressive feelings. As predicted, female participants with greater feelings of depression who were given weight feedback that was too...

In Experiment 1, male and female subjects were given an opportunity to snack as they participated in a "get-acquainted study" with a same-sex or opposite-sex partner (confederate) whose social desirability was manipulated. Consistent with the hypothesis that women may eat less when motivated to present themselves in a feminine light, female subject...