James Schmeidler

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | MSSM · Department of Psychiatry

Recidivism, and its contributing factors, remains a primary concern among juvenile justice practitioners. The literature has identified numerous policies and practices that reduce reoffending. Among these is use of validated assessment tools to identify risk level and treatment needs of youth. Using six years of juvenile court processing data, the...

Many juvenile justice agencies have moved toward risk-need-responsivity and risk-need-assessment approaches to manage youth and reduce future risk of recidivism. The Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) instrument is a popular tool to assess risk and protective factors among justice-involved youth. The present study explored the...

Health criminology explores the connection between crime and health factors. Less is understood about longitudinal health risks and adolescents entering the juvenile justice system. This study used a sample of n = 388 males involved in the juvenile justice system to examined longitudinal associations of a latent health risk factor, comprised of dep...

Background: The apolipoprotein E (APOE, gene; apoE, protein) ε4 allele is the most common identified genetic risk factor for typical late-onset sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Each APOE ε4 allele roughly triples the relative risk for AD compared to that of the reference allele, APOE ε3. Methods: We have employed hyperspectral fluorescence imagi...

1. Aims. This randomized control trial compared an adaptive computerized cognitive training intervention with a non-adaptive version. The primary hypothesis predicted better diabetes self-management in type 2 diabetes patients at 6 months post-intervention than baseline, with seven secondary outcomes. 2. Methods. Intent-to-treat analysis of veteran...

Little is known about longitudinal health risks and justice involvement among juvenile justice system (JJS) populations. This study used a sample of n = 388 males involved in the JJS to examined longitudinal associations of a latent health risk factor, comprised of depression, marijuana use, and sexually transmitted infections, with post-JJS placem...

Childhood sexual assault (CSA) victimization and depression are global public health concerns that disproportionately affect youths involved in the juvenile justice system. Little research has examined the influence of CSA on the stability of depressive symptoms among repeat juvenile offenders. The present study tested a gendered model of the assoc...

Introduction: Youth involved in the justice system have high rates of alcohol and other drug use, but limited treatment engagement. JJ-TRIALS tested implementation activities with community supervision (CS) and behavioral health (BH) agencies to improve screening, identification of substance use service need, referral, and treatment initiation and...

We investigated cognition in depersonalization-spectrum dissociative disorders without comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder to explore evidence for emotionally avoidant information processing. Forty-eight participants with DSM-IV dissociative disorder (DD) (Depersonalization Disorder - 37, Dissociative Disorder NOS -11), 36 participants with Post...

Background: Although clinical studies have shown an increased prevalence of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), a population-based epidemiologic study from Denmark found no increased risk of Alzheimer's disease in patients with glaucoma, and other studies have failed to demonstrate a link. However, a possi...

Objective: Scant research exists on the validity of self-reported marijuana use using biological assays among adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system. This exploratory study examined gender (sex) differences in underreporting of marijuana use and the impact of age, race/ethnicity, living situation, depression, family problems, sexual ri...

Studies addressing risk factors among justice-involved girls in rural areas remain a neglected area of research. Following an intersectional framework, the current study examines the patterning of a broad range of risk factors and health needs, across urban and rural contexts, among arrested African American, Hispanic, and white females who partici...

Childhood sexual assault is a traumatic experience with negative consequences and correlates. Little research has examined the prevalence of self-reported childhood sexual assault among justice-involved youths across urbanity, sex, and race/ethnicity. This study utilized data collected at intake from two juvenile assessment centers (JACs) for 4,336...

Background Older adults (65+) are among the fastest growing segments of the population, projected to double by 2050. Oldest‐old (85+) manifest the greatest relative increase in population and have the greatest risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Depression is a chronic, debilitating condition in older adults. Depressive symptoms, particula...

Background Neuropsychological tests are useful in the assessment of cognitive functioning, but whites have consistently performed better than other racial/ethnic groups. The utility of some of these tests has not been fully established for Hispanic elderly, and especially among relatively highly educated Spanish‐speaking Hispanics. Method Seventy‐...

Research has demonstrated justice-involved adolescents are at high risk for substance use, acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and engaging in risky sexual practices. Substance use and risky sexual practices have public health consequences and may place youths at risk for other long-term outcomes, such as recidivism. This study utiliz...

Youth involved in the juvenile justice system demonstrate greater risk of exposure to negative life experiences. The present study explores the prevalence of three stress-related experiences (sexual assault victimization, bullying/victimization, and minority sexual orientation) among newly arrested adolescents. Gender (biological sex) differences w...

Justice-involved youth display higher prevalence rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), in comparison with youth in the general population, highlighting a critical public health concern. Individual factors are important predictors of STDs, but only provide a partial understanding of this public health issue. Communities experiencing higher...

Most studies of bullying rely on school-based samples of youth; however, a few studies of justice-involved populations suggest delinquent youth experience higher rates of bullying than youth in the general population. Little is known about gender differences in bullying among justice-involved youth. Using data from a Health Coach service project fo...

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is prevalent in the general United States population, and in the veteran population. T2DM has consistently been linked to increased risk for cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. Computerized cognitive training (CCT) is practical and inexpensive cognitive interventions that is an alter...

Aim: Depression is highly prevalent in type 2 diabetes and is associated with lower adherence to medical treatments, worse glycemic control, and increased risk for diabetes-related complications. The mechanisms underlying depression in type 2 diabetes are unclear. The haptoglobin (Hp) genotype is associated with type 2 diabetes related complication...

Associations between high body mass index (BMI) and subsequent cognitive decline, reported in elderly averaging below age 75, become less consistent at older ages. We compared the associations of BMI with cognition in moderately old (ages 75–84, N = 154) and oldest-old (85+, N = 93) samples. BMI and cognition were assessed cross-sectionally in cogn...

Introduction: Associations of some risk factors with poor cognition, identified prior to age 75, are reduced or reversed in very old age. The Protected Survivor Model predicts this interaction due to enhanced survival of those with extended risk factor duration. In a younger sample, this study examines the association of cognition with the mean he...

Depression and cognitive impairment are highly prevalent in type 2 diabetes (T2D), yet little is known about how their relationship varies by sex. We examined this question in a large T2D sample ( N = 897) of non-demented elderly (≥ 65) participating in the Israel Diabetes and Cognitive Decline (IDCD) Study. Cognition was evaluated by a comprehensi...

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a metabolic condition associated with poor clinical and cognitive outcomes including vascular disease, depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, and dementia. In the general elderly population, depression has been consistently identified as a risk factor for cognitive impairment/decline. However, the associati...

Introduction: Some associations of high total cholesterol with dementia risk diminish as the outcome age-age at cognitive assessment-increases. Methods: The Framingham Heart Study provided 1897 participants with intact cognition at entry. Cox regression analysis for incident marked cognitive decline included "time-dependent" coefficients, with a...

For some cardiovascular risk factors, association with risk for cognitive impairment observed in early old age is reduced, or paradoxically even reversed, as age of outcome increases. Successful cognitive aging is intact cognition in the oldest-old; we define resistant successful cognitive aging as successful cognitive aging despite high risk. The...

Poor glycemic control (i.e., high A1c) among older adults with type 2 diabetes (DM) is associated with high risk of cognitive impairment across various domains of cognitive assessments. Older Veterans with DM have not been well studied. We hypothesized that high A1c is associated with worse executive function among older Veterans with DM. We perfor...

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the relationship of variability in hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) over years with subsequent depressive symptoms. Research design and methods: Subjects (n = 837) were participants of the Israel Diabetes and Cognitive Decline (IDCD) study, which aimed to examine the relationship of characteristics of long-term type...

Truant youths are likely to engage in a number of problem behaviors, including sexual risky behaviors. Previous research involving non-truant youths has found sexual risk behaviors to be related to marijuana use and depression, with differential effects for male and female youths. Using data collected in a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-fu...

Recent studies have indicated that innate immune signaling molecules are involved in late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) risk. Amyloid beta (Aβ) accumulates in AD brain, and has been proposed to act as a trigger of innate immune responses. Caspase-4 is important part of the innate immune response. We recently characterized transgenic mice carryin...

We examined the identification of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in help-seeking urban children (N = 157) presenting for care in community mental health clinics. Children and their parents completed a standard intake assessment conducted by a community clinician followed by a structured, trauma-focused assessment conducted...

Research on samples of truant adolescents is limited, with little known about mental health problems among truant youths. This study provided an exploratory, multilevel examination of mental health problems for a sample of 300 truant adolescents. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a single factor of multiple mental health problems at the indivi...

Based on problem-behavior theory (Jessor & Jessor, 197750. Jessor, R., & Jessor, S. L. (1977). Problem behavior and psychosocial development: A longitudinal study of youth. New York, NY: Academic Press.View all references), a second-order problem behavior model of delinquency, marijuana use, and risky sexual behavior over five waves was estimated a...

To find associations of age, sex, and education with neuropsychological test performance in cognitively normal Spanish-speaking Costa Rican nonagenarians with little education; to provide norms; and to compare their performance with similar Puerto Ricans. For 95 Costa Ricans (90–102 years old, 0–6 years of education), multiple regression assessed a...

The issue of delinquency among truant youths is insufficiently documented in the literature. There is a need to elucidate this issue, and assess the efficacy of interventions to reduce this problem behavior. The present National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded study addressed this gap by examining the impact of a Brief Intervention (BI), orig...

Introduction/methods: We studied the relationship of waist circumference with five cognitive outcomes (executive functioning, language/semantic categorization, attention/working memory, episodic memory, and an overall cognition measure) in 845 cognitively normal elderly with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Results: In women, waist circumference was corre...

There is growing evidence of the involvement of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative processes including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their function as a seed for the aggregation of Aβ, a hallmark feature of AD. AGEs are formed endogenously and exogenously during heating and irradiation of foods. We here e...

In recent years, several promising susceptible loci for Alzheimer's disease (AD) were discovered, by implementing genome-wide association studies (GWASs) approach. Recent meta-analysis has confirmed association of 19 SNPs with AD in the European population. Since Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is a substantial risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia,...

Objective: The haptoglobin (Hp) genotype has been associated with cognitive function in type 2 diabetes. Because ethnicity/culture has been associated with both cognitive function and Hp genotype frequencies, we examined whether it modulates the association of Hp with cognitive function. Methods: This cross-sectional study evaluated 787 cognitiv...

Objective Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and C-reactive protein (CRP) have been associated with cognitive impairment independently. However, it is unclear if their combination exacerbates poor cognitive function. We assessed whether long-term glycemic level and glycemic variability modulate the association of systemic inflammation with cognitive funct...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the association of glycaemic control with cognitive function is modulated by the haptoglobin 1-1 (Hp 1-1) genotype in cognitively normal elderly individuals with type 2 diabetes. In this cross-sectional study, we examined 793 participants who were genotyped for Hp (80 Hp 1-1 carriers and 713 Hp 1...

Truancy continues to be a major problem, affecting most school districts in the U.S. Truancy is related to school dropout, with associated adverse consequences, including unemployment and delinquency. It is important to obtain a more complete picture of truants' educational experience. First, the present study sought to examine the longitudinal gro...

Heterogeneity in autism impairs efforts to localize genes underlying this disorder. As autism comprises severe but variable deficits and traits in 3 symptom domains - social, communication, and repetitive behaviors - and shows variability in useful phrase speech, different genetic factors may be associated with each. Sibling-pairs (n = 212), includ...

Postmortem studies have shown that cerebrovascular disease (CVD) neuropathology occurs frequently in type 2 diabetes (T2D) through mechanisms associated with chronic hyperglycemia such as advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). The involvement of T2D in Alzheimer's disease (AD)-type neuropathology has been more controversial. While postmortem data...

We studied the relationship of adult body height with five cognitive outcomes (executive functioning, semantic categorization, attention/working memory, episodic memory, and an overall cognition measure) in 897 cognitively normal elderly with type 2 diabetes. Regression analyses controlling for sociodemographic, cardiovascular, and diabetes-related...

Background Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with increased risk of dementia. The prospective longitudinal Israel Diabetes and Cognitive Decline study aims at identifying T2D-related characteristics associated with cognitive decline. Methods Subjects are population-based T2D 65+, initially cognitively intact. Medical conditions, blood examinatio...

Regression analyses compared 41 type 2 diabetes (T2D) and 131 non-T2D cognitively normal elderly males on the associations of arterial wall function measures [large artery elasticity index (LAEI), small artery elasticity index (SAEI), systemic vascular resistance (SVR), and total vascular impedance (TVI)] with cognitive performance (memory, languag...

Self-injurious behavior in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been associated with lower whole blood serotonin levels and the role of serotonin transporter gene promoter region (5HTTLPR) polymorphisms is of interest because of their effects on transporter functioning. This study examined the association between self-injurious behavior in ASD and al...

School truancy is a serious concern in the U.S., with far-reaching negative consequences. Truancy has been positively associated with substance use and delinquent behavior; however, research is limited. Consequently, the Truancy Brief Intervention Project was established to treat and prevent substance use and other risky behaviors among truants. Th...

Objectives It is unclear why duration of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with increased cognitive compromise. High hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) has also been associated with dementia, and is the primary contributor to T2D complications. Here we investigated whether the association of duration of T2D with cognitive functioning is modulated by hemoglob...

Objective To study the association of dementia with APOE-e4 and its interaction with age in a nonagenarian Costa Ricans (N-sample) and a general elderly contrast group (GE-sample). Methods In both case-control studies, participants were cognitively intact or demented. The N-sample (N=112) was at least age 90; the GE-sample (N=98) was at least age...

School truancy among teenagers remains a serious national problem, as evidenced by its significant association with school performance, psychological, and behavioral problems. Truancy is also positively associated with substance abuse. This study presents 18-month outcome data from a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded controlled trial t...

Research indicates at-risk youth are more likely to experience emotional and psychological problems. Young people who are often truant from school represent a group of at-risk youth, but one for which mental health issues are understudied. This study examined heterogeneity of mental health problems among a sample of 300 truant adolescents using lat...

Aim To assess whether the APOE4 genotype affects the relationship of long-term glycemic control with cognitive function in elderly with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods Participants were cognitively normal and pertained to a Diabetes Registry which provided access to HbA1c levels and other T2D related factors since 1998. Glycemic control was defined...

We recently reported that serum methylglyoxal (sMG) is associated with a faster rate of decline in a global measure of cognition in the very elderly. We here provide for the first time evidence in which high levels of dietary AGE (dAGE) are associated with faster rate of decline in memory in 49 initially non-demented young elderly (p=0.012 in mixed...

Objective To study the relationships of long-term trajectories of glycemic control with cognitive performance in cognitively normal elderly with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods Subjects (n = 835) pertain to a diabetes registry (DR) established in 1998 with an average of 18 HbA1c measurements per subject, permitting identification of distinctive tra...

We evaluated the discrepancy of endophenotypic performance between probands with schizophrenia and unaffected siblings by paternal age at proband birth, a possible marker for de novo mutations. Pairs of schizophrenia probands and unaffected siblings (N=220 pairs) were evaluated on 11 neuropsychological or neurophysiological endophenotypes previousl...

Background/Aims Impaired motor function has been associated with cognitive impairment and dementia, but this relationship is poorly understood in elderly with type 2 diabetes (T2D). We thus investigated it in a large sample (n = 726) of cognitively normal elderly with T2D. Methods In this cross-sectional study, hierarchical linear regressions asse...

Neuropsychological and depression measures have been found to predict cognitive functioning. We compared these associations among whites and Spanish-speaking Hispanics. Fifty-two pairs of whites and Hispanics were matched demographically and clinically in a cross-sectional study. Hierarchical regression analyses predicted Global Deterioration Scale...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease of aging and currently has no cure. Its onset and progression are influenced by multiple factors. There is growing consensus that successful treatment will rely on simultaneously targeting multiple pathological features of AD. Polyphenol compounds have many proven health benef...

To evaluate the relationships of age, education, and gender with performance on neuropsychological tests in a cognitively intact, older Israeli sample with type 2 diabetes (T2D). We examined 862 participants, 65-84 years old, enrolled in the Israel Diabetes and Cognitive Decline study. Multiple regression assessed associations of performance on 17...

Use this important intervention to improve your practice with substance-using youths and their families! This vital book gives you a detailed review of a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded, long-term clinical trial of the Family Empowerment Intervention (FEI). The subjects are youths who have been arrested and processed at the Hillsborough Cou...