It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, May 07, 2025
Treatment for panic disorder has a good long-term effect
Patients report they continued to experience improvement weeks after the treatment was first undertaken
Patients report that they feel even better long after treatment than immediately after the therapy, says researcher and psychology specialist Kristen Hagen from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Panic attacks can be extremely unpleasant and can cause intense fear. If you experience these attacks regularly, professionals call it panic disorder.
A method to treat the disorder was developed some time ago in Bergen. It runs over four days and is called the Bergen 4-Day Treatment (B4DT) .
Previous research has confirmed that this treatment is a good method to quickly help patients with panic disorder. One week after treatment, almost 90 per cent of patients experience a clear improvement.
But what about the long-term effect? New research has good news to report.
Amazing results
"It turns out that the improvement not only persists, but it actually gets stronger over time for many," said Kristen Hagen, a psychologist and associate professor at NTNU. Hagen is the project manager and senior author of two studies recently published in BMC Psychiatry.
"With long-term follow-up, patients report that they feel even better – than immediately after therapy and at the follow-up three months after," says Hagen.
"The fact that patients get even better over time is simply remarkable," he says.
[caption id="attachment_85907" align="aligncenter" width="610"] Patients report that they feel even better long after treatment than immediately after the therapy, says psychology specialist Kristen Hagen. Photo: Private[/caption]
The studies also show that the treatment not only reduces panic disorder symptoms, but also symptoms of general anxiety and depression.
Hagen says that despite the good results of the studies, they need to be confirmed with a larger number of patients.
How the treatment works
Instead of dragging the treatment over many weeks, the B4DT method is carried out intensively over four days in the same week.
Three to six patients meet in groups with a corresponding number of therapists.
The patients receive tailored treatment where they practice seeking out symptoms, situations and situations that can trigger anxiety. The patient has often avoided these situations for a long time.
In this therapy, patients face the difficult in a different and more appropriate way. This gives patients insight into the fact that it is the panic disorder and not real causes that have made them fear situations.
Almost 9 out of 10 patients report great improvement with this method. They have minimal symptoms and function relatively well in everyday life afterwards.
The method was developed to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, but has been adapted to treat other mental disorders such as panic disorder.
The bergen 4-day treatment for panic disorder: a longer-term follow-up
Inclusive peer support groups are expanding at US colleges, but stable funding is needed
A new study found that collegiate recovery programs that have multiple sources of funding served twice as many students as programs with only one source of funding
A new study found that collegiate recovery programs that have multiple sources of funding served twice as many students as programs with only one source of funding. These programs, particularly those that offer support groups for students in all stages and types of recovery, can serve as a lifeline during the challenging college experience.
As colleges and universities continue to prioritize student mental health and well-being, collegiate recovery programs (CRPs) are emerging as a vital component of these efforts for students recovering from substance use disorders and behavioral addictions. A new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researcher presents a foundational assessment of CRPs’ structure and programming, lending insight into how academic institutions can strengthen and sustain these chronically underfunded, but critically needed, programs.
The study is the first to acquire this data through the lens of program directors, who are better positioned than students to identify CRPs’ operational and funding needs.
Published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, the study revealed important differences in the programs’ reach, based on the number of their funding sources; CRPs that had multiple funding sources served twice as many students as CRPs that relied on only a single source. These programs were also more likely to provide dedicated space and relapse management support to students. All Recovery meetings, which are inclusive support groups open to people exploring different forms of recovery and in all stages of the recovery process, were the most common type of mutual-aid support groups in CRPs.
The finding that All Recovery meetings were the most common support group on college campuses came as a surprise to the researchers, who were expecting to see a greater proportion of traditional support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). All Recovery meetings lack a centralized structure, and there is little data about their effectiveness, but this new data suggest that this alternative form of support is an effective one by providing a welcoming space for students on different recovery journeys to connect and heal together as they navigate their shared college experience.
“As a nation, we are looking for ways to have an impact on the addiction crisis in the US,” says study lead and corresponding author Dr. Noel Vest, assistant professor of community health sciences at BUSPH. “Collegiate recovery programs offer one ray of hope by offering multiple resources and opportunities to combat this issue in an environment where excessive alcohol and drug use are normalized and pervasive. The steady presence of CRPs not only assists students in recovery during their time in college, it reduces the stigmas associated with recovery in college that might otherwise deter these students from seeking help.”
Without multiple streams of funding, these programs may not withstand times of financial uncertainty, he says.
“CRPs that have to rely on a single source of funding may be in tenuous positions if that funding dissolves,” Dr. Vest says. “Our findings really underscore the need for diversified and sustainable funding for these programs.”
For the study, Dr. Vest and colleagues administered a survey to 70 CRP directors across the US and Canada, asking them to share details about their program, including physical features of their sites on campus, as well as policy and program offerings, and funding sources. CRPs provide a variety of support services, including physical gathering spaces, academic assistance, peer mentoring, and substance-free housing.
The program directors were predominantly non-Hispanic, White, and female, and 15 percent represented gender and sexual minorities. The highest number of directors were from colleges or universities in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina.
CRPs with two or more funding sources had more drop-in centers than CRPs with only one funding source (although the team did not observe a difference in staff size or level of peer mentorship), as well as more policies in place to manage students who relapsed and a greater proportion of recovery housing.
About 67 percent of program directors reported that their CRP provided All Recovery meetings. All Recovery meetings meet students where they are—physically, emotionally, and behaviorally—and aim to reduce the negative consequences of addiction and mental health through the lens of the student experience rather than focusing on total abstinence from substance use.
With support and advocacy from the Association of Recovery in Higher Education, CRPs have surged in popularity, with nearly 150 programs operating on college campuses across the country. It is critical that these programs receive adequate funding to address the needs of the estimated 650,000 college students in recovery. The researchers hope the new findings inform state and federal policies that promote student health and enable college students to have reliable and consistent access to a variety of recovery services—for the benefit of the students, as well as their college campus and the greater community. In Massachusetts, for example, a proposed bill aims to provide housing, counseling, mentoring, peer support, and overdose training to public colleges and universities.
“As a marginalized group with histories of trauma, college students in recovery are struggling in many different ways and put in a lot of work to get to college,” Dr. Vest says. “They put in a lot of work to get to college, and collegiate recovery programs provide the space and tools for success once they arrive.”
The study's senior author is Dr. Keith Humphreys, Esther Ting Memorial Professor and professor, by courtesy, of health policy at Stanford University. The study was coauthored by Ms. Michelle Flesaker, research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at BUSPH; Dr. Robert Bohler, assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy & Community Health at the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University; Dr. Christine Timko, senior research career scientist at the Veterans Administration Health Services Research and Development Service and affiliated clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine; Dr. John Kelly, psychologist and professor of psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Dr. Michael Stein, BUSPH dean ad interim.
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About Boston University School of Public Health
Founded in 1976, Boston University School of Public Health is one of the top ten ranked schools of public health in the world. It offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations—especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable—locally and globally.
While an abundance of parasites might seem like a bad thing, their absence actually signals trouble in the environment. Parasites are found throughout nature and are part of nearly every major animal group. Many ecosystems with rich wildlife also have a wide variety of parasites, since parasites depend on specific hosts to survive.
When human activities like pollution disturb ecosystems, these host–parasite relationships can break down. Because some parasites need several different hosts to complete their life cycles, their presence can tell us a lot about the health and complexity of an ecosystem.
In the 1970s, the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) was considered one of Florida’s cleanest coastal lagoons. Today, the IRL, which spans 156 miles along Florida’s east coast, suffers from frequent harmful algae blooms (HABs) caused by excess nutrients from farms, septic systems and urban areas. These blooms have severely reduced seagrass beds – vital habitats for fish and invertebrates – which still haven’t recovered.
As such, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and from Florida Oceanographic Society suspected that parasite levels in the IRL would be affected by these environmental changes. Despite a few records, no long-term parasite datasets exist for the IRL. To help fill that gap, researchers used a meta-analysis approach – comparing their findings with global data from similar species and ecosystems.
Results of the study, published in the journal Estuaries and Coasts, found that parasites were less common in the IRL compared to other coastal and estuarine ecosystems around the world. In fact, the proportion of infected hosts in the IRL was about 11% lower than what is typically observed in similar environments.
More importantly, researchers saw an even bigger drop – about 17% – in the prevalence of larval-stage parasites that rely on multiple hosts to complete their life cycles. These types of parasites often depend on a stable and complex food web, moving from prey to predator as they develop. The fact that they’re much less common in the IRL suggests the local food web may be simplified or disrupted, likely due to environmental stressors like pollution, habitat loss and recurring algae blooms. This reduced complexity could mean fewer interactions between species and a less resilient ecosystem overall.
“The Indian River Lagoon is mostly surrounded by suburban development, but our parasite findings suggest its food web looks more like those found in heavily urbanized areas,” said Christopher Moore, Ph.D., senior author and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Florida, who conducted the study as a postdoctoral fellow at FAU Harbor Branch. “Water quality problems and patchy seagrass cover likely limit how freely host species can move, which in turn reduces parasite presence and signals a simpler, more fragile ecosystem. As restoration continues, our parasite data can serve as a useful baseline to track how the lagoon’s food web recovers after years of nutrient pollution and habitat decline.”
From October 2022 to October 2023, researchers sampled six sites in the central and southern IRL, focusing on areas where seagrass was starting to regrow after a 2019 algae bloom die-off. They collected and dissected fish and crustaceans, recording parasites with complex life cycles – like nematodes, tapeworms, flukes and parasitic isopods. They used both visual ID and DNA barcoding to identify the parasites, and compared their results with other studies to see how the IRL measures up in terms of parasite presence and abundance.
Crustaceans and fish in the IRL had lower parasite infection rates than similar species in other ecosystems – 11% lower in crustaceans and 8% lower in fish. Fewer parasites also used these animals as final hosts – 5% less for crustaceans and 11% less for fish. While small intertidal fish typically host more parasites than crustaceans in other systems, the IRL showed no such difference. Overall, parasite prevalence in the IRL was 34% lower, with the biggest decline in digenetic trematodes (15%), isopods (20%) and nematodes (9%).
“These results highlight a striking shift in the ecological health of the Indian River Lagoon,” said Michael McCoy, Ph.D., co-author and a professor at FAU’s Harbor Branch and Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. “The significantly lower parasite prevalence – especially among trematodes, isopods and nematodes – suggests a disruption in the biodiversity needed to support the parasites’ complex life cycles. Parasites are often invisible indicators of ecosystem integrity, and here, their scarcity is telling us something important.”
Parasites with identifiable larval stages, like tapeworms (cestodes), thorny-headed worms (acantocephalans) and flukes (trematodes), were also much less common than expected. No larval tapeworms or acanthocephalans were found in the crabs, suggesting these complex parasites are largely absent in the lagoon. Though only crabs were studied, this points to a general lack of these parasites in the area.
“Just like Washington state’s Puget Sound – a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins – our parasite data suggest that food webs in the Indian River Lagoon are being disrupted, largely due to seagrass loss,” said Moore. “These disruptions have led to declines in meso-predators like sea trout, whose numbers dropped sharply after harmful algal blooms first appeared in 2011. These blooms, driven by excess nutrients, damage seagrass habitats and upset the balance of predators and prey in the ecosystem.”
Study co-author is Krista McCoy, Ph.D., director of research and conservation at the Florida Oceanographic Society.
This research was supported by the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Specialty License Plate fund (PWD #AWD-002997).
- FAU -
Christopher Moore, Ph.D., senior author, holding a giant oyster toadfish, a species of fish they routinely examined for parasites.
Christopher Moore, Ph.D., senior author, retrieving samples for the research.
Christopher Moore, Ph.D., senior author, retrieving samples for the research.
Credit
Brianna Davis
About Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute: Founded in 1971, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University is a research community of marine scientists, engineers, educators, and other professionals focused on Ocean Science for a Better World. The institute drives innovation in ocean engineering, at-sea operations, drug discovery and biotechnology from the oceans, coastal ecology and conservation, marine mammal research and conservation, aquaculture, ocean observing systems and marine education. For more information, visit www.fau.edu/hboi.
About Florida Atlantic University: Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, Florida Atlantic serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the Southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, Florida Atlantic embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. Florida Atlantic is designated as a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report, and holds the designation of “R1: Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production” by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Florida Atlantic shares this status with less than 5% of the nearly 4,000 universities in the United States. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.
A team of researchers from Rice University, Carnegie Mellon University and other leading global institutions has outlined a bold new roadmap for harnessing heterogeneous catalysis to destroy per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the so-called “forever chemicals” that have contaminated water supplies worldwide.
In a study published in Nature Water, the international team of environmental engineers, chemists and catalysis experts assessed current catalytic technologies for PFAS destruction, proposed a suite of innovations to overcome existing limitations and emphasized the urgent need for holistic performance metrics that reflect true environmental and public health benefits.
“Catalysis offers a promising path to completely break down PFAS molecules, but current approaches are still far from optimal,” said Michael Wong, co-author and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice. “We need smarter design, better process integration and a more nuanced way of comparing technologies that accounts for energy, cost and toxicity reduction.”
PFAS are synthetic compounds used in products from firefighting foams to cookware and personal care products. Their carbon-fluorine bonds are among the strongest in chemistry, making them extremely persistent in the environment and difficult to degrade. Conventional water treatments such as reverse osmosis and activated carbon filters only separate PFAS from water, meaning toxic waste is left behind.
“Heterogeneous catalysis — the use of solid materials to speed up chemical reactions — has the potential to not only separate but actually mineralize PFAS into harmless by-products,” said Gregory Lowry, corresponding author and a Hamerschlag University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon. “But these systems face multiple hurdles, including poor selectivity, incomplete defluorination and high energy demands.”
One of the team’s key recommendations is a pretreatment step to simplify the complex soup of PFAS often found in industrial waste or contaminated groundwater. Using known homogeneous chemical reactions, they postulate that these mixtures can be transformed into a smaller set of better-understood compounds, paving the way for more effective catalytic destruction.
“Thinking of complex PFAS treatment as a multistep process that will require many steps makes catalyst design much more tractable,” said Sarah Glass, co-first author and graduate student in civil and environmental engineering at Rice. “Designing and using treatment techniques that are really efficient for a certain step of degradation can improve overall efficiency and accelerate the development of real-world catalytic solutions.”
The researchers proposed a sequential “treatment train,” where simplified PFAS mixtures are processed through tailored catalytic steps. First, the process removes specific chemical head groups from the PFAS molecules. Next, it shortens their long perfluorinated carbon chains, stripping away the fluorine atoms — the key to their persistence. Finally, the remaining fluorinated fragments are broken down into safe, naturally occurring substances like carbon dioxide, water and fluoride ions. Each step uses a specialized catalyst tailored to the chemical structure at that stage. For example, titanium-based materials are used to speed up oxidation, while palladium helps swap out fluorine atoms for hydrogen in a process called reductive hydrodefluorination. This approach ensures that even complex PFAS mixtures can be effectively destroyed rather than just absorbed onto a solid, requiring additional treatment.
“Think of it as a relay race,” said Thomas Senftle, co-author and the William Marsh Rice Trustee Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice. “Each catalyst hands off a partially degraded PFAS to the next until the molecule is completely broken down. Our goal is total defluorination.”
The researchers stressed the importance of creating catalysts that can target and break down PFAS without being distracted by other substances commonly found in contaminated water. To do this, they are exploring catalyst surfaces that better attract PFAS and are using computer models and machine learning to predict reactions and optimize catalyst design.
“We’re still learning which PFAS break down under which conditions,” said Pedro Alvarez, co-author, the George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of the Rice Water Technologies Entrepreneurship and Research Institute. “Data-driven simulations can dramatically speed up the discovery process.”
The team also introduced a new energy metric called electrical energy per order of defluorination (EEOD) to fairly compare how efficiently different catalytic systems break fluorine-carbon bonds. Unlike traditional removal metrics, EEOD focuses on true degradation, not just separation.
The study concludes with a call for interdisciplinary collaboration and open data sharing to refine PFAS treatment strategies, with the need for scalable, cost-effective destruction methods greater than ever.
“PFAS are a generational challenge,” Wong said. “We owe it to future generations to find smart, sustainable solutions, and catalysis can be one of them.”
This research was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a Dean’s Fellowship from the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
