No abstract

Clinicians are increasingly requested to make determinations regarding patients' driving capacity in the context of neurological injury/conditions and a growing cohort of older drivers. The capability to drive safely involves a number of cognitive, physical, and sensorimotor abilities that may be impacted by injury, illness, or substances that influence alertness. Neuropsychological measures are an important component of a multidisciplinary approach for evaluation of driving capacity. Clinicians should become familiar with measures that have the best predictive validity so they may incorporate a patient's neurocognitive strengths and weaknesses in decisions about driving ability.

Patients who have contracted COVID-19 experience alarming rates of severe illness, medical complications, and mortality compared with that observed in other respiratory diseases such as influenza. In addition, those who have recovered from COVID-19 are at higher risk of lasting medical complications postdischarge. Importantly, many of these physical complications are likely to cause, and in turn be exacerbated by, psychological complications experienced as a function of illness, extended hospitalization, ventilation, and rigorous quarantine measures. At this time, little is known about the nature and prevalence of these complications, or treatment approaches psychologists may use in providing intervention. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify some of the most likely psychological concerns based on the literature of similar disease states and on psychological sequelae that typically occur following extended intensive care unit (ICU) stays in general. In this article, we characterize psychological presentations likely to be experienced by patients recently discharged from COVID treatment in the ICU based on the review of relevant literature. Specifically, we focus on the domains of: (a) medical trauma, acute stress reaction and posttraumatic stress, (b) cognitive deficits, (c) fatigue and depression, (d) social stress and readjustment, and (e) illness anxiety. Within each characterized domain, we provide empirically supported treatment recommendations for psychologists should they encounter postdischarge COVID patients seeking psychological treatment in outpatient or telehealth settings. Public Significance StatementLittle is known about the mental health challenges faced by patients after being critically ill and hospitalized due to COVID-19. In this article, we provide descriptions of the psychological problems that could result from COVID-related illness which cause difficulty functioning during recovery, along with recommendations for the delivery of therapy and support.

BackgroundModels of time perception share an element of scalar expectancy theory known as the internal clock, containing specific mechanisms by which the brain is able to experience time passing and function effectively. A debate exists about whether to treat factors that influence these internal clock mechanisms (e.g., emotion, personality, executive functions, and related neurophysiological components) as arousal- or attentional-based factors.PurposeThis study investigated behavioral and neurophysiological responses to an affective time perception Go/NoGo task, taking into account the behavioral inhibition (BIS) and behavioral activation systems (BASs), which are components of reinforcement sensitivity theory.MethodsAfter completion of self-report inventories assessing personality traits, electroencephalogram (EEG/ERP) and behavioral recordings of 32 women and 13 men recruited from introductory psychology classes were completed during an affective time perception Go/NoGo task. This task required participants to respond (Go) and inhibit (NoGo) to positive and negative affective visual stimuli of various durations in comparison to a standard duration.ResultsHigher BAS scores (especially BAS Drive) were associated with overestimation bias scores for positive stimuli, while BIS scores were not correlated with overestimation bias scores. Furthermore, higher BIS Total scores were associated with higher N2d amplitudes during positive stimulus presentation for 280 ms, while higher BAS Total scores were associated with higher N2d amplitudes during negative stimuli presentation for 910 ms.DiscussionFindings are discussed in terms of arousal-based models of time perception, and suggestions for future research are considered.

No abstract