Stephen L. Aita

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs | VA · Mental Health Services

Background Cognitive symptoms are often reported by those with a history of COVID-19 infection. No comprehensive meta-analysis of neurocognitive outcomes related to COVID-19 exists despite the influx of studies after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study meta-analysed observational research comparing cross-sectional neurocognitive outcomes in adults wi...

Background Considering the multifaceted consequences of improperly managed sport-related concussions (SRCs) in American football, identifying efficacious prevention measures for enhancing player safety is crucial. Purpose To investigate the association of primary prevention measures (no-tackle practices and using a mobile tackling dummy in practic...

Background and Objectives: A sizable literature has studied neuropsychologic function in persons with migraine (PwM), but despite this, few quantitative syntheses exist. These focused on circumscribed areas of the literature. In this study, we conducted an expanded comprehensive meta-analysis comparing performance on clinical measures of neuropsych...

Objective Migraine refers to recurrent, unilateral headache attacks, lasting 4-72 hours, that have a pulsating quality and can occur with or without aura. Aura is a symptom, usually preceding the onset of a migraine, where there is an experience of gradually spreading focal neurological symptoms which typically last less than one hour. A meta-analy...

Objective Anterior temporal lobectomy is a common surgical approach for medication-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Prior studies have shown inconsistent findings regarding the utility of presurgical intracarotid sodium amobarbital testing (IAT; also known as Wada test) and neuroimaging in predicting postoperative seizure control. In the pre...

Objective Primary headache disorder is characterized by recurrent headaches which lack underlying causative pathology or trauma. Primary headache disorder is common and encompasses several subtypes including migraine. Vestibular migraine (VM) is a subtype of migraine that causes vestibular symptoms such as vertigo, difficulties with balance, nausea...

Objective Population studies have shown that Black individuals are at higher risk for MCI and dementia than White individuals but are more likely to be underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Although multiple contributory factors have been identified in relation to neurocognitive diagnostic disparities among persons of color, few studies have investigated...

Background: PTSD is a significant mental health problem worldwide. Current evidence-based interventions suffer various limitations. Ketamine is a novel agent that is hoped to be incrementally better than extant interventions. Objective: Several randomized control trials (RCTs) of ketamine interventions for PTSD have now been published. We sought t...

Background: Latent disease classification is currently the accepted approach to mental illness diagnosis. In the United States, this takes the form of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5-Text Revision (DSM-5-TR). Latent disease classification has been criticized for reliability and validity problems, particularly regarding d...

Objective: To compare multiple dimensions of executive function between children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with and without comorbid obesity. Method: Participants were 90 Iranian children (ages 8–13, 50% female) who were equally dispersed across three study groups: typically developing (TD), ADHD with obesity (ADHD+O), a...

There is a need to better understand factors associated with psychiatric medication dissatisfaction in college students. We explored cultural and identity factors associated with psychiatric medication dissatisfaction in isolation and in combination. We also explored relevant covarying factors such as trauma history and psychotherapy utilization. D...

Purpose of review The goals of this report were to (a) review the empirical evidence of interventions for moral injury syndrome (MIS) symptoms, (b) quantitatively synthesize these effects through a preliminary meta-analysis, and (c) provide treatment and research recommendations for MIS based on our qualitative and quantitative review. Recent find...

Introduction: Primary headache disorders (PHD) are generally conceptualized as recurrent pain to the head or face not resulting from other conditions (e.g., tension-type headache [TTH], migraine). While headache is considered a central nervous system disorder, the degree to which PHD result in cognitive impairment is unclear. A meta-analysis was co...

We reviewed the phenomenology of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), as well as the combined effects of PTSD + TBI comorbidity on functional outcomes. We also provide a series of research and treatment recommendations based on gaps in the literature with an emphasis on culture, interpersonal trauma, and treatment...

The minority stress model is a popular framework for understanding sexual minority mental health disparities. A wide body of literature has demonstrated that distal and proximal stressors are significantly related to sexual minority people’s depression symptoms. However, many studies validating minority stress mechanisms do not adjust for construct...

Most police officer candidates undergo pre-employment psychological evaluations prior to service. The Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) is a popular tool used by psychologists in these evaluations. The current study attempted to identify embedded markers on the MMPI-2 that evaluators could use to help predict officers who later received a...

Objective Cognitive impairment in primary and metastatic brain cancers has been well-documented. However, there is a lack of research comparing the cognitive profiles of people with non-central nervous system (CNS) metastatic cancer versus metastatic brain cancer. Methods This cross-sectional study consisted of 40 non-CNS metastasis, 61 brain meta...

Recent debates have evolved regarding the classification/conceptualization of compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD). Conclusions regarding an agreed upon CSBD model are hindered by reliance on the latent disease model of psychiatry. Competing biological-based frameworks are moving forward to replace latent disease classification more broadly b...

Objective: The BDEFS was compared to objective executive functioning (EF) measures as well as five-factor model (FFM) personality traits. Methods: One hundred sixty-five participants (M=19 years old, SD=1.3; 72.7% female, 55.2% White, 35.2% African American, 4.8% Asian) completed IPIP-NEO Personality Inventory, BDEFS-Long Form, Neuropsychological A...

Objective: Migraine refers to recurrent, unilateral headache attacks, lasting 4-72 hours, that have a pulsating quality. A meta-analysis was conducted comparing cognition on clinical measures between individuals with migraine and healthy controls. Data Selection: We searched the University of South Alabama Libraries’ OneSearch and PubMed using a un...

Past findings have indicated that sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals experience disproportionate rates of emotional, physical, and sexual assault compared to their heterosexual/cisgender counterparts. While these findings are robust, many studies report homogenous groupings of SGM participants. This practice likely masks important between...

Background: This study investigated the psychometric properties of a Persian translation of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition (BRIEF2) Self-Report form. Method: Participants were 589 typically developing adolescents (336 girls and 253 boys), ages 11-18 years old (M=15.16; SD=2.04), in Iran. They completed the Per...

The topic of effort in neuropsychological assessment has received considerable research attention in the last three decades, though the vast majority of empirical reports in this literature have focused on negative aspects of task engagement, often called suboptimal effort. We prefer the term subnormal effort in place of suboptimal effort, as the t...

Objective Our goal was to investigate the presence of surveys to assess neurosurgical educational content and to propose a novel standardized Neurosurgical Education Outcomes Survey (NEOS) with compatible statistical analyses. Methods Google Scholar and PubMed were used to conduct a structured literature review for articles published between Janua...

Background: Primary dystonia is conventionally considered as a motor disorder, though an emerging literature reports associated cognitive dysfunction. Objectives: Here, we conducted meta-analyses on studies comparing clinical measures of cognition in persons with primary dystonia and healthy controls (HCs). Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase,...

There is a paucity of research examining multivariate base rates (MBRs) of elevated scores in pediatric rating scales of cognition. We present novel MBR information on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition (BRIEF2) for several clinical groups: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Combined Presentation (ADHD-C); ADH...

Background We examined differences in demographics, access to mental healthcare, and perceived treatment barriers in college students with a history of receiving a psychotic disorder diagnosis compared to non-clinical (no history of diagnosis) and clinical (history of non-comorbid depression) control students. Methods Data came from the 2018–2019...

Objective: Multivariate base rates (MBRs) reflect probability information based on multiple variables (e.g., frequency of ≥4 low/high scores within a battery of 10 possible scores). There is sparse research examining MBRs in rating scales of cognition. We provide novel MBR information on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second...

Objective: Studies have observed a mixed factor structure for the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) in persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). In addition, there are no widely used informant-report measures of fatigue, despite the importance of informant perspectives on salient MS symptoms such as fatigue. The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the...

Introduction: Although dementia prevalence differs by race, it remains unclear whether cognition and neuropsychiatric symptom severity differ between Black and White individuals with dementia. Methods: Using National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) data, we evaluated dementia prevalence in non-Hispanic Black and White participants and com...

Objectives HIV‐associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) remain prevalent in people living with HIV (PLWH) despite widespread use of combined antiretroviral therapy (ART). Vascular disease contributes to the pathogenesis of HAND, but traditional vascular risk factors do not fully explain the relation between vascular disease and HAND. A more direc...

The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition (BRIEF2) is a standardized rating (self, parent, and teacher) scale of executive functioning in children and adolescents. Here, we provide multivariate base rate (MBR) information (for the Self, Parent, and Teacher forms), which is not included in the BRIEF2 Professional Manual. Pa...

The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function–Adult Version (BRIEF-A) is a standardized rating scale of subjective executive functioning. We provide univariate and multivariate base rates (BRs) for scale/index scores in the clinical range ( T scores ≥65), reliable change, and inter-rater information not included in the Professional Manual. Pa...

Objective Primary dystonia is conventionally seen as a motor disorder, though growing literature indicates cognitive dysfunction among persons with primary dystonia (PWD). Here, we completed a meta-analysis comparing cognition on clinical measures between PWD and normal controls. Method We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Psy...

Objective/Background The present study investigated the feasibility of developing a PTSD-specific malingering scale embedded within the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). Methods Participants consisted of 489 individuals [mean age = 20.0 (SD = 3.29); 71% female; 73.0% Caucasian, 17.6% African American, 3.5%, 9.4% Other] who completed PAI. 274...

Consensual non-monogamy (CNM) is an area of increasing empirical and clinical interest. Few studies have explored the mental health of CNM individuals. Using the minority stress framework, we sought to address this gap. We analyzed a data set of college students gathered through the Healthy Minds Network. A sample of 91 participants with data fit f...

Background Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment for motor disturbance in people with primary dystonia (PWD). Numerous factors are considered by an interdisciplinary consensus conference before deciding candidacy for DBS surgery (e.g., demographic, medical, cognitive, and behavioral factors). However, little is known about which of...

There is a growing need for brief screening measures for HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorders (HAND). We compared two commonly used measures (the Montreal Cognitive Assessment [MoCA] and the International HIV Dementia Scale [IHDS]) in their ability to identify asymptomatic HAND (i.e., asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment [ANI]). Participants i...

Rationale Cognitive problems are common in adults with epilepsy and significantly affect their quality of life. HOBSCOTCH (HOme Based Self-management and COgnitive Training CHanges lives) was developed to teach problem-solving and compensatory memory strategies to these individuals. This study examined whether HOBSCOTCH is associated with improveme...

Research on self-reported executive functioning (EF) and personality has largely focused on normative personality traits. While previous research has demonstrated that maladaptive personality traits are associated with performance-based EF, the literature examining the relationship between these traits and self-reported EF is limited. The current s...

Introduction Medical simulation is widely used in the United States medical curriculum. However, learning outcomes based on simulation have yet to be reported. In this study, we aim to characterize the objective performance of first- and second-year medical students following eight weeks of medical simulation-based learning. Methods First- (n=25) a...

INTRODUCTION Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment for motor disturbance in patients with primary dystonia. Candidacy and appropriateness of DBS therapy is determined by an interdisciplinary consensus conference after considering numerous demographic, medical, cognitive, and behavioral factors on an individual basis. However, littl...

OBJECTIVE Cognitive impairment in primary cancer and brain metastatic (BM) cancer has been well-documented. However, to date, there are no neuropsychological studies comparing the cognitive profiles of people with BM and non-brain metastatic cancer (NBM). The present study addressed this gap in the literature by comparing the cognitive profiles of...

Background Socioeconomic factors are well-documented contributors to inequitable access to medical care in the United States. Here, we aim to compare the impact of surrogates of socioeconomic status in patients with low- and high-grade gliomas (LGG/HGG), which are brain tumors with diverse treatment strategies and survival outcomes. Study design A...

Introduction/Purpose: Physician shortage is a well-documented contributor to inequitable medical care access in rural and underserved communities. Residency prevalence may contribute to this shortage. Therefore, we aimed to characterize the distribution and socioeconomic profiles of U.S counties with residency programs by residency type. Methods: M...

Malingering, or intentional feigning of impairment for an external incentive, has been the topic of extensive psychological research in recent decades. The emphasis on symptom validity assessment in training, practice, and research in clinical psychology is not echoed across other health professions. While past surveys of clinical psychologists rev...

Objective The association between feigned Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms and intellectual functioning was examined in a sample of undergraduate students instructed to simulate ADHD. Method 90 undergraduate students completed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV), b Test, and Green’s Word Memory Test (WMT) as par...

Objective Neuropsychological intra-individual variability (IIV) refers to within-person cognitive fluctuation. It is often measured within-task (i.e., consistency) and across-tasks (i.e., dispersion). This investigation meta-analyzed studies comparing cognitive IIV of dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) participants to normal controls. Me...

Objective Intra-individual variability (IIV) applied to cognition refers to scatter of performances at the individual level. This study meta-analyzed research that examined consistency (i.e., within-task) IIV in mild-traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and moderate/severe-traumatic brain injury (msTBI) compared to normal controls. Method Using PRISMA-gu...

Objective This study utilized logistic regression to determine whether performance patterns on the WAIS-IV subtests could differentiate between genuine-effort and simulated ADHD groups. Method Participants were 355 college students (55.3%% female; 65.7% Caucasian, 23.9% African American, 4.2% Asian; age range 17–51 years, Mage = 20.93 years, SD =...

Ambivalent Sexism Theory delineates two forms of sexist beliefs: hostile and benevolent. While several studies have indicated interpersonal problems associated with both forms of sexist beliefs, few have examined mental health factors. Gender role strain theories suggest that rigid adherence to traditional gender roles is associated with psychologi...

Background: Primary dystonia has been traditionally viewed as a motor disorder. However, non-motor symptoms are frequently present and significantly quality of life. Neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms have been identified, but prior studies have been limited in sample size and lack of control groups. This study examined the neurocognitive pro...

This study extended prior findings by examining how Big-5 personality traits are related to four dimensions of problematic pornography viewing: functional problems, excessive use, control difficulties, and avoidance of negative emotions. Participants (n = 569 women and n = 253 men) responded to an online survey. Structural equation modeling indicat...

Objective This study examined the relationship between personality traits, sleep quality, and executive dysfunction. Method Participants were 195 college students (65.6% female; 53.8% Caucasian, 33.3% African American, 4.1% Asian,; age range 17 – 46 years, Mage = 19.58 years, SD = 3.41; 73.3% no psychological diagnosis) who completed the following...

Objective The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between factors of personality and cognitive health. Methods Two hundred and two participants (M age = 19.51, SD = 3.33; M education = 12.40, SD = .75; 72.3% Female, 55.3% White, 36.0% African American, 4.6% Asian, 4.1% Other) completed the cognitive health questionnaire (C...

Problematic pornography viewing (PPV) is a growing concern. Based on a masculine gender role strain framework, individuals endorsing traditional masculinity ideology (TMI) may be especially drawn to pornography. However, relatively few studies have explored how TMI is related to PPV. Furthermore, no known studies have explored how these connections...

Empirical findings indicate that sexual and gender minorities report notably poorer outcomes on measures of mental health when compared with cisgender/heterosexual individuals. Although several studies have examined these issues, few have taken the time to examine differences between cisgender/heterosexual and specific lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans...

Almost the entirety of research on effort in clinical neuropsychology has focused on negative aspects of effort in neuropsychological assessment, with most work over the last 20 years emphasizing feigned cognitive impairment. In contrast, few studies have explored trait-level positive influences on motivation and engagement in regard to neuropsycho...

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether phonemic and semantic verbal fluency were more related to aspects of language processing than executive functioning (EF). An exploratory factor analysis was performed on a college-aged sample of 320 healthy participants using principle axis factoring and promax rotation on nine measures of EF...

While psychometric police selection processes have progressively evolved, the efficacy of simple background information has not been extensively evaluated. This study examined the utility of base rate information to predict job performance among law enforcement officers. Pre-employment historical markers from bad hires were compared to good hires f...

Objective: The high potential for secondary gain among college students presenting for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) evaluations highlights the need for psychometrically sound embedded validity indicators. The purpose of this study was to develop new validity indicators specific to feigned ADHD for the Personality Assessment Inve...

Evaluation of the Equivalency of the Stanford-Binet-5 Comprehensive and Abbreviated Versions for Measuring Intelligence in Autism

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the construct validity of the Mental Clutter Scale, using an established measure of self-reported executive dysfunction, in a healthy sample.

Objective: Executive dysfunction is common in Parkinson's disease (PD), yet the relationship between executive functioning (EF) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) is inconsistent. This inconsistency may be due to the limited relationship between EF test scores and behaviors. Rating scales provide a potential way to supplement test...

Apathy and depression are associated with poor cognition in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the cognitive signature of each syndrome is not well understood. The cognitive consequences of having apathy or depression, versus apathy and depression, are also unclear. This study investigated the unique and combined effects of apathy and...