DOD ADNI. Veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) appear to have a greater associated risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The purpose of DOD ADNI is to examine the possible connections between TBI and PTSD, and the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease on Veterans as they age. The results of the DOD ADNI study will lead to greater efforts to develop treatment and prevention studies to help reduce these long-term affects of TBI and PTSD injuries. Funded by the Department of Defense (DOD), this study is a first step towards a larger, more comprehensive study of dementia risk factors in Veterans.

Life Before Death (1987). The purpose of this study was to test methodological issues in studying life before death and examine the roles of professionals, hospitals, hospices, residential and nursing homes, and day centres in caring for the dying. The study also documented the balance of care, hospice deaths and cancer deaths, experiences of those who died and those who cared for them, and changes since 1969. Characteristics of the general practitioners were obtained from DHSS data to describe the last year in the lives of a random sample of adults dying in 1987. Results from the study could be compared with an earlier study* to identify change in the nature and availability of care and in the attitudes and expectations of lay and professional carers. Additional goals included assessment of the influence of the hospice movement on these changes and to determine the experience and views of the doctors and nurses involved in the care of these people in the last year of their lives. Questions also explored the care and support given to close relatives both after and before the death.

*UK Data Archive Study No. 393

Epidemiological Catchment Area Study (1980-1985). The Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) program of research was initiated in response to the 1977 report of the President’s Commission on Mental Health. The purpose was to collect data on the prevalence and incidence of mental disorders and on the use of and need for services by the mentally ill. Independent research teams at five U.S. universities, in collaboration with the National Institute for Mental Health, conducted the studies with a core of common questions and sample characteristics. The sites were areas that had previously been designated as Community Mental Health Center catchment areas: New Haven, Connecticut, Baltimore, Maryland, St. Louis, Missouri, Durham, North Carolina, and Los Angeles, California. Each site sampled over 3,000 community residents and 500 residents of institutions, yielding 20,861 respondents overall. The longitudinal ECA design incorporated two waves of personal interviews administered one year apart and a brief telephone interview in between for the household sample. 

Indochinese Health and Adaptation Project (1982-1984). This three-year longitudinal study of the migration and resettlement of 739 Southeast Asian refugees (373 F, 366 M) in San Diego County, California examined the causal relationships between antecedent life stressors, mediating adaptational resources, and variables of adaptational outcome. The sample consisted of randomly selected adult participants from Chinese-Vietnamese, Hmong, Khmer, Lao, and Vietnamese ethnic groups, representing 437 households. Eligible participants ranged from 25 to 65 years of age. Initial data collection occurred in 1982 and 1983, with a second wave of data collection in 1984. Interview sessions with each participant typically lasted three hours utilizing a structured interview schedule. Interviewers were rigorously trained and ethnically matched with respondents. The Murray Archives holds original record paper interviews and coded computer data from each wave.