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Lisa M. Amaya-Jackson

Michelle Winn, M. D. Distinguished Professor
Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychiatry
1121 W Chapel Hill St., Box 104426, Durham, NC 27701
1121 W Chapel Hill St., Suite 200, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications


Narrative Review: Impairing Emotional Outbursts: What They Are and What We Should Do About Them.

Journal Article J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry · February 2023 OBJECTIVE: Impairing emotional outbursts, defined by extreme anger or distress in response to relatively ordinary frustrations and disappointments, impact all mental health care systems, emergency departments, schools, and juvenile justice programs. Howeve ... Full text Link to item Cite

Improving the content validity of the Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey (TRACES) and the Child and Adolescent PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (CAPC-5): A collaborative research methodological approach.

Journal Article Psychol Trauma · September 2022 OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to improve the content validity of the Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey (TRACES) and the Child and Adolescent PTSD Checklist for the DSM-5 (CAPC-5). METHOD: Two community-based collaborative research method ... Full text Link to item Cite

All adverse childhood experiences are not equal: The contribution of synergy to adverse childhood experience scores.

Journal Article Am Psychol · 2021 The operationalization of childhood trauma and adversity into checklists commonly known as adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, has become the most widely adopted methodology linking traumatic childhoods to adult outcomes. As the number of self-reported ... Full text Link to item Cite

Determinants of Implementing Evidence-Based Trauma-Focused Interventions for Children and Youth: A Systematic Review.

Journal Article Adm Policy Ment Health · September 2020 A systematic review was conducted to identify determinants (barriers and facilitators) of implementing evidence-based psychosocial interventions for children and youth who experience emotional or behavioral difficulties due to trauma exposure. Determinants ... Full text Link to item Cite

Synergistic adversities and behavioral problems in traumatized children and adolescents.

Journal Article Child Abuse Negl · August 2020 OBJECTIVE: This study investigated synergy of commonly co-occurring pairs of childhood traumas/adversities to determine: 1) if synergistic pairings differ by gender and/or age grouping; and 2) if some traumas/adversities were more synergistically reactive. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Children Exposed to Maltreatment: Assessment and the Role of Psychotropic Medication.

Journal Article Pediatrics · February 2020 Pediatricians regularly care for children who have experienced child maltreatment. Child maltreatment is a risk factor for a broad range of mental health problems. Issues specific to child maltreatment make addressing emotional and behavioral challenges am ... Full text Link to item Cite

Improving the implementation and sustainment of evidence-based practices in community mental health organizations: a study protocol for a matched-pair cluster randomized pilot study of the Collaborative Organizational Approach to Selecting and Tailoring Implementation Strategies (COAST-IS).

Journal Article Implement Sci Commun · 2020 BACKGROUND: Implementing and sustaining evidence-based programs with fidelity may require multiple implementation strategies tailored to address multi-level, context-specific barriers and facilitators. Ideally, selecting and tailoring implementation strate ... Full text Link to item Cite

Disseminating parent-child interaction therapy through the learning collaborative model on the adoption and implementation of an evidence-based treatment

Journal Article Children and Youth Services Review · June 1, 2019 Evidence-based treatments (EBTs) for childhood disruptive behavior disorders, such as Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), have limited availability in community settings. Recent research highlights the importance of implementation support models to en ... Full text Cite

Mental Health of Children of Deployed and Nondeployed US Military Service Members: The Millennium Cohort Family Study.

Journal Article J Dev Behav Pediatr · December 2018 OBJECTIVE: Families experience multiple stressors as a result of military service. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations among service member deployment experiences, family and military factors, and children's mental health using ba ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pilot to policy: statewide dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatment for traumatized youth.

Journal Article BMC Health Serv Res · July 28, 2018 BACKGROUND: A model for statewide dissemination of evidence-based treatment (EBT) for traumatized youth was piloted and taken to scale across North Carolina (NC). This article describes the implementation platform developed, piloted, and evaluated by the N ... Full text Link to item Cite

Clinical Considerations Related to the Behavioral Manifestations of Child Maltreatment.

Journal Article Pediatrics · April 2017 Children who have suffered early abuse or neglect may later present with significant health and behavior problems that may persist long after the abusive or neglectful environment has been remediated. Neurobiological research suggests that early maltreatme ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evidence Base Update for Psychosocial Treatments for Children and Adolescents Exposed to Traumatic Events.

Journal Article J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol · 2017 Child and adolescent trauma exposure is prevalent, with trauma exposure-related symptoms, including posttraumatic stress, depressive, and anxiety symptoms often causing substantial impairment. This article updates the evidence base on psychosocial treatmen ... Full text Link to item Cite

Using the core curriculum on childhood trauma to strengthen clinical knowledge in evidence-based practitioners.

Journal Article J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol · 2014 The high prevalence of trauma exposure in mental health service-seeking populations, combined with advances in evidence-based practice, competency-based training, common-elements research, and adult learning make this an opportune time to train the mental ... Full text Link to item Cite

Predictors of treatment completion in a sample of youth who have experienced physical or sexual trauma.

Journal Article J Interpers Violence · January 2014 Despite significant advances in knowledge and availability of evidence-based models for child traumatic stress, many children simply do not complete treatment. There remain notable gaps in the services research literature about treatment completion among y ... Full text Link to item Cite

From rifts to riffs: Evidence-based principles to guide critical thinking about next-generation child trauma treatments and training

Journal Article Training and Education in Professional Psychology · August 1, 2013 Despite the proliferation of empirically supported treatments in child mental health and the intensive resource investments agencies and training programs make to prepare clinicians, there are no clear guidelines to direct the selection of treatments. Spec ... Full text Cite

Links between child and adolescent trauma exposure and service use histories in a national clinic-referred sample

Journal Article Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy · March 1, 2013 The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) is a federally funded child mental health service initiative designed to raise the standard of care and increase access to evidence-based services for traumatized children and their families across the Un ... Full text Cite

Use of the breakthrough series collaborative to support broad and sustained use of evidence-based trauma treatment for children in community practice settings.

Journal Article Adm Policy Ment Health · May 2012 Empirically supported treatments for posttraumatic stress reactions in children are not widely available. This observational study evaluates the feasibility and utility of adapting the Institute for Healthcare's Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) to s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Behavioral markers of coping and psychiatric symptoms among sexually abused children.

Journal Article J Trauma Stress · April 2012 The current study examined coping and psychiatric symptoms in a longitudinal sample of sexually abused children. Coping was behaviorally coded from children's forensic interviews in the aftermath of sexual abuse. Using principal components analysis, coping ... Full text Link to item Cite

Back to school: review of school based interventions: comment on Rolfsness and Idsoe (2011).

Journal Article J Trauma Stress · December 2011 We comment on a recently published article in the Journal of Traumatic Stress that reviewed school-based interventions related to trauma. We point out the recent book published by Guilford Press on the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Pra ... Full text Link to item Cite

The core curriculum on childhood trauma: A tool for training a trauma-informed workforce

Journal Article Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy · September 1, 2011 Recognition of the nationwide high prevalence of psychological trauma in children and adolescents, combined with increasing awareness of the far-reaching adverse consequences of childhood trauma, have led to calls to develop a trauma-informed mental health ... Full text Cite

Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder in three-through six year-old children: a randomized clinical trial.

Journal Article J Child Psychol Psychiatry · August 2011 BACKGROUND: The evidence base for trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) to treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in youth is compelling, but the number of controlled trials in very young children is few and limited to sexual abuse victi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Understanding the behavioral and emotional consequences of child abuse.

Journal Article Pediatrics · September 2008 Children who have suffered early abuse or neglect may later present with significant behavior problems including emotional instability, depression, and a tendency to be aggressive or violent with others. Troublesome behaviors may persist long after the abu ... Full text Link to item Cite

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network: Collaborating to Improve the Standard of Care

Journal Article Professional Psychology: Research and Practice · August 1, 2008 Mental health practitioners are often called upon to provide services to children, adolescents, and families in the aftermath of traumatic experiences such as child neglect, sexual or physical abuse, family/domestic violence, sexual assault, interpersonal ... Full text Cite

Dissociation predicts later attention problems in sexually abused children.

Journal Article Child Abuse Negl · February 2008 OBJECTIVE: The goals of this research are to develop and test a prospective model of attention problems in sexually abused children that includes fixed variables (e.g., gender), trauma, and disclosure-related pathways. METHODS: At Time 1, fixed variables, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evidence-based psychosocial treatments for children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events.

Journal Article J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol · January 2008 The article reviews the current status (1993-2007) of psychosocial treatments for children and adolescents who have been exposed to traumatic events. Twenty-one treatment studies are evaluated using criteria from Nathan and Gorman (2002) along a continuum ... Full text Link to item Cite

Childhood traumatic grief: a multi-site empirical examination of the construct and its correlates.

Journal Article Death Stud · 2008 This study evaluated the construct of childhood traumatic grief (CTG) and its correlates through a multi-site assessment of 132 bereaved children and adolescents. Youth completed a new measure of the characteristics, attributions, and reactions to exposure ... Full text Link to item Cite

Feasibility and effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder in preschool children: two case reports.

Journal Article J Trauma Stress · August 2007 New evidence raises concerns that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in preschool children is unremitting over years even with unstructured community treatment. This report presents proof of concept of the feasibility and effectiveness of a structured th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Treatment considerations for clinicians in applying evidence-based practice to complex presentations in child trauma.

Journal Article J Trauma Stress · August 2007 Professionals in the child trauma field, eager to bring best practices to children and their families who have suffered from traumatic life events, have developed a number of evidence-based treatments (EBTs) and promising practices available for adoption a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pathways to PTSD, part II: Sexually abused children.

Journal Article Am J Psychiatry · July 2005 OBJECTIVE: The goal of this research was to develop and test a prospective model of posttraumatic stress symptoms in sexually abused children that includes pretrauma, trauma, and disclosure-related pathways. METHOD: At time 1, several measures were used to ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Durham Family Initiative: a preventive system of care.

Journal Article Child Welfare · 2004 This article describes the Durham Family Initiative (DFI), an innovative effort to bring together child welfare and juvenile justice systems to reach DFI's goal of reducing the child abuse rate in Durham, North Carolina, by 50% within the next 10 years. DF ... Link to item Cite

Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Pediatric Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Protocol and Application in School and Community Settings

Journal Article Cognitive and Behavioral Practice · January 1, 2003 This paper describes a multimodality trauma treatment protocol (MMTT) for children and adolescents with PTSD. Based upon empirically validated cognitive-behavioral methods of treating PTSD in adults and anxiety and aggression in children, MMTT was develope ... Full text Cite

Adverse behavioral and emotional outcomes from child abuse and witnessed violence.

Journal Article Child Maltreat · August 2002 This article examines mental health outcomes of children who have witnessed violence in their social environment and/or have been physically abused. Participants (n = 167) come from a longitudinal study on child maltreatment. Outcomes-including depression, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents: epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment options.

Journal Article Paediatr Drugs · 2002 Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common psychiatric condition in childhood and adolescence. Rates vary widely depending upon the type of trauma exposure. Interpersonal traumas, such as rape or physical abuse, are more likely to result in PTSD tha ... Full text Link to item Cite

Directly questioning children and adolescents about maltreatment a review of survey measures used

Journal Article Journal of Interpersonal Violence · January 1, 2000 The methodological, legal, and ethical issues related to questioning children about their maltreatment experiences in research studies are complex. A review of the literature was conducted examining what studies to date have directly asked children about v ... Full text Cite

Functional impairment and utilization of services associated with posttraumatic stress in the community.

Journal Article J Trauma Stress · October 1999 This study describes social functioning and service utilization patterns associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms relative to nonpsychiatric controls and depressive disorder controls in a cross-sectional epidemiological survey. Data from 49 cases and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Psychopharmacology of pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol · 1999 OBJECTIVE: To review the current knowledge of pharmacotherapy in the treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as it applies to children and adolescents and to provide a rational approach to medication use in Pediatric PTSD. METHOD: The literature ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy for children and adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder after a single-incident stressor.

Journal Article J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry · June 1998 OBJECTIVE: To test the efficacy of a group-administered cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT) protocol for pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a single-incident stressor. METHOD: After a school-wide selection-to-treatment procedure cond ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of electroconvulsive therapy in adolescents with severe endogenous depression resistant to pharmacotherapy.

Journal Article Biol Psychiatry · March 1, 1998 BACKGROUND: This open, prospective study examined the effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in 10 adolescents with primary, endogenous, psychotic depression who were resistant to antidepressant pharmacotherapy. METHODS: Change in symptom severity from ... Full text Link to item Cite

Children who prosper in unfavorable environments: the relationship to social capital.

Journal Article Pediatrics · January 1998 OBJECTIVE: Social capital describes the benefits that are derived from personal social relationships (within families and communities) and social affiliations. This investigation examined the extent to which social capital is associated with positive devel ... Full text Link to item Cite

Posttraumatic symptomatology in children and adolescents after an industrial fire.

Journal Article J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry · August 1997 OBJECTIVE: This investigation evaluated the extent and nature of posttraumatic symptomatology (PTS) in children and adolescents 9 months after an industrial fire at the imperial Foods chicken-processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina, caused extensive los ... Full text Link to item Cite

Consistency of children's sexualized or avoidant reactions to anatomical dolls: A pilot study

Journal Article Journal of Child Sexual Abuse · August 2, 1996 Anatomical dolls are a common but controversial tool in the assessment of suspected child sexual abuse. The present pilot study was conducted to explore the consistency of behaviors of 10 young children who had demonstrated clear intercourse positionings w ... Full text Cite

Methodological and Ethical Issues Related to Studying Child Maltreatment

Journal Article Journal of Family Issues · January 1, 1995 Research about child abuse and neglect is very complex methodologically and ethically. There are not yet uniform research definitions of the problem and the lack of prospective population-based research limits the ability to make progress. To date research ... Full text Cite

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Journal Article New Dir Ment Health Serv · 1992 Full text Link to item Cite

Intractable seizures, compulsions, and coprolalia: a pediatric case study.

Journal Article J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci · 1992 A 10-year-old girl with intractable complex partial seizures developed aphasia, coprolalia, and repetitive motor behaviors involving touching, sexual touching, and aggressive acts. Her symptoms subsided following surgical resection of a left anterior tempo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Controversies in psychopharmacological management of attention deficit and related disorders

Journal Article International Pediatrics · January 1, 1991 Controversial issues in the treatment of children with attention deficit and related disorders by psychopharmacologic and related means are reviewed. Positive effects of the medications are outlined, followed by discussion of the medications used in the tr ... Cite