The 3rd Annual Conference on Innovations in Trauma Research Methods (CITRM; www.citrm.org) will be held Nov. 3-4, 2006, at the Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif., contiguous with the ISTSS 2006 meeting (Nov. 4-7 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel). The theme for CITRM 2006 is "Research Methods for Prevention, Intervention, and Service Delivery in Psychological Trauma." The CITRM program has been finalized and contains a breadth of topics and expertise:
- Opening Plenary: Methodological Issues in Conducting Psychotherapy Research, Paula Schnurr, Dartmouth University Medical School, editor, Journal of Traumatic Stress, and deputy executive director, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD.
- Methodological Aspects of Categorical Versus Dimensional Diagnosis in Mental Health, Bengt Muthen, University of California, Los Angeles, and co-developer of the popular Mplus Statistical Modeling Program.
- New Ideas in Clinical Trial Design: Equipoise Stratification and Adaptive Treatment Strategies, Philip Lavori, Stanford University School of Medicine.
- The Central Role of Confounding in Observational Research Theory, Examples, and Adjustment Methods, Tobias Kurth, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital.
- Problems and Solutions in the Analysis of Longitudinal Trauma Data, John McArdle, University of Southern California, and Longitudinal Research Institute, Charlottesville, Va., and Daniel and Lynda King, Boston University and VA Boston Healthcare System.
- Why Doesn’t a Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Tell You if Something is Cost-Effective? Suggestions about How and Why to do a Cost-Effectiveness Analysis, Jeffrey Hoch, University of Toronto.
- Brainstorming Session: What Are the Important Questions in Resilience Research, and What Are the Methods Needed to Answer Them? Steven Southwick, Yale University and the National Center for PTSD, and Jeffrey Sonis, University of North Carolina.
- Research Career Panel: K Awards: The Ins and Outs of Career Development Grants, Dawn Johnson, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Kent State University, and Summa-Kent State Center for the Treatment and Study of Traumatic Stress; Rajendra Morey, Duke University, Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), Durham VA Medical Center; and Dorie Glover, University of California, Los Angeles, with Elisa Triffleman, moderator.
- Qualitative Methods for Trauma Research with Culturally Diverse Populations, Carl F. Auerbach, Yeshiva University.
- CITRM Theme Panel: Adherence, Alliance, Concordance: Methodological Considerations of a Thorny Problem, Jacques Barber, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Center for Psychotherapy Research, and president-elect, Society for Psychotherapy Research; Sally Shumaker, Wake Forest University, and Charles Marmar, University of California, San Francisco, and San Francisco VA Medical Center, with Elisa Triffleman, moderator.
- Use of Hierarchical Linear Modeling Methods in Analysis of Intensive Repeated Measures Data, Nigel Field, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, and Eve Carlson, National Center for PTSD and VA Palo Alto Healthcare System.
- Modeling Intensive Longitudinal Data to Examine Chronic Fluctuation in PTSD: Multilevel Time Series Analysis, Susan Doron-LaMarca and Barbara Niles, National Center for PTSD and Boston University School of Medicine.
- Item Response Theory (IRT) in Trauma Research: An Introduction to Methods and Applications, Patrick Palmieri, Summa Health System and Kent State University.
- The Ethics of Asking and Not Asking About Trauma, Kathryn Becker Blease, Washington State University, Vancouver; Jennifer Freyd, University of Oregon, and Anne DePrince, University of Denver.
- Measuring Trauma Severity, Andrew Rasmussen, Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture and New York University School of Medicine, and Barry Rosenfeld, Fordham University.
- The Challenge of Constructing Instruments that Measure the Impact of Traumatic Events, Sandy McFarlane, University of Adelaide Node of the Centre of Military and Veterans’ Health.
A poster session also will be held. For more information about conference registration and accommodations, visit www.citrm.org.
This year, 12 individuals have been selected from a well-qualified, competitive applicant pool to receive CITRM Travel Stipends for Under-represented Researchers. They include two outstanding Experienced Researchers (Nnamdi Pole, Cengiz Kilic) and representatives from the international community and all regions of the United States, including Hawaii. We offer our congratulations to all Travel Stipend recipients. CITRM Travel Stipends will be available again next year for CITRM 2007.
| What Prior CITRM Attendees Have Said About the Conference...
“CITRM was just the right number of people and the right length. There was ample time to interact with people, and the attitude of all was extremely collegial. People were open about brainstorming and sharing ideas. The way the conference was organized brought out the very best in people as scientists and peers.” “The organizers and the people who attended could not have been more helpful and engaging. I’ll be back.” “The best thing about the conference is the small audience of well-informed professionals and world-class presenters from outside the usual ranks of the traumatic stress field.” “The best thing about the conference was informal meetings with colleagues. I was really impressed by the range of individuals there — from very senior to very junior researchers. I think that was a great environment.” “It was nice being exposed to different methodologies that could help me better explain my data. Also, receiving the PowerPoint slides of all the speakers made listening to and absorbing the information far easier.” “The best thing about the conference was the focus and depth of the conference. It was extremely well conceptualized in that the program and presenters maintained a steady focus on the subject. It was especially impressive that the conference stayed focused on methodology...” “The presentations were very well done generally and were approachable to me as a novice methodologist yet ranged upward and challenged my learning appropriately.” |
CITRM is made possible by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, with supplementary funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for PTSD. Additional support is provided by the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC) and the Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.