Teresa Michelle Vente

All Publications

• Antidepressant Prescribing Practices of Pediatric Palliative Care Providers. Journal of palliative medicine Vente, T. 2024; 27 (7): 861-868

  Abstract

  Background: Mental health diagnoses can co-occur with complex medical illness in pediatric patients. Pediatricians may not feel comfortable with managing psychopharmacology for patients and access to child psychiatrists can be limited. Palliative care (PC) providers follow patients with serious illness longitudinally to address burdensome symptoms that affect quality of life and may be responsible for evaluation and treatment of mental health concerns; however, education in managing psychologic distress for pediatric palliative care (PPC) providers is limited. Objective: This study seeks to describe the antidepressant prescribing practices of PPC providers and describe their level of training and comfort in assessing for anxiety and depression and prescribing psychotropic medications. Methods: An electronic survey approved by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine was distributed nationally to PPC providers. Results: A total of 58 providers responded to the survey (response rate 12.3%). Most reported prescribing a variety of antidepressants (79%). Very few used formal assessment tools to screen for depression (7%) or anxiety (16%). Less than a third of providers consulted child psychiatry before prescribing antidepressants (29%). More than half of providers (54.5%) had no formal training in assessment and treatment of anxiety and depression in pediatric patients. Despite this, many providers (70%) reported feeling comfortable in prescribing antidepressants while also endorsing interest in more training for behavioral health evaluation and treatment (82.5%). Conclusions: Limited training in assessing mental health concerns, prescribing, and managing psychopharmacology suggests an opportunity for more targeted education for pediatric PC providers regarding antidepressant prescribing practices.

  View details for DOI 10.1089/jpm.2023.0671

  View details for PubMedID 38471104

• Snapchat Story-I Need a Heart Transplant: Benefits of Social Media Use in Serious Illness. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine Vente, T. 2023; 73 (3): 599-601

  Abstract

  Diagnosis of a serious illness among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) can be socially isolating. Social media platforms may provide a method for AYAs to communicate with peers about their health. The following is a case report of a 16-year-old male diagnosed with heart failure and undergoing heart transplant evaluation. During his prolonged hospitalization, he identified the social media platform, Snapchat, as a tool to communicate with his peers about his diagnosis, treatment, and hospital course. Social media may provide a means for coping and relationship building for AYAs in the setting of serious illness. Further exploration into understanding how AYAs use social media as a platform to process a serious illness may help providers to counsel patients and families about safe social media practice regarding information gathering and sharing online.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.05.013

  View details for PubMedID 37389525

• Pediatric palliative care and surgery. Annals of palliative medicine Ott, K. C., Vente, T. M., Lautz, T. B., Waldman, E. D. 2022; 11 (2): 918-926

  Abstract

  Care for pediatric patients with serious or potentially life-limiting illness involves the interplay of multiple medical and surgical teams within the hospital. Pediatric surgeons are capable of performing procedures that can improve the quality of life for children facing serious illness, but which also carry the potential for significant risk and burden. Patients and families are often faced with decisions about invasive surgical procedures and interventions, stressing the need for seamless collaboration between palliative care and surgical providers. Equally important is the need for clear and open-ended communication with patients and families by all medical teams to determine if potential surgical procedures and interventions align with their goals and to ensure that the perceived benefits of interventions outweigh any risks. Over the last two decades, pediatric palliative care has grown into a thriving medical subspecialty Despite the importance of collaborative care, there is lack of literature on the interaction of pediatric surgery and palliative care and the role of pediatric surgeons in providing primary palliative care. This review defines surgical pediatric palliative care, and provides an in-depth discussion of the unique complexities involved in caring for children with serious and potentially life-limiting illness, while highlighting specific challenges through detailed case presentations.

  View details for DOI 10.21037/apm-20-2370

  View details for PubMedID 34263644

• How Do you Focus on Quality of Life When Kids Cannot Go to School or Outside? Current pediatrics reports Vente, T. 2021; 9 (2): 37-45

  Abstract

  This paper seeks to explore the definitions of quality of life and its application to pediatric research and clinical practice. This paper also highlights some of the imperfections in evaluating patient-reported outcomes designed to measure quality of life in pediatrics. Additionally, this paper explores some of the unique challenges in promoting quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic.There are numerous different measurement scales to examine quality of life in children of different ages, and with a variety of disease states.Despite the number of quality of life measurement tools, not every patient population has a validated measure, including patients with palliative care needs. There is no consensus on how to incorporate findings from patient-reported outcomes into clinical practice recommendations. Professional organizations offer guidance and resources for families to encourage focus on quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  View details for DOI 10.1007/s40124-021-00238-9

  View details for PubMedID 33728105

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7953198

• Association of Social Media Use and High-Risk Behaviors in Adolescents: Cross-Sectional Study. JMIR pediatrics and parenting Vente, T., Daley, M., Killmeyer, E., Grubb, L. K. 2020; 3 (1): e18043

  Abstract

  Previous studies have demonstrated the prevalence of social media use and identified the presence of high-risk behaviors among adolescents, including self-harm and sharing of sexually explicit messages.This study aimed to identify patterns in the amount of time spent on social media by adolescents who engage in high-risk behavior and the extent to which they use social media as a platform for sharing such behaviors.This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 179 adolescents seen in a pediatric clinic at an urban medical center. We used an anonymous self-report survey to obtain demographic characteristics, rates of self-harm thoughts and behaviors, sharing of sexually explicit messages, and social media use as determined by total hours spent on social media per day and the number of applications used.Most adolescents reported spending 3 to 5 hours on social media each day and using 3 or more social media applications. Almost 1 in 8 (22/179, 12.3%) adolescents self-reported having ever engaged in self-injury with a mean age of onset of 11.8 years. Over a quarter (49/179, 27.4%) of adolescents reported sharing sexually explicit messages. Relative risk of engaging in self-injury and or sharing sexually explicit messages increased with the use of 4 or more social media applications (1.66; CI 1.11-2.48).Results show a relationship between the number of social media applications used and increased rates of high-risk behaviors. We identified relevant risk factors that clinicians can use to screen for high-risk behavior and parents can monitor to encourage education about healthy online practices.

  View details for DOI 10.2196/18043

  View details for PubMedID 32452820

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7284392

• The Impact of Gun Violence on Those Already Dying: Perspectives From a Palliative Care Physician. Pediatrics Vente, T. M. 2020; 145 (2)

  View details for DOI 10.1542/peds.2019-1143

  View details for PubMedID 31896549

• Futility in Rehabilitation. PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation Spill, G. R., Vente, T., Frader, J., Smith, S., Giacino, J., Zafonte, R., Coppard, B., Jensen, G., Mukherjee, D. 2019; 11 (4): 420-428

  View details for DOI 10.1002/pmrj.12152

  View details for PubMedID 30851075

• Concern for mortality in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU): parent and physician perspectives. Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association Boulais, J., Vente, T., Daley, M., Ramesh, S., McGuirl, J., Arzuaga, B. 2018; 38 (6): 718-727

  Abstract

  The objectives of this study are as follows: (1) to determine the incidence of parental concern for mortality (PCM) and any potential predictors for it among parents of infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and (2) to explore physicians' perspectives with respect to PCM in the NICU and to examine current practices of addressing it.Separate questionnaires were distributed to members of the AAP Section on Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine District I and to NICU parents post discharge, to gather perspectives from each group. A χ2-analysis and linear regression were performed.Response rate was 29% for the physician survey and 63% for the parent survey. Physician respondents believed that PCM increased with decreasing gestational age (GA) and reported having fewer discussions with parents of older infants about PCM. Parental report of PCM incidence was 48% overall. PCM was not associated with GA. PCM was associated with infant length of stay and occurrence of at least one discussion about PCM with physicians. Fifty-three percent of parents reported never having a discussion regarding PCM.Although physicians believe that PCM increases with decreasing GA, parental report suggests that PCM is not associated with GA. Parents of full-term infants in particular may experience more PCM and desire for discussion than is currently recognized.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41372-018-0076-0

  View details for PubMedID 29472707

• Pediatric Somatic Symptom Disorder: An Overview PSYCHIATRIC ANNALS Sharma, N., Daley, M., Vente, T. 2017; 47 (10): 507-511

  View details for DOI 10.3928/00485713-20170831-01

  View details for Web of Science ID 000418015200006