Fictional characters' emotional state representation : What is its degree of specificity?

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Salud mental en niños en condición de desplazamiento en Colombia y su incidencia en políticas públicas

El conflicto armado en Colombia se presenta en zonas rurales y urbanas; sin embargo, en municipios y territorios distantes, el fenómeno del desplazamiento forzado incide en la vida de la población civil, planteando nuevos escenarios a nivel social. Por esta razón, hay impactos a nivel humanitario, social, económico, político, cultural y psicológico en las poblaciones más vulnerables, como lo son los niños desplazados; con importantes incidencias en salud pública, específicamente en salud mental. El propósito de este artículo de revisión es describir la situación actual de las condiciones de salud mental, desarrollar el concepto de resiliencia y describir la interacción que existe entre el trastorno de estrés postraumático de la primera infancia en condiciones de desplazamiento y la atención psicosocial en las políticas públicas para éste grupo poblacional. Teniendo en cuenta que en éste hecho social han intervenido organizaciones civiles, religiosas, no gubernamentales y estatales, se resalta la importancia de desarrollar un trabajo vinculante y cohesionado entre estas organizaciones.

Mental health of internally displaced preschool children: a cross-sectional study conducted in Bogotá, Colombia

A causa de los conflictos armados, como el de Colombia, se han desplazado por la fuerza a millones de personas, entre ellas una importante parte de la población infantil. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo evaluar la salud mental de los niños desplazados internos en edad preescolar en Bogotá Colombia, e identificar los determinantes de la salud mental en estos niños. Métodos: Estudio transversal realizado entre 279 niños que asisten a cuatro jardines infantiles en un barrio marginal de Bogotá. La salud mental infantil se evaluó con el instrumento validado de Comportamiento Infantil (CBCL) 1,5-5 años, aplicados a padres y cuidadores. Se realizo un análisis univariado y multivariado de regresión logística para evaluar la asociación entre el desplazamiento y la salud mental de los niños y para identificar las relaciones con la salud mental en los niños desplazados. Resultados: los Niños desplazados (n = 90) se identificaron con más frecuencia sobre los puntos de corte límite para las escalas CBCL que los no desplazados (n = 189) (por ejemplo, problemas totales 46,7 vs 22,8%;p \ 0,001). La asociación entre el desplazamiento y la presencia de problemas CBCL totales se mantuvo después del ajuste por factores socio-demográficos (OR Ajustado 3.3 del 95%: 1,5; 6,9). Donde la salud mental del cuidador explica en parte la asociación. En los niños desplazados, la salud mental del cuidador (p \ 0,01) y el funcionamiento familiar (p \ 0,01) se asociaron independientemente con la salud mental de los niños. La exposición a eventos traumáticos y el apoyo social también se asociaron con la salud mental del niño, sin embargo, las asociaciones no fueron independientes. Conclusión: En este barrio marginal de Bogotá, los niños en edad preescolar registrados como desplazados internos presentan peor salud mental que los no desplazados. El funcionamiento familiar y la salud mental del cuidador fueron fuerte e independientemente asociados con la salud mental de los niños y niñas desplazados.

Can we harness computerised cognitive bias modification to treat anxiety in schizophrenia? A first step highlighting the role of mental imagery

A new wave of computerised therapy is under development which, rather than simulating talking therapies, uses bias modification techniques to target the core psychological process underlying anxiety. Such interventions are aimed at anxiety disorders, and are yet to be adapted for co-morbid anxiety in psychosis. The cognitive bias modification (CBM) paradigm delivers repeated exposure to stimuli in order to train individuals to resolve ambiguous information in a positive, rather than anxiety provoking, manner. The current study is the first to report data from a modified form of CBM which targets co-morbid anxiety within individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. Our version of CBM involved exposure to one hundred vignettes presented over headphones. Participants were instructed to actively simulate the described scenarios via visual imagery. Twenty-one participants completed both a single session of CBM and a single control condition session in counter-balanced order. Within the whole sample, there was no significant improvement on interpretation bias of CBM or state anxiety, relative to the control condition. However, in line with previous research, those participants who engage in higher levels of visual imagery exhibited larger changes in interpretation bias. We discuss the implications for harnessing computerised CBM therapy developments for co-morbid anxiety in schizophrenia.

A left-ear disadvantage for the presentation of irrelevant sound: manipulations of task requirements and changing state

Three experiments attempted to clarify the effect of altering the spatial presentation of irrelevant auditory information. Previous research using serial recall tasks demonstrated a left-ear disadvantage for the presentation of irrelevant sounds (Hadlington, Bridges, & Darby, 2004). Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effects of manipulating the location of irrelevant sound on either a mental arithmetic task (Banbury & Berry, 1998) or a missing-item task (Jones & Macken, 1993; Experiment 4). Experiment 3 altered the amount of change in the irrelevant stream to assess how this affected the level of interference elicited. Two prerequisites appear necessary to produce the left-ear disadvantage; the presence of ordered structural changes in the irrelevant sound and the requirement for serial order processing of the attended information. The existence of a left-ear disadvantage highlights the role of the right hemisphere in the obligatory processing of auditory information. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Inc.

Mandibulofacial Syndrome With Growth and Mental Retardation, Microcephaly, Ear Anomalies With Skin Tags, and Cleft Palate in a Mother and Her Son: Autosomal Dominant or X-Linked Syndrome?

We report on a Brazilian mother and her son affected with mandibulofacial dysostosis, growth and mental retardation, microcephaly, first branchial arch anomalies, and cleft palate. To date only three males and one female, all sporadic cases, with a similar condition have been reported. This article describes the first familial case with this rare condition indicating autosomal dominant or X-linked inheritance. (C) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Consciousness minus retrospective mental time travel

In this paper we apply the concept of mental time travel to introduce the basic features of full-blown conscious experiences (encapsulation in mental models and recollection). We discuss the perspective that Lamme`s `Level 3` experiences can be considered as part of the scope of phenomenological consciousness, in relation to which we emphasize the necessity to consider the different degrees of consciousness and how a particular situation compares to the conscious experiences present in resting states of wakefulness.

Dynamic Changes in the Mental Rotation Network Revealed by Pattern Recognition Analysis of fMRI Data

We investigated the temporal dynamics and changes in connectivity in the mental rotation network through the application of spatio-temporal support vector machines (SVMs). The spatio-temporal SVM [Mourao-Miranda, J., Friston, K. J., et al. (2007). Dynamic discrimination analysis: A spatial-temporal SVM. Neuroimage, 36, 88-99] is a pattern recognition approach that is suitable for investigating dynamic changes in the brain network during a complex mental task. It does not require a model describing each component of the task and the precise shape of the BOLD impulse response. By defining a time window including a cognitive event, one can use spatio-temporal fMRI observations from two cognitive states to train the SVM. During the training, the SVM finds the discriminating pattern between the two states and produces a discriminating weight vector encompassing both voxels and time (i.e., spatio-temporal maps). We showed that by applying spatio-temporal SVM to an event-related mental rotation experiment, it is possible to discriminate between different degrees of angular disparity (0 degrees vs. 20 degrees, 0 degrees vs. 60 degrees, and 0 degrees vs. 100 degrees), and the discrimination accuracy is correlated with the difference in angular disparity between the conditions. For the comparison with highest accuracy (08 vs. 1008), we evaluated how the most discriminating areas (visual regions, parietal regions, supplementary, and premotor areas) change their behavior over time. The frontal premotor regions became highly discriminating earlier than the superior parietal cortex. There seems to be a parcellation of the parietal regions with an earlier discrimination of the inferior parietal lobe in the mental rotation in relation to the superior parietal. The SVM also identified a network of regions that had a decrease in BOLD responses during the 100 degrees condition in relation to the 0 degrees condition (posterior cingulate, frontal, and superior temporal gyrus). This network was also highly discriminating between the two conditions. In addition, we investigated changes in functional connectivity between the most discriminating areas identified by the spatio-temporal SVM. We observed an increase in functional connectivity between almost all areas activated during the 100 degrees condition (bilateral inferior and superior parietal lobe, bilateral premotor area, and SMA) but not between the areas that showed a decrease in BOLD response during the 100 degrees condition.

Avaliação das demandas física e mental no trabalho do cirurgião em procedimentos eletivos

Esta tese aborda o trabalho de cirurgiões de um hospital de Porto Alegre, RS, durante procedimentos eletivos de pequeno, médio e grande porte, visando o estudo das possíveis relações entre as demandas física e mental e a idade e a experiência do cirurgião. Inicialmente, foi feito um mapeamento de constrangimentos ergonômicos relacionados ao trabalho cirúrgico e, num segundo momento: i) o nível de demanda física imposta aos cirurgiões eletivos por meio de uma técnica de avaliação de posturas (REBA – Rapid Entire Body Assessment) (HIGNETT & McATAMNEY, 2000), da Freqüência Cardíaca (FC), da Pressão Arterial (PA) (sistólica e diastólica) e do nível de hormonal (Noradrenalina) e; ii) o nível de demanda mental envolvida no trabalho por meio do nível hormonal (cortisol, Adenocorticotrófico – ACTH e Adrenalina e, também, por meio da FC e PA). De maneira geral, ficou evidente que, independentemente do tipo de cirurgia, há a presença de carga física de pouca intensidade e de carga mental de média intensidade entre os cirurgiões. Os resultados apontaram, também, que os cirurgiões mais jovens (menos experientes) apresentam mais esforço mental do que físico, principalmente nas cirurgias de grande porte, e os mais experientes têm mais esforço físico nas cirurgias de pequeno porte e menos esforço mental, em comparação aos mais jovens (menos experientes), nas cirurgias de grande porte.

Trajetória do hospital dia Dr. Elger nunes: um recorte histórico da psiquiatria e saúde mental no Rio Grande do Norte

In Brazil, the mental health network proposed by the Psychiatric Reform inserts the intermediate and replacement services in the pursuit of alignment or resocialization of patients with mental and behavioral disorder in the community. Was adopted, among other services, the Center for Psychosocial Care, Home Therapy, Sheltered Home, Day Hospital and psychiatric beds in general hospital. In this context, the State of Rio Grande do Norte implanted the Day Hospital Dr. Elger Nunes (HDEN) in Natal / RN in 1996, linked to State Department of Public Health. At HDEN happened a multi and interdisciplinary therapeutic work, besides being the scene of disciplinary practices, and extension projects for graduate courses in Higher Education Institutions in the city. However, with the process of decentralization of local services, the hospital was terminated by an administrative state act in 2006, leaving damage to the activities provided to users, disciplinary practices and extension activities. From this breakdown, the objective was to narrate the trajectory of HDEN through a multidisciplinary team of professionals and teachers who used it as a field of disciplinary practices. It is characterized as a documental and qualitative, backed in the technique of thematic oral history, following the phases: authorization of the interviewee, interview recording, transcription, textualization and transcreation of the material obtained. We used documents, ordinances, general reports of activities, among others, plus interviews to fifteen employees who used this service, being thirteen part of the multidisciplinary team of professionals and two graduation professors of health care area, nursing and medicine. The stories collected were organized according to the technique chosen, respecting its steps. In preparing the body subjected to ALCESTE computer program, priority was given to the vital tone for the formation of categories and classes elected by the program, structured in three thematic areas. In the first axis, called Trajectory of HDEN, were recalled the beginning of its activities, the steps of that time, their activities, and its actors - users, families, professionals, and teaching practices. The second axis has dealt with the process of extinction of HDEN, rescuing the feelings of employees, the main reasons given at the time and immediate postextinction scenario. And the third axis revealed in an articulated form the situation of mental health in Natal / RN, listing to the challenges and prospects for the psychosocial care, starting from the trajectory of HDEN with emphasis on activities. Moreover, the trajectory of HDEN provides recognition of the historical basis outlined in the constitution of the network of substitute services present in the current scenario of psychosocial care in the city of Natal and in RN.

Reinternações psiquiátricas no Rio Grande do Norte: implicações e impacto das novas estratégias de atenção à saúde mental

The Brazilian Psychiatric Reform based on the desinstitucionalization of the assistance, translated to the emphasis on community/territorial treatment and in the social inclusion of the mental suffering, promoted advances in the psychiatric restructuring. In the Rio Grande do Norte (RN), we can enumerate as advances of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform the expansion of the mental health care chain and the implementation of some strategies that, together, aims to further the psychosocial attention of the individual with psych suffering and to reduce the indices of psychiatrics readmissions in the state. In the current Brazilian‟s mental health situation we were interesting in answered the following question: what the impact of the substitutes services‟ extension in the revolving door phenomenon? This search aims to analyze the revolving door phenomenon occurrences based on the news strategies of mental health care in the Rio Grande do Norte. This is a descriptive-exploratory study with a qualitative approach, oriented by the theoretical framework of critical-dialectical approach about the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform and using the thematic oral history as method of information collects. The search was realized on the Hospital João Machado (HJM), estate reference in psychiatric treatment, and the participants was 20 professionals that work on it. The collection of information had started after the approval of the UFRN Research Ethics Committee with the opinion number 216/2011 and CAAE number 0021.0.051.000-11 and was realized using the direct observation and semi-structured interview. The study‟s results were categorized in two categories and five subcategories of analysis. CATEGORY 1) Current situation of the mental health care chain in the RN, with the subcategories: 1.1 Impact of the new services of mental health care in the revolving door phenomenon in the RN; 1.2 Implications of the new services of mental health care in assisting user to the HJM; 1.3 Issues the permeate the mental health care chain in the RN. CATEORY 2) Main causes of the revolving door phenomenon in HJM, with the categories: 2.1 Family problems; 2.2 Lack of assistance after discharge from psychiatric hospital. In summary, we conclude that the extension of the mental health care chain contributed for the reduction of the psychiatrics re-hospitalization‟s indices in RN. However, we realized that territorial services of mental health care are not the only responsible for the revolving door phenomenon. Factors as family problems and the disarticulation of the assistance after the discharge from hospital influence on the perpetuation of hospitalizations and re-hospitalizations in the local scenario. To study the revolving door phenomenon that occur in the psychiatrics‟ assistance considering the news strategies of mental health care allowed us to approach the advances and challenges brought by the RPb and by the desinstitucionatization in the state, indicating the need for further discussions and problem-solving strategies of psychosocial care.

Participação e ação política dos psicólogos frente à política de saúde mental no Piauí

It is intended to problematize forms of participation and political action of psychologists toward mental health policy in Piauí. The study was motivated through challenges faced by the local Psychiatric Reform movement, and the one underway in the country, which needs support technical-assistence and sociopolitical to guarantee accomplishments and to move on with the complete reversion of the asylum to psychosocial model. The method was based on institutional analysis and counted with three insertion moments for the field research: a) to identify historical and political events that configure the local Psychiatric Reform (documental research/oral memory) and to identify psychologists that act in Mental Health; b) to realize participant observation and semi-structured interview with 33 psychologists which act in Mental Health in Teresina; c) to follow the sociopolitical contexts/events of the local Psychiatric Reform (participant observation and conversation circles). The data were analyzed considering four discussion axes, achieved through categorization of the collected material: 1) ways of professional insertion of psychologists in mental health; 2) knowledge and practices used to act in this work context of the profession; 3) political professional movements of workers of the reformist local process; 4) political action of psychologists toward the course of Piauí mental health policy. We concluded identifying that the participation of psychologists in Piauí mental health finds strength by the conduction of its macro and micropolitical professional action. The first one follows oriented by the lemma of social commitment, despite this movement doesn t have equivalence in the transformation of practices and political-professional postures of psychologists in the daily of services. The second is constituted in the every day of work, standing to the political action of the profession implicated with the preservation of the classic modus operandi of being psychologist. Therefore, it is about the actions that give little sustainability technicalassistance to the Psychiatric Reform underway in the State, and why not say in the country

Gestão pública em saúde mental: um estudo em CAPS com gerência pública e privada do Rio Grande Do Norte

Currently, several models of management services from the public administration are in operation in Brazil following a global trend. Besides the traditional public management operated in SUS, there are ongoing experiments of privately management in the public health services. Accordingly, we have developed an investigation into two Psychosocial Care Centers operating between these two forms of financial resources management: the first is the CAPS II - PAR situated in the municipality of Parnamirim whose form is private and the second is the CAPS II West Christmas is that the municipal government. We seek to know the workings of services, planning forms and criteria for use of financial resources, identify differences between departments on ways to run and see how technicians and users participate in the planning and management of these resources. Documentary Research was conducted by the municipal Christmas and the financial administration of the CAPS service in Parnamirim. Were conducted an interview with manager (mental health coordinator of Natal) and another interview with an employee of planning department in the Health Department of Natal, an interview with the coordinator and financial administrator of CAPS - PAR and two groups of discussion taped conversation with semi structured script interviews with six technicians in CAPS PAR and six professionals crowded in CAPS - West.Differences were observed in the management of resources funded from four blocks of discussion and analysis of results, where the privately-run service for the direct management and bureaucracy without being discussed and planned spending on staff, as well as through meetings with users, the use of the financial resources available in box; already in service with municipal public administration there is a hierarchy, this answering the coordination of mental health and the local health department that centralizes resources and defines their spending. There are meetings with patients and families, but the demands are limited as to what can be sued because of the manager s authorization. Such differentiation would be related to differences in the articulation of public management with the different types of possible management in public services, where from the implementation of new public administration in the Brazilian s State Management Reform initiated in the second half of the 1990s, benefit management services with private regime, with autonomy and direct transfer of resources

Qualidade de vida e saúde física e mental de médicos: uma autoavaliação por egressos da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu - UNESP

OBJETIVO: O presente artigo teve como objetivo analisar resultados de autoavaliações em termos de qualidade de vida (QV), saúde física (SF) e saúde mental (SM) realizadas por ex-alunos do curso de medicina de uma universidade pública brasileira, associando-se tais indicadores a dados demográficos e diversas dimensões da atuação profissional. MÉTODOS: estudo de corte transversal que teve como população-alvo todos os egressos da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu (UNESP) no período de 1968 a 2005, utilizando-se um questionário autoaplicável, respondido por correio ou internet. RESULTADOS: Dos 2.864 questionários enviados, 1.224 (45%) foram respondidos. Tanto a QV como SF e SM foram avaliadas como boa ou muito boa por 67,8%, 78,8% e 84,5% dos participantes, respectivamente. Nos modelos finais de regressão logística, associaram-se a avaliação favorável de QV: ter boa SF e SM, frequentar congressos regulamente, ter tempo suficiente de lazer e estar satisfeito com a profissão. SF boa ou muito boa associou-se independentemente com QV e SM positivas, faixa de renda mais alta, prática regular de atividades físicas e nunca ter fumado. SM favorável permaneceu associada com satisfação profissional, tempo para lazer, e boa avaliação da QV e da SF. CONCLUSÕES: Entre os médicos egressos da UNESP, SF e SM foram aspectos indissociáveis e também relacionados à QV. Bons hábitos, como praticar atividades físicas, ter tempo para lazer e não fumar foram associados à melhor avaliação da saúde em geral e devem ser incentivados. A satisfação profissional teve um peso importante no bem-estar emocional relatado pelos participantes.

Prevention of mental ill-health and suicide: Public health perspectives

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates for the year 2020, approximately 1.5 million people will commit suicide, and at least 10 times that many will make an attempt. This paper offers a brief overview of the current state of the epidemiology of suicide, a burgeoning public health problem. The information provided is based in large measure on reports of suicide mortality from 130/193 countries. In order to contextualize these data, this paper explores the contribution of both individual and sociocultural factors that influence suicidal behavior, from which much has been learned. Outlining the history of attempts by international and national organizations like WHO, United Nations, member states in the European community and other countries to regularize identification and suicide reporting procedures, this paper also demonstrates that serious knowledge gaps remain. Minimal requirements for successful evidence-based interventions are presented. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.