Shame, Dissociation, and Complex PTSD Symptoms in Traumatized Psychiatric and Control Groups: Direct and Indirect Associations With Relationship Distress

Objectives: Elevated shame and dissociation are common in dissociative identity disorder (DID) and chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and are part of the constellation of symptoms defined as complex PTSD. Previous work examined the relationship between shame, dissociation, and complex PTSD and whether they are associated with intimate relationship anxiety, relationship depression, and fear of relationships. This study investigated these variables in traumatized clinical samples and a nonclinical community group.

Method: Participants were drawn from the DID (n = 20), conflict-related chronic PTSD (n = 65), and nonclinical (n = 125) populations and completed questionnaires assessing the variables of interest. A model examining the direct impact of shame and dissociation on relationship functioning, and their indirect effect via complex PTSD symptoms, was tested through path analysis.

Results: The DID sample reported significantly higher dissociation, shame, complex PTSD symptom severity, relationship anxiety, relationship depression, and fear of relationships than the other two samples. Support was found for the proposed model, with shame directly affecting relationship anxiety and fear of relationships, and pathological dissociation directly affecting relationship anxiety and relationship depression. The indirect effect of shame and dissociation via complex PTSD symptom severity was evident on all relationship variables.

Conclusion: Shame and pathological dissociation are important for not only the effect they have on the development of other complex PTSD symptoms, but also their direct and indirect effects on distress associated with relationships.

Do Individual Differences in Emotion Regulation Mediate the Relationship Between Mental Toughness and Symptoms of Depression?

Mental Toughness (MT) provides crucial psychological capacities for achievement in sports,
education, and work settings. Previous research examined the role of MT in the domain of
mental health and showed that MT is negatively associated with and predictive of fewer
depressive symptoms in non-clinical populations. The present study aimed at 1) investigating
to what extent mentally tough individuals use two emotion regulation strategies: cognitive
reappraisal and expressive suppression; 2) exploring whether individual differences in
emotion regulation strategy use mediate the relationship between MT and depressive
symptoms. Three hundred sixty-four participants (M = 24.31 years, SD = 9.16) provided
self-reports of their levels of MT, depressive symptoms, and their habitual use of cognitive
reappraisal and expressive suppression. The results showed a statistically significant
correlation between MT and two commonly used measures of depressive symptoms. A small
statistically significant positive correlation between MT and the habitual use of cognitive
reappraisal was also observed. The correlation between MT and the habitual use of
expressive suppression was statistically significant, but the size of the effect was small. A
statistical mediation model indicated that individual differences in the habitual use of
expressive suppression mediate the relationship between MT and depressive symptoms. No
such effect was found for the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal. Implications of these
findings and possible avenues for future research are discussed.

Quantification of upper limb motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease using a smartphone

Panda

Clinical Psychologists Training and Supervising IAPT Therapists to Work with Long-term Conditions and Medically Unexplained Symptoms: A Service Development Project

An IAPT service and a clinical health psychology team piloted a service development providing Step 2 and Step 3 services for individuals with long-term health conditions. Results indicate that such services may be offered with access to specialist training and supervision.

A review of Parkinson’s disease cardinal and dyskinetic motor symptoms assessment methods using sensor systems

This paper is reviewing objective assessments of Parkinson’s disease(PD) motor symptoms, cardinal, and dyskinesia, using sensor systems. It surveys the manifestation of PD symptoms, sensors that were used for their detection, types of signals (measures) as well as their signal processing (data analysis) methods. A summary of this review’s finding is represented in a table including devices (sensors), measures and methods that were used in each reviewed motor symptom assessment study. In the gathered studies among sensors, accelerometers and touch screen devices are the most widely used to detect PD symptoms and among symptoms, bradykinesia and tremor were found to be mostly evaluated. In general, machine learning methods are potentially promising for this. PD is a complex disease that requires continuous monitoring and multidimensional symptom analysis. Combining existing technologies to develop new sensor platforms may assist in assessing the overall symptom profile more accurately to develop useful tools towards supporting better treatment process.

Symptoms of Poststroke Depression among Stroke Survivors: An Appraisal of Psychiatry Needs and Care during Physiotherapy Rehabilitation

Purpose. To identify stroke survivors with symptoms of poststroke depression and the extent of psychiatry needs and care they have received while on physiotherapy rehabilitation. Participants. Fifty stroke survivors (22 females and 28 males) at the outpatient unit of Physiotherapy Department, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, who gave their informed consent, were randomly selected. Their age range and mean age were 26–66 years and 54.76 ± 8.79 years, respectively. Method. A multiple case study of 50 stroke survivors for symptoms of poststroke depression was done with Beck’s Depression Inventory, mini mental status examination tool, and Modified Motor Assessment Scale. The tests were performed independently by the participants except otherwise stated and scored on a scale of 0–6. Data were analyzed using -test for proportional significance and chi-square test for determining relationship between variables, at p < 0.05. Results. Twenty-one (42.0%) stroke survivors had symptoms of PSD, which was significantly dependent on duration of stroke ( = 21.680, df = 6, and p = 0.001), yet none of the participants had a psychiatry review. Conclusions. Symptoms of PSD may be common in cold compared to new cases of stroke and may need psychiatry care while on physiotherapy rehabilitation.

Large-scale Roll Out of Online Prospective Measurement of Mood Symptoms in Affective Disorders

Background and Aims: True Colours is an online prospective mood-monitoring system developed at the University of Oxford to assist local patients and clinicians with monitoring course of illness in bipolar disorder. We report our initial experiences of using True Colours for research purposes in the Bipolar Disorder Research Network (BDRN; www.bdrn.org), a large research network of individuals with mood disorders spread throughout the UK. Methods: After initial piloting to ensure the practicality/acceptability of using True Colours within BDRN, we invited all BDRN participants (n = 7000) to participate in weekly True Colours ratings via three postal invitations sent over an 8-month period. Results: Following the three postal invitations, 915 individuals have so far expressed an interest in joining True Colours, and, of these, 662 (72.3%) have registered. 32 of those who registered for True Colours (5%) have so far asked to leave the system. Positive feedback from participants has focused around the ease of use and convenience of True Colours and potential clinical utility of the graphical representation of weekly mood scores. Conclusions: We have demonstrated that large-scale prospective mood monitoring for research purposes using a contemporary online approach is feasible. Challenges have included: (i) variation in participants’ technological ability; (ii) management of requests for clinical advice based on mood scores within a research setting; and, (iii) resources required to provide access and on-going support for participants using True Colours. We continue to expand recruitment to True Colours within BDRN, and plan to trial email invitations in the next phase of recruitment.

Development of Effortful Control as a Moderator of the Longitudinal Relations of Negative Reactivity and Symptoms in Preschool

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

The Effect of Dietary Tartrazine on Brain Dopamine and the Behavioral Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder correlated with a decrease in brain dopamine and an increase in behavioral symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity. This experiment explored how tartrazine (Yellow #5) impacts these symptoms. After tartrazine administration to Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHR), dopamine concentrations in regions of brain tissue were measured using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay analysis. Behavioral testing with a T-maze and open field test measured impulsivity and hyperactivity, respectively. Results indicate that dietary tartrazine increases hyperactive behaviors in the SHR. However, results do not indicate a relationship between dietary tartrazine and brain dopamine. No conclusions regarding the relationship between dietary tartrazine and impulsivity were drawn.

Childhood Attention Problems and the Development of Comorbid Symptoms at the Transition to High School: The Mediating Role of Parent and Peer Relationships

Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for the development of depression and delinquent behavior. Children and adolescents with ADHD also experience difficulty creating/maintaining high quality friendships and parent-child relationships, and these difficulties may contribute to the development of co-morbid internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescence. However, there is limited research examining whether high quality friendships and parent-child relationships mediate the relation between ADHD and the emergence of these co-morbid symptoms at the transition to high school. This study examines the mediating role of relationship quality in the association between ADHD and depressive symptoms/delinquent behaviors at this developmentally significant transition point. Results revealed significant indirect effects of grade 6 attention problems on grade 9 depressive symptoms through friendship quality and quality of the mother-child relationship in grade 8. Interventions targeting parent and peer relationships may be valuable for youth with ADHD to promote successful transitions to high school.

Social Cognition, Negative Symptoms and Psychosocial Functioning in Schizophrenia.

Although functional recovery could be advocated as an achievable treatment goal, many effective interventions for the treatment of psychotic symptoms, such as antipsychotic drugs, may not improve functioning. The last two decades of cognitive and clinical research on schizophrenia were a turning point for the firm acknowledgment of how relevant social cognitive deficits and negative symptoms could be in predicting psychosocial functioning. The relevance of social cognition dysfunction in schizophrenia patients’ daily living is now unabated. In fact, social cognition deficits could be the most significant predictor of functionality in patients with schizophrenia, non-redundantly with neurocognition. Emerging evidence suggests that negative symptoms appear to play an indirect role, mediating the relationship between neurocognition and social cognition with functional outcomes. Further explorations of this mediating role of negative symptoms have revealed that motivational deficits appear to be particularly important in explaining the relationship between both neurocognitive and social cognitive dysfunction and functional outcomes in schizophrenia. In this paper we will address the relative contribution of two key constructs—social cognitive deficits and negative symptoms, namely how intertwined they could be in daily life functioning of patients with schizophrenia.

Psychiatric manifestations of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease simulate depressive disorder with psychotic symptoms

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder with a broad spectrum of early clinical manifestations, comprising neurological and psychiatric symptoms. The authors report the case of a patient admitted with a diagnosis of depressive disorder with psychotic symptoms, with post-mortem confirmation of CJD and discuss how CJD’s clinical heterogeneity can lead to misdiagnosis of the disease. Despite CJD’s unique pathogenesis, its kaleidoscopic presentation justifies the integrated investigation of patients with psychiatric symptoms, avoiding restrictive diagnosis.