Fibromyalgie und Leistungseinschränkung

Interdisciplinary guidelines allowed for new quality standards in pain appraisal. Simultaneously, the scientific notion of fibromyalgia changed from a subjectively overvalued malaise to a central disturbance of coping with stress, which is neurobiologically determined. Therefore, in this article a psychosomatics-based guide is given for the socio-medical appraisal of fibromyalgia with reference to the new International Classification for Functioning and Disability (ICF) of the World Health Organization (WHO). As illustration a case study is presented.     

Diagnostic Discrimination of Patients with Different OCD Main Symptom Domains from each Other and from Anxious and Depressive Controls

The extent to which the subscales of multidimensional OCD measures accurately distinguish patients with specific OCD main symptom domains from controls at different cutscores has not yet been examined. Diagnostic accuracy of OCD measures usually is determined by comparing the total scores of heterogeneous OCD samples and controls and therefore may underestimate the measures’ discrimination potential. In the current study, subtype-specific diagnostic accuracy and criterion-related validity of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) subscales were examined in 327 patients with OCD, anxiety, and/or depressive disorders. All subscales demonstrated good to excellent criterion-related validity and diagnostic accuracy for distinguishing patients with specific OCD main symptom domains from controls. As expected, the single OCI-R subscales lead to more accurate diagnostic decisions than the total scale. Thus, the subscale-specific cutscores significantly improve the OCI-R’s utility for subtype-specific treatment planning and outcome measurement. Furthermore, an alternative classification algorithm distinguishing patients with OCD from controls based on subscale cutscores leads to a better sensitivity, but also to a lower specificity than discrimination based on the total scale cutscore.     

Cannabiskonsum und -missbrauch bei Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen

After a long time of growth current studies on representative samples of adolescents indicate that the number of adolescent cannabis users in Germany is possibly decreasing. However, it may be presumptuous to expect a similar trend concerning the number of clients with cannabis-related disorders. Even if there is in fact a downward trend which is not yet proven, the rapidly growing number of clients presenting with these disorders in recent years cannot be explained by a similar growth in the number of regular cannabis users. Treatment centres should therefore expect a further inreasing number of especially male adolescents and young adults seeking help for problems related to cannabis use. The development, evaluation and implementation of specific treatment options concerning cannabis use disorders will be increasingly needed in the future. Cognitive-behavioral and motivational interventions have been shown to be evidence-based treatments. The paper describes some promising or already successful treatment approaches and related research projects in Germany.     

Goethes Studienkrise, Depression und seine Selbstbehandlungsstrategien

From a present day diagnostic viewpoint Goethe suffered from several episodes of depression beginning with his study crisis. In addition he wrote that he had a tendency towards dysthymic moods. In terms of modern psychotherapeutic procedures the various levels of Goethe’s self-therapy strategies are remarkable: acceptance of helpful bonding and relationships, correction of dysfunctional behavior and modification of pathogenic conceptions and beliefs as well as remembrance, enactment and mentalization of psychodynamic conflicts. Finally at an existential level his salutogenic strategies served to invoke a sence of coherence often threatened in his life. Anxieties, dysthymic moods, lack of self-esteem and existential conflicts were for him not only the reason and motive for realization of his extraordinary artistic potential. For modern psychotherapists and patients it is interesting that the acceptance of dysthymic moods and psychological conflicts and the transformation through relationships, cognitive behavior-oriented and psychodynamic strategies as well as an existential self-effective striving also lead to everyday creativity, i.e. coping with life.     

The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20): A measure of general psychological distress

The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (Bagby, R. M., Parker, J. D. A., & Taylor, G. J. (1994). The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale-I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38, 23–32.) is the most commonly used measure of Alexithymia (= difficulties identifying and describing one’s own feelings). Sixty-three persons (34 psychiatric inpatients, 29 healthy controls) first filled in the TAS-20 and were then interviewed about their interpersonal relationships. Two raters coded the emotional experiences that the participants reported during these interviews. Contrary to expectations, participants with higher TAS-20 scores reported more emotions (particularly negative ones), and more different emotions, questioning the validity of the TAS-20 as a measure of Alexithymia. Based on correlation patterns and a joint factor analysis with two well-established measures of psychopathology, it is concluded that the TAS-20 assesses a general psychological distress factor.     

Go no-go performance under psychosocial stress: beneficial effects of implementation intentions

Acute stress has been found to have negative and implementation intentions (IIs) to have positive effects on cognitive performance. This study was the first to examine the effects of IIs on executive action control under acute psychosocial stress. Forty-two male subjects aged 21-39 years were randomly assigned to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) versus a rest condition. In addition, the instruction to the executive task (a go no-go task) was manipulated (IIs versus standard instruction). After the stress test, a dual-task procedure including a go no-go task was conducted. The TSST resulted in increases in cortisol response, heart rate and state anxiety compared to the rest condition. Acute stress significantly impaired go no-go performance, but only in the group without IIs. We conclude that under acute stress conditions executive functioning is reduced, but the use of IIs can be an effective strategy to overcome this negative effect.     

How to make your own response boxes: A step-by-step guide for the construction of reliable and inexpensive parallel-port response pads from computer mice

Psychological research is based in large parts on response latencies, which are often registered by keypresses on a standard computer keyboard. Recording response latencies with a standard keyboard is problematic because keypresses are buffered within the keyboard hardware before they are signaled to the computer, adding error variance to the recorded latencies. This can be circumvented by using external response pads connected to the computer's parallel port. In this article, we describe how to build inexpensive, reliable, and easy-to-use response pads with six keys from two standard computer mice that can be connected to the PC's parallel port. We also address the problem of recording data from the parallel port with different software packages under Microsoft's Windows XP.     

On the expression and experience of surprise: no evidence for facial feedback, but evidence for a reverse self-inference effect

Three studies examined the effects of experimentally manipulated surprise expressions on the experience of surprise. Surprise was induced by a sudden, unannounced change of the stimulus presentation during a computerized task. Facial expression was manipulated by leading participants to adopt an expression akin to surprise, or by forcing them to look up steeply to a monitor. The expression manipulations had no intensifying effect on the experience of surprise, whereas manipulations of unexpectedness and mental load had strong effects. In addition, mental load was found to affect beliefs about facial expression, suggesting that the participants used their feelings of surprise to infer their probable facial displays. Path analyses supported this reverse self-inference hypothesis.     

Decomposition of multivariate utility functions in non-additive expected utility theory

In expected utility many results have been derived that give necessary and/or sufficient conditions for a multivariate utility function to be decomposable into lower-dimensional functions. In particular, multilinear, multiplicative and additive decompositions have been widely discussed. These utility functions can be more easily assessed in practical situations. In this paper we present a theory of decomposition in the context of nonadditive expected utility such as anticipated utility or Choquet expected utility. We show that many of the results used in conventional expected utility carry over to these more general frameworks. If preferences over lotteries depend only on the marginal probability distributions, then in expected utility the utility function is additively decomposable. We show that in anticipated utility the marginality condition implies not only that the utility function is additively decomposable but also that the distortion function is the identity function. We further demonstrate that a decision maker who is bivariate risk neutral has a utility function that is additively decomposable and a distortion function q for which q(½) = ½.     

On the Role of Fragmentary Knowledge in a Sequence Learning Task

There has been considerable debate about whether or not we need to distinguish between the acquisition of implicit-and, independently thereof, the acquisition of explicit-knowledge in sequence learning tasks. Proponents of the view that a unitary knowledge base is formed assume (a) that the knowledge acquired is explicitly available, and (b) that information about sequence fragments forms the core of this explicit knowledge. Both of these issues are addressed empirically in the present article. In two experiments, an adapted process dissociation procedure and a suitable measurement model were used to separate recollective (explicit) and fluency-based (implicit) memory processes in a sequence learning task. Experiment 1 demonstrated that fluency-based processes came into play much later than recollective processes. Such recollective processes have been conceptualized as being based on simple knowledge about sequence fragments or chunks. Indeed, Experiment 2 showed that recollective processes are more likely to contribute to sequence judgements if chunks are readily available at test than if they are not. Together, these results are in line with the view that the learning of an event systematicity can be conceived of as the memorization of chunks of events that support both the speedingup of reaction times to systematic events and explicit, recollective memory processes even after relatively little training.