A Pilot Study of Emotion Regulation Strategies in a Psychodrama Group of Psychiatric Patients

The researcher analyzed two emotion regulation strategies in a group of adults attending psychodrama psychotherapeutic group at an outpatient psychiatric clinic. The subjects, nine men and 15 women between the ages of 19 and 63 (with 14 subjects in young and 10 in middle adulthood) self-assessed their use of reappraisal and suppression using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire at the beginning of their treatment and at its end. They use reappraisal rarely to sometimes, regardless of their age, gender, and diagnosis. In the first assessment, the participants in middle adulthood and men reported using suppression more than young adults and women. During treatment, middle-aged adults and men succeeded to decrease their use of suppression significantly more than the young adults and women.     

The Imaginary Lovers Delusion: A Diagnostic Case Study

A patient who believed that two imposters were posing as her and her ex-fiance was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic with the aid of the Rorschach, DAP and Hand Test. Projective tests not only accurately reflected various elements of the girl's psychopathology but also revealed certain voyeuristic tendencies which appeared to be related to the projection of a double. The delusion was tentatively classified as a variation of Capgras' syndrome.     

Written Exposure Therapy for Suicide in a Psychiatric Inpatient Unit: A Case Series

Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at an elevated risk of suicide. For patients hospitalized for suicide risk, psychosocial treatment and stabilization are routinely offered; however, the availability of evidence-based, manualized therapeutic interventions for PTSD is sparse. Typically, the short duration of hospitalization makes it difficult to accommodate evidence-based, trauma-focused treatments. This article presents the clinical course of four active-duty service members with PTSD who were hospitalized in a psychiatric inpatient unit for acute suicide risk and treated with Written Exposure Therapy for Suicide (WET-S). WET-S is a brief, five-session therapy based upon Written Exposure Therapy and augmented with Crisis Response Planning for Suicide Prevention. Both posttraumatic stress symptoms and suicidal ideation were reduced from pre- to posttreatment for three of the four patients treated. WET-S shows promise as a manualized therapeutic intervention that can be delivered on an inpatient psychiatric unit.     

A Case Study of Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Within a Varsity Volleyball Team

This study used an instrumental case study approach to investigate the ways teammates within a female varsity volleyball team regulated one another's emotions, the factors that were perceived to influence interpersonal emotion regulation (IER), and athletes' preferences for regulating their own and others' emotions. Fourteen athletes participated in semistructured interviews and reported using a variety of emotion-improving and emotion-worsening IER strategies, in addition to occasionally choosing not to engage in IER, and several factors were found to influence IER (e.g., athletes' roles and interpersonal factors). This study has theoretical implications and applied implications for athletes, coaches, and sport psychology consultants.     

A Study of Battered Women in a Psychiatric Setting

No abstract available for this article.     

Alcohol Intoxication Impairs Memory and Increases Suggestibility for a Mock Crime: A Field Study

Defendants and witnesses are often intoxicated by alcohol. We investigated whether memory and resistance to suggestive cues are undermined at blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) that were (close to) zero (M_BAC = 0.01%), moderate (M_BAC = 0.06%), or high (M_BAC = 0.16%). Participants (N = 67) were approached in bars and instructed to commit a mock crime. Immediately after this, their memory and susceptibility to suggestive questions were tested, and these were re‐tested during a sober follow‐up 3–5 days later. Compared with sober participants, moderate and severe intoxication was associated with lower levels of correctly recalled crime details during both test sessions (i.e. intoxicated and sober). Also, during both sessions, severely intoxicated participants displayed a greater tendency to go along with suggestive cues compared with sober participants. Thus, intoxication impaired memory and increased suggestibility during an immediate interview, and both effects persisted when sober again. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Teaching Psychiatric Patients: A Psychoanalytic Study

This paper attempts to describe some of the challenges of teaching psychiatric patients within a hospital environment. It uses post-Kleinian ideas to look at the unconscious processes at work within the learning/teaching dynamic and observes the psychotic mind's unique approach to learning. The central hypothesis of the paper is that psychoanalytic reflection of educational processes within a psychiatric institution is of clear benefit to both teacher and learner, and can also forestall several of the more problematic or even harmful outcomes of the increasing trend to ‘educate’ the patient.     

Integration of Test Results with Clinical Observations A Diagnostic Case Study

In this study, we aimed to investigate the application of an externally rated measure of interpersonal representations (Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale [SCORS]; Westen, 1995) to dream narratives. A total of 80 student participants enrolled at a private university in the New York City metropolitan area completed a Dream Log and affect adjective checklist (Wellman, 2002) based on a recalled dream at both 1 month and 3 months following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Using the dreams provided in this study we examined the interrater reliability of SCORS ratings, the relationship of SCORS variables to an independently rated measure of dream distortion, and the relationship of SCORS variables to participants' own ratings of dream affect. Results indicated that dreams were reliably rated using the SCORS, 3 cognitive SCORS variables were significantly related to dream distortion, and affective SCORS variables were meaningfully related to participants' own ratings of affect in their dreams. Findings from this study provide support for the application of SCORS ratings to dream narratives. We discuss implications for further research and clinical application.     

Evaluation of Symptoms and Alexithymia in Psychiatric Patients: A Naturalistic Longitudinal Study in a Day Hospital

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a time-limited (10 months), combined individual and group treatment in a Day Hospital (DH) setting. Participants (N = 73) completed measures of general symptoms and alexithymia. We hypothesized improvements in these symptoms at the end of the overall therapeutic treatment. Results showed significant improvement in ability to identify and describe emotions and feelings, and in general symptoms. Differences in age and personality disorders were found at the end of the treatment: younger patients had less difficulty in identifying emotions, and psychotic patients have higher difficulty to describe feelings compared to patients with personality disorders. Furthermore, patients with schizophrenia had lower pathological symptoms compared to patients with mood disorders. This naturalistic longitudinal study demonstrates that DH treatments in group setting increase the patient‘s ability to symbolize and to connect their symptoms to thought and emotions.     

Paranormal Experience in a Medico-Swimming Rescue: A Case Study

This study looks at the case of a 20-year-old fisherman, who was speared in the head, the spear entering at his jaw and protruding from the top of his scull, while he was swimming unaccompanied; he was rescued, admitted to the intensive care unit for an operation, remained in a coma for a few days and then had a full recovery. About 10 days before the rescue, he had visited a monk who, intuited and functioning as channel of the divine spirit, had told him that he ‘should not be afraid of anything’, rubbing the top of his scull and his jaw exactly at the points through which the 40-inch spear passed. After the incident, the monk prescience again the exact day on which he would recover from the coma. It is concluded that the survival of the fisherman can be attributed to a paranormal event. The monk’s prescience permit the assumption that a divine spirit was pervasive throughout the universe and present in this life-threatening situation, endeavouring to assist the lifeguard, the neurosurgeons and the young fisherman.     

Generalization: A Practice of Situated Categorization in Talk

This paper analyzes four instances in talk of generalization about people, that is, of using statements about one or more people as the basis of stating something about a category. Generalization can be seen as a categorization practice which involves a reflexive relationship between the generalized-from person or people and the generalized-to category. One thing that is accomplished through generalization is instruction in how to understand the identity of the generalized-from person or people, so in addition to being understood as a practice of categorization, generalization can also be understood as a practice of identification. Somewhat incidentally, this paper also illustrates the importance of certain methodological issues related to membership categorization analysis and contributes to the growing body of work that connects membership categorization analysis with sequential conversation analysis.     

Asylum Seekers in Europe: Issues and Solutions

The recent exceptional migratory surge has put huge pressure on many countries of the developed world. The Member States of the European Union are still striving to find a sustainable solution to the ongoing massive asylum crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from wars, authoritarian regimes, and poverty in the Middle East and North Africa. Really, the recent asylum crisis is essentially a policy asylum crisis, which places under pressure a limited number of Member States. The research provides a diagnosis of what went wrong, by highlighting the weakness of mechanisms for implementing the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility. To overcome some drawbacks of the European asylum system, the research suggests a novel and constructive solution, which could promote common values and interests in a viable way. Due to its geographic location and expertise, Italy could play a central role in supporting the EU asylum system, by facilitating substantial cooperation and policy integration.     

Effectiveness of Group Music Therapy in a Psychiatric Hospital: A Randomized Pilot Study of Treatment Outcome

Individuals receiving inpatient psychiatric care (n = 32) were randomized to receive either brief music therapy or group therapy that constitutes the current standard of care (SOC), and completed measures of depression, mood, quality of life (QOL), and hope pre- and post-intervention. Group dynamics were evaluated by the therapists. Results indicate that significantly more patients in the music therapy group showed an increase in QOL than those in the SOC group. Regarding group dynamics, the music groups scored significantly higher on conflict and significantly lower on avoidance. Results of this study suggest that group music therapy in inpatient psychiatric settings may be as effective as SOC groups, more effective at impacting QOL, and more effective for particular diagnostic populations. Further research is needed to fully understand the impact of music therapy in this setting.     

Conservatism in Metaethics: A Case Study

Metaethicists typically develop and assess their theories—in part—on the basis of the consistency of those theories with “ordinary” first‐order normative judgment. They are, in this sense, “methodologically conservative.” This article shows that this methodologically conservative approach obstructs a proper assessment of the debate between internalists and externalists. Specifically, it obstructs one of the most promising readings of internalism. This is a reading—owed to Bernard Williams—in which internalism is part of a practically and politically motivated revision of the assessment of action. The article uses this case study to highlight the role of methodological conservatism in contemporary metaethics more generally.     

How Children Learn the Ins and Outs: A Training Study of Toddlers' Categorization of Animals

Young children are able to categorize animals on the basis of unobservable features such as shared biological properties (e.g., bones). For the most part, children learn about these properties through explicit verbalizations from others. The present study examined how such input impacts children's learning about the properties of categories. In a training study with thirty-six 2.5-year-olds (M_age = 2;9), we tested the prediction that a relatively small amount of input highlighting the importance of unobservable properties would lead to a gradual shift in children's use of these properties for categorization. Children with no initial categorization bias were trained to categorize either on the basis of shared unobservable properties or shared observable properties. During 3 days of training, children gradually developed a categorization bias in the direction of the property type for which they received training and sustained this bias more than a week after training. Also, a set of children who exhibited an initial perceptual bias showed an abrupt change in how they categorized after only 1 training session.     

Creativity in Biology: A Major Case and a Minor Case

Sydney Brenner and Francois Jacob's discovery of messenger RNA—which carries the information for making protein from the DNA to the ribosomes—shows how creativity requires a variety of skills and the ability to integrate a considerable amount of knowledge. Most important was the correct formulation of the problem. Not only did the discovery require a theoretical understanding, but also considerable experimental skills. It provides an example of sudden illumination. The concept of positional information in relation to the development of pattern during embryonic development is another example of a change in paradigm in cell biology from metabolism to information. It was based on the aesthetic conviction that there must be general mechanisms for converting genetic information into spatial pattern.     

The Use of Psychoeducation for a Patient with Hepatitis C and Psychiatric Illness in Preparation for Antiviral Therapy: A Case Report and Discussion

The standard of care treatment for chronic hepatitis C viral infection (HCV) is a combination of pegylated interferon alfa and ribavirin for 24-48?weeks according to the virus genotype. This therapy is known to have multiple neuropsychiatric side effects. A major concern when evaluating a patient for HCV treatment with a known history of a psychiatric disorder is the risk that the patient's psychiatric disorder will flare or become unmanageable. The possibility of precipitating depression, confusion, mania, psychosis, hallucinations, or suicidal ideation or attempt is frequently an obstacle to treatment. We present the case of a 50?year-old man with HCV and an extensive psychiatric history involving alcoholism, depression, and suicidality who participated in a psychoeducation group to help prepare him for treatment with pegylated interferon alfa/ribavirin therapy. Though the patient derived much benefit from the psychoeducation group, by the time of evaluation for HCV treatment two months after the group ended he had relapsed back into a depressive episode with suicidal thoughts. His acute psychiatric status made him unacceptable for pegylated interferon alfa/ribavirin therapy. Psychoeducation groups show promise for helping patients with chronic medical illness to be ready for and endure intensive medical treatment that has substantial psychiatric side effects. The challenge is to help patients overcome barriers to treatment, particularly psychosocial problems, because available treatments are increasingly effective.