Adolescents' Misperceptions of the Dangerousness of Acetaminophen in Overdose

Clinical observations suggest that adolescents commonly and naively use acetaminophen in suicide attempts even when they do not wish to die. It is estimated that 18 500-mg acetaminophen tablets can lead to hepatotoxicity, while death is usually associated with ingestion of 50 or more tablets. A sample comprising 569 adolescent students completed an author-designed survey assessing teenagers' knowledge of acetaminophen's therapeutic and harmful effects. The findings support our original data that adolescents have ready access to acetaminophen and use it in suicide attempts, but underestimate its potential for toxicity. Forty-two percent of this sample underestimated the dose to cause harm, believing it would require 20 or more tablets, and 50% underestimated the dose to cause death, stating 100 or more pills would be necessary. Adolescents appear to seriously underestimate the dangerousness of acetaminophen in overdose, and lack knowledge regarding side effects of overdose.     

Ziprasidone as an augmenting agent in the treatment of anxiety-spectrum disorders

Anxiety disorders are currently one of the most common health concerns in the United States. Overall, they are the single largest cost to the healthcare system. They are also underdiagnosed and undertreated. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and benzodiazepines appear to be the most common pharmacologic treatment approaches. Unfortunately, not all patients respond to these treatments. Many augmentation strategies have been tried in the past with varying levels of success or safety. This article describes a safe and highly effective augmentation technique in patients suffering from some of the most serious and debilitating forms of anxiety disorders, namely obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic disorder.     

齐拉西酮与氯丙嗪对精神分裂症首次发作患者心电图影响的比较研究

为了探讨齐拉西酮与氯丙嗪对首发精神分裂症患者心电图（ECG）的影响,将221例首发精神分裂症患者随机分为两组,齐拉西酮组111例,氯丙嗪组110例,分别给予齐拉西酮和氯丙嗪治疗。于治疗前和治疗后的第2、4、8周末定期进行心电图检查,并对两组患者的心电图结果进行对比分析。服药后两组患者的心电图均有不同程度的改变,以窦性心动过速和ST—T改变为主,齐拉西酮组与氯丙嗪组患者心电图异常发生率分别为24．3％、54．5％,齐拉西酮组所致心电图改变明显低于氯丙嗪组（P〈0．01）。齐拉西酮与氯丙嗪治疗精神分裂症疗效相当,而齐拉西酮对首发精神分裂症患者心电图的影响显著低于氯丙嗪,临床安全性高。     

齐拉西酮与氯丙嗪对精神分裂症首次发作患者心电图影响的比较研究

为了探讨齐拉西酮与氯丙嗪对首发精神分裂症患者心电图(ECG)的影响,将221例首发精神分裂症患者随机分为两组,齐拉西酮组111例,氯丙嗪组110例,分别给予齐拉西酮和氯丙嗪治疗.于治疗前和治疗后的第2、4、8周末定期进行心电图检查,并对两组患者的心电图结果进行对比分析.服药后两组患者的心电图均有不同程度的改变,以窦性心动过速和ST-T改变为主,齐拉西酮组与氯丙嗪组患者心电图异常发生率分别为24.3％、54.5％,齐拉西酮组所致心电图改变明显低于氯丙嗪组(P＜0.01).齐拉西酮与氯丙嗪治疗精神分裂症疗效相当,而齐拉西酮对首发精神分裂症患者心电图的影响显著低于氯丙嗪,临床安全性高.     

Neuropsychological Functioning Associated with High-Altitude Exposure

This article focuses on neuropsychological functioning at moderate, high, and extreme altitude. This article summarizes the available literature on respiratory, circulatory, and brain determinants on adaptation to hypoxia that are hypothesized to be responsible for neuropsychological impairment due to altitude. Effects on sleep are also described. At central level, periventricular focal damages (leuko-araiosis) and cortical atrophy have been observed. Frontal lobe and middle temporal lobe alterations are also presumed. A review is provided regarding the effects on psychomotor performance, perception, learning, memory, language, cognitive flexibility, and metamemory. Increase of reaction time and latency of P300 are observed. Reduced thresholds of tact, smell, pain, and taste, together with somesthetic illusions and visual hallucinations have been reported. Impairment in codification and short-term memory are especially noticeable above 6,000 m. Alterations in accuracy and motor speed are identified at lower altitudes. Deficits in verbal fluency, language production, cognitive fluency, and metamemory are also detected. The moderating effects of personality variables over the above-mentioned processes are discussed. Finally, methodological flaws found in the literature are detailed and some applied proposals are suggested.     

College Characteristics Associated with Freshman Attrition

100 randomly selected four-year institutions with very low freshman dropout rates were compared with a comparable group of institutions that had freshman attrition rates that were not “low,” in order to determine whether the two types of institutions differed in respect to 22 selected variables. It was found that colleges with low freshman dropout rates did differ significantly from the comparison group on 15 of the 22 characteristics analyzed. 10 of the 15 variables were personal (i.e., they related to student characteristics), whereas the remaining 5 were nonpersonal (e.g., the size of the institution and the cost of attending it). The general conclusion reached was that administrators who seek to understand and to cope with the freshman dropout problem must take into consideration both personal and nonpersonal factors associated with the phenomenon of freshman attrition.     

Factors Associated with Engagement in Family Therapy

Thirty-eight families who continued in conjoint family therapy were compared on a variety of antecedent variables to 13 families who dropped out. Three potentially important predictors of continuance in family therapy were found: (a) which spouse initiated the search for treatment; (b) the level of authoritarianism in the spouses; and (c) family socioeconomic status. Families that dropped out of treatment tended to be of lower socioeconomic status and contained spouses who had more highly authoritarian attitudes as measured by the California F Scale ( 1 ). Families that contained a severly disturbed member had a poor rate of engagement in treatment, but if both spouses in such a family were low in authoritarianism, the engagement rate was 100 per cent. When both spouses initiated the search for treatment, engagement was also nearly perfect. The difficulty in engaging families from the lowest socio-economic class may be attributed partly to the authoritarian attitudes of the husband.     

Elevated Suicide Levels Associated with Legalized Gambling

There has been no systematic, large-scale statistical investigation of the link between gambling and suicide, despite the suggestion of such a link from small-scale case studies. This article examines whether gamblers or those associated with them are prone to suicide and whether gaming communities experience atypically high suicide rates. Las Vegas, the premier U.S. gambling setting, displays the highest levels of suicide in the nation, both for residents of Las Vegas and for visitors to that setting. In general, visitors to and residents of major gaming communities experience significantly elevated suicide levels. In Atlantic City, abnormally high suicide levels for visitors and residents appeared only after gambling casinos were opened. The findings do not seem to result merely because gaming settings attract suicidal individuals.     

Psychosocial Processes Associated with Bullying and Victimization

Bullying and victimization are timely, robust areas of inquiry throughout various psychological paradigms. Humanistic psychology has a history of investigating victimized individuals, but unfortunately, as this review of the literature demonstrates, the Humanistic voice has not remained active in these investigations. I contend that by exploring the research of these behaviors, Humanistic researchers may identify areas in need of Humanistic-oriented inquiries. This discussion explores the relevant literature focused on psychosocial processes associated with bullying and victimization. Also reviewed are individual characteristic variables, developmental trajectories of both bullies and victims, the role of social cognitive processes, social status and power, social networks, and bully and victim psychopathological trajectories.     

Debiasing of Pessimistic Judgments Associated with Anxiety

This study tested the Consider-An-Alternative debiasing procedure and its ability to reduce pessimistic judgmental predictions associated with anxiety. Study participants were randomly assigned to either a control group or a debiasing group and were asked to rate the likelihood of hypothetical events. Level of trait anxiety was assessed to assign participants to a normal and a highly anxious group. The results showed that the debiasing procedure was effective in the reduction of pessimistic judgmental predictions for participants with both high and normal levels of trait anxiety. Specifically, the generation of alternative positive information significantly reduced pessimistic predictions of future events. The results were discussed in terms of availability of information in memory and cognitive biases.     

Probabilities Associated with Precise and Vague Forecasts

Forecasts of future outcomes, such as the consequences of climate change, are given with different degrees of precision. Logically, more precise forecasts (e.g., a temperature increase of 3–4°) have a smaller probability of capturing the actual outcome than less precise forecasts (e.g., a temperature increase of 2–6°). Nevertheless, people often trust precise forecasts more than vague forecasts, perhaps because precision is associated with knowledge and expertise. In five experiments, we ask whether people expect highly confident forecasts to be associated with wider or narrower outcome ranges than less confident forecasts (Experiments 1, 2, and 5), and, conversely, whether they expect precise forecasts to be issued with higher or lower confidence than vague forecasts (Experiments 3 and 4). The results revealed two distinct ways of thinking about confidence intervals, labeled distributional (wide intervals seen as more probable than narrow intervals) and associative (wide intervals seen as more uncertain than narrow intervals). Distributional responses occurred somewhat more often in within‐subjects designs, where wide and narrow prediction intervals and high and low probability estimates can be directly compared, whereas separate evaluations (in between‐subjects design) suggested associative responses to be slightly more frequent. These findings are relevant for experts communicating forecasts through confidence intervals. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interest Patterns Associated with Measures of Social Desirability

This study summarizes the analysis of the interest patterns of 1,777 elementary and junior high school students as related to a sociometric device and teachers' ratings. The subjects were asked their preferences in terms of class interests, television viewing habits, music listening preferences, study preferences, study habits, vocational plans, and choices of reading as distributed over comic books, magazines, and literary books. In addition, demographic and employment data were obtained. A number of dropouts were identified four years later and their responses on these measures were compared with students who remained in school. The results of the study indicate that sociometric status and teachers' ratings as measures of social desirability do differentiate between certain interest patterns and these patterns are associated with a broad extroversion-introversion continuum. Dropouts were found to differ on certain of these measures.     

The Emotional Experience Associated with Worrying in Adolescents

Among adults, both normal and pathological worrying has been found to be associated with a unique emotional syndrome involving irritability, restlessness, low frustration tolerance and difficulty relaxing. This emotional state is empirically distinguishable from anxiety and depression, and is reliably assessed by the Stress scale of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS). The association between worry and ‘stress’ may have important implications for a better theoretical understanding of worrying in adults. Among youth, however, the emotional experience associated with worrying has not yet been clearly described. The present study aimed to explore whether a distinct, adult-like ‘stress’ syndrome can be assessed in adolescents via self-report, and whether, as in adults, stress has a specific association with worrying. A simplified version of the DASS was created to maximize its comprehension by adolescents. A group of 340 12–18-year-olds completed the simplified DASS and a self-report measure of worry. Factor analyses revealed a three-factor structure underlying the simplified DASS, similar to the original adult version. Further analyses showed that worry had a unique association with Stress, over and above its association with Depression and Anxiety. Adolescents who worry more excessively and uncontrollably also reported higher levels of irritability, restlessness and difficulty relaxing, while the autonomic arousal symptoms of anxiety had consistently low associations with worrying, especially in older adolescents. Results indicate that the proposed cognitive avoidance function of worrying may be present by adolescence.     

The Heritability of Characteristics Associated with Dispositional Empathy

ABSTRACT This investigation used data from Loehlin and Nichols's (1976) study of over 800 sets of twins to examine evidence for the heritability of three facets of empathy: empathic concern, personal distress, and perspective taking. Expert judges first identified sets of adjectives, included within Loehlin and Nichols's original data, which reflected each empathy construct; these items were then validated in an independent sample. Comparisons of the responses given to these items by identical and fraternal twins in the Loehlin and Nichols investigation revealed evidence of significant heritability for characteristics associated with the two affective facets of empathy—empathic concern and personal distress—but not for the nonaffective construct of perspective taking. This pattern is consistent with the view that temperamental emotionality may underlie the heritability of affective empathy.     

Mental Disorders Associated with COVID-19 Related Unemployment

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions on economic activities have resulted in a sharp rise of unemployment. The purpose of this research is to explore mental disorders associated with COVID-19 related unemployment using a large, nationally representative dataset, the 2020 COVID-19 Household Pulse Survey. ANOVA with post hoc tests (Tukey HSD) are utilized to reveal the mean difference of mental disorders between various employment status, as well as between reasons of unemployment. Binary logit model is used to investigate the potential effect of different reasons of unemployment on mental disorders. Individuals who were not working during the pandemic due to involuntary reasons had higher probabilities of mental disorders than those who were working and those who voluntarily separated from work. Among respondents who were not working due to COVID-19 related reasons, respondents whose employer went out of business were the most likely to experience mental disorders. Household job uncertainty in the next four weeks positively contributed to mental disorders. Government should consider measures to contain the spread of virous while keeping as many people employed as possible. Government should also consider providing adequate financial and counseling assistance to individuals who are in the greatest need for such support.

     

Factors Associated with Transposition Behavior of Preschool Children

To assess ideas, derived from a contextual paradigm, stressing the influence of adolescents' perceptions of the physical and social components of their school environment on their self-esteems and academic performances, 183 black early adolescents (mean age = 12.1 years, SD = .5 years; 54.6% female) were administered five semantic differential scales. The first provided a measure of self-esteem, while the remaining four provided measures of perceptions of the social environment of the school (i.e., of peers and of teachers) and of the physical environment of the school (i.e., of the classroom and of the school building). There were few systematic sex differences in responses to the scales. As predicted, school environment perceptions were significantly related to self-esteem in both males and females. However, although self-esteem and a report of grade point average, as a measure of academic performance, were significantly related, there was no relation between school environmental perceptions and reported grade point average.     

Factors Associated with Perceived Paternal Involvement in Childrearing

Interest in paternal involvement in child care has increased as the demands on the time and resources of maternal caretakers have increased. The purpose of the present study was to examine variables associated with perceived paternal involvement in child care. Participants were 137 (90 European American and 47 African American) fathers of children between the ages of 2 and 6. Hierarchical multiple regression and analyses of variance indicated that ethnicity, gender role orientation, and perceived skill at child care were associated with higher levels of perceived paternal engagement in and responsibility for child care. Partners' work status was associated with perceived paternal responsibility for, but not engagement in child care. Data suggest that fathers' perceptions of their abilities, gender role, and family requirements may combine to influence child care involvement.