Attentional Focus of Students with Hyperactivity During a Word-Search Task

Mirrors have been used to focus attention to aspects of the self (e.g., to known strategies, standards). We hypothesized that this could be important for students with hyperactivity/inattention, who typically direct attention outward to external novelty. In this study, we administered a partially solvable word puzzle to 43 middle school students, with and without hyperactivity/inattention, in the presence and absence of a mirror, counterbalanced for condition and form order. Differences between students with hyperactivity/inattention and comparisons in accuracy were found only in the no mirror condition. Furthermore, the beneficial effect of the mirror for children with hyperactivity/inattention was most pronounced for those who looked at the mirror. Findings were interpreted in terms of their potential to remedy the production deficits of these children.     

On the astonishing clinical irrelevance of neuroscience

The clinical work of psychoanalysts can be thought of in both a narrow and a broad sense. In the narrow sense, it refers to what is commonly thought of as psychoanalytic technique, the methods analysts use to understand their patients and to convey that understanding to them. In the broad sense, it refers to the entirety of their work as clinicians: the content of understanding, as well as such things as diagnosing, estimating analyzability, recommending therapy, and prescribing medication. The current enthusiastic expectation that neuroscience will have an immediate and direct impact on clinical work in the narrow sense is misguided, but neuroscientific discoveries, it is argued, will have a major impact on psychoanalytic theory in the not too distant future. The resulting changes in metapsychology will ultimately have reverberations on clinical work in the broad sense, although psychoanalytic technique, the analyst's basic approach to patients, will remain essentially the same.     

Behavior of neonates exposed in utero to methadone as assessed on the Brazelton scale

Twenty-nine infants exposed in utero to methadone and 37 comparison infants were examined on the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale at early and late neonatal ages. All infants were full-term at birth, over 2500 g, and not yet circumcised at the early assessment. None of the methadone-exposed infants were breast-fed or were being treated pharmacologically for withdrawal. During the first week of life, methadone-exposed neonates differed from comparison ones in motoric behavior. Relative to comparison-group infants, they were jerkier and more tremulous, tense, active, and better able to put hand in mouth. By the end of the first month these differences diminished, although there was still a tendency for the methadone-exposed infants to have elevated body tonus. Neither perinatal complications, birth weight, nor sex of infant could explain the early neonatal differences between the methadone and comparison groups. Past the early stage of acute withdrawal, neonates exposed prenatally to methadone behave not unlike their nonexposed peers.     

Psychological Distress and Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Jewish Adolescents Following a Brief Exposure to Concentration Camps

We investigated the psychological impact of an organized visit to Polish concentration camps on Jewish-American adolescents. Eighty-seven adolescents who participated in a B'nai B'rith memorial visit to concentration camps in Poland completed measures of general psychological adjustment and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at four time-points: pretest, posttest, 6-month follow-up and 12-month follow-up. Measures included the SCL-90-R, the Mississippi Scale for PTSD, and the Impact of Events Scale (IES) for PTSD. On the SCL-90-R, changes in somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, depression, anxiety, and phobic anxiety were observed over time, with peak symptom scores at posttest and 6-month follow-up. Scores on the Mississippi Scale for PTSD and the IES Intrusion subscale also increased at 6-months. Predictors of PTSD symptoms on the Mississippi Scale included previous psychiatric treatment and SCL-90-R symptoms of paranoia, depression, and psychosis. Elevated psychotic symptoms on the SCL-90-R predicted PTSD symptoms on the IES. Jewish adolescents with preexisting symptoms of generalized distress or psychoticism appeared at increased risk for PTSD symptoms following exposure to Holocaust stimuli. This study contributes a prospective, multi-measure assessment of trauma reactions in adolescents.     

Context effects in the behavioral ratings of hyperactivity

It was proposed that parents of hyperactive children would observe more problems at home in some but not all home contexts. To test this hypothesis, parents of teacher-identified hyperactive and nonhyperactive children were asked to complete a context-specific behavioral rating scale (Werry, 1968). Hyperactive children were rated by their parents as changing activities, talking, interrupting, and exhibiting dependency more than nonhyperactive children. Furthermore, those differences between hyperactive and control children were observed primarily in the play and homework contexts.This research was supported by a National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH(32282).