The Relationship Between the Fear-Avoidance Model of Pain and Personality Traits in Fibromyalgia Patients

This study examined the relationship between several cognitive-affective factors of the fear-avoidance model of pain, the big five model of personality, and functional impairment in fibromyalgia (FM). Seventy-four FM patients completed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale-20, the Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire, and the Impairment and Functioning Inventory. Results indicated that the cognitive-affective factors of pain are differentially associated with personality traits. Neuroticism and conscientiousness were significant predictors of pain catastrophizing, and neuroticism, openness, and agreeableness were significant predictors of pain anxiety. Personality traits did not contribute significantly to vigilance to pain. The effect of neuroticism upon pain anxiety was mediated by pain catastrophizing, and neuroticism showed a trend to moderate the relationship between impairment and pain anxiety. Results support the fear-avoidance model of pain. Implications of the findings for the understanding and management of FM are discussed.     

Attentional orienting and awareness: evidence from a discrimination task

We used several cue–target SOAs (100, 500, 1000 ms) and three different degrees of cue predictability (Non-predictive-50%, Predictive-75%, Counter-predictive-25%), to investigate the role of awareness of cue–target predictability on cueing effects. A group of participants received instructions about the informative value of the cue, while another group did not receive such instructions. Participants were able to extract the predictive value of a spatially peripheral cue and use it to orient attention, whether or not specific instructions about the predictive value of the cue were given, and no matter their ability to correctly report it in a post-test questionnaire. In the non-predictive block, bad estimators who received no instructions showed regular cueing effects, while good estimators exhibited smaller and non-significant facilitatory effects at the short SOA and an absence of significant IOR at longer SOAs. However, for the instructions group, the pattern of results reversed.     

The effects of perpetrator age and abuse disclosure on the relationship between feelings provoked by child sexual abuse and posttraumatic stress

The present study examined the relationship between feelings provoked by child sexual abuse (CSA) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom scores in a sample of 163 female survivors of CSA. Finkelhor and Browne's traumagenic dynamics model was applied. The interactive effects of provoked feelings with perpetrator age and the existence of abuse disclosure were also studied. Results showed an overall relationship between feelings provoked by CSA and PTSD symptom scores. Feelings of stigma, betrayal, and powerlessness as a result of CSA were associated with PTSD symptom score when the entire group of CSA victims was analyzed. The role of traumatic sexualization was relevant only when analyzed in interaction with the age of the perpetrator and disclosure. The relationship between traumatic sexualization and PTSD symptom scores was only significant when the abuse was committed by an adult perpetrator and when a disclosure was made during the time of abuse, or a short time after the abuse had occurred.     

Conditioned taste aversion modifies persistently the subsequent induction of neocortical long-term potentiation in vivo

The ability of neurons to modify their synaptic strength in an activity-dependent manner has a crucial role in learning and memory processes. It has been proposed that homeostatic forms of plasticity might provide the global regulation necessary to maintain synaptic strength and plasticity within a functional dynamic range. Similarly, it is considered that the capacity of synapses to express plastic changes is itself subject to variation dependent on previous experience. In particular, training in several behavioral tasks modifies the possibility to induce long-term potentiation (LTP). Our previous studies in the insular cortex (IC) have shown that induction of LTP in the basolateral amygdaloid nucleus (Bla)-IC projection previous to conditioned taste aversion (CTA) training enhances the retention of this task. The aim of the present study was to analyze whether CTA training modifies the ability to induce subsequent LTP in the Bla-IC projection in vivo. Thus, CTA trained rats received high frequency stimulation in the Bla-IC projection in order to induce LTP 48, 72, 96 and 120 h after the aversion test. Our results show that CTA training prevents the subsequent induction of LTP in the Bla-IC projection, for at least 120 h after CTA training. We also showed that pharmacological inhibition of CTA consolidation with anisomycin (1 μl/side; 100 μg/μl) prevents the CTA effect on IC-LTP. These findings reveal that CTA training produces a persistent change in the ability to induce subsequent LTP in the Bla-IC projection in a protein-synthesis dependent manner, suggesting that changes in the ability to induce subsequent synaptic plasticity contribute to the formation and persistence of aversive memories.     

Intracellular calcium chelation and pharmacological SERCA inhibition of Ca2+ pump in the insular cortex differentially affect taste aversive memory formation and retrieval

Variation in intracellular calcium concentration regulates the induction of long-term synaptic plasticity and is associated with a variety of memory/retrieval and learning paradigms. Accordingly, impaired calcium mobilization from internal deposits affects synaptic plasticity and cognition in the aged brain. During taste memory formation several proteins are modulated directly or indirectly by calcium, and recent evidence suggests the importance of calcium buffering and the role of intracellular calcium deposits during cognitive processes. Thus, the main goal of this research was to study the consequence of hampering changes in cytoplasmic calcium and inhibiting SERCA activity by BAPTA-AM and thapsigargin treatments, respectively, in the insular cortex during different stages of taste memory formation. Using conditioned taste aversion (CTA), we found differential effects of BAPTA-AM and thapsigargin infusions before and after gustatory stimulation, as well as during taste aversive memory consolidation; BAPTA-AM, but not thapsigargin, attenuates acquisition and/or consolidation of CTA, but neither compound affects taste aversive memory retrieval. These results point to the importance of intracellular calcium dynamics in the insular cortex during different stages of taste aversive memory formation.     

Growth modeling with nonignorable dropout: alternative analyses of the STAR*D antidepressant trial

This article uses a general latent variable framework to study a series of models for nonignorable missingness due to dropout. Nonignorable missing data modeling acknowledges that missingness may depend not only on covariates and observed outcomes at previous time points as with the standard missing at random assumption, but also on latent variables such as values that would have been observed (missing outcomes), developmental trends (growth factors), and qualitatively different types of development (latent trajectory classes). These alternative predictors of missing data can be explored in a general latent variable framework with the Mplus program. A flexible new model uses an extended pattern-mixture approach where missingness is a function of latent dropout classes in combination with growth mixture modeling. A new selection model not only allows an influence of the outcomes on missingness but allows this influence to vary across classes. Model selection is discussed. The missing data models are applied to longitudinal data from the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study, the largest antidepressant clinical trial in the United States to date. Despite the importance of this trial, STAR*D growth model analyses using nonignorable missing data techniques have not been explored until now. The STAR*D data are shown to feature distinct trajectory classes, including a low class corresponding to substantial improvement in depression, a minority class with a U-shaped curve corresponding to transient improvement, and a high class corresponding to no improvement. The analyses provide a new way to assess drug efficiency in the presence of dropout.     

An introduction to the 2011 National Multicultural Conference & Summit keynote addresses

This article provides and introduction to the 2011 National Multicultural Conference & Summit Keynote Addresses. The authors explain that they chose to focus on the tension and possibilities within multicultural psychology at the seventh biennial National Multicultural Conference & Summit (NMCS), which was held on January 27-28, 2011, at The Westin-Seattle Hotel. During the 2-day conference, nearly 900 attendees engaged with one another and heard from experts in the field as we focused on the theme, "Unification through Diversity: Bridging Psychological Science & Practice in the Public Interest. Two key sets of presentations are highlighted.     

Thermal sensitivity and cardiovascular reactivity to stress in healthy males

This paper examines the association of cardiovascular reactivity with thermal thresholds (detection and unpleasantness). Heart period (HP), systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure of 42 health young males were recorded during a cardiovascular reactivity task (a videogame based upon Sidman's avoidance paradigm). Thermal sensitivity, assessing detection and unpleasantness thresholds with radiant heat in the forearm was also estimated for participants. Participants with differential scores in the cardiovascular variables from base line to task > or = P65 were considered as reactors and those how have differential scores < or = P35 were considered as non-reactors. Significant differences were observed between groups in the unpleasantness thresholds in blood pressure (BP) but not in HP. Reactors exhibited significant higher unpleasantness thresholds than non-reactors. No significant differences were obtained in detection thresholds between groups.     

Infant-mother attachment can be improved through group intervention: a preliminary evaluation in Spain in a non-randomized controlled trial

The quality of infant-mother attachment has been linked to competence in different domains of child development. Research indicates that early intervention can enhance the quality of infant-mother attachment, though its efficacy in a group format has yet to be evaluated. The current study is aimed at examining the usefulness of a group intervention in enhancing infant-mother attachment. An intervention aimed at addressing aspects such as maternal responsivity, sensitivity and childrearing behaviour was developed by the researchers and experienced psychologists. The intervention spanned a period of 14 months starting from the third quarter of pregnancy. The intervention was evaluated among 24 mothers from the Basque region of Spain. The sample consisted of children of both genders in a similar proportion: 45.8% were boys and 54.2% were girls. The children in this sample were full-term born and did not present symptoms of any serious pre- or postnatal complications. The intervention had a statistically non-significant medium effect. Infants whose mothers had received the intervention showed higher rates of secure attachment compared to children from the control group, as assessed by the Strange Situation observation procedure. A potentially significant confounding variable, maternal attachment, was balanced across the intervention and comparison groups. We can tentatively point out that a group intervention may enhance the quality of infant-mother attachment. Nevertheless, because the study design was not randomized, the results of this study remain preliminary and need replication in a full randomized controlled trial designed study.     

Evaluating risk propensity using an objective instrument

Risk propensity is the stable tendency to choose options with a lower probability of success, but greater rewards. Its evaluation has been approached from various perspectives: from self-report questionnaires to objective tests. Self-report questionnaires have often been criticized due to interference from voluntary and involuntary biases, in addition to their lack of predictive value. Objective tests, on the other hand, require resources that make them difficult to administer to large samples. This paper presents an easy-to-administer, 30-item risk propensity test. Each item is itself an objective test describing a hypothetical situation in which the subject must choose between three options, each with a different gain function but equivalent in expected value. To assess its psychometric fit, the questionnaire was administered to 222 subjects, and we performed a test of its reliability as well as exploratory factor analysis. The results supported a three-factor model of risk (Sports and Gambling, Long-term Plans, and Loss Management). After making the necessary adjustments and incorporating a global factor of risk propensity, confirmatory factor analysis was done, revealing that the data exhibited adequate goodness of fit.