Psychosocial correlates of eczema in a non-treatment-seeking population

Data from the Vietnam Experience Study were used to examine psychosocial correlates of eczema. Based upon the results of dermatologic examinations, three groups of male veterans were identified: (a) subjects with eczema (n = 80), (b) subjects with tinea (n = 282), and (c) subjects with no medical diagnosis (n = 176). These three groups were compared on measures of anxiety, depression, hostility, and social support. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule (Version III-A) was used to determine diagnoses of anxiety and depression and level of social support. MMPI Scales 2 and 7, the Wiggins content scale of Depression, and the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale were used to assess anxiety, depression, and hostility. Eczema subjects did not differ from tinea or no-disease control groups on dependent measures. These results are contrasted with previous studies of treatment-seeking patients, which showed greater prevalence of anxiety and depression among individuals with eczema. Directions for future research are suggested.This paper is taken from the first author's dissertation.     

Quality of Well-Being Scale and Chronic Low Back Pain

Outcome measures that assess quality of life for use in health policy decisions need to be investigated in chronic pain patients. In the present study, the validity of the Quality of Well-Being Scale (QWB) was evaluated on 67 adult chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients who were enrolled in a 12-week multidisciplinary pain treatment program. Participants completed the QWB, a battery of pain measures, a behavioral observation task, and a medical exam. The findings indicated that CLBP patients have a low level of functioning or quality of life (M = .567, SD = .08) compared with persons with life-threatening diseases. The QWB score was significantly correlated with observational measures of pain behavior and pain-related coping strategies. Multivariate analysis indicated that interference in daily activities, distorted ambulation, affective distress, pain duration, and guarding were the most significant predictors of quality of well-being (multiple R = .84, p < .0001). Patients with medically incongruent physical signs had significantly lower QWB scores than patients with congruent signs. Overall, the data supported the validity of the QWB in a sample of CLBP patients.     

Psychosocial Subgroups, Coping, and Chronic Low-Back Pain

The purpose of this study was to compare psychosocial subgroups in terms of pain coping strategies, pain severity, physical impairment, pain behavior, affective distress, and response to pain management treatment. The Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) was used to classify 67 chronic low-back pain (CLBP) patients into the following psychosocial subgroups: Dysfunctional, Interpersonally Distressed, Adaptive Coping, and Anomalous. These MPI subgroups were compared on the Pain Behavior Checklist, Behavioral Observation Measure of Pain Behavior, Revised Coping Strategies Questionnaire, and Chronic Disease Index. The Dysfunctional subgroup reported significantly more pain behavior, disability, affective distress, and catastrophizing than either the Interpersonally Distressed subgroup or Adaptive Copers, but were not significantly different on measures of adaptive coping strategies. The percentage of dropouts from treatment was significantly less among Adaptive Copers (11%) than among the Dysfunctional (33%) or Interpersonally Distressed (47%) subgroups. Differences in affective distress found among the MPI subgroups at baseline were not evident at the posttreatment assessment. The present findings support the use of MPI psychosocial subgroup analysis to enhance our understanding of differential response to chronic pain and pain management intervention.     

‘The Only Creature God Willed For Its Own Sake’: Anthropocentrism in Laudato Si’ and Gaudium et Spes

The Second Vatican Council’s constitution Gaudium et Spes stated that man is ‘the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake’. Post-conciliar Catholic teaching on the environment largely reproduced this anthropocentric theology. Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato Si’, however, appears directly to contradict this well-established tradition with its repeated assertions of the intrinsic value of nonhuman life and its critical approach to the term ‘anthropocentrism’. Questioning this putative discontinuity, this article challenges the perception that Laudato Si’ has definitively rejected anthropocentrism. It suggests that the claim for the intrinsic value of nonhuman life, and the traditional assertion that man is the only creature willed for its own sake, can be seen to converge in light of the traditional theological anthropology of the human being as microcosm. On this view, the centrality of the human person in the order of creation is constituted by its gathering up of the sakes of creatures. The distinctive place of the human does not come at the expense of the rest of creation, but rather is the means of creation’s movement towards the unity and harmony to which God calls it. Laudato Si’ is distinguished not by its rejection of anthropocentrism, but by its refusal to set human and nonhuman over against one another. In contrast, the language of ‘intrinsic value’ is criticised for conceiving created value as a zero-sum game, as though human and nonhuman value are in competition with one another; the language of ‘stewardship’ is criticised for its extrinsicist conception of the human being in the natural order.     

A signal detection theory analysis of gap detection in the rat

An innocuous sensory event (a prestimulus) briefly preceding a startle-eliciting stimulus (SES) reduces the amplitude of the elicited reflex. This study used signal detection theory (SDT) techniques to quantify the effects of gaps (pauses in otherwise continuous noise) on the rat’s acoustic startle reflex. Sixteen rats were given four identical test sessions consisting of the randomized presentation of 150 trials of the SES alone and 150 trials of a gap-and-SES combination. Gap duration (1, 2, 4, and 8 msec) varied between sessions. Data analyses based on amplitude, difference scores, percentage scores, and SDT techniques identified similar patterns. The three longest gaps, but not the shortest, were reliably detected, and differences among these three were identified with percentage and SDT analyses. Analyses of amplitude changes over test sessions yielded different patterns for each measure. The results demonstrate that an SDT analysis is a sensitive index of prestimulus effects.     

Performance of a computer system for recording eye fixations using limbus reflection

A computer system was developed to measure and record locus and duration of the eye axis of gaze using a limbus reflection technique. System hardware and operating procedures for on-line data collection and correction are described. Algorithms are presented that separate fixations from movements. Based on these algorithms, system performance was measured in terms of spatial accuracy of eye fixations and temporal accuracy of saccadic movements.     

Executive Functioning in Children and Adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder

The present investigation examined neurocognitive functioning, focusing on executive functioning (EF), in 39 children and adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and 24 healthy control subjects all ages 8 to 17 years. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition along with several measures of executive functioning including the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, Trail Making Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, and the Stroop Color Word Test were administered. The neurocognitive profiles for the group of depressed children and adolescents were grossly intact as most scores on intellectual and EF measures fell within the average range and did not differ from the comparison group. Mental processing speed was decreased in the MDD versus normal control group and 27% of the depressed group performed below average on the Trail Making Test. This investigation provided a good base from which to compare future literature on EF in outpatients with early-onset MDD.