The effects of nutritional supplements on the symptoms of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome

This article reports the results of a within-subject design. Fifty subjects with a physician diagnosis of fibromyalgia (FM) and/or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) were interviewed using a structured interview form. Each subject was interviewed initially, and again nine months later (follow-up). Subjects had, on their own, consumed nutritional supplements including freeze-dried aloe vera gel extract; a combination of freeze-dried aloe vera gel extract and additional plant-derived saccharides; freeze-dried fruits and vegetables in combination with the saccharides; and a formulation of dioscorea complex containing the saccharides and a vitamin/mineral complex. With medical treatments, approximately 25 percent of FM patients improved, but the beneficial effects of medical treatment rarely persist more than a few months. All subjects in this study had received some form of medical treatment prior to taking the nutritional supplements, but none with enduring success. Nutritional supplements resulted in a remarkable reduction in initial symptom severity, with continued improvement in the period between initial assessment and the follow-up. Further research is needed to verify these results, specifically crossover designs in well-defined populations.     

College men's and women's reactions to hypothetical sexual touch varied by initiator gender and coercion level

A sample of 152 men and 152 women (mostly Caucasian) rated their reactions to a vignette in which the subjects were to imagine receiving an uninvited genital touch from a college acquaintance. The vignette was varied so that the acquaintance was of the opposite or the same gender as the subject, and the touch was either gentle or forceful. Results indicated that women anticipated strong negative effects from receiving opposite- or same-gender touch, whether gentle or forceful. Men anticipated almost no negative effects from either a gentle or forceful touch from a female acquaintance, but expected strong negative effects from a gentle or forceful touch from a male acquaintance. Regression analyses revealed that women's reactions to opposite-gender touch were mediated by beliefs in a male norm promoting casual sex, and feelings of violation and fear of harm. Men's reactions to opposite-gender touch were influenced by feelings related to sexual arousal. Men and women's reactions to same-gender touch were related to feelings of violation and harm.     

How Gendered Attitudes Relate to Women’s and Men’s Sexual Behaviors and Beliefs

This study examines associations between endorsement of a sexual double standard, gender role attitudes, and sexual behaviors and beliefs. First year university students in the northeastern United States (N = 434; 52 % female; 33 % Black, 29 % Latino, 39 % White; ages 17–19) participated during their first year of college. Endorsement of a sexual double standard was associated with more conventionally gender-stereotyped sexual behaviors and beliefs, specifically, more sexual partners and fewer perceived barriers to condom use for young men, and more perceived barriers to condom use for young women. Women who were more conventional about men’s roles in society tended to use condoms less, whereas women who were more conventional about women’s roles tended to use condoms more. Men who were more conventional about men’s roles tended to have fewer sexual partners. Findings suggest the importance of examining gender’s role in sexual behaviors and beliefs by assessing multiple gendered attitudes, rather than simply considering biological sex.     

Context influences holistic processing of nonface objects in the composite task

We explored whether holistic-like effects can be observed for nonface objects in novices as a result of the task context. We measured contextually induced congruency effects for novel objects (Greebles) in a sequential matching selective attention task (composite task). When format at study was blocked, congruency effects were observed for study-misaligned, but not study-aligned, conditions (Experiment 1). However, congruency effects were observed in all conditions when study formats were randomized (Experiment 2), revealing that the presence of certain trial types (study-misaligned) in an experiment can induce congruency effects. In a dual task, a congruency effect for Greebles was induced in trials in which a face was first encoded, but only when it was aligned (Experiment 3). Thus, congruency effects can be induced by context that operates at the scale of the entire experiment or within a single trial. Implications for using the composite task to measure holistic processing are discussed.     

Escaping the recent past: Which stimulus dimensions influence proactive interference?

Proactive interference occurs when information from the past disrupts current processing and is a major source of confusion and errors in short-term memory (STM; Wickens, Born, & Allen, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 2:440–445, 1963). The present investigation examines potential boundary conditions for interference, testing the hypothesis that potential competitors must be similar along task-relevant dimensions to influence proactive interference effects. We manipulated both the type of task being completed (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) and dimensions of similarity irrelevant to the current task (Experiments 4 and 5) to determine how the recent presentation of a probe item would affect the speed with which participants could reject that item. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 contrasted STM judgments, which require temporal information, with semantic and perceptual judgments, for which temporal information is irrelevant. In Experiments 4 and 5, task-irrelevant information (perceptual similarity) was manipulated within the recent probes task. We found that interference from past items affected STM task performance but did not affect performance in semantic or perceptual judgment tasks. Conversely, similarity along a nominally irrelevant perceptual dimension did not affect the magnitude of interference in STM tasks. Results are consistent with the view that items in STM are represented by noisy codes consisting of multiple dimensions and that interference occurs when items are similar to each other and, thus, compete along the dimensions relevant to target selection.     

Paying Attention to Time as One Gets Older

Age-related changes in attention and interval timing as a function of time of day were examined using a temporal bisection task with single and compound auditory and visual stimuli. Half of the participants in each age group were tested in the morning, and half were tested in the afternoon. Duration judgments were found to be shorter for visual signals than for auditory signals. This discrepancy was greater in the morning than in the afternoon and larger for the older than for the younger adults. Young adults showed equal sensitivity to signal duration for single and compound trials and higher sensitivity in the afternoon than in the morning for both signal modalities. In contrast, older adults showed impaired sensitivity on compound trials and the greatest sensitivity overall to single visual trials in the morning. These results suggest that age-related reductions in attentional resources may cause older adults to focus on signals that require controlled attention during specific phases of the circadian cycle.     

Mild memory deficits differentially affect 6-year changes in compensatory strategy use

The authors examined memory compensation techniques used by older adults from 2 memory status groups, not impaired control (NIC) and mild memory deficit (MMD), both at baseline and across a 6-year (3-wave) interval. The groups were derived from a parent sample of 55- to 85-year-old adults from the Victoria Longitudinal Study (NIC baseline, n = 276; memory > parent sample mean; MMD baseline, n = 79; memory > 1 standard deviation below parent sample mean). Multilevel modeling was used to test 3 research questions concerning differences in initial use of, and 6-year changes and variability in, memory compensation. Initial group differences were observed for both a memory compensation technique and a general compensation indicator. Significant differences in 6-year change patterns were observed for 2 memory compensation techniques (recruitment of human memory assistance, investment of extra effort in memory tasks). Interactions of group status and wave showed that older adults with MMD declined in their use of memory compensation strategies, whereas initially NIC older adults increased their use of compensatory techniques over the 6 years.     

Psychological interventions for arthritis pain management in adults: a meta-analysis.

CONTEXT: The psychosocial impact of arthritis can be profound. There is growing interest in psychosocial interventions for managing pain and disability in arthritis patients. OBJECTIVE: This meta-analysis reports on the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for arthritis pain and disability. DATA SOURCES: Articles evaluating psychosocial interventions for arthritis were identified through Cochrane Controlled Trials, EMBASE, Ovid MEDLINE, and Ovid PsycINFO data sources. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials testing the efficacy of psychosocial interventions in arthritis pain management were reviewed. DATA EXTRACTION: Twenty-seven randomized controlled trials were analyzed. Pain intensity was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included psychological, physical, and biological functioning. DATA SYNTHESIS: An overall effect size of 0.177 (95% CI=0.256-0.094) indicated that patients receiving psychosocial interventions reported significantly lower pain than patients in control conditions (combined p=.01). Meta-analyses also supported the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for the secondary outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that psychosocial interventions may have significant effects on pain and other outcomes in arthritis patients. Ample evidence for the additional benefit of such interventions over and above that of standard medical care was found.     

THE EVALUATION OF A SEXUAL ASSAULT SELF-DEFENSE AND RISK-REDUCTION PROGRAM FOR COLLEGE WOMEN: A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

The present study evaluated the efficacy of a sexual assault risk-reduction program that included a physical self-defense component for college women ( N = 500). Program group women significantly increased their protective behaviors over the 6-month follow-up period compared to the waiting-list control group. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups regarding rates of sexual victimization, assertive communication, or feelings of self-efficacy over the follow-up periods. Program group women who were victimized during the 3-month follow-up period evidenced less self-blame and greater offender blame for their assaults than control group women who were victimized following the program. Given that program women evidenced a greater awareness of sexual assault at the end of the study than control group women, the difficulty in addressing the impact of programming on rates of sexual victimization is discussed.