Injury increases the risk for PTSD: an examination of potential neurobiological and psychological mediators

A growing number of common traumatic events involve both physical and emotional injuries. In contrast to previously held beliefs, the rapidly growing body of literature shows quite convincingly that physical injury, over and above exposure to the traumatic event itself, increases rather than decreases the risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A pertinent question becomes how bodily injury contributes to the risk of developing PTSD. In this article, we review contemporary findings regarding the neurobiological and psychological mechanisms by which bodily injury may augment or independently contribute to chronic posttraumatic stress. In addition, we propose three theoretical pathways through which physical injury can increase the risk for PTSD. These pathways are: additive, unique, and recovery impeding. Finally, we highlight unresolved issues pertaining to each one of these pathways and propose directions for future research to address them.     

The Diabetes Family Behavior Checklist: A Psychometric Evaluation

The Diabetes Family Behavior Checklist (DFBC) assesses supportive and non-supportive parental behavior specific to diabetes management via parent and child reports. The DFBC was administered to 133 children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and their caregivers. Subsequent analysis verified the two-factor structure of the DFBC corresponding to positive and negative support behaviors. Internal consistency was high for DFBC scores. Moderate to strong correlations with other measures of diabetes-specific familial behaviors, adherence, and metabolic control support the validity of the DFBC. Clinical application of the DFBC is discussed.     

Electrical Stimulation, Endorphins, and the Practice of Clinical Psychology

Recent studies have demonstrated an alternative to drug treatment for patients presenting with anxiety disorders. This new technique involves electrical stimulation of the peripheral nervous system to induce chemical changes in the brain that can support and promote healing. This method was developed in part from studies of ancient Chinese acupuncture, but it is noninvasive and does not require needles, and it does not depend on prescientific rituals or metaphysical theories. Endorphins, natural neuropeptides active in basal brain structures, act upon anxiolytic receptors. Solid evidence from fMRI and neurochemical studies show that a simple office procedure involving electrical stimulation can stimulate the expression of endorphins in the brain. Patients have demonstrated symptom relief from this simple adjunctive treatment with a concomitant reduction in dependency on psychotropic medications.     

The sanctity of life: The role of purity in attitudes towards abortion and euthanasia

Although abortion and euthanasia are highly contested issues at the heart of the culture war, the moral foundations underlying ideological differences on these issues are mostly unknown. Given that much of the extant debate is framed around the sanctity of life, we argued that the moral foundation of purity/sanctity—a core moral belief that emphasises adherence to the “natural order”—would mediate the negative relationship between conservatism and support for abortion and euthanasia. As hypothesised, results from a nation-wide random sample of adults in New Zealand (N = 3360) revealed that purity/sanctity mediated the relationship between conservatism and opposition to both policies. These results demonstrate that, rather than being motivated by a desire to reduce harm, conservative opposition to pro-choice and end-of-life decisions is (partly) based on the view that ending a life, even if it is one's own, violates God's natural design and, thus, stains one's spiritual purity.     

Examining the between- and within-person effects of relative deprivation: Results from a 7-year longitudinal panel sample

Despite the extensive literature on relative deprivation theory, few studies have examined the longitudinal effects of individual- and group-based relative deprivation (IRD and GRD, respectively) on individual- and group-based outcomes, nor has research investigated the between-person and within-person effects of these constructs. Using two random intercept cross-lagged panel models, we address these oversights by estimating the between-person and average annual within-person associations IRD and GRD have with psychological distress and collective action support in a nation-wide longitudinal panel sample (N = 64,607). As expected, IRD and GRD were more strongly associated with psychological distress and collective action support, respectively, at the between-person level and contemporaneously at the within-person level. However, contrary to expectations, temporary departures in IRD and GRD predicted within-person increases in collective action support and psychological distress, respectively. These results raise questions about how and when people respond to inequality and provide the foundations for future longitudinal research.     

Distraction and social comparison as mediators of social facilitation effects

Sanders and Baron (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 32, 956–963) suggested that increases in drive produced by the presence of others (social facilitation) are due to the tendency for others to distract task performers as they worked on a task. This Distraction-Conflict theory proposes that socially mediated drive induction will occur whenever there is some reason to shift attention from the task to the social stimuli. In the case of humans, one such reason may be the opportunity to obtain social comparison information from an audience or coactors. The present research demonstrated that social facilitation effects (improved simple task performance and impaired complex task performance produced by the presence of others) occurred only when subjects were motivated to obtain comparison information (Experiment I) and when comparison information was available (Experiment II). The availability of comparison information also led to increased accuracy in estimating the coactor's performance. This indicated that in conditions manifesting social facilitation, subjects were spending some time monitoring the coactor's work, which is an inherently distracting activity. Several supplementary measures of distraction were generally consistent in indicating greater distraction under conditions manifesting social facilitation. The present results offer no support for the explanations of social facilitation suggested by Zajonc and by Cottrell.     

Double Depression in Men: Does It Exist?

Differences between male veterans diagnosed with major depression alone and male veterans diagnosed with both major depression and dysthymia (double depression) were investigated. Assessment instruments included the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R). Consistent with prior literature, it was hypothesized that male veterans diagnosed with both major depression and dysthymia display more severe depressive symptomatology and other forms of psychopathology than male veterans diagnosed with major depression alone. Results did not corroborate these hypotheses. Patients with double depression (n = 17) yielded BDI and SCL-90-R scores which did not differ significantly from those of patients with major depression alone (n = 14). Our results call into question the existence of double depression among men, a disorder whose existence has been demonstrated primarily among women.