Health-Related Decision-Making in HIV Disease

Individuals living with HIV show moderate decision-making deficits, though no prior studies have evaluated the ability to make optimal health-related decisions across the HIV healthcare continuum. Forty-three HIV+ individuals with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND+), 50 HIV+ individuals without HAND (HAND?), and 42 HIV? participants were administered two measures of health-related decision-making as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological battery: (1) The Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS), and (2) The Modified UCSD Brief Assessment for Capacity to Consent (UBACC-T). Multiple regression analyses revealed that HAND was an independent predictor of both the DCS and the UBACC-T, such that the HAND+ sample evidenced significantly poorer scores relative to comparison groups. Within the HIV+ sample, poorer health-related decision-making was associated with worse performance on tests of episodic memory, risky decision-making, and health literacy. Findings indicate that individuals with HAND evidence moderate deficits in effectively comprehending and evaluating various health-related choices.     

Family factors associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and emotional disorders in children

Few well-controlled studies have identified psychosocial profiles of families of boys with ADHD and boys with emotional disorders compared with normal controls. However, the clinical and theoretical literature pinpoints four domains in which distinctive profiles would be expected to occur. In this study, twenty-two mothers and thirteen fathers of twenty-two boys with ADHD; twenty mothers and fifteen fathers of twenty boys with a mood or anxiety disorder; and twenty-six mothers and sixteen fathers of twenty-seven normal controls were compared on: (1) stress, support and quality of life; (2) current family functioning; (3) parenting style and satisfaction in the family of origin and current family; and (4) current and past parental functioning. The two clinical groups showed higher levels of stress and lower levels of both social support and quality of life than did normal controls. Both clinical groups showed deficits in current family functioning, but contrary to expectations the ADHD and emotional disorder group did not show distinctly different profiles. Parents of ADHD children reported higher levels of authoritarian parenting styles, and parents from both clinical groups reported less parenting satisfaction than did normal controls in both their current families and their families of origin. Parents of children with ADHD and emotional disorders reported greater parenting satisfaction in their families of origin than in their current families. This discrepancy was greatest for parents of ADHD children. Parents of children with ADHD and emotional disorders reported greater psychological health problems and more childhood ADHD symptomatology than did normal controls. Parents of children with ADHD and emotional disorders have significant psychosocial difficulties in family and personal functioning. Family intervention is highly appropriate for families with children who are referred for help with both types of difficulties.     

Family–oriented treatment for people with alcohol problems in Ireland: a comparison of the effectiveness of residential and community–based programmes

Using a naturalistic design involving consecutive referrals self–selected for family–oriented treatment, forty–two participants from a residential programme and twenty–five participants from a community–based programme were assessed on a range of alcohol–use and psychosocial measures before treatment. A proportion of these cases were assessed after treatment and at six months'follow–up. At six months' follow–up 79 per cent of both the residential and community groups were either abstinent or drinking moderately. However, more members of the residential group (75 per cent) were abstinent at follow–up compared with the community group (36 per cent). In contrast, more members of the community group were moderate drinkers (43 per cent) at follow–up compared with the residential group (4 per cent). At six months' follow–up, compared with the community group, more members of the residential group showed a clinically significant reduction in recent negative consequences of drinking and psychological adjustment problems. Both groups made significant mean gains on indices of alcohol abuse and psychosocial adjustment but there were important intergroup differences. The residential group showed a greater mean reduction in recent negative consequences from drinking but the community group showed a greater mean reduction in the percentage of days' heavy drinking.     

Expressive language and prosocial behaviour in early childhood: Longitudinal associations in the UK Millennium Cohort Study

Background: Early childhood is a crucial period for language development and building social skills. While distinct, these two processes may impact upon each other.

Aims: The current study aimed to identify the directional associations between expressive language ability and prosocial behaviour between three and five years of age.

Methods: Participants included 14, 004 children and their families enrolled in the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Children’s expressive language and prosocial behaviour were assessed at three and five years of age utilizing standardized assessments and parent reports. Cross-lagged models were used for data analysis.

Results: Better expressive language at three years was associated with increased prosocial behaviour by five years. No support for the inverse direction of association was found.

Conclusions: Children’s early ability to effectively express themselves with others may help in building better social relationships by entry into formal schooling. Programming efforts that are tailored towards enhancing positive behavioural growth and social skills in the toddler years are likely to be effective when expressive language is also a targeted component of the toddler’s skill development.     

The faces of desirable mates and dates contain mixed social status cues

Digitized images of adult faces were manipulated to test the effects of facial status cues on social perceptions and the desire to form relationships. Large, immature-looking eyes and mouths signaled submissiveness, whereas small, mature-looking eyes and mouths signaled dominance. As predicted, dominance cues made faces look less warm and submissiveness cues made faces look less powerful, relative to unchanged faces. Although feature manipulations successfully reduced the warmth and power of faces, they did not amplify them. Moreover, changed faces were judged as having less potential than unchanged faces as dates and mates, even when perceptions of normalcy, masculinity/femininity, and health were controlled. Further analyses suggested that normal faces optimize status cues thereby conveying a charismatic mix of warmth and power.     

Repairing violations of trustworthiness in negotiation

There has been an ongoing debate in the research literature on violations of trustworthiness and the effectiveness of various forms of repair. In this article, three studies compare the effectiveness of several variables hypothesized to repair perceived trustworthiness in a negotiation context: (a) the use of words (accounts or apologies) versus deeds (compensation for the costs of violation), separately and in combination; (b) whether words or deeds pointed to the past or to the future; (c) the effect of an active or passive third‐party monitor of the negotiation, and (d) the type of trustworthiness (competence versus integrity) that was violated. Results show support for the repair effects for deeds over words, and that a focus on the past violation (through either words or deeds) is more effective than looking toward the future. Deeds, rather than words, also accounts for the strong impact of the combination of the two courses of action. In addition, results show that an active third‐party intervention has a stronger impact on repair than a passive intervention. Implications for theory and practice are discussed along with suggestions for future research.     

Upper-left gaze bias reveals competing search strategies in a reverse Stroop task

Three experiments with a total of 87 human observers revealed an upper-left spatial bias in the initial movement of gaze during visual search. The bias was present whether or not the explicit control of gaze was required for the task. This bias may be part of a search strategy that competed with the fixed-gaze parallel search strategy hypothesized by Durgin [Durgin, F. H. (2003). Translation and competition among internal representations in a reverse Stroop effect. Perception &Psychophysics, 65, 367-378.] for this task. When the spatial probabilities of the search target were manipulated either in accord with or in opposition to the existing upper-left bias, two orthogonal factors of interference in the latency data were differentially affected. The two factors corresponded to two different forms of representation and search. Target probabilities consistent with the gaze bias encouraged opportunistic serial search (including gaze shifts), while symmetrically opposing target probabilities produced latency patterns more consistent with parallel search based on a sensory code.     

Standardized Human Pedigree Nomenclature: Update and Assessment of the Recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors

In 1995, the Pedigree Standardization Task Force (PSTF) of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) proposed a system of pedigree nomenclature. Recently, the PSTF (now called the Pedigree Standardization Work Group or PSWG) sought evidence that the published symbols met the needs of health professionals, were incorporated into health professional training and were utilized in publications. We searched PubMed and reference lists of select publications, reviewed the Instructions for Authors of several journals, searched the websites of professional societies, sought comment from the membership of the NSGC, and looked at recommendations and training practices of various health professional organizations. Many journals still do not cite specific standards for pedigrees, but those found cited the PSTF nomenclature. We did not find significant objections or alternatives to the 1995 nomenclature. Based on our review, we propose only a few minor stylistic changes to the pedigree symbols. The pedigree nomenclature of the NSGC is the only consistently acknowledged standard for drawing a family health history. We recommend regular and continued review of these pedigree standards to determine if additional symbols are needed to accommodate changes in clinical practice to ensure that the symbols continue to meet the needs of health professionals and researchers as well as adhere to evolving ethical and privacy standards. All health professionals, trainees, and researchers should be made aware of the utility of using a common pedigree nomenclature in clinical practice and publication. This will become particularly important as electronic medical records become more widely utilized.