Impulse control disorders in Parkinson’s disease: Predominant role of psychological determinants

Objectives: Impulse Control Disorders (ICDs) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) have previously almost exclusively been considered to result from anti-parkinsonian medication. However, this biomedical perspective has failed to achieve a full understanding of the phenomenon and it is argued that a failure to consider psychological factors is a critical omission.

Design: The present study examined the predictive relationship between ICDs in PD and a range of psychological measures, whilst controlling for a number of biomedical determinants.

Main outcome measures: One hundred participants with idiopathic PD completed questionnaires that assessed demographic and clinical characteristics, psychological measures and the presence of ICDs (QUIP-RS).

Results: Increased use of a ‘negative’ coping strategy, stronger illness identity, more emotional illness representations and stress were found to be significant predictors of ICDs, and different psychological predictors were associated with different ICDs. Medication was not found to predict ICDs in the presence of psychological factors, either when total treatment levels were considered or when agonist dose was considered alone.

Conclusions: This study provides the first quantitative evidence of a predominant predictive relationship between psychological factors and ICDs in PD. The results suggest that psychological interventions may have useful therapeutic role to play for ICDs in PD.     

Remembering and telling self-consistent and self-discrepant memories

It has been argued that memories that are inconsistent with one's self would differ from those that are consistent with the self. The present study addresses retrieval, phenomenology, rehearsal and narrative characteristics of autobiographical memories that are consistent versus discrepant with one's self. One hundred participants were asked to recall one self-consistent and one self-discrepant memory as well as an episode of telling these memories to others. They also filled out the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire and the Centrality of Event Scale for each memory. Results showed no difference between self-consistent and self-discrepant memories in retrieval time, specificity or phenomenology. However, self-discrepant memory narratives contained more meaning-making statements and less autonomy than self-consistent memories. Compared to self-consistent memories, self-discrepant memories were told to fewer people, and listener responses were more negative when they were told. Results are discussed in relation to the functions these memories serve.     

M. Parkinson: L-Dopa nach wie vor wirksamste Therapie

More than 50 years after its introduction into clinical practice, L?dopa still is the most effective therapy for Parkinson’s disease and the gold standard for all other medications. In this article, two case reports are used to illustrate the good clinical efficacy and also the long-term complications of L?dopa therapy. The cause for these problems are the pharmacokinetics of L?dopa in combination with the progressive loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons in the course of the disease. New formulations of L?dopa offer hope for the improvement of these complications. One of these will soon be available for clinical use, while others are being tested in ongoing clinical trials.     

Posttraumatic stress and physical health among adults: The role of coping mechanisms

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether coping mechanisms predict physical health, after controlling for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters in a non-clinical sample of adults. Data were collected from 483 adults through an online survey. Most of the participants (66.7%) reported lifetime exposure to at least one traumatic event. The final sample of this study included 319 trauma-exposed individuals. Results indicated that PTSD symptoms on the avoidance and hyperarousal clusters had significant positive relationships with self-reported physical health symptoms. After controlling for gender and PTSD, denial, behavioral disengagement, and self-blame significantly and positively predicted physical health symptoms.     

Coping,Social Interest,and Psychological Birth Order as Predictors of Resilience in Turkey

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of psychological birth order, social interest, and coping strategies and their interactions on resilience in Turkish population (N?=?247). The results indicated social interest, coping strategies of active planning, acceptance and cognitive restructuring, seeking external help and psychological birth order of the youngest and middle child were predictors of resilience.     

Sex differences in the behavioral responses of dogs exposed to human chemosignals of fear and happiness

Animal Cognition - This research focuses on sex differences in the behavioral patterns of dogs when they are exposed to human chemosignals (sweat) produced in happy and fear contexts. No age, breed...     

Decision-making,cognitive functions,impulsivity, and media multitasking expectancies in high versus low media multitaskers

In several studies, individuals who reported to frequently multitask with different media displayed reduced cognitive performance, for example in fluid intelligence and executive functioning. These cognitive functions are relevant for making advantageous decisions under both objective risk (requiring reflection and strategical planning) and ambiguous risk (requiring learning from feedback). Thus, compared to low media multitaskers (LMMs), high media multitaskers (HMMs) may perform worse in both types of decision situations. The current study investigated HMMs and LMMs in a laboratory setting with the Game of Dice Task (GDT; objective risk), the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; ambiguous risk), various tests quantifying cognitive functions (logical reasoning, working memory, information processing, general executive functions), and self-report measures of impulsivity, media multitasking expectancies, and problematic Internet use. From 182 participants, 25 HMMs and 19 LMMs were identified using the Media Multitasking Index. Results show that HMMs compared to LMMs performed weaker on the IGT but not on the GDT. Furthermore, HMMs had slightly decreased performance in tests of logical reasoning and working memory capacity. HMMs tended to increased information processing speed but this difference was not significant. Furthermore, HMMs have more positive expectancies regarding media multitasking and reported higher tendencies toward problematic Internet use. HMMs and LMMs did not differ significantly with respect to impulsivity and executive functions. The results give a first hint that HMMs may have difficulties in decision-making under ambiguous but not under objective risk. HMMs may be more prone to errors in tasks that require feedback processing. However, HMMs appear not to be impaired in aspects of long-term strategic decision-making.