Adherence to antiretroviral therapy: an empirical test of the information-motivation-behavioral skills model.

Consistent and nearly perfect adherence is considered an essential requirement for HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) to fully realize its life-extending benefits. The current study evaluated a comprehensive model of ART adherence--the information-motivation-behavioral skills (IMB) model. This model views adherence behavior as a function of the interrelations between adherence-related information, motivation, and behavioral skills. It hypothesizes that adherence-related information and motivation work through adherence-related behavioral skills to affect the initiation and maintenance of optimal ART adherence. In a series of structural equation models, the IMB model's critical constructs and assumptions were evaluated with a sample of 100 HIV-positive patients in clinical care. Across all analyses, the authors found support for the assumptions of the IMB model of ART adherence. Consistent with the model, adherence-related information and motivation related significantly to adherence-related behavioral skills, and behavioral skills related significantly to self-reported optimal adherence. Further, as predicted, the effects of information and motivation on self-reported adherence were mediated by adherence-related behavioral skills. Current study results are explored, and implications for adherence promotion interventions based on the model are discussed.     

The Dual Value of the Web: Risks and Benefits of the Use of the Internet in Disorders with A Self-Destructive Component in Adolescents and Young Adults

Eating disorders (ED) and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) present common aspects and factors which contribute to their onset and development. The last decade has seen an increasing circulation of online materials and interactions connected to ED and NSSI. There is a general agreement among mental health clinicians and researchers that this kind of online content involves serious risks, such as normalization and reinforcement of unhealthy behaviors, alongside with some benefits, like receiving peer support and validation. The aim of this paper is to offer an overview of major research contributions on this topic. After describing common aspects between these disorders, we analyze data concerning the usage of harm-advocating websites on internet and the characteristics of users. Furthermore, we define and explore the contents of both pro-ED and NSSI websites, and we extensively inspect risks and benefits of the exposure to these online content. Finally, we present clinical guidelines for assessment, intervention and prevention, particularly focusing on family interventions. Due to the rapidity of changes when technology is involved, the research on this topic is far from being concluded; more in-depth studies are needed, not only to explore long term effects of the use of the websites described, but also to investigate new alarming tendencies such as the diffusion of websites challenging self-destructive behaviors.     

Antonyms and Paradoxes

Adjectives can be gradable or non-gradable and this aspect of their meaning is responsible for their different distribution and also for their classification into two different classes of antonyms. Non-gradable antonyms are called contradictories: they are neither true nor false together and exclude any middle term; gradable antonyms are called contraries: they are not simultaneously true, but may be simultaneously false. While with contraries a negative disjunction (neque...neque) can define an intermediate level, with contradictories it simply means that either term of the disjunction is excluded. There are however some Latin examples, such as neque vivus neque mortuus (`neither alive nor dead'), where the negation of a contradictory pair is used to convey a third, intermediate value. This third possibility is precisely what gives place to a paradox. Such an intermediate level can be defined also by terms like semivivus, semianimis (`half-dead'). Following Ducrot's theory on argumentation, such terms represent an argumentative attenuation, not with respect to life, rather with respect to death. With contradictories, in fact, the use of semi-, like the use of negation, gives the assertion of the opposite term as a result.     

Effectiveness of Computerized Cognitive Training Programs (CCTP) with Game-like Features in Children with or without Neuropsychological Disorders: a Meta-Analytic Investigation

Neuropsychology Review - Computerized cognitive training programs (CCTP) are based on the assumption that cognitive abilities may be boosted by repetitively performing challenging tasks. The...     

“Not at All Religious”: Irreligiosity as Social Deviance in a Majority Muslim Context

In a majority Muslim context, where most college students are raised religiously and appear outwardly to conform to social norms in terms of dress and religious ritual, which college students are most likely to report that, in fact, they consider themselves “Not At All Religious”? When irreligiosity is treated as a measure of social deviance, does Hirschi’s theory of social control appropriately account for this demographic? I use original Islamic Social Attitudes Survey data collected from 1,139 Kuwaiti college students in 2007 to show that gender, being raised religiously, and religious experience are all significantly correlated to irreligiosity. Neither family attachment nor peer networks predicts self-reported irreligiosity like the influence of conservative Mosque Networks.