A systematic review of interventions for anxiety in people with HIV

People with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) show elevated anxiety levels compared to the general population. Anxiety can predate HIV infection or be triggered by HIV diagnosis and the many stresses that emerge during the course of HIV disease. Many psychological and pharmacological therapies have been shown to treat anxiety in the general population but a systematic understanding of which interventions have been tested in and are effective with HIV-seropositive individuals is needed. This review examines all published intervention studies on anxiety and HIV from 1980 to 2009 covered by the databases MedLine (1980-2009) and PsycINFO (1980-2009) for a definitive account of effectiveness of interventions and an indication of prevalence of HIV-related anxiety and measurement within studies. Standard systematic research methods were used to gather quality published papers on HIV and anxiety, searching published data bases according to quality inclusion criteria. From the search, 492 papers were generated and hand searched resulting in 39 studies meeting adequacy inclusion criteria for analysis. Of these, 30 (76.9%) were implemented in North America (the USA and Canada), with little representation from developing countries. Thirty-three (84.6%) studies recruited only men or mostly men. A total of 50 interventions were investigated by the 39 studies; 13 targeted HIV, symptoms or associated outcomes/conditions, 20 directly targeted anxiety and another 17 indirectly targeted anxiety. Twenty-four (48%) interventions were effective in reducing anxiety (including 11 indirect interventions), 16 (32%) were ineffective and 10 (20%) had an unknown effect on anxiety. Sixty-five percent of interventions directly targeting anxiety were effective. Psychological interventions (especially cognitive behavioural stress management interventions and cognitive behavioural therapy) were generally more effective than pharmacological interventions. Only three studies provided prevalence rates - these ranged from 13% to 80%. Anxiety was measured using 16 different instruments. Our detailed data suggest that interventions are both effective and available, although further research into enhancing efficacy would be valuable. Also, the vast majority of studies were Western-based, no studies looked at children or adolescents and few looked specifically at women. An international effort to harmonise measurement of anxiety is also missing. There is a need to routinely log anxiety in those with HIV infection during the course of their disease, to provide specific data on women, young people and those in diverse geographic areas and incorporate management into care protocols.     

Autonomy and interdependence: beliefs of Brazilian mothers from state capitals and small towns

This study aimed to investigate characteristics of Brazilian mothers' beliefs system, in the dimensions of autonomy and interdependence. A group of 600 women, half from state capitals and half from small towns, participated in the study. They were individually interviewed with Scales of Allocentrism, Beliefs about Parental Practices and Socialization Goals. Paired and Independent samples t tests and Multivariate GLM were performed. The results indicate that although mothers from both contexts value autonomy, mothers inhabiting small towns considered the relational dimension as the most important; whereas mothers inhabiting capitals valued equally both dimensions, either in their beliefs about practices or in the socialization goals for their children. Mothers from small towns have a higher mean score for allocentrism than mothers living in capitals. Thus, place of residence proved to be a relevant variable in the modulation of maternal beliefs. Educational level was not a significant factor in the variables considered and with this group of mothers. The study results are discussed in terms of their contribution to the understanding of the complex relationship between dimensions of autonomy and interdependence in mothers' beliefs system.     

Neural correlates of skill acquisition with a cortical brain-machine interface

Research into the development of brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) has led to demonstrations of rodents, nonhuman primates, and humans controlling prosthetic devices in real time through modulation of neural signals. In particular, cortical BMI studies have shown that improvements in performance require learning and are associated with changes in neuronal tuning properties. These studies have further shown evidence of long-term improvements in performance with practice. The authors conducted experiments to understand long-term skill acquisition with BMIs and to characterize the neural correlates of improvements in task performance. They specifically assessed long-term acquisition of neuroprosthetic skill (i.e., accurate task performance readily recalled across days). In 2 monkeys performing a center-out task using a brain-controlled (BC) computer cursor, they closely monitored daily performance trends and the neural correlates under different conditions. Importantly, they assessed BC performance using a continuous-control multistep task. The authors first conducted experiments that mimicked experimental conditions commonly used. Specifically, a large set of neurons was incorporated with daily recalibration of the transform of neural activity to BC. Under such conditions, they found evidence of variable daily performance. In contrast, when a fixed transform was applied to stable recordings from an ensemble of neurons across days, there was consistent evidence of long-term skill acquisition. Such skill acquisition was associated with the crystallization of a cortical map for prosthetic control. Taken together, the results suggest that the primate motor cortex can achieve skilled control of a neuroprosthetic device through consolidation of a cortical representation.     

The role of gender and gender role similarity in readers' identification with story characters

This study tested the hypothesis that adult readers would identify with story characters who display a similar gender role orientation. Male and female readers rated their identification with male and female characters who acted in either a masculine or feminine manner in short story vignettes. The primary finding was an interaction between gender role of reader and gender role behavior of character: as predicted, androgynous and undifferentiated readers identified equally with both masculine and feminine characters, masculine readers identified more strongly with masculine characters than feminine characters, and feminine readers identified more strongly with feminine characters than masculine characters. Further, androgynous readers identified somewhat more strongly with both types of characters than undifferentiated readers. However, the predicted effect of gender similarity between reader and character did not exert a strong influence on the identification process. In addition, feminine subjects reported greater identification across all four stories than masculine and undifferentiated subjects. Finally, of three questionnaire measures of empathy tested, only Davis's (1983) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Empathic Concern subscale) significantly predicted general level of identification; as expected, these scores were significantly correlated with femininity gender role scores.     

Individual characteristics and career exploration in adolescence

The effects of gender, age and school grade on several career exploration dimensions measured by the Career Exploration Survey were investigated. Subjects were high school students facing an imminent career decision. Regression analyses indicated that sex and grade-level were the most significant and prevailing individual characteristics related to the adolescents' career exploration behaviours, reactions and beliefs. Implications for career exploration interventions are discussed.     

DIVERSITY AND COMMUNALITY IN VENEZUELA AROUND THE CONCEPTS OF PROGRESS AND WORK: THEIR EFFECTS ON ORGANIZATIONS

Venezuela has experienced quite a rapid rate of change at mid century but has not been able to attain real economic development. Yet the desirability of progress is a commonly shared value, although there are important differences within the society; for example, in the ways in which work is conceived, or the degree to which the common Latin American values are ascribed. Besides, the concern with power, which is also identified as important within Venezuelan society and often gets combined with the socio-centric values into ‘political partisanship’, is a factor affecting organizational functioning, particularly in the public sector. Examples are given of unsuccessful and successful organizations, pointing out the need to take into account the commonalities and diversities in values identified within the society in the search of organizational alternatives more viable within the particular context.     

Dissociative effects in different prime domains

These experiments were performed to examine the effects of different types of primes across variations in prime set size, prime strength, and prior study in verification and lexical decision tasks. The primes consisted of taxonomic category names, associates, or rhymes that defined either small or large sets of related concepts, and they were either strongly or weakly related to their targets. Targets either were or were not studied prior to the priming task. The results indicated that, for taxonomic primes, shorter decision latencies were obtained when set size was smaller and when the target was studied before the priming task. In contrast, for rhymes, neither set size nor prior study had reliable effects. For all three types of primes, decision latencies were faster for stronger than for weaker prime-to-target relationships. These findings are contrasted with the results of manipulating these variables in episodic tasks such as cued recall, and they are interpreted in the context of a components-of-processing approach.