Assessing Recall in Mothers’ Retrospective Reports: Concerns Over Children’s Speech and Language Development

Retrospective recall about children’s symptoms is used to establish early developmental patterns in clinical practice and is also utilised in child psychopathology research. Some studies have indicated that the accuracy of retrospective recall is influenced by life events. Our hypothesis was that an intervention: speech and language therapy, would adversely affect the accuracy of parent recall of early concerns about their child’s speech and language development. Mothers (n?=?5,390) reported on their child’s speech development (child male to female ratio = 50:50) when their children were aged 18 or 30 months, and also reported on these early concerns retrospectively, 10 years later, when their children were 13 years old. Overall reliability of retrospective recall was good, 86 % of respondents accurately recalling their earlier concerns. As hypothesised, however, the speech and language intervention was strongly associated with inaccurate retrospective recall about concerns in the early years (Relative Risk Ratio = 19.03; 95 % CI:14.78–24.48). Attendance at speech therapy was associated with increased recall of concerns that were not reported at the time. The study suggests caution is required when interpreting retrospective reports of abnormal child development as recall may be influenced by intervening events.     

Family Functioning and Social Support in Men and Women Diagnosed with Depression in China

Previous research has demonstrated the association between family functioning and depression. This study evaluated family functioning and perceived social support in men and women in Shanghai who had received a diagnosis of a major depressive disorder (N = 100), including sixty-six women and thirty-four men. The relationship between family functioning and social support of outpatients with major depressive disorders was explored using the Chinese Family Assessment Device and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The scores from all dimensions of family functioning for both men and women indicated that depressed men and women all reported experiencing unhealthy family functioning. The clinical implications of these findings for the developing practice of family therapy in China are discussed.     

Dynamics of alpha oscillations elucidate facial affect recognition in schizophrenia

Impaired facial affect recognition is characteristic of schizophrenia and has been related to impaired social function, but the relevant neural mechanisms have not been fully identified. The present study sought to identify the role of oscillatory alpha activity in that deficit during the process of facial emotion recognition. Neuromagnetic brain activity was monitored while 44 schizophrenia patients and 44 healthy controls viewed 5-s videos showing human faces gradually changing from neutral to fearful or happy expressions or from the neutral face of one poser to the neutral face of another. Recognition performance was determined separately by self-report. Relative to prestimulus baseline, controls exhibited a 10- to 15-Hz power increase prior to full recognition and a 10- to 15-Hz power decrease during the postrecognition phase. These results support recent proposals about the function of alpha-band oscillations in normal stimulus evaluation. The patients failed to show this sequence of alpha power increase and decrease and also showed low 10- to 15-Hz power and high 10- to 15-Hz connectivity during the prestimulus baseline. In light of the proposal that a combination of alpha power increase and functional disconnection facilitates information intake and processing, the finding of an abnormal association of low baseline alpha power and high connectivity in schizophrenia suggests a state of impaired readiness that fosters abnormal dynamics during facial affect recognition.     

Aggression in Children With Reactive Attachment Disorder: A Sign of Deficits in Emotional Regulatory Processes?

Children diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD) have been reported to exhibit a multitude of symptoms and behaviors that are not captured by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria. One behavior in particular that has been the source of much argument and controversy is aggression. Although limited research on this topic does support an association between aggression and RAD behaviors, the exact nature of this link remains unclear. This study aims to fill this gap by reporting data from a study that examined the behavioral processes that occur in adopted children with RAD. Guided by the principles of grounded theory, this study employed a multi-stage semi-structured interview design. The sample consisted of 5 adoptive families, and included both adult and child participants, including the adopted children with RAD. The findings revealed 5 prominent themes: The adopted children are reported to engage in extreme and prolonged tantrums, known as rages; children were often inconsolable during these rages; these rages are perceived as uncontrollable by children with RAD; these rages are directed toward a discriminate caregiver; and the impetus for these rages appears to be associated with difficulties in adapting to environmental demands. An in-depth discussion that draws a theoretical connection between these rages and possible deficits in brain-based processes responsible for emotional regulation is presented.     

Brief Counseling for Alcohol Misuse Among Trauma Patients: Two Interventions and Influence of Baseline Use

This study examined whether baseline trauma patient characteristics and randomized participation in 1 of 2 brief interventions predicted changes in alcohol use at 6 months postintervention. Higher total Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores predicted greater changes, and specific AUDIT items were significant predictors.