The Critical Need to Recognize That Families Matter for Adult Health: A Systematic Review of the Literature

A systemic approach to researching families and health should capture the complex network within which family members are embedded, including multiple family relationships and larger systems of health care. However, much of the families and health research focused on adult family members has focused solely on intimate partnerships, usually the marital relationship. This neglects the remainder of the powerfully influencing family relationships adults retain, and may increasingly focus on as they age. We conducted a systematic review of the families and adult health literature, retaining 72 articles which were subsequently thematically coded to highlight main foci of this area of research. Results highlight six themes, which include family relationship quality, family composition, behavioral factors in health and health care, psychophysiological mediators, caregiving, and aging health. Findings support an underrepresentation of family members, other than the intimate partner, in research on adult health.     

Use of Legal Drugs by Psychiatric Outpatients: Benefits, Costs, and Change

Caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol use by persons with a severe mental illness occurs frequently but is poorly understood. We used qualitative methods to elicit information regarding the functional relationships between legal substance use and its antecedents and consequences. This report summarizes responses provided by 37 psychiatric outpatients who participated in focus groups and key informant interviews regarding the use and functions of alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. We describe major themes regarding positive and negative consequences, triggers for use, change efforts, and offer observations regarding substance use in this under-served population.     

The effect of blinks and saccadic eye movements on visual reaction times

Vision is suppressed during blinks and saccadic eye movements. We hypothesized that visual reaction times (RTs) in a vigilance test would be significantly increased when a blink or a saccade happened to coincide with the stimulus onset. Thirty healthy volunteers each performed a visual RT test for 15 min while their eye and eyelid movements were monitored by a system of infrared reflectance oculography. RTs increased significantly, many by more than 200 msec, when a blink occurred between 75 msec before and up to 150 msec after the stimulus onset. A similar result was observed with saccades that started 75 to 150 msec after the stimulus. Vision or attention was evidently inhibited before each blink and for longer than the saccades lasted. We suggest that visual suppression is involved in this process, which could explain some of the normal variability in RTs over periods of seconds that has not been adequately explained before.     

Consumption After a Diet Violation: Disinhibition or Compensation?

ABSTRACT— Previous research, restricted to the laboratory, has found that restrained eaters overeat after they violate their diet. However, there has been no evidence showing that this same process occurs outside the lab. We hypothesized that outside of this artificial setting, restrained eaters would be able to control their eating. In Study 1 , 127 participants reported hourly on their diet violations and eating over 2 days. In Study 2 , 89 participants tracked their intake for 8 days, and 50 of these participants consumed a milk shake (a diet violation) on Day 7, as part of an ostensibly unrelated study. As hypothesized, dieters did not overeat following violations of their diet in either study. These findings are in contrast with those of previous lab studies and dispel the widely held belief that diet violations lead to overeating in everyday life.     

Pragmatic evaluation of the viability of CCBT self‐help for depression in higher education

This study explores the potential of a computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBT) self‐help programme for depression within the context of a Higher Education Counselling Service. It seems timely to consider the place of evidence‐based alternatives to the face‐to‐face counselling traditionally provided in higher education with user choice in mind. There is also a need to cater for increasing numbers of students experiencing a wide range and severity of emotional difficulties, sometimes resulting in long waiting periods for help. In the study twelve depressed students used the CCBT programme ‘Beating the Blues’?. Ten (83.3%) participants completed the programme. Initial credibility of and expectancy‐for‐improvement from the intervention was high. Significant reductions in depression scores were found following completion, whilst anxiety scores changes were not significant. Feedback on the programme was largely positive. CCBT was clearly preferred to face‐to‐face counselling by some participants, supporting the need for a choice of interventions for students. These results suggest that CCBT may be an acceptable and effective intervention for a number of depressed students. It is argued that CCBT may be a viable addition to current provision in Higher Education Counselling Services and that further studies are required to investigate this further.     

Visual analysis of gait as a cue to identity

For humans, the ability to discriminate between, and to identify, others is paramount. The most obvious way this is accomplished is by means of face recognition. However, this is not the only method available. The present article reports on two experiments designed to see whether gait can be used as a reliable cue to identity. Experiment One showed that the human visual system was sophisticated enough to learn to identify six individuals on the basis of their gait signature under conditions of simulated daylight, simulated dusk and point‐light displays. It thus appeared that gait‐related judgements could be made, and furthermore, that these judgements were possible without reliance on shape information. Experiment Two suggested that even under adverse viewing conditions involving a single brief exposure, humans could identify a target from a ‘walking identity parade’ at greater than chance levels. These results emerged regardless of the lighting conditions, and were largely independent of the gender of the target walker. As such, the present results suggest that gait could be used as a reliable means of discriminating between individuals, and the importance of such an identity cue, in conditions in which the face is obscured, are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New Development in Legal Advocacy

Mental health service users are voicing the need for advocacy which is responsive to the social oppression they encounter in their lives, and within services. The Kent Law Clinic provides free, independent legal representation for people with a mental illness or a learning difficulty. This article describes the development of the Clinic and some of its work.