Use of paracetamol (acetaminophen) for suicide and nonfatal poisoning: worldwide patterns of use and misuse

Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is one of the most frequently used drugs in intentional overdoses. We have investigated associations between its availability and its use for overdose and suicide around the world by means of a postal questionnaire and literature review. Countries that limit the quantity of paracetamol available in a single purchase generally report lower rates of paracetamol-related morbidity and mortality. National policy decisions regarding restrictions on its availability need to weigh the inconvenience caused to the many who use the drug safely against those of the few in whom overdose may be fatal. We recommend restricting the quantity of drug available as a single purchase as the most pragmatic means of reducing paracetamol-related suicide and liver failure.     

Revisiting the perception of upside-down faces

In two experiments, the effect of orientation on face perception was assessed. Using a scale from 1 ( normal ) to 7 ( bizarre ), participants rated normal, unaltered faces and faces in which changes had been made to spatial-relational properties (eyes and mouth inverted or relative position of the eyes and mouth altered) or to component properties (eyes whitened and teeth blackened). For unaltered and component-distortion faces, bizarreness ratings increased linearly as orientation increased from 0° to 180°. For spatial-distortion faces, a discontinuity in the function relating orientation and bizarreness was in evidence between 90° and 120°. The results provide support for the view that there is a qualitative difference in the processing of upright and inverted faces due to the disproportionate effect of inversion on the encoding of spatial-relational information.     

The interaction of meaning and sound in spoken word recognition

Models of spoken word recognition vary in the ways in which they capture the relationship between speech input and meaning. Modular accounts prohibit a word’s meaning from affecting the computation of its form-based representation, whereas interactive models allow activation at the semantic level to affect phonological processing. We tested these competing hypotheses by manipulating word familiarity and imageability, using lexical decision and repetition tasks. Responses to high-imageability words were significantly faster than those to low-imageability words. Repetition latencies were also analyzed as a function of cohort variables, revealing a significant imageability effect only for words that were members of large cohorts, suggesting that when the mapping from phonology to semantics is difficult, semantic information can help the discrimination process. Thus, these data support interactive models of spoken word recognition.     

Neural basis for sentence comprehension deficits in frontotemporal dementia

Many patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) have impaired sentence comprehension. However, the pattern of comprehension difficulty appears to vary depending on the clinical subgroup. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the neural basis for these deficits in FTD. We studied patients with two different presentations: Three patients with Progressive Non-Fluent Ahasia (PNFA), and five non-aphasic patients with a dysexecutive and social impairment (EXEC). The FTD patient subgroups were compared to a cohort of 11 healthy seniors with intact sentence comprehension. We monitored regional cerebral activity with blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects read sentences featuring both a grammatically complex object-relative center-embedded clause and a long linkage between the head noun phrase (NP) and the gap where the NP is interpreted in the center-embedded clause. Subjects decided whether the agent of the action is a male or a female. Healthy seniors activated both ventral portions of inferior frontal cortex (vIFC) and dorsal portions of IFC (dIFC) in the left hemisphere, often associated with grammatical and working memory components of these sentences, respectively. PNFA patients differed from healthy controls since they have reduced activation of left vIFC, while EXEC patients have less recruitment of left dIFC. We conclude that FTD subgroups have distinct patterns of sentence comprehension difficulty in part because of selective interruptions of a large-scale neural network for sentence processing.     

Late adolescents' self-defining memories about relationships

This study examined late adolescents' self-defining memories about relationships. Participants were 88 European Americans (mean age = 19 years) who reported 3 self-defining memories of their choosing and were selected for the study because they reported a memory about parents and/or peers. Memory narratives were coded for themes of separation, closeness, and conflict and for 2 kinds of meaning: learning lessons and gaining insight. Parent memories emphasized separation more so than peer memories, which emphasized closeness. Within parent memories, however, separation and closeness were equally prevalent. Parent separation was exemplified by experiences of parental divorce, parent closeness by comforting a grieving parent, and peer closeness by episodes of first-time romance. Conflict was more prevalent in parent than peer memories and was associated with meaning-making. Findings are discussed in terms of the usefulness of self-defining memories for illuminating contexts of relationship development in late adolescence and for understanding the emergence of identity and the life story.     

Weak central coherence,poor joint attention,and low verbal ability: independent deficits in early autism

C. Jarrold, W. Butler, E. M. Cottington, and F. Jiminez (2000) proposed that weak central coherence is a primary cognitive deficit in autism and speculated that it may even account for theory of mind impairments. The current study investigated whether weak central coherence could account for deficits in 2 behaviors purported to tap capabilities fundamental to a theory of mind: joint attention and pretend play. Twenty-one children (ages 3-5 years) with autism spectrum disorders were matched to 21 control children on chronological age, nonverbal ability, and gender. Pretend play did not differentiate the groups. Weak central coherence, poor joint attention, and low verbal ability contributed significantly and independently to the prediction of autism group membership, a finding consistent with 3 independent cognitive deficits underlying autism.     

Maternal power assertion in discipline and moral discourse contexts: commonalities, differences, and implications for children's moral conduct and cognition

Parental power assertion is traditionally studied in the behavioral domain--discipline triggered by the child's immediate misbehavior--but rarely in the cognitive domain--parent-child discussions of the child's past misbehavior. Maternal power assertion was observed in "do" and 'don't" discipline contexts from 14 to 45 months and in the context of mother-child discourse about a recent misbehavior at 56 months. Mothers' use of power cohered across the "do," 'don't," and discourse contexts, but its implications were domain specific. Power assertion in the 'don't" discipline context predicted behavioral outcomes (more moral conduct at 56 and 73 months, less antisocial conduct at 73 months) but not cognitive outcomes (moral cognition at 56 and 73 months). Power assertion in the discourse context predicted less mature moral cognition but not moral or antisocial conduct. Mothers' high Neuroticism predicted more power assertion in all three contexts. Child effects were examined.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the multidimensional scale of perceived social support in clinically distressed and student samples

Previous authors (e.g., B. R. Sarason, Shearin, Pierce, & Sarason, 1987) have found that perceived social support can affect the emotional well-being of an individual. Consequently, the effective assessment of social supports is a key issue in both research and clinical practice. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988) divides perceived social support into 3 distinct constructs-that derived from Family members, from Friends, and from Significant Others. This study is the first to assess the MSPSS using confirmatory factor analysis in both a college student (N = 549) and psychiatric outpatient (N = 156) sample. Based on several goodness-of-fit indicators, a 3-factor model for the MSPSS was supported in both samples, as was a single, higher order domain of Global social support. The perceived social support factors of Family and Friends consistently had the strongest associations with symptomatology. These results support the use of the MSPSS as a brief instrument for assessing the hierarchical structure of perceived social support in a variety of samples.     

Personality and anxiety disorders: a review

In this article, we summarize research on how normal personality and personality disorder traits may relate to anxiety disorders as predisposing factors, complications, and results of common underlying etiologies. We outline important questions and how these may be addressed through future research using genetically informative longitudinal and other designs, including: Are high neuroticism/cluster C personality traits causally related to the development of anxiety disorders? To what extent does the state of having an anxiety disorder influence the assessment of personality traits? Do high neuroticism/personality disorder traits and anxiety disorders co-occur because of shared genetic and environmental determinants? And, do personality disorder traits add to the prediction of anxiety disorders when normal personality traits are taken into account?     

The PIG in sPrInG: Evidence on letter grouping from the reading of buried words

We introduce a novel procedure for investigating factors that determine selective attention to letters in words. Participants were presented with words (in Experiments 1 and 3) and nonwords (in Experiment 2) that contained a buried word whose letters differed in color relative to the other letters present (e.g.,pig, in spring). The strings were presented in single case or mixed case, keeping the letters of the buried words in one case (SpRiNg). The time in which the whole stimulus was named was shorter for same-case than for mixed-case strings (forspring: spring < SpRiNg). In contrast, the time in which buried words were named was shorter in mixed- than in same-case strings (forpig: spring > SpRiNg). Across items, the effects of case mixing were negatively correlated across the two tasks. The positive effect of case mixing for buried words also occurred irrespective of whether the whole string was a word or a nonword, and there were contributions from similarity of both letter size and case. The results suggest that case mixing can facilitate selective attention to letters, which is otherwise disrupted by size- and case-based grouping across letter strings. The study provides evidence for letter grouping using size and case information.