Toward a predictive model of suicidal ideation and behavior: some preliminary data in college students

Within a multivariate statistical design, the relationship of various interpersonal, emotional, and cognitive variables to suicidal ideation and behavior in college students was examined. A total of 158 subjects (58 males, 100 females) completed self-report measures of life stress, faulty cognitions, loneliness, depression, hopelessness, family cohesiveness, adaptive reasons for living, and suicidal ideation and behavior. The results of a multiple-regression analysis, forward-inclusion algorithm, indicated that a predictive equation consisting of loneliness, irrational beliefs, and low adaptive reasons for living best accounted for suicidal behavior scores. To determine the basic structures and power of the predictor variables under study, a factor analysis and composite regression were employed, resulting in a predictive equation consisting of three factors: Social/Emotional Alienation, Cognitive Distortions, and Deficient Adaptive Resources. Results are discussed in terms of an interactional model of suicidal behavior.     

Event content in a daily survey is differentially associated with concurrent mood

Daily life events were grouped according to their life content area and according to the desirability of the event as rated by the subject. Associations among event groupings and concurrently measured daily mood were examined. As in studies of major life events, some event classifications were more strongly associated with mood than were others: Specifically, desirable family-leisure events and undesirable work events were strongly related to mood. The results suggests that particular life areas deserve special attention in understanding environmental stress.     

Status of perfusion scintigraphy in the diagnostic strategy in cerebrovascular disorders and space-occupying lesions

The results of an evaluation of the perfusion scintigraphy findings of 350 hospitalised neurological patients and 55 more strictly selected neurosurgical patients with cerebrovascular complaints, revealed an accuraty of 83%, a sensitivity of 89%, and a specificity of 83%. The selection of the patients had no influence on the results as a whole. Compared with contrast-medium angiography, incorrect diagnosis must be expected in 17% of the cases. This includes erroneous negative findings in 10% of the cases. Grounds for misinterpretations are suggested, and the biological and methodological limitations of the method are set forth.     

Psychopathologic symptoms in torticollis spasmodicus

The paper presents the results of detailed diagnosis of 51 patients with torticollis spasmodicus. A discussion of the results would seem to indicate the possibility of there being one group with prior neuroses, one group compulsive in nature, and one group whose diminished performance arises from the condition of the brain. Reliable diagnosis is only possible when both mental and physical parameters have been taken into consideration.     

Incontinentia pigmenti as the leading symptom

It is reported on four girls aged 8 to 20 with Incontinentia pigmenti (Ip) The ectodermal dysplasia was associated with oligophrenia, therapy resistant epilepsy with severe psychorganic syndromes and dementia, Lennox syndrome, lability of emotion with severe disorders of social adaptations, spasticity, hypo- and areflexia, hemiathetosis, choreiform unrest, pathological EEG findings, including spike-potentials; relations to cleidocranial dysostosis, dysraphia, Poland's, Greig's and Chotzen's syndrome were found. Ip means unfavourable prognosis and progression of neuropsychiatric disorders.     

A view of aggression in phobic states

This article attempts to apply a theory of aggression as motivation to overcome obstacles to the understanding of phobic states and their formation. The role of aggression in the genesis of phobic conditions is discussed, and the traditional analytic view of aggression as instinctual drive is contrasted with a motivational approach. The motivational view offers the advantage of a clearer understanding of the stimulus contexts, representational connections, and both real and imaginary object connections that are lacking in the more traditional understanding of aggression as a biological drive.