Group climate and group development in a community meeting on a short-term inpatient psychiatric unit

Group climate and group development of the community meeting on a short-term inpatient psychiatric unit are examined. The Group Climate Questionnaire (GCQ) was administered to all staff and patients present at the weekly community meeting on an acute treatment unit in a teaching hospital over a 12-week period. Results show that staff and patients perceive the community meetings in relatively similar ways, that the group climate of a community meeting can attain a positive working state, and that, at times, the meeting can progress through developmental stages of group process. Behavioral observations support the GCQ as a measure of group interaction.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Mary Pat Donnelly with the statistical analyses and the cooperation of all staff and patients who participated in this study.     

Socially induced renal pathology of captive wild rats (Rattus villosissimus)

Long-haired rats, Rattus villosissimus, were studied in large cages. Groups of adult rats (each of 3 males, or 1 male and 2 females) were observed during intermittent encounters with a male intruder for up to 9 days. Two further groups, each of 8 males and 8 females, were maintained for 70 days without introduction of intruders. Controls were kept in small cages in which intolerant behavior was rare. Behavior during attack resembled that of male R. norvegicus, but social relationships were less stable. Only observations on males are described in detail. Some rats collapsed under attack, though unwounded, and died when not removed. Collapse occurred sometimes after a few hours, but sometimes after many days of exposure. Exposure to attack was accompanied by a decline in body weight and by some adrenal hypertrophy. Two kinds of renal pathology are described: focal glomerular hypercellularity (FGH), probably due to glomerulonephritis, and dilated distal convoluted tubules. Neither condition occurred in the controls. FGH occurred in 3 of 12 rats (25%) that remained apparently healthy during the 9 days of continuous exposure, in 21 of 23 intruders (91%) that were exposed to intermittent attack over 9 days or less without becoming debilitated, and in 8 of 11 such rats (73%) that collapsed. All rats examined from 70-day colonies had FGH, whether collapsed or not. Dilated tubules occurred in 6 of 32 intruders (19%) exposed to intermittent attack, and in 2 of 6 animals that collapsed during 70 days of exposure. Renal pathology, especially glomerulonephritis, was therefore a correlate of social intolerance; but there was no evidence that it was a significant cause of death.     

Differences in high and low anxiety sensitive women's responses to a laboratory-based cold pressor task

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been linked to a variety of disabling chronic health conditions, including pain-related conditions. A recent study has found that healthy women with high AS reported significantly higher levels of sensory and affective pain on an experimental cold pressor task compared to women with low AS. However, this study found no differences between AS groups for pain tolerance or pain threshold. In the present study, which was designed to replicate and extend these findings, 90 undergraduate university women were selected for inclusion in 1 of 2 AS groups (high or low) based on their screening scores on a 16-item measure of AS. Participants were tested individually on a lab-based cold pressor task using a variety of self-report and observer-measured variables. Data analyses revealed that, as expected, the high AS participants reported significantly more fear in response to the cold pressor on a relevant item of the McGill Pain Questionnaire-Short Form (SF-MPQ) than did the low AS participants. Also as expected, the high AS participants reported more pain in response to the cold pressor on the Present Pain Index (PPI) of the SF-MPQ than did the low AS participants. High AS participants did not differ from low AS participants on other aspects of the cold pressor response (e.g. pain threshold, pain tolerance, pain recovery). These results support the role of pain-related fear as a mediating variable between AS and increased perceived pain intensity.     

Why do they exercise less? Barriers to exercise in high-anxiety-sensitive women

Anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of arousal sensations) is a risk factor for mental and physical health problems, including physical inactivity. Because of the many mental and physical health benefits of exercise, it is important to better understand why high-AS individuals may be less likely to exercise. The present study's aim was to understand the role of barriers to exercise in explaining lower levels of physical exercise in high-AS individuals. Participants were undergraduate women who were selected as high (n = 82) or low (n = 72) AS. High-AS women participated in less physical exercise and perceived themselves as less fit than low-AS women. Mediation analyses revealed that barriers to exercise accounted for the inverse relationships between AS group and physical exercise/fitness levels. Findings suggest that efforts to increase physical exercise in at-risk populations, such as high-AS individuals, should not focus exclusively on benefits to exercise but should also target reasons why these individuals are exercising less.     

A brief cognitive-behavioral approach to reducing anxiety sensitivity decreases pain-related anxiety

Anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of anxiety-related sensations) is a known risk factor for anxiety disorders and recently has been linked to pain disorders. The present study was guided by the hypothesis that a program designed to reduce AS levels might also result in a decrease in anxiety related to pain sensations. Female undergraduates, selected as either high or low in AS according to screening scores on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI), were randomly assigned to participate in 3 1-hour, small group sessions of either cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT; psycho-education, cognitive restructuring, and interoceptive exposure) or a non-specific treatment (NST). Immediately prior to and following the intervention, participants completed the 20-item Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS-20). Consistent with hypothesis, results revealed a 3-way interaction between AS group, intervention condition, and time on PASS-20 total scores. Only participants with high pre-morbid levels of AS assigned to the CBT condition showed a significant reduction in scores on the PASS-20 from pre- to post-treatment. Implications for improving CBT approaches for pain disorders are discussed.     

Spontaneous skepticism: the interplay of motivation and expectation in responses to favorable and unfavorable medical diagnoses

The quantity of processing view of motivated reasoning predicts that individuals are more likely to spontaneously question the validity of unfavorable than favorable feedback even when the objective likelihood of the feedback is equivalent. Participants were videotaped self-administering a bogus medical test revealing either a favorable or an unfavorable result. In Studies 1 and 2, unfavorable result participants required more time to accept the validity of the test result and were more likely to spontaneously recheck its validity than were favorable result participants. However, unfavorable results also were perceived as less expected than were favorable results, even though the information supplied about their objective likelihood was identical. Study 3 showed that participants evaluating another student's results perceived favorable and unfavorable outcomes as equally likely, suggesting that the subjective likelihood of positive and negative feedback is also subject to motivational influence.     

Interrater reliability and coding guide for nonpsychotic formal thought disorder

Reliable and valid assessment of abnormal speech patterns may enable earlier recognition of nonpsychotic disorders through characteristic speech patterns. This study sought to establish interrater reliability using a standardized guide for scoring. A scoring guide defining 27 elements (e.g., inappropriate self-reference, simple loss of goal, circumstantiality) of disordered thought was developed. The seminal work of Andreasen's and Holzman's groups provided 12 elements, and 15 new elements were suggested by clinical literature. Audiotaped interviews with 12 psychiatric inpatients, adults of both sexes and various ages hospitalized for acute management of nonpsychotic psychiatric disorders, provided speech samples for observation of disordered thought by two independent raters. Using the guide's definitions and accompanying examples of elements of disordered thought, reliability in scoring was high (kappa of .85 for agreement on the presence of any abnormal speech element and kappa values from .66 to 1.00 for agreement on the presence of individual elements).