Activity Level,Activity Enjoyment,and Weather as Mediators of Physical Health Risks in Seasonal and Nonseasonal Depression

Research suggests that depression has negative consequences on physical health. One of the mechanisms driving this link may be the decrease in physical activity characteristic of individuals before and during a depressive episode. However, the factors that influence changes in physical activity across the seasons remain unclear. For instance, weather has been proposed to play an important role in the frequency of activities and enjoyment derived from them. In addition, research has not investigated how weather variables influence activity levels across the seasons in individuals with seasonal versus nonseasonal depression. The present study compared patterns of activity level and enjoyment in samples of women with seasonal and nonseasonal depression and controls. Women with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and MDD with a seasonal pattern (Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD) reported similar patterns of activity; engaging in less frequent activity and deriving less enjoyment from activities than controls across the entire year, most notably during the winter months. Women with SAD also reported being significantly impacted by the weather such that their mood and energy levels increased with warmer temperatures an increased sunshine. Results suggest that women with seasonal depression may be at similar health risks as women with nonseasonal depression and activity patterns may have implications for behavioral activation treatments for depression.     

The Hands of the Living God 1 : “Finding the Familiar in the Unfamiliar” 2

This paper represents the fruits of a long friendship and collaboration between Marion Milner and Nina Farhi. At the heart of the paper sits a famous treatment conducted by Milner over a 17-year period. The presentation of clinical material; many drawings, and the questions raised by Milner in one generation and Farhi in another gives shape to a unique and historically and theoretically meaningful document.

Farhi uses the work and her collaboration with Milner to push theory into new ground, to examine the complexity and intersubjectivity of regression and primitive states, to assess the long shadow of maternal destructiveness, and to propose her own ideas of the power of prenatal intersubjective process, the potential (ill or good) for communication before the child is born. Issues of intergenerational communication of trauma and prenatal sensitivity allow Farhi to bring a new dimension to this long-ago case.     

Childhood Abuse Types and Physical Health at the Age of 24: Testing Health Risk Behaviors and Psychological Distress as Mediators

This study examines whether adult psychological distress and health risk behaviors mediate the relationship between childhood abuse and physical health in adulthood. A randomly selected population-based sample, with oversampling to include a one-third subgroup of former child protection cases, completed a structured interview. Questions pertained to childhood exposure to abuse, adult psychological distress, physical health, and health risk behaviors. Previous research using this sample had identified three abuse typologies: emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and polyvictimization (physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect). All three typologies were significantly associated with poorer self-reported physical health. Psychological distress and health risk behaviors partially mediated the relationship between nonabuse, sexual abuse, polyvictimization, and physical health, and fully mediated the relationship between emotional abuse and physical health. The results of this study indicate that health risk behaviors and symptoms of psychological distress could contribute to some of the long-lasting consequences of childhood abuse on adult physical health.     

When is risk relevant? An assessment of the characteristics mountain climbers associate with eight types of climbing

Research concerned with the experiences and motivations of people who participate in mountain climbing tends to overlook the varied nature of this pursuit, with comparisons between different types of climbing only occasionally receiving attention. Accordingly, the present study (N = 207) sought to examine representations of a broad range of different types of climbing. Of particular interest was the notion of risk. Principal component analyses for each type of climbing revealed “challenge,” “risk,” “enjoyment,” and “perspective and self‐reflection” components. Attitudes toward participation were regressed on these components. Although the results revealed significant differences between the ratings of risk reported for the different types of climbing, risk had limited predictive impact on attitudes.     

On the peculiarity of simple reaction time

Two experiments are reported in which high-compatibility reaction time (RT) tasks were performed with, and without, a concurrent secondary task. In both experiments, the secondary task interfered to a greater extent with simple RT than with choice RT. In fact, the effect of adding a secondary task was to eliminate the advantage of simple RT over two-alternative-choice RT. Previous studies of this phenomenon employed a task in which subjects raised a finger when it received tactile stimulation, while engaging in continuous reading aloud. The present experiments show that the effect can be obtained using a different stimulus modality (vision) as well as other responses (vocal) and secondary tasks (shadowing, auditory step-tracking). The paradigm provides a means of isolating preparatory processes that are peculiar to the simple RT task.     

Children's understanding and production of verbal irony in family conversations

This study examined how children use and understand various forms of irony (sarcasm, hyperbole, understatement, and rhetorical questions) in the context of naturalistic positive and negative family conversations in the home. Instances of ironic language in conversations between mothers, fathers, and their two children (M_ages=6.33 and 4.39 years) were recorded during six 90‐min observations for each of 39 families. Children's responses to others' ironic utterances were coded for their understanding of meaning and conversational function. Mothers were especially likely to ask rhetorical questions and to use ironic language in conflictual contexts. In contrast, fathers used hyperbole and understatement as frequently as rhetorical questions, and employed ironic language in both positive and conflictual contexts. Children also showed evidence of a nascent ability to use ironic language, especially hyperbole and rhetorical questions. Family members used rhetorical questions and understatement proportionately more often in a negative interaction context. Finally, older siblings understood irony better than younger siblings, and both children's responses revealed some understanding of ironic language, particularly sarcasm and rhetorical questions. Overall, the results suggest that family conversations in the home may be one important context for the development of children's use and understanding of ironic language.     

Effects of provision and receipt of social support on adjustment to laparoscopic radical prostatectomy

Radical prostatectomy has a negative impact on prostate cancer patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Social support may help patients adjust to their situation after surgery. We investigated patients' accounts of received social support as well as their spouses' accounts of provided social support as predictors of patients' HRQoL 6 months after surgery. Moreover, we tested whether patients with lower HRQoL at 2 weeks after surgery had the most benefit from spousal support. A total of 77 patients (M = 61.57 years, SD = 6.03) and their spouses (M = 58.46 years, SD = 7.52) completed questionnaires at 2 weeks and 6 months after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. Received social support, spousal provided social support, and HRQoL were assessed 2 weeks after surgery, and HRQoL was assessed again 6 months later. Patients with lower HRQoL at 2 weeks after surgery benefited more from the receipt and their partners' provision of support in terms of HRQoL 6 months later than patients with a higher HRQoL at the beginning. Assessing patients' HRQoL might be one method to identify those individuals who are in special need of support from their spouses.     

Evidence for recovery of fear following immediate extinction in rats and humans

Fear responses can be eliminated through extinction, a procedure involving the presentation of fear-eliciting stimuli without aversive outcomes. Extinction is believed to be mediated by new inhibitory learning that acts to suppress fear expression without erasing the original memory trace. This hypothesis is supported mainly by behavioral data demonstrating that fear can recover following extinction. However, a recent report by Myers and coworkers suggests that extinction conducted immediately after fear learning may erase or prevent the consolidation of the fear memory trace. Since extinction is a major component of nearly all behavioral therapies for human fear disorders, this finding supports the notion that therapeutic intervention beginning very soon after a traumatic event will be more efficacious. Given the importance of this issue, and the controversy regarding immediate versus delayed therapeutic interventions, we examined two fear recovery phenomena in both rats and humans: spontaneous recovery (SR) and reinstatement. We found evidence for SR and reinstatement in both rats and humans even when extinction was conducted immediately after fear learning. Thus, our data do not support the hypothesis that immediate extinction erases the original memory trace, nor do they suggest that a close temporal proximity of therapeutic intervention to the traumatic event might be advantageous.     

Extinction and spontaneous recovery of a conditioned flavor preference based on calories

After rats were conditioned to prefer a flavor (CS+) paired with sucrose over another flavor (CS−) paired with saccharin, this conditioned flavor preference was extinguished by presenting the CS+ flavor without sucrose. These results were replicated in a second experiment in which spontaneous recovery of the extinguished flavor preference was demonstrated 7, 14, and 21 days after the extinction test. This is the first clear demonstration of the extinction and spontaneous recovery of a conditioned flavor preference based on calories. The implications of these results for our understanding of the mechanism underlying the conditioning of flavor preferences are explored.