Perceived health following myocardial infarction: cross-validation of the Health Complaints Scale in Danish patients

With an ageing population and a decline in cardiac mortality rates, the number of patients with cardiac disease is increasing, which in turn poses a major challenge for secondary prevention. For this end, appropriate, sensitive, and validated instruments to assess health complaints and quality of life are required. The objectives of the current study were: (1) to cross-validate the Health Complaints Scale (HCS) in a Danish sample of patients with a first myocardial infarction (MI); and (2) to investigate whether perceived health, as measured by the HCS is related to cardiac disease severity. The HCS was originally developed in Belgian patients with coronary artery disease. One-hundred-and-twelve consecutive patients with a first myocardial infarction were assessed by means of a questionnaire four to six weeks post infarction. Clinical measures were sampled from medical records. The factor structure of the HCS and the internal consistency of the Somatic Complaints (alpha = 0.91) and Cognitive Complaints subscales (alpha = 0.94) were confirmed. The construct validity of the scale was confirmed against measures of psychopathology and personality. Patients scored significantly higher on the HCS Somatic and Cognitive scales as compared with self-reports of depression and anxiety (p < 0.0001). Health complaints were unrelated to severity of cardiac disease and rather reflected subjective perception of quality of life. These findings show that the HCS is a valid instrument that is equally applicable in Danish cardiac patients to monitor perceived health as a major component of quality of life.     

Should we presume moral turpitude in our children? – Small children and consent to medical research

When children are too young to make their ownautonomous decisions, decisions have to be madefor them. In certain contexts we allow parentsand others to make these decisions, and do notinterfere unless the decision clearly violatesthe best interest of the child. In othercontexts we put a priori limits on whatkind of decisions parents can make, and/or whatkinds of considerations they have to take intoaccount. Consent to medical research currentlyfalls into the second group mentioned here. Wewant to consider and ultimately reject one ofthe arguments put forward for putting medicalresearch into the second category. We willargue that some objections to children'sparticipation in research are either based onan implausibly restrictive conception of whatis in fact in the child's best interests orthat there is an implicit and false premisehidden in this argument; i.e., the premise thatour children have so deeply fallen into moralturpitude that we must assume that they wouldnot want to fulfill their moral obligations,or, that they will grow up to be morallydeficient and will then wish not to have actedwell while a child.     

Genotype-environment interaction in personality development: identical twins reared apart

The focus of this study is to identify specific genotype-environment (GE) interactions as they contribute to individual differences in personality in later life. In behavioral genetics, GE interaction refers to the possibility that individuals of different genotypes may respond differently to specific environments. A sample of 99 pairs of identical twins reared apart, whose average age is 59 years, has been studied as part of the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging (SATSA). Hierarchical multiple regression was used to detect interactions between personality and environmental measures after the main effects of genotype and environment were removed. Analyses yield evidence for 11 significant interactions that provide the first evidence for GE interaction in human development using specific environmental measures. Thus, in addition to the main-effect contributions of heredity and environment, GE interactions contribute to individual differences in personality as measured in the second half of the life course.     

Borderline and avoidant personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality: a comparison between DSM-IV diagnoses and NEO-PI-R.

A self-report measure of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality, NEO-PI-R, was administered to a sample of patients with borderline (BPD, N = 29) or avoidant PD (AVPD, N = 34), admitted to a day treatment program, to investigate the NEO-PI-R profiles of the disorders, and the ability of NEO-PI-R to discriminate between the two disorders. The diagnoses were assessed according to the LEAD standard. AVPD was associated with high levels of Neuroticism and Agreeableness, and low levels of Extraversion and Conscientiousness. BPD was associated with high levels of Neuroticism and low levels of Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness. Eighty-eight percent of the AVPD group had high scores on Neuroticism and low scores on Extraversion, whereas 65% of the BPD group were high on Neuroticism and low on Agreeableness. The Extraversion and Agreeableness scales of NEO-PI-R discriminated between patients with BPD and those with AVPD. Patients with BPD scored significantly higher on the Angry Hostility and Impulsiveness subscales of Neuroticism and significantly lower on three Extraversion subscales, three Agreeableness subscales, and one Conscientiousness subscale. At the DSM-IV criterion level, there were more significant relationships between the subscales of NEO-PI-R and the AVPD criteria than with the BPD criteria. The findings suggest that the FFM has good discriminating ability regarding BPD and AVPD. However, there may be a closer conceptual relationship between the FFM and AVPD than between the FFM and BPD.     

Developing realistic stimuli for assessing observers' perceptions of male and female body types.

The goal of this research was to create more realistic stimuli for research in assessing observers' perceptions of male and female body types. Stimuli were developed by classifying large samples of photographs and using representative photographs to illustrate body types. Resultant stimuli go beyond current stereotypic stimuli to provide realistic representations of commonly occurring body types among men and women ages 18 ro 40 years. Realistic stimuli can be used in a wide range of research both to understand observer perceptions and to teach the reality of human variation.     

Contribution of age, genes, and environment to the relationship between perceptual speed and cognitive ability

The aim of this study was to examine genetic influences on cognitive ability in adulthood in the context of the relationship between perceptual speed and cognitive aging. Quantitative genetic analysis of data from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging allowed for estimation of the contribution of age, genetic, and environmental effects to the variance in a latent cognitive factor and to the covariance between the cognitive factor and perceptual speed. The sample included 292 pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins. both reared together and reared apart, ranging in age from 40 to 84 years. Analysis of components of total variance in the cognitive factor indicated that 90% of the age-related variance in the cognitive factor was shared with perceptual speed and 70% of the genetic variance in the cognitive factor was shared with perceptual speed. The correlation between the speed and cognitive factors was primarily genetically mediated.     

Heidegger and Korsgaard on Death and Freedom: The Implications for Posthumanism

Prominent advocates of posthumanism such as Nick Bostrom and Ray Kurzweil make the case that a drastic increase in the human lifespan (or healthspan) would be intrinsically good. This question of the value of an extended lifespan has perhaps become more pressing as medical and scientific advances are seemingly bringing us closer and closer to being able to extend our lives in the way posthumanists envision. In this paper I intend to use Martin Heidegger’s work on death and freedom to develop a potential objection to the claim that an indefinite healthspan is intrinsically desirable. The basic plan will be to make the case that the structure of human agency is such that truly free action is possible only on the basis of the essential finitude of our existence. Assuming that we take this sort freedom to be an important good, we would lose something of crucial importance if we were to radically extend the human healthspan. I am not claiming to present an entirely conclusive argument against posthumanism, or even enhancing the human healthspan to posthuman proportions, but rather, I see my argument here as adding another currently valued dimension of human existence that could very well be lost if we move decisively in the posthumanist direction.