Neurobiological models of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a brief review of the empirical evidence

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by inattention, impulsivity, and overactivity that begins in childhood. While considerable research has focused on the neurobiological substrates of this disorder, the specific nature of the brain dysfunction in ADHD has remained elusive. However, early data from pharmacological treatment studies, as well as from basic research in animals and humans, initially led several investigators to develop neurobiological models of ADHD. These models of ADHD and more recent evidence from neuropsychological, neuroimaging, neurochemical, and genetic research are briefly reviewed. While not completely consistent, the empirical data suggest that dysfunction in prefrontal-striatal neural circuits, as well as in brain stem catecholamine systems that innervate these circuits, may underlie the executive function deficits in ADHD.     

Neurorobiology and evidence-based biological treatments for substance abuse disorders

Behavioral patterns of addiction include compulsive drug-seeking, persistent abuse of substances despite the often dire consequences on social functioning and physical health, and the high probability of relapse even after prolonged drug-free periods. The recent focus on the biological basis of addiction has provided evidence to support the hypothesis that behavioral manifestations for addiction are influenced by biological factors, and biological factors often produce behavioral changes that can further increase risk. The current understanding of the role of the dopaminergic, glutamatergic, Upsilon-aminobutyric acidergic, and opioid receptor systems in the pathophysiology of addiction as well as the clinical implications of these systems for new and emerging treatments will be discussed. This article will also review the pharmacologic agents used in the treatment of substance abuse disorders and presents evidence-based data for their safety, efficacy, and feasibility of use in different patient populations.     

A theory of causal learning in children: causal maps and Bayes nets

The authors outline a cognitive and computational account of causal learning in children. They propose that children use specialized cognitive systems that allow them to recover an accurate "causal map" of the world: an abstract, coherent, learned representation of the causal relations among events. This kind of knowledge can be perspicuously understood in terms of the formalism of directed graphical causal models, or Bayes nets. Children's causal learning and inference may involve computations similar to those for learning causal Bayes nets and for predicting with them. Experimental results suggest that 2- to 4-year-old children construct new causal maps and that their learning is consistent with the Bayes net formalism.     

Introduction to the special section on Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH)

This article provides background information and an overview on Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) a multisite intervention trial for caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease designed to reduce caregiver burden and depression. REACH is the largest randomized controlled clinical trial to date, involving 1,222 caregiver and care recipient dyads recruited from 6 different sites in the United States. The authors describe the design of the study, summarize the interventions implemented at each site, and provide an overview of the 4 articles in this special section.     

The Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH): project design and baseline characteristics

The Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Cargiver Health (REACH) project was designed to test promising interventions for enhancing family caregiving for persons with dementia. The purpose of this article is to describe the research design, interventions, and outcome measures used in REACH and to characterize the sample recruited for the study. Nine interventions and 2 control conditions were implemented at 6 sites; 1,222 dyads were randomly assigned to an intervention or a control condition. The caregiver sample was 18.6% male with an average age of 62.3 years (56% Caucasian, 24% Black, and 19% Hispanic). Caregivers reported high levels of depressive symptoms and moderate burden. Care recipients were older, with a mean age of 79, and were moderately to severely impaired with mean Mini-Mental State Exam scores of 13/30.     

Facing Up to Hopelessness: A Dialogal Phenomenological Study

Hopelessness is a fundamental human experience, and yet is often considered evidence either of sin or of illness. This dialogal phenomenological study, based on in-depth interviews, takes a fresh look at despair as experienced by people across a variety of ages and contexts, and at the consequences and outcomes of these feelings. At the heart of despair is a sense of isolation, impotence, and an immutable future, and yet it may give rise to new purpose or a new understanding and acceptance of life with its possibilities and limitations. The therapeutic implications of this understanding of despair are discussed with a focus on how presence can be healing.     

Correlates of motives for suicide

Analysis of a large sample of suicide notes from 262 suicides in Australia showed separated/divorced suicides and suicides who abused alcohol were more likely to give love/romance as a precipitant for suicide while those who used gas (natural or car exhaust) were more likely to give depression and guilt as a motive.     

Darstellen und Rekonstruieren: Eine Hermeneutische Erwiderung auf Ian Hacking

Representing and Reconstructing: A Hermeneutical Reply to Ian Hacking. Hacking published in 1983 Representing and Intervening which has provoked, particularly in the US, the so called realism/anti-realism debate which is still alive today. He lays claim to anti-realism for theory and to realism for the experiment. Following him, only that which can be used for manipulating something (e.g., the path of an electon) is realistic. H. Putnam is a severe critic of this dualism. In my paper I am going to take the Hacking-Putnam controversy as a starting-point for the problem about the determination of the relation between theory and experiment in the natural sciences. I shall then follow M. Schlick's discussion of this problem and the current solution to the problem as offered by H. Pietschmann. The differing interpretation of Kant according to the three perspectives shall be the guideline for the argumentation. The goal of my argumentation is that theory and experiment do not live their own lives, that in experimenting one always continues traditional chains of action, and that natural science cannot be regarded independently of the life world it takes place in. This insight into the representing and reconstructing overturns in natural science, due to the necessity of human decisions, opens up their hermeneutical dimension. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Predictors of Family Functioning Among Clergy and Spouses: Influences of Social Context and Perceptions of Work-Related Stressors

We wished to identify predictors of family functioning from models including perceptions of stresses associated with mobility, financial compensation, intrusiveness to family boundaries, expectations on time demands, and the lack of social support. Data were collected from 136 randomly selected couples from six denominations in which husbands were clergy. Participants completed a survey that included the Clergy Family Life Inventory which assessed perceptions of five work-related stressors and the Self Report Measure of Family Functioning scale which measured 12 dimensions of family functioning. Separate regression models were tested for husbands and wives and these analyses indicated that no single stressor seemed influential for all 12 dimensions of family functioning. However, for both husbands and wives, family boundary intrusiveness, lack of social support, and mobility stresses influenced their competence in numerous areas of family functioning. In addition, husbands and wives experienced similar effects of stress among several dimensions of family functioning (e.g. enmeshment, family organization, democratic family atmosphere expressiveness).