Guided and unguided self-help for binge eating

This study compared the relative short- and longer-term efficacy of therapist-guided and unguided use of a cognitive behavioral self-help manual for binge eating [Fairburn, C. G. (1995). Overcome binge eating. New York: The Guilford Press.] Forty women (82.5% with binge eating disorder) were randomized to one of the two treatment levels. Results indicate that both conditions represent viable means of treating binge eating. Overall, patients improved their eating behavior, eliminated any inappropriate compensatory behaviors, reduced their shape concern, weight concern, and other symptoms of eating-related psychopathology, and improved their general psychological functioning. The guided self-help condition was notably superior in reducing the occurrence of binge eating and its associated symptomatology, as well as lowering interpersonal sensitivity. A high degree of general psychopathology was a negative prognostic indicator. The implications for a stepped-care approach to treating binge eating are discussed.     

The effects of atropine and adrenergic antagonists on behavioral arousal in rats

Two experiments investigated the mechanism for changes in measures of behavioral arousal inhibition in rats following administration of atropine. In Experiment 1, 40-day-old rats were given administrations of atropine sulfate, the alpha-, beta-adrenergic blocker labetalol, or both. The drugs, either alone or in combination, increased transport response intensity, whereas both together increased dorsal immobility durations. In Experiment 2, rats were given atropine, the beta-adrenergic antagonist propranolol, the alpha-adrenergic antagonist phentolamine, or a combination of two of the drugs. Propranolol blocked atropine-induced increases in transport response, and phentolamine was without effect. Phentolamine, when combined with atropine, increased dorsal immobility durations. Results are discussed with respect to aspects common to both transport response and dorsal immobility.     

On binocular alternation

Diaz-Caneja (1928) made some prescient observations about binocular rivalry. Being in French, however, his paper remained largely unknown to the broader research community. His findings are similar to those reported very recently by contemporary researchers who had independently observed similar phenomena. Using concentric circles and parallel lines as stimuli, Diaz-Caneja presented half of each form to opposite eyes to provoke binocular rivalry. He observed periods in the ensuing binocular alternations in which rivalry occurred between the good Gestalt forms, despite the fact that they were distributed between the eyes. He proposed that each half of a good form generates synchronised oscillations in the visual system, and that this synchronisation enables the dichoptically viewed halves of the one form to be perceived as a whole.     

Person-specific paths of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease and their relation to age

Change in global and specific measures of cognitive function was studied in a cohort of 410 persons with Alzheimer's disease. Persons completed up to 5 annual evaluations; follow-up participation among survivors exceeded 90%. Average annual decline was 0.57 standard score units (95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.51 to -0.62) on a composite measure based on 17 individual tests and 3.26 points (95% CI: -3.06 to 3.46) on the Mini-Mental State Examination, but substantial heterogeneity was apparent. On both global and specific measures, rate of cognitive decline was reduced in older persons compared with younger persons. A similar effect was observed for estimated age of disease onset. The effect of age was approximately linear and was not attributable to education, sex, race, other conditions that impair cognition, or mortality. The results indicate that person-specific paths of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease vary substantially and suggest that in clinical settings some of this variability is related to age.     

Psychological treatment of secondary insomnia

Psychological treatment of insomnia has focused on primary insomnia (i.e., having a psychological origin). Secondary insomnia, sleep disturbance caused by a psychiatric or medical disorder, although it is more common than primary insomnia, has received very little attention as a result of the belief that it would be refractory to treatment. The present study randomly assigned older adults with secondary insomnia to a treatment group, 4 sessions composed of relaxation and stimulus control, or a no-treatment control group. Self-report assessments conducted at pretreatment, posttreatment, and a 3-month follow-up revealed that treated participants showed significantly greater improvement on wake time during the night, sleep efficiency percentage, and sleep quality rating. The authors hypothesize that treatment success was probably due in part to difficulty in diagnostic discrimination between primary and secondary insomnia.     

Compensating for Cognitive Deficits Following Brain Injury

Two of the most important goals of rehabilitation are to (a) reduce everyday consequences of impaired cognitive functioning (disabilities) and (b) reduce the level of handicap (the extent to which these problems prevent successful return to society). One of the ways by which we can achieve these goals is to enable people to compensate for their cognitive deficits. This paper (i) describes a theoretical framework for understanding compensatory behavior, (ii) discusses different forms of compensation, (iii) considers compensation for several cognitive disorders, and (iv) presents suggestions for predicting which patients will find it easy to compensate and which require more intensive and focused rehabilitation.     

Concordance Between Parent Reports of Children's Mental Health Services and Service Records: The Services Assessment for Children and Adolescents (SACA)

The concordance between parent reports of children's mental health services and medical and administrative service records were assessed in a field test of the Services Assessment for Children and Adolescents (SACA) interview instrument. Service use reports from primary caregivers, usually mothers, for their child's emotional or behavioral problems were compared against inpatient, outpatient, and school records in St. Louis, one of the pilot sites for the Multi-Site Study of Service Use, Need, Outcomes and Costs in Child and Adolescent Populations (UNOCCAP). A global any use service variable, comprised of inpatient, outpatient, and school reports, yielded an overall service use concordance kappa of .76 between parent reports and records. Parent reports of inpatient hospitalization services using the SACA yielded the highest agreement with medical records, with kappa statistics of 1.00 for use of any inpatient hospital care and for medication use. Parent reports of specific inpatient services concurred with medical records more moderately, yielding kappas from .50 to .66. Reports of any outpatient mental health services yielded variable rates of agreement, with kappas ranging from .67 for any use of outpatient care, to .66 for medication use, to negligible kappas for specific treatments. Parent reports of school services were weakly related to records for most services, except for moderate agreement (.48) on placement in special classrooms for emotional or behavioral problems. Family burden or impact discriminated more powerfully than other variables between respondents who concurred with records and those who did not.     

Can the location negative priming process operate in a proactive manner?

The location negative priming (NP) effect refers to the fact that the processing of a current target stimulus (probe trial) is delayed when it appears at a location that has recently contained a distractor event (prime trial), relative to when it occurs at a previously unoccupied position. One view is that the process causing the NP effect involves the inhibition of the internal representation of the prime-distractor event, and that the future processing of target stimuli that involve this event are prolonged because this distractor inhibition is persistent. In this study, we examined the possibility that the NP process (inhibition) could act proactively; specifically asking whether inhibition could be allocated to a location merely predicted to hold a future distractor event. To do this, we cued the probe distractor's location using an otherwise traditional location NP paradigm. No evidence of a proactive NP process was obtained. Probe-trial target latency was the same whether it appeared at the cued distractor location or at a new location, but was delayed when it occupied the prime-distractor location (NP effect). The location NP process is seemingly a reactive one, applying inhibition only when an actual distractor is present, much as past theories have implied.     

Synaesthesia: the prevalence of atypical cross-modal experiences

Sensory and cognitive mechanisms allow stimuli to be perceived with properties relating to sight, sound, touch, etc, and ensure, for example, that visual properties are perceived as visual experiences, rather than sounds, tastes, smells, etc. Theories of normal development can be informed by cases where this modularity breaks down, in a condition known as synaesthesia. Conventional wisdom has held that this occurs extremely rarely (0.05% of births) and affects women more than men. Here we present the first test of synaesthesia prevalence with sampling that does not rely on self-referral, and which uses objective tests to establish genuineness. We show that (a) the prevalence of synaesthesia is 88 times higher than previously assumed, (b) the most common variant is coloured days, (c) the most studied variant (grapheme-colour synaesthesia)--previously believed most common--is prevalent at 1%, and (d) there is no strong asymmetry in the distribution of synaesthesia across the sexes. Hence, we suggest that female biases reported earlier likely arose from (or were exaggerated by) sex differences in self-disclosure.     

Sexuality and Exercise Motivations: Are Gay Men and Heterosexual Women Most Likely to be Motivated by Concern About Weight and Appearance?

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between sexuality and exercise motivations in 93 British bar staff. Participants who self-identified as heterosexual, gay, or lesbian completed the revised version of the Exercise Motivations Inventory and reported exercise frequency. Heterosexual men scored lower on appearance motives than did heterosexual women and gay men, higher on enjoyment motives than did gay men, and higher on competition motives than did women and gay men. Men were significantly less likely than women to be motivated by weight management. Heterosexual men also reported exercising significantly more frequently than the other three groups. Suggestions for targeted exercise promotion initiatives are discussed.