Differential cognitive response to a mood challenge following successful cognitive therapy or pharmacotherapy for unipolar depression

This study examined the nature of cognitive reactivity to mood changes in formerly depressed patients. Patients who recovered either through cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT; N = 25) or through pharmacotherapy (PT; N = 29) completed self-reported ratings of dysfunctional attitudes before and after a negative mood induction procedure. In response to similar levels of induced sad mood, PT patients showed a significant increase in dysfunctional cognitions compared with patients in the CBT group. To evaluate the effects of such cognitive reactivity on the subsequent course of depression, follow-up analyses reassessed 30 patients several years after initial testing. Results indicated that patients' reactions to the mood induction procedure were predictive of depressive relapse. These findings argue for differential effects of treatment on cognitive reactivity to mood induction and for the link between such reactivity and risk for later depressive relapse.     

Vocal disinhibition (grunting) does not increase dead lift force in college athletes or nonathletes.

31 17-35 yr.-old men (15 college athletes and 16 nonathletes) performed three dead-lifts with and three without grunting, the order of which was randomly assigned. No differences were found across the grunting trials and grunting did not affect maximal force production. Grunting does not appear to increase maximum force production significantly during a large muscle group, force output activity (isometric dead lift).     

Inhibition through incremental fragment cuing with primed items

Completing a word fragment (e.g., r-i--rop) that is revealed gradually (e.g., r------p; r----r-p; r-i--r-p; r-i--rop) was shown to be more difficult than completing the same fragment revealed all at once, but this was true only for words that had been presented beforehand (Peynircio?lu & Watkins, 1986). In the present study a similar inhibitory effect demonstrated under certain conditions in which words are not presented beforehand. Fragments of words belonging to a specific semantic category (Experiments 1 and 2) as well as those belonging to a newly learned language (Experiment 3) are less likely to be completed when they are revealed gradually than when they are revealed all at once. Thus, priming the test items, whether it be through presentation for study or otherwise, appears to be a significant factor in promoting this inhibitory effect.     

Mutism associated with buccofacial apraxia and bihemispheric lesions

Mutism following brain trauma is quite common, is usually transient, and recovery of speech is essentially the rule. Lasting total absence of speech without aphasia is highly unusual. Three such patients, two of traumatic and one due to vascular origin showing buccofacial apraxia (BFA) and computerized tomography (CT) evidence of bilateral frontal lesions are reported. It is suggested that complete lasting mutism associated with BFA is a result of bihemispheric lesions affecting mainly the opercular part of the inferior frontal gyrus and immediate adjacent regions.     

The evolution of mental disturbances in the concentration camp syndrome (KZ-syndrom)

As a result of long-term clinical research on former prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps, I analyzed the evolution of the clinical and psychopathological pattern of the KZ-syndrome. One can differentiate the following characteristic phases: psychosomatic inanition, latency of disease, personality and adaptation disturbances, a pseudo-neurotic and depressive phase, premature aging, and an organic phase. The stigma of KZ-syndrome is present in a second generation in different forms: personality disturbances, emotional and/or social immaturity, social disadaptation, higher frequency of neurotic states, divorce, alcoholism, and suicide. The camp stress has left in human nature traces so painful that they cannot disappear when the generation of former prisoners is gone.     

Disruption of semantic influence on writing following a left prefrontal lesion

We report a patient with impaired spontaneous writing, written naming, and homophone spelling, consistent with a disruption of semantic influence on writing. However, writing to dictation by both the phonological and lexical spelling systems was intact. In addition, general semantic abilities were spared, as indicated by preserved auditory and reading comprehension. We propose that our patient could not incorporate meaning into writing because of a disruption of both direct and indirect connections between semantics and the orthographic output lexicon. The writing dysfunction was accompanied by a similar impairment of speech output, suggesting that it was part of a more general disturbance of semantic influence on language production following left prefrontal damage.     

From letters to words: Procedures for word recognition in letter-by-letter reading

There are two alternative interpretations of how word recognition is accomplished in letter-by-letter reading. One postulates that it relies on the spelling system operating "in reverse," whereas the other claims that it is mediated by the reading system. Because of the close association between patterns of reading and spelling in previously reported cases of letter-by-letter reading, both hypotheses may be considered equally plausible. We now report a patient with letter-by-letter reading who demonstrated a striking dissociation between reading and spelling. Our observations in this patient argue against the concept of "reading via spelling" and suggest that word recognition in letter-by-letter reading is mediated by the orthographic input lexicon used in normal reading.     

Assessment of long-term psychosocial sequelae among POW survivors of the Korean Conflict

Psychological and psychiatric assessments were performed among 20 prisoner-of-war (POW) Korean-Conflict survivors. Results revealed extraordinary biological and psychological abuse with weight losses exceeding 35% of preservice weights and long-term cognitive, emotional, and behavioral sequelae. The full range of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms was seen in 90% to 100% of the cases with high prevalence of co-morbidity, specifically mood (75%), other anxiety (45%), and alcohol abuse (20%) disorders. Documented by clinical investigators at POW release and now more than 30 years later, symptoms of apprehensiveness, confusion, detachment, and depression reflect the persistence of psychiatric morbidity over time.