Dizziness- and Palpitations-predominant Orthostatic Panic: Physiology,Flashbacks, and Catastrophic Cognitions

In an orthostatic challenge, Cambodian patients with orthostatic panic in the last month (OP patients) sometimes panicked during orthostatic challenge, whereas those without orthostatic panic in the last month (NOP patients) did not. Also, OP patients with primarily dizziness during orthostatic challenge panic (OP_OCP-D) had a less vigorous physiological response than two other groups: (a) OP patients with primarily palpitations during orthostatic challenge panic (OP_OCP-P) and (b) NOP patients who had no symptoms during orthostatic challenge (NOP_NOCP-NS). Among the patients experiencing orthostatic challenge–induced panic (i.e., the OP_OCP-D and OP_OCP-P patients), there were prominent orthostatic challenge–induced flashbacks and catastrophic cognitions, and the severity of orthostatic challenge–induced flashbacks and catastrophic cognitions correlated with the severity of orthostatic panic in the previous month and with the severity of orthostatic challenge–induced panic.     

Book review

Abstract

Physical Activity & Behavioral Medicine. James f. Sallis Neville Owen Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999. 210 Pages. ISBN 0-8039-5996-6, cloth UK£33.00; ISBN 0-8039-5997-4, paper UK£15.99.     

Perseverative Thinking and Health: Neurovisceral Concomitants

In the present paper we present the outlines of a model that may help to guide us in our understanding of the relationship between perseverative thinking and health. We will emphasize the relationship between perseverative thinking and vagal cardiac control and propose a group of underlying neural structures that serve to integrate these functions in the service of self-regulation and adaptability of the organism. We will attempt to place this network in the context of systems models which involve feedback and feedforward circuits with special attention to negative feedback mechanisms and inhibitory processes. From a systems perspective, inhibitory processes can be viewed as negative feedback circuits that allow for the interruption of ongoing behavior and the re-deployment of resources to other tasks. When these negative feedback mechanisms are compromised, positive feedback loops may develop as a result of dis-inhibition. From this perspective, the relative sympathetic activation seen in perseverative thinking may represent dis-inhibition due to faulty inhibitory mechanisms.     

Effects of blood alcohol testing programmes on drinking behaviour among driving crash patients in emergency departments: A cluster quasi-experimental study

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of blood alcohol testing in decreasing the prevalence of current one-month drinkers among road traffic crash patients within emergency departments at one, two, and three months after a crash. A cluster quasi-experimental study was conducted on 600 crash patients who visited one of the emergency departments at 21 hospitals in Udon Thani province, Thailand. The hospitals were categorised into a (i) high-adherence hospital group (≥70% of all patients) and (ii) low-adherence hospital group (<70% of all patients) according to the compliance of blood alcohol testing in their emergency departments. The data were collected by a trained nurse using a structured questionnaire. The primary outcome was the prevalence of one-month current drinkers. We included 600 patients: 291 from six hospitals in the high-adherence group and 309 from 15 hospitals in the low-adherence group. The prevalence of one-month current drinkers significantly decreased in both the high-adherence and low-adherence groups. However, the prevalence of current drinkers at two and three months after a crash was not statistically significant compared to that one month prior to a crash (48.0% to 19.3% and 31.7% to 13.8% in the high- and low-adherence hospital groups, respectively; p < 0.05 from McNemar’s test). The effectiveness of blood alcohol testing in decreasing the prevalence of one-month current drinkers among traffic crash patients within emergency departments was observed to be statistically significant only at one month after a crash, and not at two and three months.     

Can men do better if they try harder: Sex and motivational effects on emotional awareness

Research indicates that women are more emotionally aware than men. Motivation was investigated as a possible source of this sex difference. A total of 242 women and 74 men completed the first half of an emotional awareness test, the Level of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; Lane & Schwarz, 1987), received either motivational or control instructions, and then completed the second half of the awareness scale. Participants' LEAS scores were compared via a 2 (sex) × 2 (condition) × 2 (time) General Linear Model Analyses of Variance. The motivational intervention was successful in significantly increasing both male and female participants LEAS scores, although women generally demonstrated greater emotional awareness than men. Furthermore, the LEAS scores of motivated men equalled those of women in the control condition, but the motivated men had to work significantly longer on the task to achieve this equality. Additional covar-iance analysis revealed that there were significant sex differences even after controlling for self-report and behavioural measures of motivation. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding sex differences in emotional awareness.