Emotional reactivity and self-regulation in relation to personality disorders

Associations of both reactive and regulative temperamental features with personality disorders (PDs) are investigated in a sample of 162 normal controls and 89 psychiatric inpatients. Reactive and regulative temperamental features were assessed by means of the BIS/BAS Scales and the Attentional Control Scale. Dimensional PD scores were obtained by using the ADP-IV. All PDs were characterized by low levels of effortful control, cluster C PDs by high BIS and cluster B PDs by high BAS. For several PDs, BIS and effortful control interacted: BIS was only related to severe PD pathology if effortful control was low. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Associations Among Anxiety Disorders and Non-anxiety Disorders,Functional Impairment and Medication in Children and Adolescents

This is a study of comorbid anxiety disorders and how they affect the clinical picture of comorbid cases. The sample consisted of 576 Spanish children aged 8 to 17 years receiving psychiatric outpatient consultation that were evaluated using a semi-structured diagnostic interview for both parents and children. A specific association of homotypic comorbidity among anxiety disorders that was independent of the presence of other disorders was found. There was heterotypic comorbidity between anxiety and depressive disorders, ADHD, anorexia and tic disorders. Relationships between non-anxiety disorders were, in general, independent of anxiety, but anxiety moderated the relationship between ADHD-Conduct disorder and Conduct disorder-enuresis. Comorbid anxiety increased difficulties in social interaction, was related with higher global impairment and had an impact on consultation and medication. Anxiety disorder comorbidity should be well recognized in order not to disregard the treatment of all present disorders.     

Increased variability in spiral drawing in patients with functional (psychogenic) tremor

Increased variability is a characteristic clinical and physiologic feature of functional (psychogenic) tremor. In this study, we use computerized spiral analysis to show that the variability of a motor task is a quantifiable characteristic of functional tremor. We compare functional tremor patients to phenomenologically similar dystonic tremor patients and to normal controls. We used the spiral severity score, a measure that does not incorporate spiral tightness, as a marker of spiral drawing performance, and inter-spiral tightness variability (based on the 25–75%^ile range in tightness across ten spirals) to evaluate the effects of functional tremor on drawing spirals. The spirals of 74 participants: 22 functional tremor, 21 dystonic tremor, and 31 normal controls were analyzed. Spiral severity was higher in both tremor groups compared to controls, but did not differentiate them. Inter-spiral variability, however, was higher in the functional tremor group compared to both other groups. Thus, spiral analysis captures variability of a motor task and may be used as an objective test for functional tremor. The effect of functional tremor in other motor tasks should be investigated.     

Eye contact and vocal responsiveness in squirrel monkey infants and their caregivers

Seventeen newborn squirrel monkeys, housed socially with their mothers and other adult females, were observed during their first 10 days of life. As early as day 1, infants began responding, vocally as well as by eye contact, to vocalizations and gaze directed to them by mothers and allomothers (aunts). Visual contact appeared always to be initiated by the adults. Infants spent less than 4% of awake time in eye contact with adults, but most infant-directed vocalizing occurred during these episodes, when both mothers and allomothers greatly increased their rate of calling. Infants were more likely to respond to vocalizations directed to them while in eye contact; 72% of infants' responsive vocalizing occurred then. These data are compared to those for human mothers and infants, where eye contact has also been shown to stimulate vocal exchange. A functional explanation of the involvement of allomothers, based on the infant's clinging position, is discussed.     

Reckless driving behaviour of youth: Does locus of control influence perceptions of situational characteristics and driving behaviour?

The current study examines driving behaviour of youth as a function of desirability, controllability and verifiability of this behaviour, in relation to locus of control. We expected that the occurrence of undesirable behaviour would increase when this behaviour was not visible to others, or could be ascribed to external circumstances. These mechanisms were expected to operate for externally oriented subjects, but less so for internally oriented subjects.A questionnaire was administered to 120 Dutch university students regarding their driving behaviour. The questionnaire described two scenarios in which desirability, verifiability, and controllability of behaviour were systematically manipulated. The primary dependent variable involved judgements on the likelihood that one would engage in a particular behaviour. The data were analysed using ANCOVA. The results supported our expectation that verifiability of behaviour would be more important for externally than for internally oriented subjects. For controllability of behaviour, no such effects were found. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

Psychiatric Disorders Associated with Substance Use Among Children and Adolescents: Findings from the Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) Study

The relationships between specific quantities and frequencies of alcohol, cigarette, and illicit substance use and substance use (SUD) and other psychiatric disorders were investigated among 1,285 randomly selected children and adolescents, aged 9 to 18, and their parents, from the Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) Study. Logistic regressions indicated that daily cigarette smoking, weekly alcohol consumption, and any illicit substance use in the past year were each independently associated with an elevated likelihood of diagnosis with SUD and other psychiatric disorders (anxiety, mood, or disruptive behavior disorders), controlling for sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, family income). The associations between the use of specific substances and specific psychiatric disorders varied as a function of gender.     

Inter- and intrasession reliability of psychophysiological poststress adaptation periods

This study examined the intersession and intrasession reliability of poststress adaptation periods. Fifteen undergraduates were assessed four times on measures of cephalic vasomotor response, electromyography (EMG; frontal and forearm flexor), hand surface temperature, heart rate, and skin resistance level. The results indicated no consistent intersession reliability of these measures and good intrasession reliability of all measures except frontal EMG. A 3- min poststress adaptation period was all that was necessary for most measures, again with the exception of frontal EMG, to return to a baseline quiescent state. These results are discussed in terms of the effect these findings have on theories of psychophysiological disorders which postulate impaired recovery processes.The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Drs. Edward B. Blanchard, Frank Andrasik, and Ellie Sturgis for their help in the conceptualization of this paper and Patricia Cotch and Patricia Myers for their help in the running of this study. Without their aid, the article would not have been possible.     

From an insecure base: Parent-child relations and internalizing behaviour in the pre-school

Eighty-three two-parent families were recruited via eight pre-school programmes in order to explore the origins of internalizing behaviour problems of pre-school children. Children were assessed by their teachers using standard checklists of anxious and prosocial behaviour as well as rank orders of dependency and social competence. Observers contributed measures of solitary activity and interactive play. In the home, mothers and fathers completed a 100-item Q-sort on parent-child attachment. Internalizing and competence measures were predictable from parent-child relations. Mother-child variables were more generally and significantly related to pre-school measures than father-child variables. In particular, boys who were highly dependent on their mothers were anxious and withdrawn in the pre-school, overly dependent on their teachers, and low in teacher assessments of prosocial behaviour and social competence. In addition to quantitative differences in the predictive power of maternal and paternal variables, qualitative differences were found indicating secure base behaviour as a more important dimension of mother-child relations, while affective sharing during play may be a more salient marker of the quality of father-child relations.