Couples, Existential Psychotherapy, and Myocardial Infarction: A Ten Year Evaluation Study

Existential psychotherapy with couples after the occurrence of a myocardial infarction can be a useful, effective, and productive service approach in combination with medical services and cardiac rehabilitation services. In this article the existential treatment dynamics of holding, telling, mastering, and honoring with couples after a heart attack are described and illustrated. In addition, data from a 10-year before-after field evaluation study is reported, which supports the usefulness of the treatment approach.     

中学生成就动机与成功恐惧的研究

运用成就动机问卷与投射测验研究了454名中学生的成就动机与成功恐惧,结果表明,中学生的成就动机存在显著的学校类型差异,重点中学学生的成就动机显著强于普通中学学生。男生和女生均存在着成功恐惧,其恐惧主要与学业、人际关系、家庭和事业有关。被试在女主人公身上投射出更多的成功恐惧。中学生追求成功的动机与成功恐惧呈显著的负相关,而避免失败的动机与成功恐惧呈显著的正相关。     

Impaired long-term potentiation and enhanced neuronal excitability in the amygdala of CaV1.3 knockout mice

Previously, we demonstrated that mice in which the gene for the L-type voltage-gated calcium channel Ca_V1.3 is deleted (Ca_V1.3 knockout mice) exhibit an impaired ability to consolidate contextually-conditioned fear. Given that this form of Pavlovian fear conditioning is critically dependent on the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA), we were interested in the mechanisms by which Ca_V1.3 contributes to BLA neurophysiology. In the present study, we used in vitro amygdala slices prepared from Ca_V1.3 knockout mice and wild-type littermates to explore the role of Ca_V1.3 in long-term potentiation (LTP) and intrinsic neuronal excitability in the BLA. We found that LTP in the lateral nucleus (LA) of the BLA, induced by high-frequency stimulation of the external capsule, was significantly reduced in Ca_V1.3 knockout mice. Additionally, we found that BLA principal neurons from Ca_V1.3 knockout mice were hyperexcitable, exhibiting significant increases in firing rates and decreased interspike intervals in response to prolonged somatic depolarization. This aberrant increase in neuronal excitability appears to be at least in part due to a concomitant reduction in the slow component of the post-burst afterhyperpolarization. Together, these results demonstrate altered neuronal function in the BLA of Ca_V1.3 knockout mice which may account for the impaired ability of these mice to consolidate contextually-conditioned fear.     

Fear,worry, and ritualistic behaviour in childhood: developmental trends and interrelations

Previous studies of childhood fear, worry, and ritualistic behaviour have been limited by restricted age ranges, narrow ranges of anxiety phenomena, non‐comparable methodologies, and assessment of typical behaviour within a pathological context. Content and intensity of fear, worry, and ritualistic behaviour, and associations among these variables, were assessed through a semi‐structured interview individually administered to 142 children aged 7–16 years. Common themes in the content of fear, worry, and ritualistic behaviour varied predictably with age. Intensity ratings for all three phenomena decreased with age, although this decline was only significant between 7 and 10 years. Levels were higher in girls than boys. Fear and worry were positively related, and the regular performance of rituals was related to anxiety across the age range. Worry was more strongly related than fear to engagement in ritualistic behaviour. We consider implications for the understanding of anxiety and ritualistic behaviour in typical and atypical development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

阻碍条件性恐惧记忆消退的原因分析

创伤后应激障碍是个体经历严重应激后形成的一种焦虑障碍,对其治疗的关键是消退由创伤应激导致的条件性恐惧记忆,但目前最有效的暴露疗法并不能真正有效地抑制患者恐惧记忆的表达.对条件性恐惧的动物模型研究发现情绪性增强效应、恐惧记忆二级条件化与再巩固、内侧前额叶皮层功能不足等均能够阻碍条件性恐惧记忆的消退.针对这几个方面可以探索治疗创伤后应激障碍的相应方法.     

Relationship between Anxiety Sensitivity subscales and social fears

This study examined the relationship between social fears and the three subscales of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) in a non‐clinical, student sample. In particular, the unique variance that the three ASI factors accounted for in social scrutiny fears, social interaction fears, and fear during a social challenge was investigated. Anxiety Sensitivity–Social Concern (AS‐Social Concern) was hypothesised to account for a significant proportion of the variance in social fears compared to the other two subscales. Seventy one university students completed a series of psychological‐based questionnaires and participated in a social challenge (videotaped speech task). Contrary to prediction, AS‐Social Concern did not account for a unique proportion of the variance in social fears, but AS‐Physical Concern and AS‐Mental Concern did account for unique variance in social fears. Results are interpreted in light of recent findings on the structure of ASI.     

Reducing chronic anxiety by making the threatening event predictable: An experimental approach

Panic disorder is characterized by both specific, phased fear and generalized, chronic anxiety. Standard extinction procedures are efficient in reducing specific fear. However, methods based on human conditioning research - that are capable of reducing chronic anxiety have not yet been thoroughly investigated. This study evaluates a new way of reducing chronic anxiety by signaling aversive events (or by making them more predictable). Using an experimental approach with healthy participants, specific fear and chronic anxiety were operationalized in a within-subjects fear-potentiated startle paradigm by, respectively, conditioning to a cue by presenting predictable shocks and conditioning to a context induced by unpredictable shocks. The results clearly demonstrate that context conditioning is reduced when a discrete cue is added that predicts the onset of the aversive event. The data suggest that making unpredictable events, such as for example panic attacks, predictable, may reduce the generalized and sustained anxiety that often complicates exposure treatment.     

Constraints on enhanced extinction resulting from extinction treatment in the presence of an added excitor

Three Pavlovian fear conditioning experiments with rats as subjects explored the effect of extinction in the presence of a concurrent excitor. Our aim was to explore this particular treatment, documented in previous studies to deepen extinction, with novel control groups to shed light on the processes involved in extinction. Relative to subjects extinguished on the target CS alone, Experiments 1 and 2 found across a range of parameters that any appreciable effect of facilitated extinction due to the concurrent excitor was submerged by generalization decrement going from extinction to testing. In Experiment 3 we used different durations for the target and concurrent stimuli in order to discourage configuring and an ABC renewal design to increase sensitivity, and observed diminished renewal resulting from extinction in the presence of a second excitor. Our findings suggest that there are distinct limits to the observation of enhanced extinction in the presence of an excitor and identifies some of the sources of these limitations.     

Some fear-potentiating effects of fluprazine hydrochloride in mice

The fear-potentiating effects of fluprazine hydrochloride were explored in a series of five experiments. The drug was found to strongly inhibit entry into a novel open field, exploration of a complex maze, or approach to a novel object placed in the animal's home cage. Time sampling techniques were used to assess drug effects on frequencies of immobility, activity, and grooming and rearing responses prior to and for 70 min after footshock. There were no group differences during the 10 min immediately following shock but the groups diverged steadily in immobility, activity, and grooming for the remainder of the observations. Post-shock activity and grooming responses increased steadily towards baseline values among control mice but remained at low levels or declined among drug-treated mice. Immobility responses declined steadily among control mice but increased substantially among the fluprazine-treated mice throughout post-shock observations. Pairs of male mice treated with fluprazine were also found to maintain greater intermouse distances in a novel linear runway than pairs of undrugged adult males, juvenile males, or male-female pairs. It is suggested that fluprazine hydrochloride both potentiates fear and alters its time course in addition to interfering in some way with normal olfactory processes.     

Prey-dependent effects of fluprazine hydrochloride on predatory aggression in northern grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster) and rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Treatment with the phenylpiperazine DU 27716 (fluprazine hydrochloride) inhibited the predatory killing of albino mice by northern grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster) and of frogs by rats. This treatment had no effect on cricket predation by grasshopper mice or worm predation by rats. The prey-specific effect of fluprazine did not seem to result from a decreased tendency to attack nor was its effect restricted to prey showing characteristic rodent defensive responses. Rather, the drug seemed to increase fearfulness when the prey exhibited vigorous defensive behavior. It is possible that increased fearfulness induced by treatment with this drug may also contribute to its antioffensive effect during conspecific encounters.