Effects of cognitive behavioural therapy and return-to-work intervention for patients on sick leave due to stress-related disorders: Results from a randomized trial

The aim of this study was to evaluate specific effects for patients with adjustment or exhaustion disorder, the Stress subgroup (n = 152), regarding symptom severity and sick leave after CBT, a return-to-work intervention (RTW-I), and a combination of them (COMBO), using data from a randomized trial. In the original study, primary care patients on sick leave (N = 211) were randomized to CBT (n = 64), RTW-I (n = 67), or COMBO (n = 80). Blinded Clinician Severity Rating (CSR) of symptoms and sick leave registry data were primary outcomes. Subgroup analyses showed that for the Stress subgroup, CBT led to greater reduction of symptoms than RTW-I posttreatment, but COMBO did not differ from CBT or RTW-I. Regarding sick leave, there was no difference between treatments in the Stress subgroup. An exploratory analysis of the treatment effects in a subgroup of patients with depression, anxiety or insomnia indicates that RTW-I reduced sick leave faster than CBT. We conclude that CBT may be promising as an effective treatment of stress and exhaustion disorder.     

Pathological personality facets and emotion (dys)regulation in gambling disorder

A number of researches showed high prevalence of personality disorders among addicted gamblers. However, there are still few studies investigating the role of pathological personality facets in Gambling Disorder (GD). Moreover, the nature of the relationship between GD and pathological personality is not clear. We administered to a group of addicted gamblers (N = 79) and a group of healthy participants (N = 101) a battery of self-report questionnaires encompassing the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), The Personality Inventory for DSM-V (PID-5), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Analyses of variance showed that addicted gamblers, compared to healthy participants, scored higher on most of the subscales of the DERS, on the Suppression Dimension of the ERQ and on the five main domains of the PID-5 whereas they obtained lower scores on the Reappraisal subscale of the ERQ. Moreover, multiple regression analyses indicated that some specific facets of pathological personality, emotion dysregulation and lack of cognitive reappraisal, significantly predict GD's severity. Finally, emotion dysregulation levels and lack of cognitive reappraisal partially mediated the relationship between these and GD's severity. Our results confirmed the central roles played by both pathological personality and deficit in emotion regulation capacities in GD. Specifically, Impulsivity, Lack of Perseverance and Suspiciousness may be important predictors of GD severity. Moreover, emotion dysregulation and lack of adaptive emotion regulation strategies partially explained such relationship. As such, training for emotion regulation abilities appears strategically useful in the treatment of addicted gamblers with pathological personality traits.     

Investigating behavior inhibition in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Evidence from eye movements

We investigated the role of inhibition failure in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) through an eye tracking experiment. Twenty-five subjects with OCD were recruited, as well as 25 with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and 25 healthy controls. A 3 (group: OCD group, GAD group and control group) × 2 (target eccentricity: far and near) × 2 (saccade task: prosaccade and antisaccade) mixed design was used, with all participants completing two sets of tasks involving both prosaccade (eye movement towards a target) and antisaccade (eye movement away from a target). The main outcome was the eye movement index, including the saccade latency (the time interval from the onset of the target screen to the first saccade) and the error rate of saccade direction. The antisaccade latency and antisaccade error rates for OCDs were much higher than those for GADs and healthy controls. OCDs had longer latency and error rates for antisaccades than for prosaccades, and for far-eccentricity rather than near-eccentricity stimuli. These results suggest that OCDs experience difficulty with behavior inhibition, and that they have higher visual sensitivity to peripheral stimuli. In particular, they show greatest difficulty in inhibiting behavior directed towards peripheral stimuli.     

高风险婴儿前瞻性纵向研究与孤独症谱系障碍早期识别

孤独症谱系障碍(Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD)早期识别有助于早期诊断和早期干预的实施, 对于改善ASD儿童发育结果至关重要。高风险前瞻性纵向研究以高风险婴儿(ASD儿童的年幼同胞, 入组年龄小于12个月)作为主要研究对象, 通过对ASD高风险婴儿(24至36个月之间诊断为ASD的高风险婴儿)的早期发育轨迹的描绘和核心症状早期表现的识别, 为ASD早期识别提供了重要依据。未来可以增加被试数量、延长观察时间并密集观察时间点、关注伴发障碍、综合考虑遗传、环境和文化因素影响, 并结合早期干预研究进行深入探索。未来在中国开展相关研究具有重要的科学价值和临床意义。     

体像障碍的认知机制及治疗

体像障碍是一种对想象的或轻微外表缺陷的先占观念, 这种先占观念给个体带来极大的痛苦。其负性的自我认知框架, 影响个体对信息的选择、组织及评估。因此结合心理实验范式和神经生理综合分析体像障碍的认知过程, 对深化体像障碍认知机制和优化其认知行为治疗具有重要意义。     

中国人幸福人格的结构与内涵

幸福人格是影响个体幸福感的重要人格特质。为了探索中国人幸福人格的结构和内涵,研究基于人格的词汇学假设,从以往研究者编制人格测验使用的初始词汇表中,筛选出225个与幸福感有关的人格词语。通过探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析,最终得到49个幸福人格词语。因素分析结果显示：中国人的幸福人格包含胆识、美德、乐观三个维度。以Campbell幸福感量表、主观幸福感量表和中国大五人格问卷简式版为效标的分析结果表明,幸福人格各维度得分可有效预测幸福感。     

Assaultive behavior personality and personal space

Eysenck's Psychoticism, Extraversion and Neuroticism (PEN) Inventory was used to explore the role of personality variables in augmented personal space required by assaultive offenders. For both violent (n = 20) and nonviolent (n = 20) subjects personal space was greatest from a rear approach. Neither personality scores nor nature of offense alone predicted personal space needs; however personal space was significantly elevated in all directions for assaultive offenders with high scores on the psychoticism scale of the PEN Inventory.     

Truthfulness,Beneficence, and Vulnerability as Key Concepts in Communication Ethics

This article presents the major stages of the approaches to the ethics of communication and the respective ethical principle of each one. The first stage, centred on the principle of truthfulness, was born at the beginning of the 20th century, at the same time as the first great development of the press and journalism. The second stage, which began at the end of the 20th century, centred on the principle of beneficence and developed from the growing influence of the mass media on all fields and aspects of social life. There is also the need for a further principle for communication ethics: the principle of vulnerability: to give voice to those affected by a situation, especially to those in a situation of vulnerability. The article then considers whether the huge impact of the Internet and social media at the beginning of the 21st century implies a new stage in the ethics of communication or rather the need to extend the scope and effectiveness of existing ethical principles and norms. The article tends toward the second option, insisting on the role of self-regulation and media literacy in tackling the current challenges in media and social media communications.     

Self-efficacy and social behavior

Data regarding the relationship between self-efficacy and social behavior are limited, and questions remain about how to interpret the relationship of self-efficacy to phobic behavior in general. The current study includes data regarding the relationship between self-efficacy ratings and social behavior. The data also allow tests of an alternative hypothesis that self-efficacy ratings represent a general prediction regarding the likely outcome regarding a task. If this hypothesis is correct, the relationship of self-efficacy to behavior should be moderated by task familiarity. The study involved 124 socially anxious participants who gave at least partial data on a variety of measures, including three speaking tasks. In accordance with the alternative hypothesis, self-efficacy ratings best predicted behavior in reference to a familiar speaking task. Overall, self-efficacy showed only a moderate tendency to predict behavior.