Review of studies evaluating psychotherapy in bulimia nervosa: the influence of research methods

The purpose of the study was to test if design and research methods of studies predict outcome results of bulimia nervosa. Fifty-seven articles on outcome of bulimia nervosa were found through MEDLINE and PSYCHINFO databases and 25 were included in the statistical analysis. Percentages of patients with a good outcome ranged from 24% to 74% with a mean of 51.1%. The variables best predicting outcome were time to follow-up and number of symptoms evaluated in definition of good outcome whereas dropout, design of studies, treatments, and sample characteristics did not predict significantly. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Influence of Religious Factors on Attitudes Towards Suicidal Behaviour in Ghana

The objective of this qualitative study was to understand how religion influences lay persons’ attitudes towards suicide in Ghana. Twenty-seven adults from both rural and urban settings were interviewed. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data. Results showed that the participants are committed to core and normative religious beliefs and practices they perceived as life preserving. Such an understanding influenced their view of suicidal behaviour as unacceptable. Nevertheless, religion facilitated their willingness to help people during suicidal crisis. Religious commitment theory is used to explain some of the findings of this study. Implications for suicide prevention are discussed.     

Between Hippocrates and God: Ugandan mental health professional's views on suicide

A negative attitude towards suicide is generally assumed to be predominant in low-income countries. In order to understand the negative attitude in general it is necessary to look at how religion and morality influence the attitudes. Our aim in this qualitative interview study was to investigate what attitudes professional mental health workers in Uganda bear towards suicide and suicidal persons. The professionals argue for their attitude by employing religious, communal and medical ethics arguments, which draw both in a negative and positive direction. The professionals are in general unambiguously negative towards suicide and positive towards suicidal people who are mentally ill. In cases other than mental illness non-accepting attitudes surface. This is discussed against previous research showing that effective treatment of suicidal people is to be based on a trusting and accepting relationship.     

The expulsion of evil and its return: an unconscious fantasy associated with a case of mass hysteria in adolescents

The formal study of hysteria started with psychoanalysis, which opened paths to studying the unconscious. However, we have found no psychoanalytic or psychiatric studies in the literature reporting epidemics of hysteria in hundreds of adolescent girls affected for several months like the one we describe. This epidemic occurred in a religious boarding-school in a rural area of Mexico. Our study aimed to determine psychoanalytic and sociocultural elements contributing to explain a behavioural epidemic outbreak during which young girls were unable to walk normally and which led to a temporary cessation of routine activities at the boarding-school. Key informers were interviewed, including the first cases of affected adolescent girls and the nuns. Interviews included questions concerning informers' life history and their life at the boarding-school before and during the epidemic. We found that this boarding-school functioned as a large family affected by a psychotic episode which resulted from modes of communication of its members. This article describes the phenomenon and emphasizes perceived communication among members of the boarding-school and visitors at the time of the outbreak.     

Validating the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 (EDI-3): A Comparison Between 561 Female Eating Disorders Patients and 878 Females from the General Population

The Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) is used worldwide in research and clinical work. The 3^rd version (EDI-3) has been used in recent research, yet without any independent testing of its psychometric properties. The aim of the present study was twofold: 1) to establish national norms and to compare them with the US and international norms, and 2) to examine the factor structure, the internal consistency, the sensitivity and the specificity of subscale scores. Participants were Danish adult female patients (N = 561) from a specialist treatment centre and a control group (N = 878) was women selected from the Danish Civil Registration system. Small but significant differences were found between Danish and international, as well as US norms. Overall, the factor structure was confirmed, the internal consistency of the subscales was satisfactory, the discriminative validity was good, and sensitivity and specificity were excellent. The implications from these results are discussed.     

The Coping Mechanisms and Strategies of Hypertension Patients in Ghana: The Role of Religious Faith,Beliefs and Practices

This qualitative study explored the role of religious faith, belief and practice systems in the coping mechanisms and strategies of essential hypertension patients in Accra, Ghana. Six participants were recruited for participation, of which five were Christians and one was a Muslim. Interviews were conducted and interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the data. Results showed that participants used their religious faith, beliefs and practices as coping resources. Participants used a deferring-collaborative style of religious coping, which seemed to have provided them with an avoidance strategy that protected the participants from conscious confrontation with their illness. Religious faith and beliefs also afforded the participants a sense of coherence that enabled the participants to manage their stress, reflect on their external and internal resources to promote effective coping and adaptive functioning in a health promoting manner. Implications of a deferring-collaborative style of religious coping and religious re-appraisal are discussed.     

Change of reference frame for tactile localization during child development

Temporal order judgements (TOJ) for two tactile stimuli, one presented to the left and one to the right hand, are less precise when the hands are crossed over the midline than when the hands are uncrossed. This ‘crossed hand’ effect has been considered as evidence for a remapping of tactile input into an external reference frame. Since late, but not early, blind individuals show such remapping, it has been hypothesized that the use of an external reference frame develops during childhood. Five‐ to 10‐year‐old children were therefore tested with the tactile TOJ task, both with uncrossed and crossed hands. Overall performance in the TOJ task improved with age. While children older than 5½ years displayed a crossed hand effect, younger children did not. Therefore the use of an external reference frame for tactile, and possibly multisensory, localization seems to be acquired at age 5.     

Empirical investigation of the ethical reasoning of physicians and molecular biologists – the importance of the four principles of biomedical ethics

Background  

This study presents an empirical investigation of the ethical reasoning and ethical issues at stake in the daily work of physicians and molecular biologists in Denmark. The aim of this study was to test empirically whether there is a difference in ethical considerations and principles between Danish physicians and Danish molecular biologists, and whether the bioethical principles of the American bioethicists Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress are applicable to these groups.     

Why We Need Qualitative Research in Suicidology

Using the differentiation between explanations and understanding from philosophy of science as the point of departure, a critical look at the current mainstream suicidological research was launched. An almost exclusive use of quantitative methodology focusing on explanations is demonstrated. This bias in scope and methodology has to a large extent taken the suicidological field into a dead‐end of repetitious research. It is argued that an increased focus on understanding and thus extended use of qualitative methodology is essential in bringing the suicidological field forward.