The association of tanning behavior with psycho-tropic medication use among young adult women

Despite its known association with skin cancer, tanning remains popular among young adult women. Indoor tanning behavior has been found to be associated with affective and addictive disorders. To better understand potential psychological and biological mechanisms of tanning behavior, we investigated associations between tanning and medication (psychotropic and other) use among young women. Two hundred and fifty-three women age 18–29 years old were recruited from two northeastern university campus communities. Women self-reported tanning frequency and chronic medication use. In both univariate and multivariate analyses, indoor tanning ≥12 times last year was significantly associated with use of psychotropic medication and anti-depressants in particular. Sunbathing was not associated with medication use. Potential reasons for associations between tanning and psychotropic medication use are discussed. Indoor tanners should be warned that some psychotropic medications are photosensitizing, thus increasing risk for burns and other skin damage from indoor tanning.     

Examination of emotional Stroop interference in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Previous research has produced conflicting findings on whether or not patients with subclinical or manifest obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) share an attentional bias for anxiety-related material. In the present study, 35 OCD patients were compared with 20 healthy controls on their performance in an emotional Stroop paradigm. Nine different stimulus conditions were compiled, including sets for depression-related and anxiety-related words as well as stimuli from two constructs with a potential relevance for the pathogenesis and maintenance of OCD symptomatology: responsibility and conscientiousness. Patients did not show enhanced interference for any of the conditions. Syndrome subtype and severity, avoidance and speed of information processing did not moderate results. The present study concurs with most prior research that OCD patients display no interference effect for general threat words. It deserves further consideration, that emotional interference effects in OCD as seen in other anxiety disorders occur when using idiosyncratic word material with a direct relation to the individual's primary concerns.     

Neurocognitive impairment does not predict treatment outcome in obsessive-compulsive disorder

There is conflicting evidence pertaining to whether or not neurocognitive task performance at baseline predicts treatment response in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In the present study, we administered a set of executive neurocognitive tests with a putative sensitivity for treatment outcome to a sample of 138 OCD patients. Additionally, subjective neurocognitive dysfunction was determined via a questionnaire. All patients participated in a cognitive-behavioural treatment program (CBT). Results showed that responders (n = 73) did not differ from non-responders (n = 65) on any of the parameters except for decreased performance on the delayed alternation test (p < .1, effect size: .61). A subsidiary analysis revealed that slowing on the Trail-Making Test A and an enhanced rate of perserveration errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test predicted poor outcome for the treatment of compulsions. It is concluded that neurocognitive impairment does not represent a reliable early warning sign for non-response to CBT.     

Using Force: Australian Newspaper Depictions of Contacts Between the Police and Persons Experiencing Mental Illness

The media creates and sustains knowledge about socially relevant issues such as crime, mental illness, and policing. Past research suggests that while the media portrayal of the police is undoubtedly complex, their portrayal of people experiencing mental illness remains mainly negative. The depiction of their encounters in the mass media is of considerable interest because of the influential role the media has on public opinion and debate; however, there is a lack of current research in this area. This study aimed to examine media items in the major newspapers across Australia between January 2006 and December 2007 (n = 77) to investigate their portrayal of this interface. The dominant themes encountered in the initial analysis depicted people experiencing mental illness as dangerous and a threat to the public, where the mental health system has failed to manage them adequately. Further analyses found that people experiencing mental illness were stigmatised in a third of the media items reviewed and were represented significantly more negatively in these encounters than the police. Implications of these findings and some suggestions regarding possible strategies that could improve socially responsible media reporting and public discourse on mental illness are proposed.     

熟悉性对外群体同质性效应的影响

两个实验考查了年龄和性别群体中是否存在外群体同质性效应以及熟悉性对该种效应的影响。结果表明：1．年龄群体中存在明显的外群体同质性效应,这与青年群体和老年群体彼此不够熟悉有关;2．性别群体中不存在外群体同质性效应,这与青年男女群体彼此较为熟悉有关。     

Contrasting effects of self-schema priming on lexical decisions and interpersonal stroop task performance: evidence for a cognitive/interactionist model of interpersonal dependency

Four experiments tested a key tenet of Bornstein's (1992, 1993) cognitive/interactionist (C/I) model of interpersonal dependency: that priming the helpless self-schema (HSS) alters processing of dependency-related information in dependent--but not nondependent--individuals. Experiments 1 and 2 assessed the effects of subliminal lexical priming and an emotional priming manipulation on lexical decision (LD) judgments for dependency-related words and control words. Experiments 3 and 4 assessed the effects of these same priming procedures on Interpersonal Stroop Task (IST) performance. As predicted, priming the HSS produced contrasting effects on different outcome measures, decreasing LD latencies, but increasing IST response times. Results are discussed in the context of the C/I model, and suggestions for future studies are offered.     

A team format for the Global Assessment Scale: reliability and validity on an inpatient unit

The Global Assessment Scale (GAS) is a 100-point rating instrument which purports to measure psychological adjustment on a continuum from self-actualization to severe regression. Its reliability and validity were examined on the admitting ward of a state hospital where GAS ratings are assigned to patients by computing a mean of the individual ratings assigned by a team of clinicians. Results showed such team GAS ratings to have good reliability. As for validity, team GAS predicted the outcomes of court hearings at two stages of the civil commitment process and showed construct validity in its relevant correlations with the Psychotic Inpatient Profile. A predicted association between team GAS and a ward atmosphere measure was not obtained. Taken as a whole, the results support the use of team GAS ratings in inpatient settings.