Spanish-language measures of mania and depression

Efforts to better understand bipolar spectrum disorders across ethnic groups are often hampered by the lack of commonly used self-report instruments to assess mania and depression in individuals who speak languages other than English. This article describes the translation into Spanish of 2 self-report measures of manic symptoms (i.e., the Internal State Scale and the Hypomanic Personality Scale) and 2 self-report measures of depression (i.e., the Inventory to Diagnose Depression and the Inventory to Diagnose Depression, Lifetime version). The authors translated these measures into Spanish and assessed their psychometric properties among bilingual college students (N = 88). Results suggest that the Spanish versions have psychometric properties comparable to the English versions of the instruments.     

“A disease of our time”: The Catholic Church's condemnation and absolution of psychoanalysis (1924–1975)

The present paper is focused on the evolution of the position of the Catholic Church toward psychoanalysis. Even before Freud's The Future of an Illusion (1927), psychoanalysis was criticized by Catholic theologians. Psychoanalysis was viewed with either contempt or with indifference, but nonpsychoanalytic psychotherapy was accepted, especially for pastoral use. Freudian theory remained for most Catholics a delicate and dangerous subject for a long time. From the center to the periphery of the Vatican, Catholic positions against psychoanalysis have varied in the way that theological stances have varied. In the middle decades of the twentieth century, some Catholics changed their attitudes and even practiced psychoanalysis, challenging the interdict of the Holy Office, which prohibited psychoanalytic practice until 1961. During the Cold War, psychoanalysis progressively became more and more relevant within Catholic culture for two main reasons: changes in psychoanalytic doctrine (which began to stress sexuality to a lesser degree) and the increasing number of Catholic psychoanalysts, even among priests. Between the 1960s and the 1970s, psychoanalysis was eventually accepted and became the main topic of a famous speech by Pope Paul VI. This paper illustrates how this acceptance was a sort of unofficial endorsement of a movement that had already won acceptance within the Church. The situation was fostered by people like Maryse Choisy or Leonardo Ancona, who had advocated within the Church for a sui generis use of psychoanalysis (e.g., proposing a desexualized version of Freudian theories), despite warnings and prohibitions from the hierarchies of the Church.     

Reactivity to a laboratory stressor among individuals with bipolar I disorder in full or partial remission

Strong links have been documented between life events and the course of bipolar disorder. Laboratory studies of stress provide an opportunity to understand the mechanisms involved in reactivity to stressors, but few such studies have been done in the bipolar field. In the current study, 28 people with bipolar I disorder in full or partial remission and 40 people with no history of a mood disorder were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions involving different levels of failure feedback on a concept formation task. Confidence, affective reactions, and performance on a subsequent anagram task were assessed. Results provide tentative support for reactivity to the stressor among the bipolar group, although reactivity was limited to impaired anagram performance.     

Event centrality prospectively predicts PTSD symptoms

Background: Recent evidence suggests that event centrality has a prominent association with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, evidence for this notion thus far has been mostly correlational. We report two studies that prospectively examined the relationship between event centrality and PTSD symptoms. Study 1 Methods: Participants (N?=?1438) reported their most stressful event (“prior event”), along with event centrality, PTSD symptoms, and neuroticism. At Time 2 participants reported their most stressful event since Time 1 (“critical event”), along with measures of event centrality and PTSD symptoms. Study 1 Results: Event centrality for the critical event predicted PTSD symptoms, after controlling for event centrality and PTSD symptoms of the prior event and neuroticism. Study 2 Methods: In the second study (N?=?161) we examined changes in event centrality and PTSD symptoms over a month. Study 2 Results: Using a cross-lagged panel design, results revealed event centrality at Time 1 significantly predicted PTSD symptoms at Time 2, but the reverse was not significant. Conclusions: In two studies, a prospective association between event centrality and PTSD symptoms, but not the reverse, emerged. This evidence implicates event centrality in the pathogenesis and/or maintenance of PTSD symptoms.     

Building therapeutic relationship in schizophrenic and alcohol-related disorder cases

Current literature on the dual diagnosis in cases of schizophrenia and alcohol dependence has reported how pharmacological treatment has positive effects on the reduction of both disorders. Nevertheless, patients have considerable difficulties in following the prescribed medication. This work aims to build an engagement stage and therapeutic relationship in seven patients with schizophrenic and alcohol-related disorder cases. This result was achieved through the use of the vignette technique and narrative psychodynamic approach during group counselling sessions. Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) and Munich Alcoholism Test (MALT) were applied before and after treatment. A follow-up session was organized. The PANSS and MALT scores indicated there was no reduction of the psychiatric symptoms after treatment. The follow-up session showed positive outcomes in terms of increasing the level of socialisation as well as awareness of their own condition; at the same, an adherence to pharmacological treatment and psychotherapy for all the subjects.     

Reducing Measurement Error in Student Achievement Estimation

The achievement level is a variable measured with error, that can be estimated by means of the Rasch model. Teacher grades also measure the achievement level but they are expressed on a different scale. This paper proposes a method for combining these two scores to obtain a synthetic measure of the achievement level based on the theory developed for regression with covariate measurement error. In particular, the focus is on ordinal scaled grades, using the SIMEX method for measurement error correction. The result is a measure comparable across subjects with smaller measurement error variance. An empirical application illustrates the method.     

Life events as predictors of mania and depression in bipolar I disorder

To date, few prospective studies of life events and bipolar disorder are available, and even fewer have separately examined the role of life events in depression and mania. The goal of this study was to prospectively examine the role of negative and goal-attainment life events as predictors of the course of bipolar disorder. One hundred twenty-five individuals with bipolar I disorder were interviewed monthly for an average of 27 months. Negative and goal-attainment life events were assessed with the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule. Changes in symptoms were evaluated using the Modified Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and the Bech-Rafaelsen Mania Scale. The clearest results were obtained for goal-attainment life events, which predicted increases in manic symptoms over time. Negative life events predicted increases in depressive symptoms within regression models but were not predictive within multilevel modeling of changes in depressive symptoms. Given different patterns for goal attainment and negative life events, it appears important to consider specific forms of life events in models of bipolar disorder.     

Peer attachment and self-esteem: A meta-analytic review

Peer attachment might provide individuals with opportunities to build their sense of self-worth. The purpose of this paper was to meta-analytically review literature on peer attachment and self-esteem. A total of 22 articles reporting 24 studies documenting correlations between peer attachment and self-esteem in adolescents and emerging adults were included in this meta-analysis. Of these studies, most examined links between global peer attachment and self-esteem, while few studies reported any associations between specific dimensions of peer attachment (i.e., trust, communication, and alienation) and self-esteem. Results showed significant correlations between peer attachment and self-esteem, consistently found both in studies focused on global attachment as well as in studies including specific attachment dimensions. Furthermore, since a significant heterogeneity was found across the studies, the effects of various categorical and continuous moderators related to characteristics of the study samples and designs were tested. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.     

Development of a measure of experiential avoidance: the Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire

Experiential avoidance (EA) has been conceptualized as the tendency to avoid negative internal experiences and is an important concept in numerous conceptualizations of psychopathology as well as theories of psychotherapy. Existing measures of EA have either been narrowly defined or demonstrated unsatisfactory internal consistency and/or evidence of poor discriminant validity vis-à-vis neuroticism. To help address these problems, we developed a reliable self-report questionnaire assessing a broad range of EA content that was distinguishable from higher order personality traits. An initial pool of 170 items was administered to a sample of undergraduates (N = 312) to help evaluate individual items and establish a structure via exploratory factor analyses. A revised set of items was then administered to another sample of undergraduates (N = 314) and a sample of psychiatric outpatients (N = 201). A 2nd round of item evaluation was performed, resulting in a final 62-item measure consisting of 6 subscales. Cross-validation data were gathered in 3 new, independent samples (students, N = 363; patients, N = 265; community adults, N = 215). The resulting measure (the Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire, or MEAQ) exhibited good internal consistency, was substantially associated with other measures of avoidance, and demonstrated greater discrimination vis-à-vis neuroticism relative to preexisting measures of EA. Furthermore, the MEAQ was broadly associated with psychopathology and quality of life, even after controlling for the effects of neuroticism.