Explore the vast range of titles available.

The use of stress management psychotherapy is hypothesized to produce greater improvement in disease course and disease-specific quality of life (IBDQ) compared to usual medical care alone in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn's disease (CD) showing high levels of stress (based on the Perceived Stress Questionnaire [PSQ]).MethodsFifty-eight patients with UC and 56 patients with CD who had experienced continuous disease activity or had relapsed over the previous 18 months, with an activity index for UC or CD ≥4, a PSQ ≥60, and without serious psychiatric disorders or other serious medical conditions were randomized to receive either treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU plus stress management psychotherapy. Psychotherapy consisted of three group sessions (psychoeducation, problem-solving, relaxation) and 6–9 individual sessions based on cognitive behavior therapy-related methods with 1–3 booster sessions at 6 and 12 months follow-up. Gastroenterologists blinded to intervention group assessed disease activity and course at baseline and at 3, 6, 12, and 18 months. Patients completed the IBDQ at baseline, 6, 12, and 18 months.ResultsThe intervention did not improve disease or reduce relapse; however, it increased the IBDQ score (P = 0.009, mean differences 16.3 [SD 6.1]). On analysis of UC and CD separately, improvement of IBDQ was only found in the UC group.ConclusionsStress management psychotherapy does not appear to improve disease course or reduce relapse in patients with IBD. It might improve quality of life, particularly in patients with UC. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2011;)

Adverse early circumstances may be more common in people who later develop psychotic disorders. To use data from the second British National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity to examine associations between psychotic disorders and a number of early victimisation experiences. Psychiatric disorders were identified through structured assessment of adults resident in private households in Britain (n=8580). Respondents were asked whether they had experienced selected events displayed on cards. Compared with respondents with other psychiatric disorders or with none, the prevalence of every experience bar one was significantly elevated in those with definite or probable psychosis. The largest odds ratio was for sexual abuse. Controlling for depressed mood somewhat reduced the odds ratios for the individual experiences. In people with psychosis, there is a marked excess of victimising experiences, many of which will have occurred during childhood. This is suggestive of a social contribution to aetiology.

Different theories of the link between socio-economic status (SES) and mental illness have been postulated. In particular, two theories of this association, social causation and social selection, differ in the implied causal pathway. The authors employ behavior genetic modeling to consider evidence for both social selection and social causation in the relationship between income variation and internalizing disorders. Behavior genetic modeling was used to estimate the presence of gene-environment interaction (GxE, social causation) in the presence of gene-environment correlation (rGE, social selection). Participants were members of a sample of 719 twin pairs from the Midlife in the United States study. Four internalizing (INT) syndromes were assessed: major depression (MD); generalized anxiety disorder (GAD); panic attacks (PA); neuroticism (N). SES was measured with total family household income. One factor best accounted for the variance shared between MD, GAD, PA and N. The etiology of variation in INT changed from high to low levels of income, with unique environmental factors playing a larger role in INT variation at lower levels of income. Across levels of income, rGE between income and INT was modest (low income ra=0.39 to high income ra=0.54), implying a selection process operating through genetic effects linking lower income with INT psychopathology. Findings support social causation by suggesting that low income contributes significantly to environmental variation in INT. Modest support was found for social selection, but should be extended using longitudinal designs. Effective interventions for internalizing psychopathology may differ depending on income.

Obesity is characterized by chronic low-grade inflammation that may lead to emotional distress and behavioural symptoms. This study assessed the relationship between adiposity, low-grade inflammation, eating behaviour and emotional status in obese women awaiting gastric surgery and investigated the effects of surgery-induced weight loss on this relationship. A total of 101 women with severe or morbid obesity awaiting gastric surgery were recruited. Assessments were performed before and at 1 year post-surgery and included the measurement of neuroticism and extraversion using the revised Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness personality inventory (NEO-PI-R) and eating behaviour using the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ). Blood samples were collected for the measurement of serum inflammatory markers [interleukin-6 (IL-6), high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP)] and adipokines (leptin, adiponectin). At baseline, body mass index (BMI) was positively correlated with inflammatory markers and adipokines. Regression analyses adjusting for age and diabetes revealed that baseline concentrations of IL-6 and hsCRP were associated with the depression and anxiety facets of neuroticism, with higher inflammation predicting higher anxiety and depression. This association remained significant after adjusting for BMI. Gastric surgery induced significant weight loss, which correlated with reduced inflammation. After controlling for BMI variations, decreases in inflammatory markers, notably hsCRP, were associated with reduced anxiety and TFEQ-cognitive restraint scores. These findings indicate strong associations between adiposity, inflammation and affectivity in obese subjects and show that surgery-induced weight loss is associated concomitantly with reduced inflammation and adipokines and with significant improvement in emotional status and eating behaviour. Inflammatory status appears to represent an important mediator of emotional distress and psychological characteristics of obese individuals.

Background. The Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) measures the perception of being parented to the age of 16 years. Low scores on the care dimension and high scores on the overprotection dimension are considered to be risk factors of depression. While the PBI has been shown to be a reliable and valid instrument, the stability of the PBI over extended periods (taking into account individual characteristics and life experience) needs to be demonstrated. Method. The PBI was measured in a non-clinical cohort on four waves between 1978 and 1998, along with a series of self-report measures including state depression and neuroticism. Differences in PBI change over time were examined by gender, lifetime major depression diagnosis, and life event variables, as well as by scores on neuroticism and state depression. Results. Acceptable retest coefficients on PBI scores over the 20-year study were found for the cohort. No differences were found in PBI scores over time on the variables examined, including sex and depression measures. Conclusions. The results indicate long-term stability of the PBI over time. The influences of mood state and life experience appear to have little effect on the stability of the perception of parenting as measured by the PBI. The present study increases confidence in the PBI as a valid measure of perceived parenting over extended time periods.

Neuroticism measures are very popular in psychopathological research, but it is unclear how useful neuroticism is in studies of the aetiology of psychopathology. A conceptual examination was made of the literature on the association of neuroticism and psychopathology, the ontological status of neuroticism, the purport of neuroticism questionnaires, and causal issues. The research on which neuroticism is built has historically been based solely on the factor analyses of the common adjectives used to describe usual behaviours. An abundance of studies have shown that neuroticism scores predict life stress, psychological distress, emotional disorders, psychotic symptoms, substance abuse, physical tension-related symptoms, medically unexplained physical symptoms, and health care utilisation. This evidence suggests that neuroticism scales index vulnerability to many forms of negative affect and psychiatric disorder. However, the associations do not clarify the nature of this vulnerability nor the underlying psychobiological mechanisms. We present evidence that neuroticism scores reflect a person's characteristic (or mean) level of distress over a protracted period of time. In this perspective, even prospective associations of neuroticism with mental health outcomes are basically futile, and largely tautological since scores on any characteristic with substantial within-subject stability will predict, by definition, that characteristic and related variables at later points in time. Neuroticism is not an explanatory concept in the aetiology of psychopathology, since it measures a person's characteristic level of distress over a protracted period of time. This situation will not change until knowledge becomes available about: (i) the mechanisms that produce high neuroticism scores (and, therefore, also psychopathology) and (ii) its neurobiological substrate. Only then will we understand why neuroticism appears to \"predict\" the outcomes it predicts.

Background Most women who choose to terminate a pregnancy cope well following an abortion, although some women experience severe psychological distress. The general interpretation in the field is that the most consistent predictor of mental disorders after induced abortion is the mental health issues that women present with prior to the abortion. We have previously demonstrated that few women develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) after induced abortion. Neuroticism is one predictor of importance for PTSD, and may thus be relevant as a risk factor for the development of PTSD or PTSS after abortion. We therefore compared Neuroticism-related personality trait scores of women who developed PTSD or PTSS after abortion to those of women with no evidence of PTSD or PTSS before or after the abortion. Methods A Swedish multi-center cohort study including six Obstetrics and Gynecology Departments, where 1294 abortion-seeking women were included. The Screen Questionnaire-Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (SQ-PTSD) was used to evaluate PTSD and PTSS. Measurements were made at the first visit and at three and six month after the abortion. The Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP) was used for assessment of Neuroticism-related personality traits. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the risk factors for development of PTSD or PTSS post abortion. Results Women who developed PTSD or PTSS after the abortion had higher scores than the comparison group on several of the personality traits associated with Neuroticism, specifically Somatic Trait Anxiety, Psychic Trait Anxiety, Stress Susceptibility and Embitterment. Women who reported high, or very high, scores on Neuroticism had adjusted odds ratios for PTSD/PTSS development of 2.6 (CI 95% 1.2–5.6) and 2.9 (CI 95% 1.3–6.6), respectively. Conclusion High scores on Neuroticism-related personality traits influence the risk of PTSD or PTSS post abortion. This finding supports the argument that the most consistent predictor of mental disorders after abortion is pre-existing mental health status.

There have been relatively few surveys in Latin America that have attempted to estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in private households. To determine the prevalence of common mental disorders and socio-demographic correlates among adults from Santiago, Chile. Cross-sectional survey of private households with a probabilistic sampling design was used. Common mental disorders were measured using the Clinical Interview Schedule-Revised (CIS-R). Three thousand eight hundred and seventy adults were interviewed. Twenty-five per cent were CIS-R cases and 13% met criteria for an ICD-10 diagnosis. Low education, female gender, unemployment, separation, low social status and lone parenthood were associated with a higher prevalence. Prevalence rates were higher than those found in urban areas of Great Britain, both for ICD-10 diagnoses and 'non-specific neurotic disorders'. Similar socio-demographic factors were associated with an increased prevalence of common mental disorders in Chile as in the UK. There is a need to unify methodologies to be able to compare results internationally.

Background: The personality trait of neuroticism is strongly related to depression, but depression is etiologically heterogeneous. Late-onset depression (LOD) may be more closely related to vascular factors, and previous studies of neuroticism in LOD versus early-onset depression (EOD) have not been consistent. Method: We examined neuroticism, extraversion and perceived stress in 88 fully remitted depressed patients with a mean age of 60 years and with a history of hospitalization for major depressive disorder. Patients were divided into those with onset after and those with onset before 50 years of age (LOD and EOD, respectively), and the two groups were compared both with each other and with matched control groups of healthy subjects. Results: EOD patients showed increased levels of neuroticism in comparison with both LOD and matched controls, who did not differ. The association between age of onset and neuroticism was confirmed in analyses based on age of depression onset as a continuous variable. Conclusion: Neuroticism may be an etiological factor in EOD but not or less so in LOD. This finding contributes to the growing evidence for etiological differences between early- and late-onset late-life depression.

In the 1940s–50s, one of the most central questions in psychological research related to the nature of neurosis. In the final years of the Second World War and the following decade, neurosis became one of the most prominent psychiatric disorders, afflicting a high proportion of military casualties and veterans. The condition became central to the concerns of several psychological fields, from psychoanalysis to Pavlovian psychology. This paper reconstructs the efforts of Chicago psychiatrist Jules Masserman to study neurosis in the laboratory during the 1940s and 1950s. Masserman used Pavlovian techniques in a bid to subject this central psychoanalytic subject to disciplined scientific experimentation. More generally, his project was an effort to bolster the legitimacy of psychoanalysis as a human science by articulating a convergence of psychoanalytic categories across multiple species. Masserman sought to orchestrate a convergence of psychological knowledge between fields that were often taken to be irreconcilable. A central focus of this paper is the role of moving images in this project, not only as a means of recording experimental data but also as a rhetorical device. The paper argues that for Masserman film played an important role in enabling scientific observers (and then subsequent viewers) to see agency and emotion in the animals they observed.