Symptom treatment and symptom substitution in enuresis.

Explored the hypotheses that (1) aspects of the therapist-patient relationship are responsible for successful behavior therapy, and (2) substitute problems will arise following remission of symptoms. 30 enuretic children were treated either by a conditioning method or by methods devised to duplicate its motivational aspects. Adjustment measures on the enuretic Ss and 60 control children were obtained independent of treatment. Conditioning was superior to other methods, suggesting that successful treatment was not based solely on the therapist-patient relationship. Subsequent to treatment, test measures did not indicate a decline in adjustment; on several measures, significant improvement was found. (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The nature of nondirective group psychotherapy. An experimental investigation.

Reviews the book, The nature of nondirective group psychotherapy. An experimental investigation by Leon Gorlow, Erasmus L. Hoch, and Earl F. Telschow (1952). This study was designed to investigate with quantitative precision various parameters of the process of nondirective group psychotherapy. Acknowledging the tentative, exploratory nature of the investigation, the authors outline a threefold objective: (a) analysis of the uniformity of group patterns of verbal behavior as a function of variables like time, differing membership, and leadership; (b) delineation of the therapeutic value of the group, per se; and (c) evaluation of the role of the group leader. This book is successful in providing interesting hypotheses and techniques for analyzing protocols. The limitations of its experimental design, however, prevent an evaluation of either the unique characteristics or therapeutic value of nondirective group psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leading and following psychotherapeutic techniques with hypnotically induced repression and hostility.

Experimental procedures involving the hypnotic induction of miniature neuroses in normal individuals were tested. Conditions of therapist following and leading were studied for their effects on hostility and on the lifting of repression in one hour therapeutic interviews. Leading is more effective than following for lifting repressions. Therapist experience leading to incorrect hypotheses about a client has a deleterious effect on the lifting of repression and is associated with stronger expression of transference hostility by the client. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Machiavellianism: A synthesis of the evolutionary and psychological literatures.

Manipulative strategies of social conduct (Machiavellianism) have been studied by both psychologists and evolutionary biologists. The authors use the psychological literature as a database to test evolutionary hypotheses about the adaptive advantages of manipulative social behavior. Machiavellianism does not correlate with general intelligence and does not consistently lead to real-world success. It is best regarded as 1 of several social strategies, broadly similar to the "defect" strategy of evolutionary game theory, which is successful in some situations but not in others. In general, human evolutionary psychology and evolutionary game theory provide useful frameworks for thinking about behavioral strategies, such as Machiavellianism, and identify a large number of specific hypotheses that have not yet been tested by personality and social psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality characteristics related to leadership behavior in two types of small group situational problems.

Using male United States Air Force Officer Candidate School Ss several hypotheses implied in the "great man" theory of small group leadership were focused on small group behavior and situational testing. "The results… personality traits associated with successful performance in two types of small group activity do not differ in relative importance." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determination of factors affecting the therapeutic outcome of radioiodine therapy in patients with Graves' disease

AIM: Of this study was to determine whether success of radioiodine therapy (RIT) in Graves' disease depends on thyroid volume, function, thyroideal receptor antibodies (TRAK), thyreostasis, therapeutic dosage, 131I uptake, or effective half-life. METHOD: 78 patients received an average of 626 +/- 251 MBq of iodine-131 orally for thyroid ablation. 60 were assessed for successful therapy 3 months after RIT. RESULTS: In patients showing hyperthyreosis or a TRAK value > 11 U/l at the beginning of RIT, a significantly lower therapeutic dosage and effective iodine half-life were found than in non-hyperthyreotic patients or patients with TRAK < or = 11 U/l. Patients with a thyroid volume < or = 25 ml showed a significantly lower 131I uptake, but a significantly higher relative uptake (131I uptake/ volume) than patients with a thyroid volume > 25 ml. All failures were treated thyreostatically during RIT and showed a significantly lower therapeutic iodine dosage and relative uptake, as well as a significantly higher thyroid volume than patients with a successful therapy. RIT caused a thyroid volume reduction of 44%, with therapy failures showing a significantly lower volume reduction. Patients who received a therapeutic dosage of < or = 250 Gy showed significantly worse results than did those who had received > 250 Gy. Only one case of therapy failure received a dosage > 250 Gy, while 50% of failures received dosages > 200 Gy but < 250 Gy. Multivariate analyses (MANOVA, factor analyses) showed thyreostasis as the decisive negative factor for a successful course of therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Since most treatment failures occurred in patients under thyreostatic medication we recommend raising the target dosage to 250 Gy for these cases.     

Infection with Helicobacter pylori

60 male Nigerian prison inmates (30 with convicted status and 30 awaiting trial) and 210 male noninmates were administered the Tennessee Self-concept Scale to test the hypotheses that (1) inmates with convicted status would obtain higher self-concept scores than those with ?awaiting trial? status, and (2) the self-concept scores of prison inmates generally would be lower than those of noninmates. The two hypotheses were strongly supported for this sample. It was concluded that self-concept scores were not only related to delinquency by also to custodial status.     

New drugs in the treatment of alcoholism

Pharmacotherapy of alcoholism is improving rapidly with the introduction of new agents. New knowledge about the neurobiology of alcoholism is necessary for the clinician, who has to establish the diagnosis. Useful pharmacological agents for the treatment of alcohol dependence can be classified into four groups: (1) agents for the treatment of the withdrawal syndrome, (2) aversive agents, (3) therapeutic agents for comorbidity, (4) new agents to reduce craving for alcohol or prevent relapse. These new agents derive from research in four directions, based on neurobiological hypotheses: (a) the glutamatergic hypothesis with acamprosate, (b) the opioid hypothesis with naltrexone, (c) the serotonergic hypothesis with the new antidepressants, and (d) other hypotheses, including dopaminergic, peptidic etc. Of these new agents, acamprosate has undergone most study in controlled clinical trials around Europe. Its efficacy has been demonstrated statistically, it is well tolerated and does not interact with alcohol. Acamprosate can be associated with disulfiram therapy. Future perspectives for treatment and research are discussed, in particular with regard to therapeutic associations.     

Direct coronary stenting without predilatation: a new therapeutic approach with a special balloon catheter design

Coronary stenting is the primary therapeutic option for many coronary lesions, after the risk of subacute stent thrombosis and bleeding complications has been reduced by antithrombotic regimens and improved stent expansion. It would be desirable to shorten the procedure and the duration of ischemia, and to reduce the risk of ischemic complications during balloon inflation by implanting the stent without previous dilatation of the lesion. This is not possible with the presently available stent delivery systems. This new therapeutic concept was tested with a specially designed balloon catheter, on which slotted-tube stents can be fixed between two conical radiopaque markers. Sixty-one patients eligible for angioplasty underwent direct stent implantation without predilatation. Four procedures were performed for acute myocardial infarction, and two as high-risk PTCA. Single slotted-tube stents (Palmaz-Schatz, NIR, or JOStent) of 14-16-mm length were mounted between the conical radiopaque markers of a special balloon which provided a fixation for the crimped stent. The direct implantation was successful in 80% of all patients, while in 10% the stent could be deployed after predilatation of the lesion. In 10% of lesions a stent could not be implanted with this and any other delivery system. When patients with successful direct stenting were compared with those with indirect (after predilatation) or unsuccessful stent deployment, the presence of angiographically visible calcification was higher in the unsuccessful cases (75% vs. 19%; P < 0.01), and the patients were older (72+/-8 vs. 61+/-12 years; P < 0.01). Radiation exposure time was only 8.7+/-5.1 min as compared with 12.6+/-7.6 min in conventional stent procedures with predilatation (P < 0.05). The number of balloons used per lesion was also lower than with conventional stenting. Stent dislocation was observed in 5%, and no embolization occurred. The new therapeutic approach of direct stenting without predilatation proved to be a safe and successful procedure in this initial series of coronary angioplasties. When calcified coronary lesions are avoided, it provides a way to rationalize stent implantation with shorter radiation exposure times, fewer balloons, and the potential advantage of fewer ischemic complications as no balloon predilatation is required.     

Quantitative and qualitative analyses for psychotherapy research: Integration through time-series designs.

Proposes the generalized least squares method, a time-series multiple-regression analysis, to simultaneously assess treatment efficacy and process correlates of outcome and to test alternative hypotheses of treatment efficacy. This approach can be applied to small samples by capitalizing on repeated measurements. Criteria for qualitative analysis are presented in an attempt to provide guidelines for the identification of significant therapeutic change events and the generation of hypotheses regarding factors involved in therapeutic change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collective versus individual induction with single versus multiple hypotheses.

Four-person cooperative groups and 4 independent individuals solved rule induction problems by proposing 1, 2, or 4 hypotheses per trial while selecting the same amount of evidence per trial. Groups performed at the level of the best individuals and better than the 2nd-best, 3rd-best, and 4th-best individuals for both correct hypotheses and nonplausible hypotheses. Increasing the number of proposed hypotheses from 1 to 2 to 4 did not increase correct hypotheses but increased nonplausible hypotheses. Transition probabilities from hypotheses on trial t to t?+?1 indicated superior performance for the groups and best individuals for each of positive and negative hypothesis tests followed by examples and nonexamples; once the groups and best individuals proposed the correct hypothesis, they were more likely to continue to propose it than the other individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual and group perceptions of therapeutic factors and session evaluation: An actor–partner interdependence analysis.

The relationship between a group member's and other group members' perceptions of therapeutic factors and session evaluation were examined using Kenny, Mannetti, Pierro, Livi, and Kashy's (2002) model. In addition, I examined the relative variance in therapeutic factors as a function of sessions, group members, and groups. Thirty-six growth-group participants participating in six 28-session growth groups filled out critical incident (CI) forms and session evaluations. CIs were rated on 10 therapeutic factors dimensions derived from Bloch, Reibstein, Crouch, Holroyd, and Themen (1979). On average, 95% of the variance in the therapeutic factors was at the session level, 4% of the variance was at the person level, and 1% of the variance was at the group level. Contrary to the hypotheses, individual's perception of therapeutic factors was not significantly related to session depth or smoothness. Contrary to the hypothesis, other group members' perceptions of therapeutic factors were not significantly related to session depth, although there was a trend (p = .06). As hypothesized, other group members' perceptions of therapeutic factors were significantly related to session smoothness. The findings support Yalom and Leszcz's (2005) contention that the group leaders' primary function is to create a therapeutically effective group culture and not to focus on individual group member change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypothesis testing in rule discovery: Strategy, structure, and content.

Examined hypothesis-testing strategy by using the paradigm of rule discovery introduced by P. C. Wason (see record 1961-01737-001). Ss were given an example of a triple (a set of 3 items) produced by a particular generating rule. Their goal was to determine the rule. To do this, they proposed a new triple and were told whether the triple fit the rule. Ss completed 18 such trials, each time indicating their current best guess about the rule. After the 18th triple, Ss were told whether their guess was correct. Each S received 1 of 18 problems using triples of numbers or cities. Task structure was varied across problems by varying relations between the correct rule and Ss' initial hypotheses. Performance was a function of task structure, task content, and hypothesis-testing strategy. However, results indicate the overall predominance of a positive test strategy, which often leads to hypotheses that are too narrow. In this strategy, Ss look for possible errors by testing instances they believed should fit the rule, with relatively few tests of instances they believe should not. Successful and unsuccessful Ss showed the same predominant strategy. However, successful problem solvers were much more likely to direct their tests toward distinguishing explicit alternative hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Three principles of salience in the organization of the patient-analyst interaction.

Explores the proposal that infant research is applicable to adult treatment through organizational principles of interactive regulation. Three organizing principles derived from infant research are used to create metaphors and analogies for adult treatment. These 3 principles (ongoing regulation, disruption and repair, and heightened affective moments) constitute hypotheses about how analyst–patient interactions become patterned and salient. They can further specify modes of therapeutic action in adult treatment. The case of a 36-yr-old professional woman with a depressive outlook on life and a strong belief that therapy would not help is used to illustrate the therapeutic action of the 3 principles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leadership and popularity as a function of behavioral predictions.

Two hypotheses regarding leadership behavior are tested by means of a social prediction test derived from the Rosenzweig P-F test. The leadership hypothesis states that S's who are ranked high in the leadership dimension will be more successful in estimating the predictions made by each group member to a list of test situations than S's ranked low in this dimension. The popularity hypothesis states that leaders who are ranked high on the popularity dimension will be more successful in estimating predictions made on them by group members to a list of test situations than leaders who are ranked low on this dimension. Both hypotheses were confirmed but the design of the experiment precludes generalizations to leaders as a group, claiming only that significant findings existed within the group studied. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Executive Functioning and Speed of Processing in Phenylketonuria.

Treated phenylketonuria (PKU) has been linked to dopaminergic depletion in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, potentially leading to selective executive impairment. White matter abnormalities may lead to generalized slowing of information processing. These 2 hypotheses were evaluated in adults with PKU on a lifelong diet. Those with PKU were significantly slower than the control group regardless of working memory load on an n-back task and marginally slower regardless of trial type (inhibitory or noninhibitory) on a flanker task. There were no significant differences in speed on object alternation learning or perceptual judgment tasks. There were no group differences in accuracy on any task. These findings do not appear consistent with the selective executive hypothesis. A cognitive slowing account may prove more informative in adults with PKU, but more evidence is needed. The findings suggest that continuous dietary management is a fairly successful strategy in terms of cognitive outcome for adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A therapeutic index: Measuring therapeutic actions in psychotherapy.

This article describes a research method that measures a therapist's effectiveness by assigning a composite value to each therapeutic verbal statement during a session. The intrasubject averaging of these values is called the mean therapeutic index (Σ). In this study, whether the mean therapeutic index could be used to predict treatment outcome was investigated. A successful case and an unsuccessful case were selected for 15 therapists, and an early session for each case was coded using the mean therapeutic index. The results show that the magnitude of the effect of the mean therapeutic index, as indicated by the correlation coefficient r, was .92. Thus, the mean therapeutic index accounted for 85% of the variance in the classification of treatment outcome as successful or unsuccessful. The findings point to the method's potential use for clinical practice and supervision of psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-sectional age variance extraction: What's change got to do with it?

In cross-sectional age variance extraction (CAVE), age, the indicator of a hypothesized developmental mechanism, and a developmental outcome are specified as independent, mediator, and target variables, respectively, to test hypotheses about behavioral development. We show that: (a) longitudinal change in a mediator variable accounting for substantial cross-sectional age-related variance in the target variable need not correlate with the target variable's longitudinal change; and, conversely, (b) longitudinal change in a mediator not sharing cross-sectional age-related variance with the target variable may nevertheless correlate highly with that variable's longitudinal change. We discourage use of CAVE for testing multivariate hypotheses about behavioral development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)