Verbal associative disturbances in children at high risk for schizophrenia.

Analyzed single-word and continuous association test behaviors of children at high (207 Ss) and low (104 Ss) risk for schizophrenia. A comparison was also made between test scores of those high-risk Ss who later became schizophrenic and scores of others who did not. Although high-risk Ss exhibited more deviant associations than low-risk Ss, premorbid associative disturbance did not characterize those who later became schizophrenic. These findings are not supportive of learning theories of associative disturbance. When combined with recent evidence showing that degree of associative disturbance at initial breakdown is not predictive of chronicity or outcome, these findings call for a reevaluation of the central character of associative disturbance in schizophrenia. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recent-onset ecstasy use: Association with deviant behaviors and psychiatric comorbidity.

Background: Despite increases in ecstasy (MDMA) use in the United States, little is known about characteristics linked with recent-onset ecstasy use, especially psychiatric symptoms and deviant behaviors. Aims: To test whether individuals with high levels of other drug use are more likely to be recent-onset ecstasy users; to test whether psychiatric symptoms in adults are associated with recent-onset ecstasy use; to explore the association between recent-onset ecstasy use and concomitant deviant behaviors in adolescents and adults. Methods: Data from the 2001 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Findings: Recent-onset ecstasy use was significantly more likely to occur among adolescents and adults (18-34 years old) who engaged in deviant behaviors during the past year as compared with those who did not engage in deviant behaviors during the past year. Higher levels of deviancy indicated a higher likelihood of being a recent-onset ecstasy user, and associations were strongest with nonviolent deviant behaviors such as selling illegal drugs and stealing. Associations between deviant behaviors and recent-onset ecstasy use were similar in strength to associations between deviant behaviors and recent-onset cocaine and marijuana use, respectively. Adults who had past-year psychiatric symptoms (both depressive and panic symptoms) were twice as likely to be recent-onset ecstasy users as compared with those without past-year psychiatric symptoms. Greater levels of drug involvement increased the odds of being a recent-onset ecstasy user. Conclusion: Recent-onset ecstasy use seems to be associated with a range of other behavioral problems and may reflect one aspect of a larger problem behavior syndrome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of self-esteem lability and low trait self-esteem as vulnerability factors for depression.

Self-esteem lability (SEL), defined as daily event-related variability in state self-esteem, and low trait self-esteem (TSE) were assessed among 205 male and female undergraduates who were currently depressed, previously depressed (PD), and never depressed (ND). SEL scores were derived for the effect of positive, negative, and combined events on state self-esteem over 30 days. Consistent with psychodynamic and cognitive theories, SEL was found to be a better index of depression proneness than TSE. PD Ss showed higher lability on all SEL scores than ND controls but did not differ from controls on TSE. Ss were reassessed 5 mo later, and new cases showed higher premorbid SEL than ND controls but did not differ from controls on premorbid TSE. SEL at Time 1 was found to increase risk for depression at Time 2 among Ss reporting high life stress at Time 2. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and content of imitation in the second and third years of life: A socialization perspective.

This study investigated the content and development of children's imitative behavior in the home in order to assess the potential role of imitation in early socialization. The data consisted of incidents of naturally occurring imitations of 16- and 29-month-old children collected by mothers trained in observational recording. Immediate imitations decreased with age, whereas deferred imitations increased with age. In terms of content, increases with age were found for (a) caretaking, self-care, and household task behaviors; (b) mannerisms and expressive behavior; and (c) other-directed discipline and control behaviors. Decreases with age were found for affective and noninstrumental behaviors. Differences in the content of children's imitations of parents and peers were also found. The findings suggest that the imitation of conventional social behaviors increases during the second and third years of life. The implications of developmental change for the socializing function of imitation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abnormalities of F response in cases with spastic spinal paralysis and effects of TRH-T on them

F responses were recorded in 6 cases with SSP and in 22 normal controls. The present study confirmed that frequency, number of phases, F/M amplitude ratio and duration were significantly increased and CV of onset latencies was significantly reduced in cases with SSP. After intravenous injection of TRH (2 mg), all the parameters were altered toward normal sides. It was suggested that the hyperexcitability of motor neuron pool in SSP was stabilized by effects of TRH on injured pyramidal tracts and consequently abnormalities of F responses were improved. The Effect of TRH to correct the abnormal F responses in SSP might be consistent with effects of TRH to reduce spasticity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis described previously.     

Psychiatric disorder and disability in New Zealand long-stay psychiatric patients

A study was undertaken of the prevalence of physical disease, psychiatric disorder and deviant behaviour in a sample of 137 long stay psychiatric patients at Porirua Hospital near Wellington, New Zealand. Patients were in the main male, single, middle-aged to elderly and of European descent. Schizophrenia was the most common diagnosis. Psychiatric symptoms were moderately severe, the most common being unusual mannerisms and posturing, anxiety, blunted affect, tension, unusual thought content and somatic concerns. Known physical disorders were present in 66 patients. Levels of neuroleptic medication were high and tardive dyskinesia was observed in almost 60% of patients. Frequency of deviant behaviour was low in absolute terms but nonetheless problematic. The frequency of deviant behaviour was similar to those reported for British patients.     

Does restricted distribution limit access and coverage of yellow fever vaccine in the United States?

BACKGROUND: While human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related causes of death have been well documented in developed countries, in Africa data are scanty and mainly based on autopsy studies from city hospitals which are highly selective and may not represent causes of HIV-associated deaths in the general population. This study, from a rural population, describes the causes of death in HIV-positive people and their HIV-negative controls. METHODS: A natural history cohort comprising HIV-1 infected participants and HIV-negative controls was established in rural Uganda in 1990. Causes of death were determined by reviewing the premorbid clinical and laboratory findings and from information obtained from relatives. Blindness to the deceased's HIV serostatus was maintained throughout. RESULTS: In all, 78 deaths occurred over a 6-year period: 63 deaths occurred in the HIV-positive cases (53 prevalent and 10 incident cases) and 15 deaths in the HIV-negative controls. Of the prevalent cases, 56%, and 9% the incident cases enrolled died, compared with 7% of the HIV-negative controls. Of the 55 HIV-positive cases with sufficient data to establish cause of death, 52 (95%) were assessed as having HIV-associated deaths and 48 (87%) died in WHO stage 4 (AIDS). The main causes of death were wasting syndrome (31%), chronic diarrhoea (22%), cryptococcal meningitis (13%) and chest infection (11%). CONCLUSIONS: Our results represent an unbiased selection of deaths in a rural area. The HIV-positive cases have high death rates and die of HIV-related pathologies. The main causes of death reflect the WHO clinical case definition of AIDS. Cryptococcal meningitis is also a common cause of death in this population.     

Poor parenting as an adult problem behavior: General deviance, deviant attitudes, inadequate family support and bonding, or just bad parents?

Theoretically appropriate constructs have not been fully established for deviant adult roles. The authors tested (a) whether poor parenting reflects general deviance, (b) whether associations between poor parenting and other adult deviant behaviors could be accounted for by deviant attitudes, and (c) whether these adult roles could be predicted from family support and bonding during adolescence. Data from a community sample of 199 ethnically diverse mothers revealed that Poor Parenting was related to more Polydrug Problems, more Property Crimes, and less Social Conformity. These correlations were accounted for by a higher order factor of General Deviance, although deviant attitudes did not explain the associations among behaviors. Specific correlations delineated associations between types of parenting and deviance. Adolescent family support and bonding reduced mother's Poor Parenting and was unrelated to other adult deviant behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonshared environmental mediation of the association between deviant peer affiliation and adolescent externalizing behaviors over time: Results from a cross-lagged monozygotic twin differences design.

It has been argued that peers are the most important agent of adolescent socialization and, more specifically, that this socialization process occurs at the child-specific (or nonshared environmental) level (J. R. Harris, 1998; R. Plomin & Asbury, 2005). The authors sought to empirically evaluate this nonshared environmental peer influence hypothesis by examining the association between externalizing behaviors and deviant peer affiliation in a sample of 454 pairs of monozygotic (genetically identical) twins, assessed at ages 14 and 17, within a cross-lagged twin differences design. Results argued against a causal nonshared environmental influence of peer affiliation on the development of externalizing behaviors and in favor of nonshared environmental “selection.” In particular, the twin with more externalizing behaviors at age 14 reported increased deviant peer affiliation relative to his or her co-twin 3 years later, regardless of his or her genetic predispositions toward externalizing behavior. Such findings suggest that adolescents with higher levels of externalizing behaviors select or shape (either intentionally or inadvertently) subsequent environmental experiences to involve increased affiliation with deviant peers. Implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Of snakes and flowers: Does preferential detection of pictures of fear-relevant animals in visual search reflect on fear-relevance?

Previous research in visual search indicates that animal fear-relevant deviants, snakes/spiders, are found faster among non fear-relevant backgrounds, flowers/mushrooms, than vice versa. Moreover, deviant absence was indicated faster among snakes/spiders and detection time for flower/mushroom deviants, but not for snake/spider deviants, increased in larger arrays. The current research indicates that the latter 2 results do not reflect on fear-relevance, but are found only with flower/mushroom controls. These findings may reflect on factors such as background homogeneity, deviant homogeneity, or background-deviant similarity. The current research removes contradictions between previous studies that used animal and social fear-relevant stimuli and indicates that apparent search advantages for fear-relevant deviants seem likely to reflect on delayed attentional disengagement from fear-relevance on control trials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual organization in schizophrenia: The processing of symmetrical configurations.

The hypothesis that the perceptual organization dysfunction of patients with poor premorbid schizophrenia is due to a deficit in global visual sensory store processing was tested by assessing their ability to process symmetrical configurations that develop early and have strong prepotent structures. Two same–different judgment tasks in which performance varies as a function of the symmetrical organization and task demands were administered to participants with good and poor premorbid schizophrenia, those with mood disorders, and normal controls. Like the other groups, poor premorbid schizophrenics' latency and error response patterns closely paralleled the a priori model of adequate processing. The results support their competence in perceptually processing symmetrical configurations and disconfirm the hypothesis that their input deficiencies represent a general deficiency in all forms of perceptual organization. The implications for specifying their early input dysfunction are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Delay discounting predicts postpartum relapse to cigarette smoking among pregnant women.

Delay discounting (DD), a measure of impulsivity, describes the rate at which rewards lose value as the delay to their receipt increases. Greater discounting has been associated with cigarette smoking and various other types of drug abuse in recent research. The present study examined whether DD predicts treatment outcome among cigarette smokers. More specifically, the authors examined whether baseline discounting for hypothetical monetary rewards predicted smoking status at 24 weeks postpartum among women who discontinued smoking during pregnancy. Participants were 48 pregnant women (10.5 = 4.1 weeks gestational age at study entry) who participated in a clinical trial examining the use of incentives to prevent postpartum relapse. Several sociodemographic characteristics (being younger, being less educated, and reporting a history of depression) assessed at study entry were associated with increased baseline DD, but in multivariate analyses only DD predicted smoking status at 24 weeks postpartum. Greater baseline DD was a significant predictor of smoking status at 24 weeks postpartum. DD was reassessed periodically throughout the study and did not significantly change over time among those who eventually resumed smoking or those who sustained abstinence. The results extend the association of DD with risk for substance abuse to pregnant and recently postpartum cigarette smokers and demonstrate a significant relationship between DD and treatment outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deficits in emotional and social cognition in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Objective: These studies investigated whether non-demented ALS patients display impairments on tests of emotional decision making and social and emotional cognition, sensitive to frontal variant Frontotemporal Dementia (fvFTD). Previous studies have shown predominant executive dysfunction and dorsolateral prefrontal involvement in ALS, but evidence of other prefrontal dysfunction implicated in fvFTD is sparse. Method: In Study A, 19 ALS patients and 20 healthy controls undertook a test of affective decision making, modified Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Behavioral measures included the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale. In Study B, 14 ALS patients and 20 controls undertook tests of social and emotional cognition (Judgment of Preference based on eye gaze, the Mind in the Eyes, recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotion). Results: In Study A, ALS patients demonstrated a significantly different performance profile from healthy controls on the IGT and did not learn to avoid the disadvantageous stimuli (Block 3, d = 0.60, Block 4 days = 0.68). Behavior ratings showed increased apathy from premorbid levels. In Study B, ALS patients were impaired on attentionally demanding (d = 3.12) and undemanding (d = 7.52) conditions of the Judgment of Preference task, despite many showing intact executive functions. A smaller subset showed impaired emotion recognition. Behavior change was also evident. Conclusions: The findings reveal a Theory of Mind deficit on a simple test that was dissociated from the presence of executive dysfunction and suggests a profile of cognitive and behavioral dysfunction indicative of a subclinical fvFTD syndrome. The relative contribution of prefrontal pathways to the cognitive profile in ALS is considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contextual amplification of pubertal transition effects on deviant peer affiliation and externalizing behavior among African American children.

The effects of the pubertal transition on behavior problems and its interaction with family and neighborhood circumstances were examined with a sample of 867 African American children 10-12 years of age. Pubertal development status, pubertal timing, and primary caregivers' parenting behaviors were significantly related to affiliation with deviant peers and externalizing behaviors. Externalizing behavior among early-maturing children was associated positively with primary caregivers' use of harsh-inconsistent discipline and negatively with nurturant-involved parenting practices. Disadvantaged neighborhood conditions were significantly associated with deviant peer affiliation. The effect of pubertal transition varied according to family and neighborhood conditions: Early-maturing children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods were significantly more likely to affiliate with deviant peers. Early-maturing children with harsh and inconsistent parents were significantly more likely to have externalizing problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships among aging, IQ, and intracranial volume in alcoholics and control subjects.

The current article examined the relationships among aging, intelligence, intracranial volume, and brain shrinkage in alcoholics and nonalcoholic controls. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure intracranial and cerebral volumes in 146 subjects with alcohol use disorders and 42 comparison subjects who were not alcoholic. The authors' findings show that performance on Block Design decreases as alcoholics age, and this decrease is predicted by brain shrinkage. This is consistent with a process of cumulative brain damage related to alcohol use. However, the authors' data also show that vocabulary does not decrease with age and is correlated with premorbid brain size as measured by intracranial volume, suggesting that lower verbal ability precedes heavy alcohol use and may be a risk factor for alcoholism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low birthweight and neuromotor development: a population based, controlled study

The aims of the study were to investigate: (a) the relationship between low birthweight (LBW) and pre-school neuromotor development; and (b) the predictive value of various pre-, peri-, and neonatal factors for neuromotor development in LBW pre-school children. A population based sample of 144 5-year-old LBW children (birthweight < 2000 g) with no major handicaps was compared with a random sample of 163 normal birthweight term controls. Using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, impaired performance on the balance scale was seen more often in LBW boys than in controls (odds ratio 5.5, 95% CI 1.5-20.3), while performance on the eye-hand coordination and locomotor scales was comparable for the two groups. LBW girls were comparable to controls on all these scales. On neurological examination, an increased frequency of minor neurological signs was found in LBW boys, while increased ankle tone and/or leg hyperreflexia was more common in LBW girls compared to controls. Small head circumference at birth was associated with an increased frequency of minor neurological signs in LBW boys, and lack of breastmilk in the neonatal period with impaired balance in LBW boys. None of the other pre-, peri- or neonatal factors were predictive of neuromotor development. We conclude that motor functions essential for daily activities are intact in most LBW preschoolers.     

Does affective blunting in schizophrenia reflect affective deficit or neuromotor dysfunction?

Schizophrenia inpatients withdrawn from all neuroleptic medication were administered measures of affective blunting, diminished affective experience, and neuromotor dysfunction. The correlations among the measures provided support for the hypothesis that measures of affective blunting reflect both neuromotor and affective deficits. Because the interpretation of such measures is therefore ambiguous, measures of diminished affective experience may have greater validity in research on affective deficits in schizophrenia than measures of blunted affective expression.     

Development of a measure of workplace deviance.

The purpose of this research was to develop broad, theoretically derived measure(s) of deviant behavior in the workplace. Two scales were developed: a 12-item scale of organizational deviance (deviant behaviors directly harmful to the organization) and a 7-item scale of interpersonal deviance (deviant behaviors directly harmful to other individuals within the organization). These scales were found to have internal reliabilities of .81 and .78, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis verified that a 2-factor structure had acceptable fit. Preliminary evidence of construct validity is also provided. The implications of this instrument for future empirical research on workplace deviance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-lagged links among gambling, substance use, and delinquency from midadolescence to young adulthood: Additive and moderating effects of common risk factors.

The authors examined cross-lagged links among gambling, substance use, theft, and violence from midadolescence to young adulthood and whether behavioral disinhibition, deviant peers, and parental supervision as common risk factors explain or moderate those links. In 2 community samples, male Caucasians were assessed for gambling participation and problems with the South Oaks Gambling Screen—Revised for Adolescents (K. C. Winters, R. Stinchfield, & J. Fulkerson, 1993) at age 16 years and the South Oaks Gambling Screen (H. R. Lesieur & S. B. Blume, 1987) at age 23. Other problem behaviors were also assessed both times. Risk factors were measured at age 16. Adolescent substance use was related to subsequent theft and violence but not gambling. Gambling problems were linked to subsequent gambling participation. For adolescents with deviant peers, gambling problems were linked to subsequent theft; this was not the case for adolescents without deviant peers. Only for individuals high on disinhibition did stability of gambling problems resemble moderate stabilities of other problem behaviors. Each risk factor was related to each problem behavior (exception: parenting unrelated to gambling). These risk factors partly explained the cross-lagged links among behaviors and thus may be useful targets of prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word association repertoires of schizophrenics and normals.

The work association repertoires of 3 association responses of 20 poor and 20 good premorbid nonparanoid schizophrenics were not more deviant than those of 20 normals. There was significantly greater commonality in the 1st association response than in the 2nd response which, in turn, showed greater commonality than the 3rd response. These results suggest that schizophrenic language disorders are not due to overall language deficiency and partially support the disturbance viewpoint. A 3rd viewpoint is proposed, based on a 2-stage process involving nondeviant associations with inadequate cognitive controls as differentiating schizophrenics from normals. The hierarchical order for frequency given by the Russell-Jenkins norms obtains for both discrete and extended word association responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)