The relationship between aggressive attributional style and violence by psychiatric patients.

The authors propose a new theoretical construct for understanding the risk of violent behavior by psychiatric patients: the aggressive attributional style. They propose that a cognitive style characterized by external hostile attributions increases the risk of violence by mentally ill persons. To evaluate this hypothesis, they administered several self-report measures relevant to the aggressive cognitive style, as well as measures of violent behavior in the community, to 110 psychiatric inpatients. Higher scores on several indicators of the aggressive attributional style were associated with violence. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that the relationship between attributional style and violence held up when demographic and diagnostic characteristics and impulsiveness were controlled. The authors discuss implications for development of cognitive interventions to reduce violence risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic generation of concept hierarchies using WordNet

This paper examines and proposes the automatic generation of concept hierarchies using WordNet. Existing researches have mostly explored the utilization of concept hierarchies, but have not addressed the prohibitive cost occurred in building large hierarchies manually. Several studies have examined the automatic generation of concept hierarchies for the numerical type data from a database. However, very little is known about the automatic generation of concept hierarchies for the nominal type data from a database, which is the subject of this paper. We propose the WordNet library method that first eliminates the ambiguity of the senses of nominal data values, constructs the concept hierarchy by overlapping the hypernym of the remaining senses, and lastly adjusts the resultant concept hierarchy to the preference of users. The proposed method is tested with a faculty employment database of a university. The automatic generation of hierarchies turns out to save efforts of experts or designers who build the concept hierarchies, and makes the hierarchy more objectively built than it is manually done.     

A versatile image analysis approach for simultaneous chromosome identification and localization of FISH probes

Modern cytogenetic techniques, such as comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and the multi-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques of multiplex fluorescence in situ hybridization (M-FISH) and spectral karyotyping (SKY), require a coordinated banding analysis to maximize their usefulness. All of the methods currently used, including Giemsa (G-) banding, Alu banding, and 4',6-diamidino-2-phenyl-indole (DAPI) banding, have serious drawbacks. A simple and effective method to band chromosomes concurrently with FISH is needed. To address this problem, we stained chromosomes with DAPI and chromomycin A3, and then used an image analysis program to generate banding by dividing the image taken with a DAPI excitation filter by the image taken with a chromomycin A3 excitation filter. The result was a metaphase spread in which the chromosomes possessed a banding pattern characteristic of R-banding. The image analysis program was then used to generate linescans of pixel intensity versus relative position along the length of chromosomes that were banded using this technique, which we have called D/C R-banding. Each chromosome in a genome was represented by a characteristic scan profile, which was unaffected by FISH signals. Reference linescans were prepared by karyotyping D/C R-banded chromosomes for a given species, and then drawing lines along the length of the known chromosomes. The linescans were combined into a spreadsheet database, which was linked by dynamic data exchange to the image analysis program and normalized for length and intensity. The linescan of an unknown chromosome was then transferred to the spreadsheet, where it was normalized for length and intensity and overlaid on the linescans of each chromosome in the genome. Unknown chromosomes were identified by comparison of their graphs with graphs in the standardized reference genome. We have used this approach to create reference linescan karyotypes of several species, and to identify chromosomes on which FISH was performed.     

The relationship between confidence and accuracy in clinical assessment of psychiatric patients' potential for violence

The authors studied the relationship between confidence and accuracy in clinical assessments of psychiatric patients' short-term risk of violence. At the time of entry to the hospital, physicians (N = 78) estimated the probability that each of 317 patients would physically attack other people during the first week of psychiatric hospitalization. The clinicians also indicated the degree of confidence they had in their estimates of violence potential. Nurses rated the occurrence of inpatient physical assaults with the Overt Aggression Scale. The results showed that when clinicians had a high degree of confidence, their evaluations of risk of violence were strongly associated with whether or not patients became violent. At moderate levels of confidence, clinicians' risk estimates had a lower, but still substantial relationship with the later occurrence of violence. However, when clinicians had low confidence, their assessments of potential for violence had little relationship to whether or not the patients became violent. The findings suggest that the level of confidence that clinicians have in their evaluations is an important moderator of the predictive validity of their assessments of patients' potential for violence.     

Utility of decision support tools for assessing acute risk of violence.

The authors evaluated the utility of 3 decision support tools for assessing acute risk of violence in patients undergoing behavioral emergencies that warranted hospitalization. Information available at the time of admission to a short-term psychiatric unit was coded from the medical charts of 100 patients using the Historical, Clinical, Risk Management-20 (HCR-20), the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Screening Version (PCL-SV), and the McNiel-Binder Violence Screening Checklist (VSC). Nurses rated violence that later occurred during hospitalization with the Overt Aggression Scale. Scores on all 3 instruments were associated with the likelihood of violence. The strongest predictive relationships were obtained for indices of clinical risk factors rather than historical risk factors. The results suggest that decision support tools, particularly those that emphasize clinical risk factors, have the potential to improve decision making about violence risk in the context of behavioral emergencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relevance of interrater agreement to violence risk assessment.

This study considered whether assessments of violence risk in which 2 clinicians reach similar conclusions are more accurate than the conclusions of either clinician alone when their assessments disagree. One hundred ten physicians and 44 nurses estimated the probability of physical assault of 478 patients admitted to a short-term locked psychiatric inpatient unit. The level of assessed risk showed a substantial correspondence with the likelihood of later violence when the physician and nurse ratings were highly concordant. As the extent of agreement between the physician and nurse ratings decreased, the strength of the association between the risk assessments and the occurrence of violence decreased accordingly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of hospitalization on clinical assessments of suicide risk

Inherited deficiency of mannan-binding lectin (MBL) has been shown to predispose to infections. Conversely, it has also been suggested that MBL might facilitate the uptake of certain intracellular microbes. The aim of this study was to investigate whether MBL plays a role in the HIV and tuberculosis epidemics in Africa. Thus, the authors determined the MBL serum concentration in 173 HIV infected patients (150 with concomitant tuberculosis), 94 patients with tuberculosis without being HIV infected, and 113 controls from Tanzania. The frequency of MBL deficiency was significantly increased in HIV infected patients compared with controls (12.1% and 3.5%, respectively). The frequency of patients deficient of MBL did not differ between controls and HIV negative patients with tuberculosis. However, HIV negative patients with tuberculosis had significantly higher MBL levels than both controls and HIV infected patients with or without tuberculosis. These results indicate that low levels of MBL are associated with increased risk of sexually transmitted HIV infection in Africans. By contrast, high levels of MBL may be involved in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis in immunocompetent individuals.     

Patterns of recall of childhood sexual abuse as described by adult survivors

Issues concerning the phenomenon of delayed recall of childhood trauma have arisen in forensic settings. For example, the courts have had to address the issue of delayed recall because of legislation extending the statute of limitations for bringing lawsuits related to childhood sexual abuse. Many states now allow victims to bring suit for up to three years after their memory returns. This paper describes patterns of recall of childhood sexual abuse as recounted by 30 adult women survivors in a nonforensic setting. Eleven of the women described remembering their childhood sexual abuse after a period of amnesia. Examples are given of the types of circumstances that were associated with the delayed recall of the abuse. Implications for assessment in clinical and forensic settings are discussed.     

The response of others to face-to-face interaction with depressed patients.

Coyne (1976b) has developed an interactional model of depression which proposes that the behavior of depressed people elicits a characteristic type of negative social response from others that serves to maintain the depressive state. To evaluate the model in the context of a first acquaintanceship, 34 female volunteers engaged in brief face-to-face same-sex dyadic interactions with depressed psychiatric outpatients, nondepressed outpatients, or normal controls. Behavioral and self-report measures of mood, interpersonal attraction, and interpersonal perception were taken. Contrary to our expectations, we identified no characteristic patterns in the response of others to depressed patients. Implications of the findings for the interactional theory of depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)