ABSTRACT
Happy emotional states have not been extensively explored in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies using autobiographic recall paradigms. We investigated the brain circuitry engaged during induction of happiness by standardized script-driven autobiographical recall in 11 healthy subjects (6 males), aged 32.4 ± 7.2 years, without physical or psychiatric disorders, selected according to their ability to vividly recall personal experiences. Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) changes were recorded during auditory presentation of personal scripts of happiness, neutral content and negative emotional content (irritability). The same uniform structure was used for the cueing narratives of both emotionally salient and neutral conditions, in order to decrease the variability of findings. In the happiness relative to the neutral condition, there was an increased BOLD signal in the left dorsal prefrontal cortex and anterior insula, thalamus bilaterally, left hypothalamus, left anterior cingulate gyrus, and midportions of the left middle temporal gyrus (P < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). Relative to the irritability condition, the happiness condition showed increased activity in the left insula, thalamus and hypothalamus, and in anterior and midportions of the inferior and middle temporal gyri bilaterally (P < 0.05, corrected), varying in size between 13 and 64 voxels. Findings of happiness-related increased activity in prefrontal and subcortical regions extend the results of previous functional imaging studies of autobiographical recall. The BOLD signal changes identified reflect general aspects of emotional processing, emotional control, and the processing of sensory and bodily signals associated with internally generated feelings of happiness. These results reinforce the notion that happiness induction engages a wide network of brain regions.
Subject(s)
Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Brain Mapping , Brain/physiology , Happiness , Mental Recall/physiology , Nerve Net/physiology , Emotions/physiology , Magnetic Resonance ImagingABSTRACT
Premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) seem to form a severity continuum with no clear-cut boundary. However, since the American Psychiatric Association proposed the research criteria for PMDD in 1994, there has been no agreement about the symptomatic constellation that constitutes this syndrome. The objective of the present study was to establish the core latent structure of PMDD symptoms in a non-clinical sample. Data concerning PMDD symptoms were obtained from 632 regularly menstruating college students (mean age 24.4 years, SD 5.9, range 17 to 49). For the first random half (N = 316), we performed principal component analysis (PCA) and for the remaining half (N = 316), we tested three theory-derived competing models of PMDD by confirmatory factor analysis. PCA allowed us to extract two correlated factors, i.e., dysphoric-somatic and behavioral-impairment factors. The two-dimensional latent model derived from PCA showed the best overall fit among three models tested by confirmatory factor analysis (c²53 = 64.39, P = 0.13; goodness-of-fit indices = 0.96; adjusted goodness-of-fit indices = 0.95; root mean square residual = 0.05; root mean square error of approximation = 0.03; 90 percentCI = 0.00 to 0.05; Akaike's information criterion = -41.61). The items "out of control" and "physical symptoms" loaded conspicuously on the first factor and "interpersonal impairment" loaded higher on the second factor. The construct validity for PMDD was accounted for by two highly correlated dimensions. These results support the argument for focusing on the core psychopathological dimension of PMDD in future studies.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Female , Humans , Middle Aged , Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , Models, Psychological , Premenstrual Syndrome/diagnosis , Brazil , Factor Analysis, Statistical , Principal Component Analysis , Premenstrual Syndrome/psychology , Reproducibility of Results , Socioeconomic Factors , Students , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
The objective of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties and cross-cultural validity of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) among ethnic Chinese living in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The study was conducted on 208 community individuals. Reliability and discriminant analysis were used to test the psychometric properties and validity of the BDI. Principal component analysis was performed to assess the BDI's factor structure for the total sample and by gender. The mean BDI score was lower (6.74, SD = 5.98) than observed in Western counterparts and showed no gender difference, good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.82), and high discrimination of depressive symptoms (75-100 percent). Factor analysis extracted two factors for the total sample and each gender: cognitive-affective dimension and somatic dimension. We conclude that depressive symptoms can be reliably assessed by the BDI in the Brazilian Chinese population, with a validity comparable to that for international studies. Indeed, cultural and measurement biases might have influenced the response of Chinese subjects.
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Male , Asian People , Depression/diagnosis , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Translating , Brazil , Cross-Cultural Comparison , Cross-Sectional Studies , Factor Analysis, Statistical , Psychometrics , Reproducibility of ResultsABSTRACT
The psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the trait form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T) and its relation to the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were evaluated in a large Brazilian college student sample containing 845 women and 235 men. STAI-T scores tended to be higher for women, singles, those who work, and subjects under 30 years. Factor analysis of the STAI-T for total sample and by gender yielded two factors: the first representing a mood dimension and the second being related to worrying or cognitive aspects of anxiety. In order to study the relation between anxiety and depression measures, factor analysis of the combination of the 21 BDI items and the 20 STAI-T items was also carried out. The analysis resulted in two factors that were analyzed according to the tripartite model of anxiety and depression. Most of the BDI items (measuring positive affectivity and nonspecific symptoms of depression) were loaded on the first factor and four STAI-T items that measure positive affectivity. The remaining STAI-T items, all of them measuring negative affect, remained in the second factor. Thus, factor 1 represents a depression dimension and factor 2 measures a mood-worrying dimension. The findings of this study suggest that, although widely used as an anxiety scale, the STAI-T in fact measures mainly a general negative affect
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Adult , Anxiety/diagnosis , Depression/diagnosis , Personality Inventory , Students/psychology , Age Distribution , Anxiety/psychology , Brazil , Depression/psychology , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Psychometrics , Regression Analysis , Reproducibility of Results , Sex Distribution , Sex FactorsABSTRACT
We have validated a Portuguese version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) tests by obtaining profiles for three Brazilian samples: 270 university students, 117 panic patients and 30 depressed patients. The mean BDI scores were higher for depressed patients (25.2 ñ 12.6), intermediate for anxious patients (15.8 ñ 10.3) and lower for students (8.5 ñ 7.0). Mean STAI scores for anxious (52.8 ñ 11.4) and depressed patients (56.4 ñ 10.5) were higher than for the student sample (40.7 ñ 8.6). BDI and STAI scores were correlated significantly in all samples. The internal consistency of the Portuguese version of BDI is in agreement with the literature (0.81 for students and 0.88 for depressed patients). The present data demonstrate that the psychometric properties of the Portuguese versions of the BDI and STAI are comparable to the original English language versions of these questionnaires, thereby indicating their use in clinical situations.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Adolescent , Adult , Anxiety/diagnosis , Depression/diagnosis , Personality Inventory , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Brazil , Psychiatric Status Rating ScalesABSTRACT
Forty-seven patients meeting DSM-III-R criteria for panic disorder with agoraphobia (PAG) were assessed by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) at baseline and after 8 weeks of treatment with imipramine, clomipramine and placebo. At pre-treatment patients had higher MMPI scores than the local normative data, the highest scores being for depression, hypochondria and hysteria. At week 8 the scores of most MMPI scales were significantly reduced. In addition, patients who showed clinical improvement had pre - and post-treatment scores lower than the unimproved patients. The results suggest that the abnormal MMPI profile found in PAG patients reflects the clinical state and that personality pathology relates to treatment outcome. The reduction in MMPI scores was associated with response to active treatment. We conclude that therapeutic interventions that successfully reduce PAG symptoms also modify personality scores
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Middle Aged , Humans , Male , Female , Agoraphobia/psychology , MMPI , Panic Disorder/psychology , Clomipramine/therapeutic use , Imipramine/therapeutic use , Panic Disorder/drug therapyABSTRACT
1. Dose-equivalence studies of zopiclone and triazolam were out. 2. Zopiclone (6.25, 8.75 and 11.25 mg), triazolam (0.1875, 0.275 and 0.5 mg) and placebo were given in the morining to 14 healty male volinteers aged 20-25 years under double-blind conditions according to an incomplete block design. Each patient received three of the seven possible treatment at intervals of at least 1 week. Subjects were evaluated using physiological measures, rating scales and memory taskes before and 1.5h after drug administration. 3. The sedative and amnestic effects of zopiclone were qualitatively similar to those of triazolam, with the highest dose of each havin the greatest effect. 4. On the basis of the digit symbol substitution test, 10 mg of zopiclone is equivalent to 0.5 mg of triazolam. Methodological problems of the experimetnal design of dose-equivalence studies are discussed
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Hypnosis/pharmacology , Hypnotics and Sedatives , Memory/drug effects , Piperazines , Psychomotor Performance/drug effects , Sleep/drug effects , Triazolam/pharmacology , Analysis of Variance , Clinical Trials as Topic , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Double-Blind Method , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Triazolam/administration & dosageABSTRACT
Foi aplicado um questionario sobre a incidencia de uso de alguns medicamentos psicotropicos, com enfase em psicoestimulantes e energizantes, em uma amostra de estudantes da area bimedica da Universidade de Sao Paulo. Dos medicamentos selecionados, as incidencias mais elevadas foram com Reactivan, Hipofagin, Nootropil e glicose. Dos grupos de medicamentos, os tranquilizantes e psicoestimulantes apresentaram alta incidencia de uso. A automedicacao e o consumo de medicamentos controlados sem prescricao foram caracteristicas do uso das drogas selecionadas
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Psychotropic Drugs , Students, Health Occupations , Substance-Related DisordersABSTRACT
Foi elaborado um questionario de auto-avaliacao de sono que consiste numa ampliacao e modificacao do questionario desenvolvido por Parrott e Hindmarch (1978) que tem sido usado em ensaios clinicos de drogas psicotropicas. Ele contem quarenta e cinco escalas analogicas de 100mm para avaliacao de varios aspectos do sono e o estado fisico e somatico ao despertar. Vinte sujeitos, de ambos sexos, sem disturbios de sono, nao submetidos a tratamento farmacologico, responderam o questionario, as tercas e quintas-feiras, durante quatro semanas. A analise desses dados permitiu-nos estabelecer o padrao de viabilidade de sono sem medicacao. A magnitude de variacao observada em cada item foi em geral da ordem de 10%, o que indica que o sono dos sujeitos foi relativamente estavel. Os efeitos de drogas que forem inferiores a esses 10% precisam ser interpretados com cuidado, mesmo quando estatisticamente significantes