ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Deficits in cognitive flexibility and response inhibition have been linked to perturbations in cortico-striatal-thalamic circuitry in adult obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Although similar cognitive deficits have been identified in pediatric OCD, few neuroimaging studies have been conducted to examine its neural correlates in the developing brain. In this study, we tested hypotheses regarding group differences in the behavioral and neural correlates of cognitive flexibility in a pediatric OCD and a healthy comparison (HC) sample. METHOD: In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, a pediatric sample of 10- to 17-year-old subjects, 15 with OCD and 20 HC, completed a set-shifting task. The task, requiring an extradimensional shift to identify a target, examines cognitive flexibility. Within each block, the dimension (color or shape) that identified the target either alternated (i.e., mixed) or remained unchanged (i.e., repeated). RESULTS: Compared with the HC group, the OCD group tended to be slower to respond to trials within mixed blocks. Compared with the HC group, the OCD group exhibited less left inferior frontal gyrus/BA47 activation in the set-shifting contrast (i.e., HC > OCD, mixed versus repeated); only the HC group exhibited significant activation in this region. The correlation between set shifting-induced right caudate activation and shift cost (i.e., reaction time differential in response to mixed versus repeated trials) was significantly different between HC and OCD groups, in that we found a positive correlation in HC and a negative correlation in OCD. CONCLUSIONS: In pediatric OCD, less fronto-striatal activation may explain previously identified deficits in shifting cognitive sets.
Subject(s)
Cognition/physiology , Color Perception/physiology , Frontal Lobe/physiopathology , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/physiopathology , Pattern Recognition, Visual/physiology , Reversal Learning/physiology , Adolescent , Attention/physiology , Brain Mapping , Caudate Nucleus/physiopathology , Child , Corpus Striatum/physiopathology , Dominance, Cerebral/physiology , Female , Humans , Male , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/diagnosis , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/psychology , Orientation/physiology , Psychomotor Performance/physiology , Reaction Time/physiology , Reference ValuesABSTRACT
The authors tested whether deficits in perceived social support predicted subsequent increases in depression and whether depression predicted subsequent decreases in social support with longitudinal data from adolescent girls (N = 496). Deficits in parental support but not peer support predicted future increases in depressive symptoms and onset of major depression. In contrast, initial depressive symptoms and major depression predicted future decreases in peer support but not parental support. Results are consistent with the theory that support decreases the risk for depression but suggest that this effect may be specific to parental support during early adolescence. Results are also consonant with the claim that depression promotes support erosion but imply that this effect may only occur with peer support during this period.
Subject(s)
Depressive Disorder, Major/psychology , Depressive Disorder, Major/therapy , Parents , Peer Group , Social Support , Adolescent , Female , Follow-Up Studies , HumansABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Because conventional preventive interventions have had little success in reducing eating pathology, we developed and evaluated a more intensive psychoeducational intervention. METHOD: Female college students who underwent this intervention and a matched control sample of students (N = 66) completed pretest and posttest surveys. RESULTS: Intervention participants showed significant decreases in thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, dieting, eating disorder symptoms, and weight over the 4-month study period, whereas matched control participants did not show changes in these outcomes with the exception that they gained weight. DISCUSSION: These preliminary findings suggest that this intervention may prove useful in reducing eating disturbances and overweight among college students, as well as the risk factors for this serious mental and physical health problem.
