[French translation of Schalling-Sifneos Personality Scale Revised and Beth Israel Questionnaire, 2 evaluation tools of alexithymia]. / Traduction Française du Schalling-Sifneos Personality Scale Revised, et du Beth Israel Questionnaire, deux instruments d'évaluation de l'alexithymie.

The concept of alexithymia was first proposed in the 1960's by Sifneos and Nemiah to describe personality traits originally found in psychosomatic patients but which have since been found in other types of patients (alcoholics, drug addicts, traumatic stress disorder patients, sociopaths) as well as in the general population. Etymologically, alexithymia signifies: incapacity to speak one's emotions (from the Greek: a, lack; lexis, word; thymos, sentiments). Alexithymia is not the impossibility of feeling one's emotions, but rather the impossibility of associating them with corresponding mental representations and thus verbalizing them. Such patients tend to act out, to speak circumstantially, and to have difficulty in relationships. A neurophysiological substratum, the absence of connexions between the limbic system and the neo-cortical regions, has been suggested by Sifneos, who has distinguished primary and secondary alexithymia. A "biological" deficit seems to be responsible for primary alexithymia, such as in found in split-brain patients or aprosodias in patients with right hemispheric strokes. Secondary alexithymia, on the other hand, seems to be due to psychodynamic factors such as massive utilisation of defense mechanisms like denial, repression and regression. Appropriate psychotherapy for such patients is debatable, but it seems that in most cases the analytical approach should be replaced by more directive therapies, including relaxation and bio-feedback, to help patients learn to stimulate, master, and verbalize their emotions. The Beth Israel Questionnaire (BIQ) is a rating scale evaluating such traits that is filled out by the rater based on a clinical interview.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Relations between mood disorders and personality. Recent data]. / Les liens entre troubles de l'humeur et personnalité. Données récentes.

In the field of studies of links between mood disorders and personality, the need to study only completely remitted patients has been demonstrated recently. Indeed, the clinically depressed state strongly influences the assessment of some personality traits in a more pathological direction (for instance for emotional stability, extraversion, interpersonal dependency, ego strength). The studies concerning unipolar depression have been mainly made according to two methodological approaches which results are relatively consistent. The first one uses batteries of standard self-report personality inventories such as the Hirschfeld and Klerman battery which includes the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey, the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory, the shortened version of the Lazare-Klerman-Armor Personality Inventory and two subscales of the MMPI. This approach shows that compared to normal population, recovered depressive, have less emotional strength more interpersonal dependency and a more introverted personality. The second approach uses diagnostic criteria of personality disorders according to DSM III. The clinical evaluation can be performed with the help of the Structured Interview for DSM III Personality Disorders (SIDP) or with of the help the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI), a self rated questionnaire. The most frequent personality disorder among recovered unipolar patients is dependent personality, followed by the avoidant and histrionic personalities and lastly the schizoïd, schizotypal, borderline, compulsive and passive-aggressive personalities. But the interpretation of all these results must be cautious given that a recent study dealing with premorbid personality invites one to consider that not only depression influences personality assessment during illness, but also that depression may result in personality change after recovery. Few studies are available concerning bipolar patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Behavior dyscontrol scale: validation and initial results]. / Echelle de dyscontrôle comportemental. Validation et résultats préliminaires.

The numerous recent trials devoted to disruptive behavior disorders indicate the renewed interest of clinicians for these so-called dimensions and call for revision of the instruments with which they are evaluated. The present paper provides a brief review of the currently used scales for rating impulsivity. A new scale for evaluating the behavioural dyscontrol is proposed. The items of this scale are selected a priori according to clinical experience with patients suffering from lack of behavioural control. The Behaviour Dyscontrol Scale (BDS) includes, in the initial version, 4 parts. The first part concerns the generalized lack of control (G-BDS). This is a questionnaire of 24 items. The second part is constituted by a questionnaire which lists a number of specific behaviours where impulsivity has a central role (S-BDS). Part III is constituted with 4 Visual Analogue Scales for evaluating handicap linked to dyscontrol. Part IV is constituted by 3 Visual Analogue Scales concerning the physician global impression about the lack of general control in cognitions, emotions and behaviours. For validation, 166 patients (111 females and 55 males), either hospitalized or ambulatory, and 35 controls (16 females and 19 males) were included in this study. Mean age of patients was 38.5 (SD = 10.5) years. The patients population is subdivided in 4 subgroups, anxious, depressed, abusers and bulimics according to DSM III-R criteria. Patients and controls global scores were significantly different at the G-BDS (p less than 10(-4)) and not at S-BDS.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Alexithymia. Evaluation, quantitative and clinical data]. / L'alexithymie. Evaluation, données quantitatives et cliniques.

Alexithymia is a concept created by Sifneos in 1972 to describe a disturbance in affective and cognitive functions characterised by an inability to find words to describe feelings or emotions. The term "alexithymia" is derived from the Greek and means "no words for feelings". The salient clinical features of alexithymia include difficulties recognizing and verbalizing feelings, endless description of physical symptoms instead of emotions, concrete speech and thougth closely tied to external events, paucity of fantasy life. Precisely, alexithymia is an inability to associate one's visual image, thoughts and fantasies with a specific emotional state. For Sifneos, "emotions" and "feelings" are different facts. He differentiates "visceral emotions" (biologic side of the affect and lying in structures of the limbic system as the hippocampus and the amygdaloid complex) and "feelings emotions" (psychologic side of the affect). For him, animals experience "visceral emotion", but only human experience "feeling emotions". Alexithymia is regarded as one of several possible risk factors that seem to increase the susceptibility to physical disease. Alexithymia describes some psychological features which has been initially described by Marty and Psychosomatic French School: a specific cognitive style characterized by a lack of absence of fantasies and a preoccupation with the minute details of external events ("pensée opératoire"). Alexithymia is a difficult concept to operationalize and only few instruments are sufficiently reliable and valid. Several scales are used to measure alexithymia but only the Beth Israel Questionnaire (BIQ) and the Toronto Alexithymie Scale (TAS) can be regarded as having sufficient psychometric properties. The first questionnaire, the BIQ--a scale created by Sifneos--, is the most widely used instrument which is a 17-items forced-choice questionnaire completed by the interviewer. The TAS is a 26-items self-report measure rated on a five-point Likert scale. The Shalling Sifneos Psychosomatic Scale (SSPS) and the M.M.P.I. Alexithymia Scale lack of validation and reliability. Furthermore the SSPS and the MMPI AS show little or no relation with BIQ or with TAS, thus limiting the comparability and generalizability of results from the studies that use them. The TAS is considered as internally consistent and to have a stable, replicable factor structure. Other measures as content analysis test, projective test (Rorschach, T.AT., SAT9) or others self-assessment questionnaires are not frequently used.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

[Personality characteristics as a prognostic factor in using antidepressive drugs in endogenous depression]. / Cechy osobowosci jako czynnik predykcyjny przy stosowaniu leków przeciwdepresyjnych w depresjach endogennych.

The study aimed to test usefulness of personality patterns for prediction of efficacy of antidepressant drugs in patients with endogenous depression. No association between a positive response to treatment and such personality traits as neuroticism, extraversion, nervous system reactivity or MMPI clinical scales profile was demonstrated. A positive response to the pharmacological treatment was significantly more frequently observed in persons characterized by a capability to control expression of mental symptoms (subscale Cn in MMPI). A lack of response to treatment was more frequently observed in persons demonstrating high scores in lie scales of MMPI and MPI and characterized by higher score in Re (responsibility) subscale of MMPI.

[Relation between cognitive activity of excitable psychopathic personalities and the pattern of reinforcement]. / Zavisimost' obuchaemosti vozbudimykh psikhopaticheskikh lichnostei ot formy podkrepleniia.

Excitable psychopathic personalities manifest qualitative and quantitative disorders of cognitive activity directly unrelated to emotional reactions. If the result of the activity is estimated by some other person with the aid of positive and negative reinforcement stimuli, deficit of the training is marked to a much greater degree than in cases where the excitable personality itself draws, on the basis of information available in the feedback stimulus, the conclusion whether its decision was right or erroneous.

[Psychological characteristics of patients with ischemic heart disease and behavioral risk factor (type A personality)]. / Psikhologicheskie osobennosti bol'nykh ishemicheskoi bolezn'iu serdtsa s povedencheskim faktorom riska (tip A).

Psychological features were examined in 64 coronary heart disease (CHD) patients with type A behavioral risk factor. CHD was diagnosed after all the patients had undergone selective coronary angiography. To study personality traits, traditional psychological methods were used such as MMPI, the Spilberger questionnaire, Jenkins' questionnaire scores. According to the scores of MMPI (5MF, 8 Sc, Osi, F), type A behavior subjects were demonstrated to have lower ratings than type B behavior ones. No differences in anxiety shown by people were found. The findings suggest that Type A persons are inclined to have intrapersonal contacts, socially active, emotionally responsive on the one hand, and exhibit a provoked hostility, on the other hand. This leads to the formation of an emotional conflict which may be a factor causing a long-term emotional stress and predisposing to a more frequent development of CHD.

Tachistoscopic and questionnaire methods for the measurement of psychological defences.

Only few attempts have been made to compare different methods aiming at quantifying defensive strategies. In this study the tachistoscopic Defence Mechanism Test (Kragh, 1960b and 1985) is compared to paper-and-pencil tests of defence. There were virtually no correlations between the DMT and the other measures of defence. This may indicate that the concept of defence is a highly complex one. It is suggested that the Defence Mechanism Test may be measuring primary defence while defence questionnaires may be assessing more secondary forms of defence. The two questionnaires used for assessing defence correlated significantly, while a scale for social desirability showed no correlation with DMT or the two defence questionnaires.

The clinical inference process and the role of theory.

Perhaps the most challenging and creative aspect of clinical testing is the clinical inference process, the sequential steps the examiner takes in transforming the raw test data into a clinically relevant testing report. Unfortunately, this part of the testing process has received little attention in the testing literature. In this article, the specific steps in the inferential process are outlined. In addition, the ways in which theory enter into the inferential process are also discussed.

[The relation of psychological characteristics of alcoholics and indices of discrete omega measurement]. / Sviaz' mezhdu psikhologicheskimi kharakteristikami bol'nykh alkogolizmom i pokazateliami diskretnoi omegametrii.

As a result of factor analysis of discrete omega measurement data and psychological studies of 62 chronic alcoholic patients the interconnection was found between one of super-slow physiological process in the brain--omega potential and individual-typological characteristics of personality according to the tests of Spilberger-Khanin, Rosenzweig and MMPI. The obtained results allow to consider the methods of discrete omega measurement with psychoemotional load in the form of imitation of alcohol usage as an objective means of express-test of alcoholic patients psychological state.

Disability and depression in rheumatoid arthritis. A multi-trait, multi-method investigation.

In a sample of 107 patients with classic or definite rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we examined the convergent and divergent validity of measures of disability and depression. Scores on the self-report Disability index of the Health Assessment Questionnaire were highly correlated with physical therapist and spouse ratings of disability. Although Health Assessment Questionnaire disability scores were significantly correlated with self-reported and interviewer-assessed ratings of depression, these correlations were significantly smaller. Factor analyses of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and rheumatologist ratings of BDI items indicated that this measure is highly contaminated by the inclusion of items reflecting RA disease severity. A dysphoric mood subcomponent of the BDI may be a more valid measure of depression in RA populations. Although depression and disability are clearly positively correlated in RA patients, depression scales that include somatic items are likely to yield an overestimate of the association. Finally, self-reported pain intensity was more clearly related to disability and reported recent disease activity than to depression.

Experimental research of a set as a means of a set as a means of understanding specific characteristics of psychological constitutions.

Primary specific characteristics of psychological reactions, typical of the individual and undoubtedly influencing the formation and dynamics of his character, can be defined as "psychological constitution." Experimental study of peculiarities of an individual's set by the method elaborated by D.N. Uznadze and his school was chosen as a way to elicit psychological constitution. The manner in which the subject creates a model of the situation and the rate at which this model is destroyed when it fails to correspond to the perceptual data, appear to be the central question. A conceptual approach is suggested for evaluation of experimental data as characteristics of the individual's psychological constitution. It turns out thereby to be possible, theoretically and experimentally, to single out 8 basic types of psychological constitutions, or "primary psychotypes."

Adolescence. What is normal?

We present in some detail what constitutes normal behavior, or mental health, among teenagers. Our data are based on the results of a specially devised psychological questionnaire by one of us (D.O.). This questionnaire has been shown to reliably distinguish mentally healthy from psychiatrically disturbed populations. Results are presented across three decades (1960s, 1970s, and 1980s), across genders, and across the high school years. A conceptual framework is presented to help the clinician working with adolescents to understand the fluctuation in psychopathology among youth. Adolescent density in the total population is shown to be a significant factor in determining the rate of disturbance among teenagers. Our research findings demonstrate that the rate of behavioral disturbance among adolescents is the same as in other parts of the life cycle. The clinician working with adolescents tends to underestimate the severity of adolescent problems because of the near-universal belief that all adolescents undergo "adolescent turmoil." We have found that adolescents who are experiencing turmoil need professional help.

[Configuration cluster analysis as an alternative to configuration frequency analysis]. / Die Konfigurations-Cluster-Analyse als Alternative zur KFA.

The paper discusses configural cluster analysis (CCA) as an alternative to configural frequency analysis (CFA). CFA defines types as deviations from the assumption of no interactions among the variables. CCA defines clusters as deviations from the stronger assumption of a total lack of effects, in the contingency table. Variations of CCA as aggregating CCA, hierarchical CCA, m-sample CCA, and CCA of profile shifts are discussed. An example analyzes data from research on depression.

Separation-individuation, aggression and alexithymia in psoriasis.

A psychosomatic study of psoriasis was conducted in order to: 1) assess the level of extra- and intra-aggression (cf. the conflicting results in Matussek et al. (1) and Lyketsos et al. (2)); 2) point out the presence of alexithymia, i.e. impoverished fantasy life and inability to describe the emotions (cf. some negative results in Fava et al. (3)); and 3) explore the interactional variables, connected with the pathology of the separation-individuation process.

Vicissitudes of depressed mood during four years of medical school.

We describe the vicissitudes of depressed mood for one medical school class that was assessed repeatedly overtime, from the first day of medical school until several months short of graduation, using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Using an arbitrarily defined BDI cutoff point of 14 or greater, at least 12% of the class showed considerable depressive symptoms at any assessment during the first three years; the largest fraction (25%) was symptomatic near the end of the second year. The median class BDI score increased almost threefold during the first two years. Students were likely to be in a similar class ranking at all assessments, indicating that for many students dysphoric mood was enduring. Those with BDI scores of 21 or greater were more likely to quit medical school. Students with high scores for dysphoria were not more likely to evidence a family history of major depression or concomitant substance abuse. Women medical students were not more vulnerable to depressed mood than men.

[The WP scale, an evaluation scale of anxious inhibition]. / La WP, une échelle d'évalutation de l'inhibition anxieuse.

The phenomenon of inhibition concerns a feeling of being blocked in usual functioning. It is frequently encountered, in many disorders. Using a general model of anxiety, the authors propose a taxonomy of the phenomenon into inhibition in anxiety states and inhibition associated with other disorders, a differentiation between generalized inhibition and specific inhibition, and between primary and secondary inhibition. Generalized inhibition due to anxiety can be assessed through use of the WP, which is a rating scale developed for this purpose by the authors.

Comparison of self-ratings with informant-ratings of pre-morbid personality on two personality rating scales.

In a study of pre-morbid personality in 56 head-injured subjects, subjects' self-ratings of pre-morbid personality were compared with informants' ratings of the subjects' pre-morbid personality on two personality questionnaires (the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) and the Marke-Nyman Temperament Scale (MNTS]. Correlations between self-ratings and informant-ratings were positive and significant for all three MNTS and for EPI Extraversion and Lie scales, but not for EPI Neuroticism, where the lack of subject-informant correlation was attributed to contamination of the self-rating of the trait measure by current abnormalities of mental state. Further analyses supported previous evidence that the MNTS 'Validity' scale may predict the development of psychiatric symptoms.