Do measures of social support and social distress share general factors associated with suicidal ideation and attempts?

INTRODUCTION: Aspects of social relationships have variably been associated with suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempts (SAs). This study assessed whether social support and social distress measures have general factors versus measure-specific factors that are associated with suicide risk. METHODS: Adults (N = 455, 60.0% female), admitted to psychiatric inpatient units following a recent suicide attempt or active SI, completed assessments of social support (emotional support, instrumental support, friendship, perceived support from significant others, friends, family) and social distress (loneliness, perceived rejection, perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness). Bifactor modeling examined general and specific factors of social support and distress in relation to SI (week prior to hospitalization, via the Beck Scale for SI) and SAs (past 30 days, via the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale). RESULTS: SI was significantly associated with the general social support (B = -1.51), the general social distress (B = 1.67), and the specific perceived burdensomeness (B = 1.57) factors. SAs were significantly associated with the specific Perceived Rejection (OR = 1.05) and Thwarted Belongingness (OR = 0.91) factors. CONCLUSION: General social support and social distress were associated with SI but not recent SAs. Specific social distress factors were also related to SI and SAs controlling for general social distress, suggesting areas for future interventions.

Reductions in physical pain predict lower risk of relapse following alcohol treatment.

OBJECTIVE: Physical pain is considered a potential predictor of relapse in alcohol-dependent individuals after treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether reductions in pain level during the follow-up period after treatment were associated with lower relapse risk. METHOD: A sample of 366 participants was recruited from alcohol treatment centers in Warsaw, Poland. At baseline, information was obtained about pain level, demographics, childhood abuse, impulsivity, depressive symptoms, severity of alcohol and sleep problems. After finishing the alcohol treatment program, patients were followed for 12 months and alcohol drinking (relapse) as well as pain severity were evaluated. RESULTS: In the followed-up group, 29.5% of patients confirmed that they drank any alcohol during past 4 weeks. Comparing follow-up to baseline pain, 48.6% of subjects reported an increased severity of pain, 28.8% reported the same level of pain, 22.6% reported decreased level of pain. There was a significant association between the decrease in level of pain and the lower risk of relapse. Other factors associated with relapse during 4 weeks prior to the follow-up were baseline severity of depressive symptoms, low baseline social support and number of drinking days during 4 weeks prior to entering treatment. In multivariate analysis, a decrease in pain level was associated with a lower likelihood of relapse (OR=0.159; 95%CI:0.04-0.62; p=0.008) even when controlled for other factors associated with relapse. CONCLUSIONS: Decreases in pain level following treatment for alcohol dependence are associated with, and may contribute to, a lower risk of alcohol relapse.

An evaluation of the role of smoking context on a biobehavioral index of distress tolerance.

The present study evaluated the effect of smoking deprivation on a biobehavioral index of distress tolerance, breath-holding duration, among 43 adult smokers in a repeated measures test (Session 1=smoking-as-usual, Session 2=12-h smoking deprivation). We theorized that distress tolerance is a context-dependent individual difference variable whose expression varies prospectively, within-individuals, as a function of smoking context. As predicted, participants' breath-holding duration was significantly shorter during an experimental session that immediately followed a 12-h smoking deprivation period than during a smoking-as-usual session. Furthermore, we theorized that among individuals with a pre-existing diathesis (i.e., psychiatric symptoms), smoking deprivation may activate a vulnerability process that decreases capacity to tolerate distress; in the absence of this stressor, these psychiatrically vulnerable smokers may express variable levels of distress tolerance. As predicted, we observed that level of psychiatric symptoms was significantly negatively correlated with breath-holding duration during the smoking deprivation, but not the smoking-as-usual session. These data advance our understanding of smoking and distress tolerance and the context-dependent phenomenology of distress tolerance.

Acute ethanol administration impairs spatial performance while facilitating nonspatial performance in rats.

Acute ethanol administration produces learning and memory impairments similar to those found following lesions to the hippocampal system in rats. For example, both ethanol and hippocampal lesions impair performance on spatial learning and memory tasks while sparing performance on many nonspatial learning and memory tasks. Lesions to the hippocampal system can also alter the nature of the information that the animal uses to guide its behavior, from using spatial information to using individual cues. In the present experiment, rats were trained, while sober, to navigate on an eight-arm radial arm maze to a specific arm for food reward. During training, the rewarded arm was always in the same specific location and contained well-defined cues. After the rat learned the task, a memory test was conducted under different doses of ethanol (0.0 g/kg [saline control], 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 g/kg, intraperitoneal). On the test day the maze was rotated so that the cued arm was 90 degrees to the right of its original position. During testing, intact rats showed a significant bias to approach the place where they had been previously rewarded, even though the cue was no longer located there. Acute ethanol administration dose dependently reduced approaches to the rewarded place. However, ethanol administration did not result in increases in random choices; rather, it resulted in a dose-dependent increase in approaches to the cued arm, now in a new location. These results extend previous research showing that acute ethanol administration and lesions to the hippocampal system produce similar effects on learning and memory in rats.