Current versus ideal skin tones and tanning behaviors in Caucasian college women.

OBJECTIVE: To explore tanning behaviors and whether a discrepancy between current and ideal skin tones exists. PARTICIPANTS: The sample included 78 Caucasian women from a mid-sized midwestern university. METHODS: Data were collected in spring 2012 via a paper questionnaire. RESULTS: Sixty-two percent of the sample regularly engaged in salon tanning at least once per week, with an average frequency of 2.5 visits per week. Thirteen percent endorsed regularly tanning 4 or more times per week, and 26% reported visiting a tanning bed more than once in a 24-hour period. Ninety-four percent wished their current skin tone was darker, and ideal tone was significantly darker than current tone. CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that the young Caucasian women in this sample tend to be dissatisfied with their current skin tone to an extent that leads the majority of them to engage in risky, potentially cancer-causing behavior by either salon tanning or considering tanning in the future as time and finances become available.

An examination of racial bias in the Beck Depression Inventory-II.

Historically, many psychological measures were developed and standardized based on a primarily Caucasian population. These tests are subsequently applied to minorities and may be inappropriate and possibly even pathologizing. The widely used Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) was initially standardized on a sample of Caucasian university students and its use with minorities has only recently been investigated. This study examined the possibility of racial bias in the BDI-II by comparing Caucasian and African American Midwestern university students. A hierarchical multiple regression compared the scores of the BDI-II with a similar measure of depression that is standardized for use with African Americans. There was no evidence of racial bias discovered in the BDI-II in this sample. Implications and future directions of research are discussed.

Changes in food cravings during low-calorie and very-low-calorie diets.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined food cravings during a primarily food-based low-calorie diet (LCD) and a supplement-based very-LCD (VLCD). RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: The Food Craving Inventory (FCI) was used to measure general cravings and cravings for specific types of foods (sweets, high fats, carbohydrates/starches, and fast food fats). The FCI was completed by participants in the LCD and VLCD programs at baseline and after 11 weeks of dieting. The VLCD group also completed the FCI at Week 6 and after 5 weeks of a refeeding phase, when their diet consisted primarily of solid food. RESULTS: From baseline to Week 12, craving decreases were greater for the VLCD group than for the LCD group on all measures. All craving measures decreased significantly for the VLCD group. The LCD group experienced a marginally significant decrease in sweet cravings. Within the VLCD group, all craving measures decreased significantly by Week 6 and did not change thereafter, including after resumption of solid food intake, and craving scores during all dieting points were lower than baseline. Changes in cravings were not related to weight loss. DISCUSSION: Cravings did not increase during either diet; all changes represented decreases. Compared with a primarily food-based diet (LCD), a more restrictive supplement-based diet (VLCD) resulted in significantly larger decreases in food cravings that occurred by the end of the 5th week of supplement use and did not rebound with resumption of solid food intake. The results of this study suggest that food cravings diminish with calorie restriction.

The impact of abbreviated progressive muscle relaxation on salivary cortisol and salivary immunoglobulin A (sIgA).

This study examined the acute effects of relaxation training on salivary cortisol and salivary immunoglobulin A (sIgA). Members of age- and gender-matched undergraduate student pairs were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. Forty-one experimental subjects were led through Abbreviated Progressive Relaxation Training (APRT) during a 1-h laboratory session; 14 control subjects merely sat quietly in the laboratory for an equal amount of time. All subjects provided pre- and post-intervention saliva samples and self-report data on state anxiety, perceived stress, and relaxation levels. Heart rate was also monitored immediately before and after APRT or quiet sitting. Results indicated that a brief relaxation exercise led to experimental subjects having significantly lower levels of post-intervention salivary cortisol (p = .036) and significantly higher levels of post-intervention sIgA concentration (p < .001) and secretion rate (p < .001) than control subjects. The data suggest that relaxation training may play a role in immunoenhancement.

Findings and outcomes of psychological evaluations of gastric bypass applicants.

BACKGROUND: Among severely obese persons seeking surgical treatment, lifetime prevalence rates of Axis 1 psychiatric disorders range up to 50%; 27% to 42% have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder at the time of evaluation. Despite recommendations by the National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Panel that evaluation for surgery include a mental health component, little data are available on the outcomes of such evaluations. Similarly, there are also few data on the frequency and type of psychotropic medication use by these patients. The primary objective of this study was to describe the recommendations resulting from psychological evaluations of bariatric surgery applicants; a secondary purpose was to describe the point and lifetime prevalences of psychotropic medication use. METHODS: We examined the psychological evaluation recommendations of successive gastric bypass applicants at the Medical University of South Carolina. RESULTS: Results indicated that the overwhelming majority (81.5%) of gastric bypass applicants had no psychological contraindication to surgery. A smaller percentage (15.8%) required psychological treatment before surgery, and only 2.7% of all applicants were considered psychologically inappropriate for surgery. Results also indicate that 47.7% were using at least 1 psychotropic medication at the time of the evaluation, and that 9.2% were using more than 1. The overwhelming majority of medications used were antidepressants, followed by antianxiety medications and mood stabilizers. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the vast majority of patients will not be denied surgery as the result of a psychological assessment, yet approximately 20% of patients may be considered, based on psychological evaluation, psychologically inappropriate for immediate surgery, at least without initial treatment. These data also suggest that pharmacologic treatment of psychiatric disorders is quite common among gastric bypass applicants.

The impact of abbreviated progressive muscle relaxation on salivary cortisol.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether acute relaxation training, conducted on two separate occasions, would be associated with reliable reductions in subjective and physiological indices of stress. Forty-six experimental subjects were led through Abbreviated Progressive Relaxation Training (APRT) exercises during two laboratory sessions spaced exactly 1 week apart. Fifteen control subjects experienced two laboratory sessions where they sat quietly for an equal amount of time. Results indicated that a brief relaxation exercise led to experimental subjects having significantly lower levels of post-intervention heart rate, state anxiety, perceived stress, and salivary cortisol than control subjects, as well as increased levels of self-report levels of relaxation. The results of this study may have implications for the use of relaxation training in enhancing immune function.