Blunted Affect Research Articles

الاحتراق النفسي وعلاقته ببعض المتغيرات لدى المرشدين التربويين في محافظة العاصمة عمان

The current study aimed to identify the levels of psychological burnout (low, medium, high), In light of some Independent Variables, among educational counsellors in the capital Amman governorate and its relation to some independent variables (gender, experience, the workplace). The sample consisted of (100) male and female counsellors, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory has been used, where the results were analysed using the arithmetic averages, standard deviations, and the (T-Test). The results of the study indicated the presence of the levels of burnout among educational counsellors came within (medium and high), as the levels of burnout among educational counsellors on the dimensions (emotional stress, lack of sense of achievement) came within (medium), while the levels of burnout among educational counsellors on the dimension (emotional numbness) came within (high). The results also showed that there were statistically significant differences at the level of (α ≤ 0.05) in the psychological burnout among educational counsellors on the dimensions (emotional stress, lack of sense of achievement) related to the gender variable and in favour of the female counsellors. It did not show statistically significant differences at the level of (α ≤ 0.05) in the psychological burnout among educational counsellors on the dimension (emotional numbness) according to the gender variable.

Thinking fashion photographs through queer affect theory

Abstract In this article, I suggest that the commonly used approaches to the study of fashion photographs could be fruitfully enriched by juxtaposing them with affect theory. I conduct a theoretical investigation of the benefits that affect theory, and in particular the strand articulated by queer theorists, may bring to the reflections on fashion photographs. I do so in a twofold way: by intertwining traditional visual analysis with an affective reading grounded in corporeal experience; and by illustrating how the queer affects circulating in fashion photographs might foreground issues of gender and sexuality and unfold possibilities of queer attachment. Two very different case studies, a photo spread by Corinne Day for The Face and the Gucci Pre-Fall 2016 advertising campaign, are chosen to explore how a specific affective register, i.e. ‘flat affect’, embedded in the images, might open up possibilities for envisioning queer aesthetic futures.

F122. CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LATE-ONSET SCHIZOPHRENIA IN COMPARISON WITH EARLY-ONSET SCHIZOPHRENIA: ONE YEAR FOLLOW-UP STUDY

BackgroundLate-onset schizophrenia (LOS) differs from early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) in several ways including predominance of women, better premorbid social adjustment and lower severity of positive/negative symptoms. However, no studies evaluated the longitudinal course of LOS. This study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of LOS in comparison with EOS and the longitudinal course of clinical symptoms and functioning in LOS.MethodsBy reviewing medical records, we assessed demographic data, clinical characteristics, and general functioning of 20 LOS (5 males) and 44 EOS (16 males) who admitted to National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital. LOS and EOS were defined according to age at first onset: ≥40 years (LOS) and <40 years (EOS). The level of clinical symptoms were rated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and general functioning was evaluated using the General Assessment of Functioning (GAF).ResultsThere was no significant difference in gender between LOS and EOS. The mean ages of onset were 45.4 ± 3.97 (LOS) and 28.4 ± 6.69 (EOS) years. Significantly more LOS patients (90.0%) had a marital history including divorce than EOS (56.8%). There were no differences between LOS and EOS in the positive, negative, and general scores of PANSS measured at admission and 1 year after. LOS patients had significantly higher score of PANSS N2 item (Emotional withdrawal) both at admission (LOS: 4.00 ± 1.34; EOS: 3.43 ± 1.52) and 1 year after (LOS: 3.50 ± 1.00; EOS: 2.91 ± 1.05) than EOS. There were negative correlations between GAF (1 year after) and N2 item score (at admission: r= –0.45, p=0.04; 1 year after: r= –0.85, p<0.001) in the LOS group, but no significant correlation exists in the EOS group.DiscussionConsistent with previous studies, our study suggested that LOS patients had better premorbid social functioning because marital history can be regarded as index of premorbid social adjustment. However, on the contrary to previous findings, LOS patients had more severe emotional withdrawal and it was related to worse functioning. This finding may be due to cultural specificity in Korea; thus, further studies with larger samples are needed for confirmation.

T210. PSYCHOSOCIAL CORRELATES OF INTERPERSONAL PLEASURE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA-SPECTRUM PATIENTS

BackgroundAlthough many people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders report high levels of social anhedonia, it is not clear what differentiates those patients who self-report social anhedonia from those who do not. Moreover, the extent to which the hedonic functioning of severely disordered patients is associated with their clinical symptoms or with personality-related factors remains unresolved.MethodsWe administered the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS; Gooding & Pflum, 2014), a self-report measure designed to assess hedonic capacity for social and interpersonal pleasure, to 125 consecutively admitted inpatients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder. The (81 schizophrenia, 44 schizoaffective disordered) patients were assessed in terms of their illness and symptom severity. They were also administered measures of self-efficacy (GSES; Jerusalem & Schwarzer, 1992), quality of life (Q-LES-Q-18; Ritsner et al., 2005), and recovery level (RAS-20; Salzer, 2010). Based on total ACIPS scores, two cut-off points were defined in order to classify participants as ‘normally hedonic’, ‘hypohedonic’ or ‘anhedonic’.ResultsThe ACIPS negatively correlated with 8 PANSS items: conceptual disorganization (P2, r=-0.24, p<0.01), hallucinatory behavior (P3, r=-0.28, p<0.01), suspiciousness (P6, r=-0.31, p<0.001), emotional withdrawal (N2, r=-0.24, p<0.01), stereotyped thinking (N7, r=-0.19, p<0.05), tension (G4, r=-0.23, p<0.01), G5 mannerism and posturing (G5, r=-0.22, p<0.05), and disturbance of volition (G13, r=-0.26, p<0.01).In addition, the ACIPS positively correlated with self-efficacy, self-esteem, perceived social support, subjective quality of life, and recovery scale scores.DiscussionThe ACIPS is a reliable and valid means to measure social anhedonia in a clinical sample. The findings revealed that the self-reported hedonic functioning of schizophrenia-spectrum patients is associated with both clinical symptomatology as well as some personality-related variables. Suggestions for further clinical and research applications using the ACIPS will be provided.

F63. COGNITIVE CORRELATES OF THE NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS EXPRESSIVE AND EXPERIENTIAL DEFICIT FACTORS IN PSYCHOSIS

BackgroundPrimary negative symptoms of schizophrenia contribute heavily to functional disability. Treatment of these symptoms continues to be a major unmet need, even when positive symptoms are controlled. Recent factor analyses of negative symptoms using the PANSS and other symptom assessments in patients with schizophrenia have identified two factors of negative symptoms: expressive and experiential deficits. These two factors most likely have very different clinical, neurocognitive and neurobiological correlates. This study examines the clinical and cognitive correlates associated with expressive and experiential deficits in a large cohort of patients with psychosis before and after computerized cognitive remediation.MethodsThis is a secondary data analysis of subjects enrolled in a cognitive remediation program for 12 weeks. One hundred fifty-one subjects age 18 - 55 with a DSM IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar disorder were enrolled. Assessments of demographic, psychopathology (PANSS), cognition (MCBB), and daily living skills (UPSA-Brief) were conducted at baseline and endpoint. Exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analyses of PANSS items as well as Pearson’s correlations between factors, demographics, MCCB, and UPSA-Brief scores were examined at baseline and endpoint.ResultsEFA baseline PANSS data resulted in the five-factor model of the PANSS with seven items attributed to the Negative Symptom Factor (NSF; N1, blunted affect; N2, emotional withdrawal; N3, poor rapport; N4, passive social withdrawal; N6, lack of spontaneity and flow of conversation; G7, motor retardation; and G16, active social avoidance). CFA of the NSF revealed a two-factor model consisting of an Expressive Deficit (N1, N3, N6, G7), and an Experiential Deficit (N2, N4, and G16). Difference tests comparing the one-factor and two-factor models found that the two-factor model exhibited significantly better fit than the one-factor model (χ2 = 67.117, df = 1, p ≤ 0.001; CFI = 0.92; Tucker–Lewis index TLI = 0.91; root mean square error of approximation RMSEA = 0.040; and Goodness of Fit index GFI = 0.93). There were significant correlations between the Expressive Deficit factor score and cognition: TMT- A (r=-0.259, p=0.001), BACS Symbol coding (r=-0.287, p=0.001), Category Fluency (r=-0.342, p=0.001), Hopkins Verbal Learning Test – revised (HTLV-R) (r=-0.236, p=0.05), Letter Number Sequencing (r=-0.256, P=0.001), and NAB Mazes (r=-0.409, p=0.001). The Expressive Deficit factor was also significantly correlated with the neurocognitive domains of Processing Speed (r=-0.352, p=0.001) and Reasoning/Problem Solving (r=-0.338, p=0.001). There were no significant correlations between either factor and UPSA-Brief or the MCCB cognitive composite. There were no significant correlations for change from baseline to endpoint in negative symptoms.DiscussionOur results support the negative symptom two-factor model of Expressive Deficit and Experiential Deficit domains. Only the Expressive Deficit factor was associated with baseline deficits in Working Memory, Processing Speed, Reasoning/Problem Solving and Verbal Learning. The association of the Expressive Deficit factor with significant cognitive impairments supports a more profound neurobiological dysfunction in contrast to the Experiential Deficit factor and may represent an important treatment challenge. The relevance of these findings for the treatment of negative symptoms in schizophrenia will be discussed.

T114. SCHIZOTYPAL PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE-BRIEF: FACTOR STRUCTURE ANALYSIS IN A NONCLINICAL ROMANIAN SAMPLE

BackgroundThe study of schizotypal traits in the general population has been proposed as a way to understand aetiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Self-report measures of psychometric schizotypy like the Brief version of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ-B) have been shown to be valid, inexpensive and non-invasive tools. Few studies used a Likert-type scale format, which could be better able to allow partial endorsement and to detect more defended respondents than the forced choice format. At our knowledge, no studies of the SPQ-B used validity and social desirability items, to assess the potential impact of random or biased answers.MethodsWe examined factor structure and internal reliability of a Romanian version of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B), in a Likert format in a sample of 580 students of Universities of Bucarest, Craiova and Brasov, in Romania. 3 validity items and 5 items of social desirability were added to the 22-items SPQ-B. We investigated the dimensional structure of the Romanian version of the SPQ-B first in the entire sample, and then after eliminating “bad” responders (i.e. those with aberrant answers on the validity items). We used a Principal Components Analysis (PCA) followed by a promax rotation. Factor selection was based on Eigenvalues over 1.0 (Kaiser’s criterion), Cattell’s scree plot test, and interpretability of the factors. We calculated Cronbach’s Alpha for total SPQ-B and for each dimension.ResultsOur sample was constituted of 433 women and 147 men. The mean age was 25.5 ± 4.5 years. SPQ-B Likert total scores ranged from 23 to 90 points (mean = 55 ± 12). 71 participants were excluded after taking account of validity questions. Factor analysis of the entire sample resulted in a 3-factor solution that explained 43.8% of the variance. Factor 1 (Cognitive-perceptual; 10 items) includes items related to “ideas of reference”, “magical thinking”, “unusual perceptual experiences” and “suspiciousness”. Factor 2 (Interpersonal; 5 items) includes items related to “social anxiety”, “no close friends”, and “constricted affect”. Factor 3 (Disorganized; 7 items) includes items related to “odd behavior” and “odd speech”.Coefficient Alpha for the three subscales and total scale, respectively, were 0.74, 0.78, 0.78 and 0.86. There were no significant differences when the analyses were conducted in the sample of 509 “good” responders’ students.DiscussionFactor analysis of the Romanian version of the SPQ-B in a Likert format confirmed the three-factor structure of schizotypy. The SPQ-B and its subscales demonstrated good internal reliability. The use of items of validity and social desirability did not change significantly the results.

T111. PANSS NEGATIVE SYMPTOM DIMENSIONS ACROSS GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL, LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL CONSISTENCY

BackgroundRecognizing the discrete dimensions that underlie negative symptoms in schizophrenia and how these dimensions are conceptualized across geographical regions may result in better understanding and treatment. The expressive-experiential distinction has been shown to have vast importance in relation to functional outcomes in schizophrenia. Previous studies have shown that the PANSS may not be equivalently rated across counties and cultures, suggesting regional differences in both symptom expression and rater judgment of symptom severity. Items that perform in markedly different ways across demographic, regional, cultural, or clinical severity characteristics may not offer valid representations of the target construct. 1) Will the expressive and experiential dimensions of the PANSS vary over 15 geographical regions and will the item ratings defining each dimension manifest similar reliability across these regions? 2) In large multi-center, international trials where data are combined, which of the two dimensions are disposed to social, linguistic and cultural inconsistency?MethodsData was obtained for the baseline PANSS visits of 6,889 subjects. Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), we examined whether the expressive-experiential distinction would be replicated in our sample. We investigated the validity of the expressive-experiential distinction using Differential Item Functioning (DIF; Mantel-Haenszel) across 15 geographical regions – South America-Mexico, Austria-Germany, Belgium-Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, Nordic regions (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), France, Great Britain, India, Italy, Poland, Eastern Europe (Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Croatia, Estonia, Czech Republic), Russia, South Africa, and Spain - as compared to the United States.ResultsExpressive Deficit: More DIF was observed for items in the Expressive deficit factor than for items relating to experiential deficits. The following regions showed at least moderate to large DIF for all items: Austria-Germany, Nordic, France, and Poland. Of all the items, N3 Poor Rapport showed the most moderate and large DIF (n = 13; 86.67%) across countries, with 7 countries reporting large DIF. Similarly, N6 Lack of Spontaneity and Flow of Conversation showed moderate and large DIF for 66.67% countries (n=10). Experiential Deficit: Item G16 Active Social Avoidance reported negligible DIF for 14 of the 15 countries investigated (93.33%). Large DIF was observed for N2 Emotional Withdrawal and N4 Passive Apathetic Social Withdrawal for Brazil and India. Seven regions demonstrated no DIF across all items of the PANSS experiential deficit factor (South America-Mexico, Belgium-Netherlands, Nordic, Great Britain, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Spain). Overall, there were many fewer observed items with large DIF for PANSS experiential domain.DiscussionThese results suggest that the PANSS Negative Symptoms Factor can be better represented by a two-factor model than by a single-factor model. Additionally, the results show significant differences in ratings on the PANSS expressive items, but not the experiential items, across regions. This could be due to a lack of equivalence between the original and translated versions, cultural differences in the interpretation of items, rater training, or understanding of scoring anchors. Knowing which items are challenging for raters across regions can help guide PANSS training to improve results of international clinical trials aimed at negative symptoms.

Blunted vocal affect and expression is not associated with schizophrenia: A computerized acoustic analysis of speech under ambiguous conditions

IntroductionPatients with schizophrenia are consistently rated by clinicians as having high levels of blunted vocal affect and alogia. However, objective technologies have often failed to substantiate these abnormalities. It could be the case that negative symptoms are context-dependent. ObjectivesThe present study examined speech elicited under conditions demonstrated to exacerbate thought disorder. MethodsThe Rorschach Test was administered to 36 outpatients with schizophrenia and 25 nonpatient controls. Replies to separate “perceptual” and “memory” phases were analyzed using validated acoustic analytic methods. ResultsCompared to nonpatient controls, schizophrenia patients did not display abnormal speech expression on objective measure of blunted vocal affect or alogia. Moreover, clinical ratings of negative symptoms were not significantly correlated with objective measures. ConclusionsThese findings suggest that in patients with schizophrenia, vocal affect/alogia is generally unremarkable under ambiguous conditions. Clarifying the nature of blunted vocal affect and alogia, and how objective measures correspond to what clinicians attend to when making clinical ratings are important directions for future research.

Testing gender-differentiated models of the mechanisms linking polyvictimization and youth offending: Numbing and callousness versus dissociation and borderline traits

ABSTRACTThe increasing prevalence of girls in the juvenile justice system suggests the importance of examining whether models of adolescent offending are differentiated by gender. Polyvictimization has emerged as a robust predictor of youth justice involvement, especially for girls, and research exploring mechanisms underlying the link between polyvictimization and offending suggests further gender differences in that callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been implicated in samples of boys whereas borderline personality (BP) traits have been implicated amongst girls. However, a limitation of these studies is that most have included all-male or all-female samples, thus not allowing for comparisons across gender. Further, few studies have used a trauma-informed lens to investigate posttraumatic symptoms, particularly dissociation and emotional numbing, that might account for these associations. To address this gap, this study investigated associations among polyvictimization, dissociation, numbing, CU, BP, and offending in a sample of 782 youth (579 boys and 203 girls) recruited from a detention center. As hypothesized, for both genders, polyvictimization was related to BP through the indirect effect of dissociation and to CU through the indirect effect of emotional numbing. Further, for both genders, path models indicated indirect effects on the association between polyvictimization and offending through dissociation and BP. These results suggest the value of using a trauma-informed approach to understanding youth justice involvement and continuing to fine-tune models of gender differences in traumatized girls’ and boys’ offending.

The P1 visual-evoked potential, red light, and transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms

A reduced P1 visual-evoked potential amplitude has been reported across several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia-spectrum, bipolar, and depressive disorders. In addition, a difference in P1 amplitude change to a red background compared to its opponent color, green, has been found in schizophrenia-spectrum samples. The current study examined whether specific psychiatric symptoms that related to these P1 abnormalities in earlier studies would be replicated when using a broad transdiagnostic sample. The final sample consisted of 135 participants: 26 with bipolar disorders, 25 with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, 19 with unipolar depression, 62 with no current psychiatric disorder, and 3 with disorders in other categories. Low (8%) and high (64%) contrast check arrays were presented on gray, green, and red background conditions during electroencephalogram, while an eye tracker monitored visual fixation on the stimuli. Linear regressions across the entire sample (N = 135) found that greater severity of both clinician-rated and self-reported delusions/magical thinking correlated with a reduced P1 amplitude on the low contrast gray (neutral) background condition. In addition, across the entire sample, higher self-reported constricted affect was associated with a larger decrease in P1 amplitude (averaged across contrast conditions) to the red, compared to green, background. All relationships remained statistically significant after covarying for diagnostic class, suggesting that they are relatively transdiagnostic in nature. These findings indicate that early visual processing abnormalities may be more directly related to specific transdiagnostic symptoms such as delusions and constricted affect rather than specific psychiatric diagnoses or broad symptom factor scales.

TNF-α and IL-6 are associated with the deficit syndrome and negative symptoms in patients with chronic schizophrenia

IntroductionIncreased inflammatory markers have been found in patients with chronic schizophrenia, and have been associated with negative symptoms. The deficit syndrome is a distinct subtype of schizophrenia, characterized by primary and enduring negative symptoms. MethodWe measured inflammatory markers in patients with and without deficit schizophrenia and controls. ResultsUsing multivariate analyses, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin-6 were associated with the deficit syndrome, and TNF-α predicted blunted affect, alogia, and total negative symptoms. ConclusionsFindings suggest that deficit schizophrenia subtype is associated with increased inflammation and immunotherapies may be a novel target for negative symptoms.

Adolescents and Young Adults Living with Congenital Heart Disease: Coping, Stress Reactivity, and Emotional Functioning.

Living with congenital heart disease (CHD) presents survivors with numerous stressors, which may contribute to emotional problems. This study examined (a) whether coping with CHD-related stress predicts symptoms of depression and anxiety, and (b) whether associations between coping and emotional distress are moderated by involuntary stress reactivity. Adolescents and young adults diagnosed with CHD (Mage = 26.4) were recruited from pediatric and adult outpatient cardiology clinics. Participants (N = 168) completed online self-report measures. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that secondary control coping (e.g., cognitive restructuring, positive thinking) predicted lower depression and anxiety. Primary control coping (e.g., problem-solving) and stress reactivity (e.g., rumination, emotional numbing) interacted to predict depression and anxiety: the higher individuals were in involuntary stress reactivity, the stronger was the association between primary control coping and lower depression and anxiety. These results can inform clinical efforts to prevent or reduce emotional distress among CHD survivors.

A clinimetric analysis of a BPRS-6 scale for schizophrenia severity

A restricted Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-6) with the six schizophrenia specific items from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) has been investigated. These six items from the PANSS have recently been found to have both clinical validity and 'unidimensionality' in measuring the severity of schizophrenic states. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical validity of the BPRS-6. The secondary objective was to evaluate the 'unidimensionality' of the BPRS-6 by an 'item response theory' model. The BPRS-6 was scored independently by two psychiatrists and two psychologists while viewing six open-ended videotaped interviews in patients with a DSM-III diagnosis of schizophrenia. The interviews were conducted by Heinz E. Lehmann, an experienced psychiatrist. They were focused on the psychopathology that contributed most to the 'severity' of the patient's clinical state. The BPRS-6 with three positive symptoms (delusions, conceptual disorganisation, hallucinations) and three negative symptoms (blunted affect, emotional withdrawal, poverty of speech) was found to be clinically valid and captured the variables that contribute most to the severity of schizophrenia. The BPRS-6 was also found to have acceptable 'unidimensionality' (coefficient of homogeneity 0.45) and inter-rater reliability (inter-class-coefficient 0.81). The BPRS-6 was found to capture the information that translates into the severity of schizophrenia. It has also acceptable psychometric validity.

Longitudinal associations between physically abusive parents’ emotional expressiveness and children’s self-regulation

The present study took a developmental psychopathology approach to examine the longitudinal association between parents’ emotional expressiveness and children’s self-regulation. Data collection spanned from 2004 to 2008. Ninety-two physically abusive parents completed yearly assessments of their emotional expressiveness, as well as their children’s self-regulation abilities. Observational and behavioral measures were also obtained yearly to capture both parents’ emotional expressiveness and children’s self-regulation. Specifically, parents participated in a parent-child interaction task, which provided insight into their levels of flat affect. A puzzle box task was completed by each child to assess self-regulation. Results indicated, first, that greater parental expression of negative emotions predicted poorer self-regulation in children, both concurrently and across time. Second, parental expressions of positive emotions and parents’ flat affect were unrelated to children’s self-regulation. Findings inform our understanding of parental socialization of self-regulation and provide insight into the roles of distinct components of emotional expressiveness. Moreover, findings have crucial implications for understanding emotional expressiveness in high-risk samples and increase our understanding of within-group functioning among maltreating families that may serve as a means to direct intervention efforts.

Against the stream: Antidepressants are not antidepressants - an alternative approach to drug action and implications for the use of antidepressants.

Although antidepressants are regarded as effective and specific treatments, they are barely superior to placebo in randomised trials, and differences are unlikely to be clinically relevant. The conventional disease-centred understanding of drug action regards antidepressants as targeting an underlying brain process, but an alternative 'drug-centred' view suggests they are psychoactive substances that modify normal mental states and behaviour. These alterations, such as numbing of emotions, may reduce feelings of depression, and also create amplified placebo effects in randomised trials. Patients should be informed that there is no evidence that antidepressants work by correcting a chemical imbalance, that antidepressants have mind-altering effects, and that evidence suggests they produce no noticeable benefit compared with placebo. Declaration of interest The author is co-chairperson of the Critical Psychiatry Network.

Effects of therapeutic horseback riding on post-traumatic stress disorder in military veterans

BackgroundLarge numbers of post-deployment U.S. veterans are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI), leading to an urgent need for effective interventions to reduce symptoms and increase veterans’ coping. PTSD includes anxiety, flashbacks, and emotional numbing. The symptoms increase health care costs for stress-related illnesses and can make veterans’ civilian life difficult.MethodsWe used a randomized wait-list controlled design with repeated measures of U.S. military veterans to address our specific aim to test the efficacy of a 6-week therapeutic horseback riding (THR) program for decreasing PTSD symptoms and increasing coping self-efficacy, emotion regulation, social and emotional loneliness.Fifty-seven participants were recruited and 29 enrolled in the randomized trial. They were randomly assigned to either the horse riding group (n = 15) or a wait-list control group (n = 14). The wait-list control group experienced a 6-week waiting period, while the horse riding group began THR. The wait-list control group began riding after 6 weeks of participating in the control group.Demographic and health history information was obtained from all the participants. PTSD symptoms were measured using the standardized PTSD Checklist-Military Version (PCL-M).The PCL-M as well as other instruments including, The Coping Self Efficacy Scale (CSES), The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and The Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults-short version (SELSA) were used to access different aspects of individual well-being and the PTSD symptoms.ResultsParticipants had a statistically significant decrease in PTSD scores after 3 weeks of THR (P ≤ 0.01) as well as a statistically and clinically significant decrease after 6 weeks of THR (P ≤ 0.01). Logistic regression showed that participants had a 66.7% likelihood of having lower PTSD scores at 3 weeks and 87.5% likelihood at 6 weeks. Under the generalized linear model(GLM), our ANOVA findings for the coping self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and social and emotional loneliness did not reach statistical significance. The results for coping self-efficacy and emotion regulation trended in the predicted direction. Results for emotional loneliness were opposite the predicted direction. Logistic regression provided validation that outcome effects were caused by riding longer.ConclusionThe findings suggest that THR may be a clinically effective intervention for alleviating PTSD symptoms in military veterans.

Music as post-traumatic discourse: Nikolay Myaskovsky’s Sixth Symphony

This essay explores ways in which musicologists might extend work undertaken by humanities scholars in the interdisciplinary field of trauma studies that has highlighted the centrality of traumatic experience to modernist creativity. It is focussed around a case study of a musical composition that represents the emotional aftermath of a traumatic event, the Sixth Symphony of the Soviet composer Nikolay Myaskovsky (1923). A central concern is to demonstrate how the symphony’s musical symbolism is strikingly evocative of typical features of post-traumatic mentation, such as dissociation and emotional numbing, and the inhibition of the ability to mourn. It closes by considering the potential implications of the findings for understanding work by other modernist composers.

Up Rising: Rehabilitating J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise with R.D. Laing and Lauren Berlant

High-Rise by J.G. Ballard intriguingly contains a pivotal character named Dr. Robert Laing, surely an allusion to the then influential psychiatric writer, Dr. R.D. Laing. Re-reading Ballard's classic text through the prism of Laing’s theories, with further explication of the role of flat affect via Lauren Berlant, this article presents a new interpretation of a classic text that argues that Ballard ingeniously misdirected his readers into making identifications with precisely the wrong characters and the wrong actions. Re-focusing a subject gaze in accordance with these theoretical analyses, allows for an entirely alternative understanding of the text in which Ballard was more than a pessimistic prophet of inexorable urban breakdown, he foretold societal rehabilitation as well. High-Rise is read as a classic of psychogeography, an established genre which is argued to be of great relevance to the study of society and space. This article therefore engages in a reading of a psychogeographical text via theory implicitly alluded to by the text itself.

Anhedonia and emotional numbing in treatment-seeking veterans: behavioural and electrophysiological responses to reward

ABSTRACTBackground: Anhedonia is a common symptom following exposure to traumatic stress and a feature of the PTSD diagnosis. In depression research, anhedonia has been linked to deficits in reward functioning, reflected in behavioural and neural responses. Such deficits following exposure to trauma, however, are not well understood.Objective: The current study aims to estimate the associations between anhedonia, PTSD symptom-clusters and behavioural and electrophysiological responses to reward.Methods: Participants (N = 61) were recruited among Danish treatment-seeking veterans at the Department of Military Psychology in the Danish Defence. Before entering treatment, participants were screened with symptom measurement instruments and participated in a joint behavioural-electrophysiological experiment. The experimental paradigm consisted of a signal-detection task aimed at assessing reward-driven learning. Simultaneous electrophysiological-recordings were analysed to evaluate neural responses upon receiving reward, as indicated by the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) component.Result: Anhedonia as conceptualized in depression correlated with behavioural learning (r = -0.28, p = .032). Neither anhedonia nor behavioural learning correlated with FRN. However, the anhedonia symptom cluster of PTSD did correlate with FRN (r = 0.29, p = .023). Extending upon this in an exploratory analysis, the specific PTSD-symptom emotional numbing was found to correlate moderately with FRN (r = 0.38, p = .003).Conclusion: The present data suggest that anhedonia in trauma-exposed individuals is related to the anticipatory aspect of reward, whereas the neural consummatory reward response seems unlinked. Interestingly, emotional numbing in the same population is related to the consummatory phase of reward, correlating with the FRN response. This suggests that anhedonia and emotional numbing in response to trauma might pertain to different phases of reward processing.

Students' emotional literacy in the discourse of the contemporary school in Serbia

The results of the research on the emotional literacy of students are presented in this paper. The primary goal of the research was to examine the general level and characteristics of the emotional literacy profile. The secondary goal was to determine the similarities and differences in levels of emotional literacy between pupils in relation to their gender and age. “Emotional awareness questionnaire” was used on the sample of 335 students of both sexes and two age groups. The research was descriptive, non-experimental and exploratory. The data obtained by the study were analyzed using the statistical package SPSS. The results of statistical descriptions of the empirical profile suggest that the general level of students’ emotional literacy can be classified as average. Analyzes of differences related to gender and age on individual profile components, showed that the gender differences were statistically significant (p<.001) on all components (“emotional numbness,” “empathy” and “interactivity”), while age differences were significant on the components: “differentiation of emotions” and “empathy”. The obtained findings were discussed in the context of the starting reference model of research. Recommended and needed future steps are the pedagogical monitoring of emotional development of young people, systematic influence on the development of their emotional competences and a far more active role of the school in the development of the emotional literacy of both students and teachers.