Self-report Scale For Assessment Research Articles

Effect of childhood physical abuse on social anxiety is mediated via reduced frontal lobe and amygdala-hippocampus complex volume in adult clinical high-risk subjects

BackgroundChildhood adverse experiences (CAE) are associated with clinical psychiatric disorders and symptoms, and with volumetric abnormalities in the amygdala-hippocampus complex (AmHiC) and frontal lobe (FroL) in adulthood. AimTo study whether CAE are associated with reduced AmHiC and FroL and whether these structures mediate the effect of CAE on social anxiety and depression. MethodIn seven European centres, 374 patients with recent onset of psychosis (n = 127), clinical high-risk to psychosis (n = 119) or recent onset of depression (n = 128) were scanned with MRI and their FroL and AmHiC volumes were measured. They all completed self-report scales for assessment of CAE, social anxiety and depression. ResultsOf the CAE domains, physical abuse was associated specifically with reduced grey and white matter volumes of FroL and AmHiC in psychotic and high-risk patients. After controlling intracranial volume, PhyAb associated significantly with FroL and its grey matter volume in high-risk patients only. In mediation analyses, the effect of physical abuse on social anxiety was mediated via reduced FroL grey mater volume in high-risk patients. In them, when the effects of AmHiC and depression were controlled, the effect of physical abuse on social anxiety was mediated via FroL grey matter volume reduction. ConclusionsChildhood physical abuse is associated with reduced frontal lobe and amygdala-hippocampus complex volume in adult subjects with psychotic symptoms. Reduced frontal lobe and amygdala-hippocampus complex volume mediate the effect of physical abuse on social anxiety in high-risk patients. The effect of physical abuse on depression-independent social anxiety is mediated via reduced frontal lobe.

National Resilience: A New Self-Report Assessment Scale.

The current paper presents a new self-report national resilience assessment scale (NRAS). The scale was constructed and validated using a sample of 1022 Jewish Israeli adults. The internal structure of the 25-item was determined by a Varimax factor analysis, which emitted four distinct factors pertaining to identifying with the state, solidarity and social justice, trust in national institutions and trust in public justice; which explained 61% of the variance. These factor scores were validated against two national resilience promoting factors (community resilience and sense of coherence), and two national resilience suppressing factors (distress symptoms and sense of danger); as well as four demographic characteristics (level of religiosity, political attitudes, income and level of exposure to terror/ war experiences in the last year). Results supported the validity of the NRAS and its four components, showing that it was consistently correlated with resilience promoting and resilience suppressing factors.

Trazodone in treatment of interferon-induced anxiety in persons with viral hepatitis C

IntroductionThe interferon therapy is associated with numerous adverse psychiatric effects, such as tension, irritability, insomnia, etc.GoalThe goal of this study was to examine the severity and the frequency of anxiety in persons with chronic hepatitis C receiving pegylated interferon alpha combined with ribavirin. We have also tried to assess the efficiency of trazodone in treatment of symptoms of anxiety in patients receiving pegylated interferon.MethodThe total of 36 patients whose diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C has been confirmed both serologically and patohistologically, receiving interferon therapy, ages 22 to 60, participated in this study. The control group consisted of 32 patients, all with same diagnosis, corresponding with those in the study group in terms of gender, age duration of the illness and the level of education. All patients received pegylated interferon alpha 2a, administered subcutaneously once per week, along with oral ribavirin. The research used the following instruments of clinical assessment: structural clinical interview–SCID, ICD–10; Hamilton anxiety rating scale–HAM-A, and the self-report scale for assessment of anxiety–state-trait anxiety inventory–STAI-Form Y. The testing using these instruments was conducted four weeks after the start of the treatment, then after eight weeks, after 12, 24 and 48 weeks, i.e. at the end of the treatment. The patients in the study group received 150–300 mg of trazodone per day, starting at the week 6 of interferon treatment.ResultsThe research showed that in the beginning of the interferon treatment approximately one quarter of the patients exhibited symptoms of anxiety in both groups. The administration of trazodone showed beneficial effects in reduction of anxiety induced by the treatment with pegylated interferon.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.

Another Use of Continuous Transversus Abdominis Plane (TAP) Block in Trauma Patient: Pelvic Ring Fractures

Dear Editor: We would like to respond to the article published by Allcock et al. ⇓ describing the use of continuous transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block for analgesia in major abdominal surgery in a combat surgical environment. We report the successful use of an unconventional indication of this block in two patients who had painful traumatic pelvic ring fractures. The first patient was admitted to the intensive care unit following motor vehicle accidents with a stable pelvic fracture, left acetabular fracture, and right iliac wing and right ischium fractures. Immobilization was indicated. She had a severe left hip pain, 90/100 on the numerical rating scale (NRS). The NRS is a self-report assessment scale for patients using numbers (0 to 100) in order to rate the intensity of their pain. A multimodal analgesia with paracetamol, nefopam, and intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with morphine was started. After morphine was administered (20 mg on 4 hours), the patient experienced drowsiness and bradypnea without demonstrable effective analgesia (NRS = 70/100). A left ultrasound-guided …

Disability, body image and sports/physical activity in adult survivors of childhood CNS tumors: population-based outcomes from a cohort study

Childhood CNS tumor survivors risk health and functional impairments that threaten normal psychological development and self-perception. This study investigated the extent to which health and functional ability predict adult survivors' body image (BI) and self-confidence regarding sports and physical activity. The study cohort covered 708 eligible ≥ 18 year old CNS tumor survivors, and data from 528 (75 %) were analyzed. Disability was estimated using the Health Utilities Index™ Mark2/3, a multidimensional self-report instrument. Physical self-confidence in terms of BI and sports/physical activity-related self-confidence (SPAS) were assessed using the BI and the Sports/Athletics modules of a standardized self-report assessment scale. In adjusted regression models, global health and functional status (GHFS) predicted BI (B = 0.94, 95 % CI 0.69-1.19) and SPAS (B = 0.79, 95 % CI 0.55-1.04). Emotion and pain, and to a lesser degree cognition, speech and vision disability, were associated with poorer BI and SPAS. Gender, sub-diagnosis, and time since diagnosis influenced the relationship between health status and physical self-confidence outcomes. Females had poorer GHFS, BI and SPAS than males. Decreased health and functional ability following childhood CNS cancer intrudes on physical self-confidence, with females being at heightened risk for both disability and negative self-confidence. Identified disability and gender-related risk calls for a follow-up plan that integrates treatment of psychological sequelae in lifetime monitoring of childhood CNS tumor survivors to restore and protect self-image and self-confidence, essential mental health correlates. An expanded plan should recognize the need for such services, optimizing life-long quality of survival for CNS tumor survivors.

Development and initial testing of the Person-centered Care Assessment Tool (P-CAT)

Person-centered care is increasingly regarded as being synonymous with best quality care. However, the concept and its precise meaning is a subject of debate and reliable and valid measurement tools are lacking. This article describes the development and initial testing of a new self-report assessment scale, the Person-centered Care Assessment Tool (P-CAT), which measures the extent to which long-term aged care staff rate their settings to be person-centered. A preliminary 39-item tool generated from research literature, expert consultations and research interviews with aged care staff (n = 37), people with early onset dementia (n = 11), and family members (n = 19) was distributed to a sample of Australian aged care staff (n = 220) and subjected to item analysis and reduction. Psychometric evaluation of the final 13-item tool was conducted using statistical estimates of validity and reliability. The results showed that the P-CAT was shown to be valid and homogeneous by factor, item and content analyses. Cronbach's alpha was satisfactory for the total scale (0.84), and the three subscales had values of 0.81, 0.77, and 0.31 respectively. Test-retest reliability were evaluated (n = 26) and all analyses indicated satisfactory estimates. This study provides preliminary evidence in support of the psychometric properties of the P-CAT when used in an Australian sample of long-term aged care staff. The tool contributes to the literature by making it possible to study person-centered care in relation to health outcomes, organizational models, characteristics and levels of staffing, degrees of care needs among residents, and impact of interventions.

Reliability and validity of the Korean version of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised

Objectives The aim of this study was to explore the reliability and validity of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised Korean version (IES-R-K), a self-report scale for assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Methods The original Impact of Event Scale-Revised was translated into Korean, and the comparability of content was verified through back-translation procedures. This multicenter study included 93 patients with PTSD, 73 nonpsychotic psychiatric patients, and 88 healthy controls drawn from 18 hospitals across the country. The subjects were assessed using IES-R-K, Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), Beck Depression Inventory, and State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; state anxiety subscale [STAI-S], trait anxiety subscale [STAI-T]) scales. Results In the reliability test, Cronbach α coefficient and test-retest reliability were .93 and 0.91, respectively, indicating that the IES-R-K has good internal consistency. One-way analysis of variance revealed significant differences in IES-R-K scores among the patients with PTSD, nonpsychotic psychiatric patients, and healthy controls ( F = 139.1, P < .001). Duncan post hoc test showed the significant differences among the 3 groups. To assess the validity of the IES-R-K, correlation coefficient between the IES-R-K and CAPS, STAI-S, and STAI-T was calculated. We found that there was a relatively high degree of correlation between the IES-R-K and CAPS ( r = 0.92, P < .001). However, there was a relatively less degree of correlation between STAI-S and STAI-T and IES-R-K ( r = 0.30, P < .001). Taken these together, IES-R-K showed good discriminant validity. Conclusion The IES-R-K showed good reliability and validity for the assessment of PTSD symptom severity. The IES-R-K is a useful instrument for assessing PTSD symptoms in Korea.

The Manchester Respiratory Activities of Daily Living Questionnaire: Development, Reliability, Validity, and Responsiveness to Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Because there is no respiratory-specific activities of daily living (ADL) scale for use in older patients, our aim was to design and develop the Manchester Respiratory ADL questionnaire (MRADL) and to assess its validity in older patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The MRADL is a composite of the most discriminative questions from the Nottingham Extended ADL Questionnaire (NEADL) and the Breathing Problems Questionnaire (BPQ). A University teaching hospital. Participants were 188 (104 men) COPD out-patients aged 60 to 93 (mean 77) years and 55 (23 men) normal controls (NCs) aged 70 to 90 (mean 78) years. Exclusions were confusion and acute respiratory exacerbation/use of oral corticosteroid within 6 weeks. A subgroup of COPD subjects completed a pulmonary rehabilitation program (PR) to assess responsiveness of the MRADL to intervention. All subjects completed MRADL and NEADL scales, and 15 COPD subjects (11 men) completed an 8-week PR program. Mean (SE) 1-second forced expiratory volume (FEV1) in COPD subjects was 0.94 (0.03) liters, and in NCs it was 1.96 (0.07) liters. MRADL discriminated better between COPDs and NCs than did the NEADL in terms of sensitivity (90% vs 76%; X2 = 4.8, P = .02) and negative predictive value (84% vs 69%; X2 = 4.5, P = .03). MRADL responded to changes during PR: pre versus post mean (SE) score 11.2 (1.1) vs 13.4 (1.1); (t = 3.09; P = .008), but NEADL was unchanged. MRADL showed high consistency (Cronbach alpha 0.91). 95% confidence limits of repeatability were -0.63 to +0.26 (P = .42) for MRADL and -0.53 to +0.26 (P = .50) for NEADL. MRADL is a reliable and valid self-report scale for assessment of physical disability in older COPD patients. It is responsive to pulmonary rehabilitation.

A new self-report scale for assessment of adolescent psychopathology: factor structure, reliability, validity, and diagnostic sensitivity.

This paper describes four studies on self-reported problems in 2,243 adolescent males and females, 12 to 17 years of age. In Study 1, principal-axis factoring of 102 items covering 11 problem domains revealed six factors comprising 49.5% of the variance. Study 2 used confirmatory factor analysis of a 64-item reduced set on a new sample of 408 adolescents. Goodness-of-fit indicators suggested that the six-factor model had excellent fit to the data. Study 3 used data from the 2,157 adolescents used in the first two studies. Coefficient alphas ranged from .83 to .92. Median test-retest reliability for the six factors was .86. There was a consistent structure of the correlation matrix across age and gender. Study 4 was a study of criterion validity, using an additional sample of 86 children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Sensitivity and specificity were high, with an overall diagnostic efficiency of 83%. This new self-report scale, the Conners/Wells Adolescent Self-Report of Symptoms (CASS), may provide a useful component of a multimodal assessment of adolescent psychopathology.

Assessing social integration in the elderly: development of a brief self-report assessment scale: the social integration and independence questionnaire

SummaryThe paper describes the construction and validation of a brief self-rating scale for social integration in the elderly: the 17-item Social Integration and Independence Questionnaire (SIIQ). The questionnaire was tested on a sample of 160 individuals over the age of 65. Principle component analysis elicited four factors accounting for 48.8% of the cumulative variance: ‘Independence’, ‘Social Integration’, ‘Familial’ and ‘Depression’ (20.7, 10.6, 9.0 and 8.4% of the cumulative variance). The four factors measure the adjustment of elderly people in the community.