Journal of affective disorders
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Previous research has suggested that chronic pain patients might be particularly vulnerable to the effects of negative mood during information processing. However, there is little evidence for abnormal brain processing of affective and sensory pain-related information in chronic pain. Behavioral and brain responses, to pain descriptors and pleasant words, were examined in chronic pain patients and healthy controls during a self-endorsement task. ⋯ These data support the notion of abnormal information processing in chronic pain patients, which might be characterized by a lack of dissociation between sensory and affective components of pain-related information, and by an exaggerated rumination over word meaning during the encoding of self-referent information about pain.
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The relation between panic disorder and suicidal behavior has been surrounded by perennial controversy. A significant number of reports suggest that PD is associated with suicidal behavior. Alternatively, it has been proposed that comorbid depression may account for the increased suicidality identified in this population. ⋯ In this clinical outpatient sample, the association between panic disorder and suicidal behavior was primarily explained by comorbidity with depressive disorders. No differences were observed between different groups for measures of severity of the suicidal behavior. Physicians should be aware of these associations when assessing adults with panic disorder for suicidality.
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Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent in most parts of the world. It is also prevalent during pregnancy. ⋯ The experience of intimate partner violence and its mental health consequences are quite prevalent in India which is a culture where gender disparities are normative and pregnancy is a particularly vulnerable period.
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Caregivers of people with dementia are at high risk of psychological morbidity and associated breakdown in care. Many psychologically based interventions have been designed to help caregivers of people with dementia. More work is needed to identify which, if any, are helpful for such caregivers. ⋯ We found excellent evidence for the efficacy of six or more sessions of individual behavioral management therapy centered on the care recipient's behavior in alleviating caregiver symptoms both immediately and for up to 32 months. Teaching caregivers coping strategies either individually or in a group also appeared effective in improving caregiver psychological health both immediately and for some months afterwards. Group interventions were less effective than individual interventions. Education about dementia by itself, group behavioral therapy and supportive therapy were not effective caregiver interventions.
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The detection and diagnosis of present or past hypomanic episodes is of key importance for the differential diagnosis between depressive disorders and type II bipolar disorder. However, there are few instruments available to satisfactorily screen for the latter condition. The Hypomania Symptom Checklist-32 (HCL-32) is a self-applied questionnaire with 32 hypomania items and 8 severity and functional impact items which is being developed in several European countries for this purpose. Our aim was to develop and validate the psychometric properties of the HCL-32 scale in Spain in patients with bipolar disorder and to compare its properties with other instruments available for the detection of bipolar II disorder. ⋯ The Spanish version of the HCL-32 has good psychometric properties and sufficient sensitivity and specificity, detecting 8 out of every 10 patients with BD. The HCL-32 is a useful screening tool of patients with bipolar disorder in clinical settings. In its present form it adequately discriminates between bipolar and unipolar or healthy subjects, but not between BD I and BII.