Clinical psychology review
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Meta Analysis
Attentional bias towards pain-related information in chronic pain; a meta-analysis of visual-probe investigations.
Research investigating the presence of attentional bias in chronic pain has produced mixed results. The purpose of this review is to summarise former research using the visual-probe task to explore attentional bias in pain populations, and meta-analyse the results of controlled investigations comparing individuals with chronic pain to healthy controls. Ten eligible studies were included in this analysis (chronic pain n=515, control n=314). ⋯ The time-course of attentional bias was also explored, with evidence found for significant bias during stages of initial orienting of attention (effect size .29) and maintained attention (effect size .42). Bias therefore appears more pronounced during later stages of attention, possibly arising from processes of rumination. It is important for future research to fully explore the role attentional bias plays in the causation and maintenance of chronic pain, and the potential consequences bias may have upon quality of life.
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Review Meta Analysis
Etiology of obsessions and compulsions: a meta-analysis and narrative review of twin studies.
The relative importance of genetic and environmental factors in the etiology of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms is unclear. Cognitive-behavioral models propose that shared environment (e.g., parenting style) is important. ⋯ Results indicated that in terms of mean effect sizes, (a) additive genetic effects and nonshared environment accounted for most of the variance in OC symptoms, (b) shared environment and nonadditive genetic effects made little or no contribution; (c) these findings did not vary with sex or symptom severity; (d) variance due to nonshared environment increased with age; (e) gene-environment interactions play an etiologic role; (f) OC symptoms are shaped by etiologic factors common to all types of OC symptoms but also have symptom-specific etiologies; and (g) OC symptoms are also shaped by very general etiologic factors (e.g., those influencing negative emotionality). Overall, the findings indicate that OC symptoms have a complex etiologic architecture that is not adequately explained by contemporary etiological models.
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Stress and trauma research has traditionally focused on negative sequelae of adversity. Recently, research has begun to focus on positive outcomes, specifically posttraumatic growth (PTG) - "positive change experienced as a result of the struggle with trauma" - which emphasizes the transformative potential of one's experiences with highly stressful events and circumstances. The positive changes of PTG are generally thought to occur in five domains: new possibilities, relating to others, personal strength, appreciation of life, and spiritual change. ⋯ The current systematic review of the literature on PTG among children and adolescents included 25 studies that tested associations between PTG and conceptually-relevant variables found to be associated with PTG in adults and hypothesized to play similar roles in young people, including environmental characteristics, distress responses, social processes, psychological processes, positive outcomes, and demographic variables. Links were made between a theoretical model of PTG among youth and findings of the current review. Limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.
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Studies of birth cohorts show evidence of greater risk of violence among patients with schizophrenia compared to the general population. However, the contribution of schizophrenia to violence is heavily debated and remains unclear. ⋯ We identified two different trajectories for violent behavior in schizophrenia: one pertains to patients with no prior history of violence or criminal behavior and for whom positive symptoms appear to explain violent behavior, and another where personality pathology, including psychopathy, predict violence, regardless of other symptomatology associated with schizophrenia. Furthermore, emergent data suggest that specific mentalizing profiles can be associated with the occurrence of violence in schizophrenia, an issue that warrants further consideration in future research.
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Review Meta Analysis
A comparative study of violence risk assessment tools: a systematic review and metaregression analysis of 68 studies involving 25,980 participants.
There are a large number of structured instruments that assist in the assessment of antisocial, violent and sexual risk, and their use appears to be increasing in mental health and criminal justice settings. However, little is known about which commonly used instruments produce the highest rates of predictive validity, and whether overall rates of predictive validity differ by gender, ethnicity, outcome, and other study characteristics. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of nine commonly used risk assessment instruments following PRISMA guidelines. ⋯ A tool designed to detect violence risk in juveniles, the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), produced the highest rates of predictive validity, while an instrument used to identify adults at risk for general offending, the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R), and a personality scale commonly used for the purposes of risk assessment, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), produced the lowest. Instruments produced higher rates of predictive validity in older and in predominantly White samples. Risk assessment procedures and guidelines by mental health services and criminal justice systems may need review in light of these findings.