scholarly journals Psychological profile of pet owners in Isfahan, Iran

Author(s):  
Negin Rahmani ◽  
Amin Barazandeh ◽  
Seyedeh Samaneh Sepehrtaj

This study aimed to compare the psychological profile of pet owners with the ones who didn’t own any pets. The research method was a casual-comparative study. Pet owners and people without pets were included in this research which was done in Iran in February 2017. One hundred and sixty people were selected in this sample in a nonrandom available sampling method and matched in terms of demographic characteristics. Eighty people, pet owners, were referred to the veterinary clinics and 80 didn’t own any pets. They were assessed by a psychological signs inventory. The result of ANOVA indicated that pet owners and those without any pets were indifferent in the characteristics of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, hostility, paranoid, interpersonal sensitivity, and psychosis, while those without any pets, statistically had a higher average in somatization and depression than the pet owners and it could be justified by corrective emotional experience, displacement, and sublimation in the pet owner. This statistic can be based on the fact that pet owners use these animals as an object for thrilling topics which is a factor to decrease their psychological stress and increase their physical health.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 175-179
Author(s):  
Mina Bozorg ◽  
Changiz Rahimi ◽  
Nurallah Mohammadi

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the differences in alexithymia components between patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and normal individuals. Methods: In this ex-post facto study, 23 obsessive-compulsive outpatients’ selected by available sampling method and 22 personnel of the same hospitals (Taft Comprehensive Psychiatric Hospital, Imam Ali, Shahid Rahnemoon, and Baghayipoor Clinics) were selected as a control group in 2015 in Yazd, Iran. Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 were used in this study. Results: Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The results showed that patients with OCD were significantly different from the control group in the total alexithymia score (F=7.232, P=0.01). However, both groups had significant differences only in the subscale of difficulty in identifying feelings. Conclusion: It can be concluded that both groups had significant differences in the total alexithymia score and one of its subscales.


Author(s):  
Laura F. Bringmann ◽  
Date C. van der Veen ◽  
Marieke Wichers ◽  
Harriëtte Riese ◽  
Gert Stulp

Abstract Purpose The experience sampling method (ESM) is used for intensive longitudinal time-series data collection during normal daily life. ESM data give information on momentary affect, activities and (social) context of, for example, patients suffering from mental disorders, and allows for person-specific feedback reports. However, current personalized feedback reports only display a selection of measured variables, and typically involve only summary statistics, thus not reflecting the dynamic fluctuations in affect and its influencing factors. To address this shortcoming, we developed a tool for dynamically visualizing ESM data. Methods We introduce a new framework, ESMvis, for giving descriptive feedback, focusing on direct visualization of the dynamic nature of raw data. In this ESM feedback approach, raw ESM data are visualized using R software. We applied ESMvis to data collected for over 52 weeks on a patient diagnosed with an obsessive–compulsive disorder with comorbid depression. Results We provided personalized feedback, in which both the overall trajectory and specific time moments were captured in a movie format. Two relapses during the study period could be visually determined, and subsequently confirmed by the therapist. The therapist and patient evaluated ESMvis as an insightful add-on tool to care-as-usual. Conclusion ESMvis is a showcase on providing personalized feedback by dynamic visualization of ESM time-series data. Our tool is freely available and adjustable, making it widely applicable. In addition to potential applications in clinical practice, ESMvis can work as an exploratory tool that can lead to new hypotheses and inform more complex statistical techniques.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan J. Kelley ◽  
Andrew P. Duker ◽  
Peter Chiu

The dopamine agonists ropinirole and pramipexole exhibit highly specific affinity for the cerebral dopamine D3 receptor. Use of these medications in Parkinson’s disease has been complicated by the emergence of pathologic behavioral patterns such as hypersexuality, pathologic gambling, excessive hobbying, and other circumscribed obsessive-compulsive disorders of impulse control in people having no history of such disorders. These behavioral changes typically remit following discontinuation of the medication, further demonstrating a causal relationship. Expression of the D3 receptor is particularly rich within the limbic system, where it plays an important role in modulating the physiologic and emotional experience of novelty, reward, and risk assessment. Converging neuroanatomical, physiological, and behavioral science data suggest the high D3 affinity of these medications as the basis for these behavioral changes. These observations suggest the D3 receptor as a therapeutic target for obsessive-compulsive disorder and substance abuse, and improved understanding of D3 receptor function may aid drug design of future atypical antipsychotics.


2011 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 642-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Filardi da Rocha ◽  
Nathália Bueno Alvarenga ◽  
Leandro Malloy-Diniz ◽  
Humberto Corrêa

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the process of decision-making in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). In addition, we intend to expand the understanding of clinical and demographic characteristics that influence decision-making. METHOD: Our sample consisted of 214 subjects (107 diagnosed with OCD and 107 healthy controls) who were evaluated on their clinical, demographic and neuropsychological features. Moreover, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a task that detects and measures decision-making impairments, was used. RESULTS: We found that OCD patients performed significantly worse on the IGT. Furthermore, features such as symptoms of anxiety did not influence IGT performance. CONCLUSION: Impaired decision-making seems to be a key feature of OCD. Given that OCD is a complex heterogeneous disorder, homogeneous groups are necessary for an accurate characterization of our findings.


2015 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique C. Pfaltz ◽  
Beatrice Mörstedt ◽  
Andrea H. Meyer ◽  
Frank H. Wilhelm ◽  
Joe Kossowsky ◽  
...  

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe anxiety disorder characterized by frequent obsessive thoughts and repetitive behaviors. Neuroticism is a vulnerability factor for OCD, yet the mechanisms by which this general vulnerability factor affects the development of OCD-related symptoms are unknown. The present study assessed a hierarchical model of the development of obsessive thoughts that includes neuroticism as a general, higher-order factor, and specific, potentially maladaptive thought processes (thought suppression, worry, and brooding) as second-order factors manifesting in the tendency toward obsessing. A total of 238 participants completed questionnaires assessing the examined constructs. The results of mediator analyses demonstrated the hypothesized relationships: A positive association between neuroticism and obsessing was mediated by thought suppression, worry, and brooding. Independent of the participant’s sex, all three mediators contributed equally and substantially to the association between neuroticism and obsessing. These findings extend earlier research on hierarchical models of anxiety and provide a basis for further refinement of models of the development of obsessive thoughts.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aire Mill ◽  
Anu Realo ◽  
Jüri Allik

Abstract. Intraindividual variability, along with the more frequently studied between-person variability, has been argued to be one of the basic building blocks of emotional experience. The aim of the current study is to examine whether intraindividual variability in affect predicts tiredness in daily life. Intraindividual variability in affect was studied with the experience sampling method in a group of 110 participants (aged between 19 and 84 years) during 14 consecutive days on seven randomly determined occasions per day. The results suggest that affect variability is a stable construct over time and situations. Our findings also demonstrate that intraindividual variability in affect has a unique role in predicting increased levels of tiredness at the momentary level as well at the level of individuals.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tíscar Rodríguez-Jiménez ◽  
Antonio Godoy ◽  
José A. Piqueras ◽  
Aurora Gavino ◽  
Agustín E. Martínez-González ◽  
...  

Abstract. Evidence-based assessment is necessary as a first step for developing psychopathological studies and assessing the effectiveness of empirically validated treatments. There are several measures of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and/or symptomatology in children and adolescents, but all of them present some limitations. The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) by Foa and her colleagues has showed to be a good self-report measure to capture the dimensionality of OCD in adults and adolescents. The child version of the OCI (OCI-CV) was validated for clinical children and adolescents in 2010, showing excellent psychometric properties. The objective of this study was to examine the factor structure and invariance of the OCI-CV in the general population. Results showed a six-factor structure with one second-order factor, good consistency values, and invariance across region, age, and sex. The OCI-CV is an excellent inventory for assessing the dimensions of OCD symptomatology in general populations of children and adolescents. The invariance across sex and age warrants its utilization for research purposes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-520
Author(s):  
Caterina Novara ◽  
Paolo Cavedini ◽  
Stella Dorz ◽  
Susanna Pardini ◽  
Claudio Sica

Abstract. The Structured Interview for Hoarding Disorder (SIHD) is a semi-structured interview designed to assist clinicians in diagnosing a hoarding disorder (HD). This study aimed to validate the Italian version of the SIHD. For this purpose, its inter-rater reliability has been analyzed as well as its ability to differentiate HD from other disorders often comorbid. The sample was composed of 74 inpatients who had been diagnosed within their clinical environment: 9 with HD, 11 with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and HD, 22 with OCD, 19 with major depressive disorder (MDD), and 13 with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). The results obtained indicated “substantial” or “perfect” inter-rater reliability for all the core HD criteria, HD diagnosis, and specifiers. The SIHD differentiated between subjects suffering from and not suffering from a HD. Finally, the results indicated “good” convergent validity and high scores were shown in terms of both sensitivity and specificity for HD diagnosis. Altogether, the SIHD represents a useful instrument for evaluating the presence of HD and is a helpful tool for the clinician during the diagnostic process.


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