The Borderline Bias in Explicit Emotion Interpretation

Atypical emotion interpretation has been widely reported in individuals with borderline personality disorder (iBPD); however, empirical studies reported mixed results so far. We suggest that discrepancies in observations of emotion interpretation by iBPD can be explained by biases related to their fear of rejection and abandonment, i.e., the three moral emotions of anger, disgust, and contempt. In this study, we hypothesized that iBPD would show a higher tendency to correctly interpret these three displays of social rejection and attribute more negative valence. A total of 28 inpatient iBPDs and 28 healthy controls were asked to judge static and dynamic facial expressions in terms of emotions, valence, and self-reported arousal evoked by the observed faces. Our results partially confirmed our expectations. The iBPD correctly interpreted the three unambiguous moral emotions. Contempt, a complex emotion with a difficulty in recognizing facial expressions, was recognized better by iBPD than by healthy controls. All negative emotions were judged more negatively by iBPD than by controls, but no difference was observed in the neutral or positive emotion. Alexithymia and anxiety trait and state levels were controlled in all analyses.

Insomnia and HRQoL of Indonesians with Chronic Pain: The Role of Catastrophizing

Insomnia and chronic pain share the same catastrophizing cognitive tendency. The high prevalence of insomnia and chronic pain was found in the urban population. Seeing the interaction between both in influencing individuals is imperative. Most studies in insomnia and pain are conducted in the Western population, with little to no research conducted in Indonesian urban population. As a part longitudinal chronic pain study, this research explored (a) the mediating role of pain catastrophizing in linking insomnia with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and (b) the moderating role of anxiety trait in influencing the mediation within Indonesian adults with chronic pain. The data were gathered through self-administered online questionnaires, and the moderated-mediation analyses were conducted at the beginning phase of the longitudinal study. The results from 415 participants validated that pain catastrophizing partially mediated the relationship between insomnia and HRQoL. Furthermore, no significant moderating effect of anxiety trait was found. People with insomnia showed rumination, worry, and dysfunctional beliefs regarding their sleep, which generalized into catastrophic thoughts regarding their pain experience. This pain catastrophizing in turn influenced the HRQoL. Interventions that simultaneously target both catastrophic thoughts in insomnia and pain would prove to be beneficial in mitigating pain among Indonesian adults.

Ansiedade traço-estado, risco de depressão e ideação suicida em gestantes de alto risco

<p><span class="fontstyle0">Pregnancy is a period in the life of a woman that requires special attention due to the various physical, hormonal, psychological and social insertion changes. In this context, we thought about the following guiding question: Do high-risk pregnant women in Alagoas have high levels of anxiety trait and/or state, risk of depression and suicidal ideation? This study aims to evaluate the levels of anxiety trait and state, risk of depression and suicidal ideation in high-risk pregnant women, assisted by the health service of Alagoas, Brazil. It is a cross-sectional, descriptive study with quantitative approach. The research was conducted with a sample of 247 high-risk pregnant women in the four and only reference ambulatory clinics for high-risk pregnancy in the State of Alagoas. Four data collection instruments were used: Identification form, Anxiety Inventory, Depression Scale and Suicidal Ideation Scale. Descriptive Analysis through relative frequency, bivariate analysis through chi-square, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney and Pearson’s correlation. Regarding the level of anxiety, state anxiety was classified as high (9.7%), moderate (53.4%) and low (36.8%) and trait anxiety was classified as high 7.7%, moderate 59.5% and low 32.8%. A total of 62.8% pregnant women at risk for depression and 2.4% with suicidal ideation were identified. The higher the risk for depression, the greater the risk of having anxiety trait/state moderate and high (p &lt; 0.00). The main risk factors found in this study are low schooling, low family income and non-pregnancy planning.<br />There was no relationship between depression and suicide attempt in high-risk pregnant women. The study shows that<br />high-risk pregnant women have moderate/high trait/state anxiety and risk for depression</span> <br /><br /></p>

Paranoid and conspiracy beliefs: The role of anxiety and life satisfaction

This study aimed to examine the relationship between paranoid and conspiracy beliefs and how these beliefs further relate to anxiety-trait, anxiety disorders, and satisfaction with life. The research was attended by 814 participants who were administered the Paranoia Scale, the Slovak Conspiracy Belief Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Satisfaction With Life Scale. The results suggest that paranoid beliefs were associated with conspiracy beliefs, anxiety-trait, and life satisfaction. All of the variables together accounted for almost 40% of the variance of paranoid beliefs. In addition, the presence of anxiety disorders had a relatively strong effect on the level of paranoid beliefs. However, life satisfaction and anxiety-trait were not related to conspiracy beliefs. These results suggest the more attention should be drawn to mental health as both anxiety level and life satisfaction, along with conspiracy beliefs significantly predicted paranoid beliefs.

The Relationship Between the Level of Revanchist Behavior and Emotional State and Sleep Quality

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine factors that can affect revanchist behavior such as emotional state and sleep quality, and to evaluate the relationship between them. Materials and Methods: 461 individuals at the age of 18 and above who referred to our polyclinic for any reason, and agreed to participate were included in the study via conducting a survey after their written consents were obtained. A survey that consisted of socio-demographic information in the first section, and “the Vengeance Scale”, “the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index”, “the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory” and “Beck Depression Inventory” in the second section was applied to the participants. The data were analyzed with IBM SPSS V23. Results: 52.7% of the participants were male and 47.3% were female. The mean age of the study group was 37.4 ± 11.2 years. 51.4% of the participants had severe depression according to the Beck Depression Inventory, while 20.4% had moderate, 16.3% had minimal and 11.9% had mild depression. The median value of the revanchist behavior levels did not differ according to gender (p=0.257). The median value of the revanchist behavior levels in males were 82, while it was 75 in female participants. The median value of the revanchist behavior levels did not differ according to the educational background (p=0.727). A statistically significant relationship was not found between revanchist behavior levels and age, state anxiety, trait anxiety, Beck depression point and PSQI (p>0.05). Conclusion: The absence of a significant relationship between revenge behavior and age, anxiety level, depression and sleep quality will help us to improve the quality of life of societies rather than personal psychological characteristics, and this behavior level that can also cause violence will be minimized.

Decreased amygdala volume in adults after premature birth

Premature-born infants have impaired amygdala structure, presumably due to increased stress levels of premature birth mediated by the amygdala. However, accounting for lifelong plasticity of amygdala, it is unclear whether such structural changes persist into adulthood. To address this problem, we stated the following questions: first, are whole amygdala volumes reduced in premature-born adults? And second, as adult anxiety traits are often increased after prematurity and linked with amygdala structure, are alterations in amygdala associated with adults’ anxiety traits after premature birth? We addressed these questions by automated amygdala segmentation of MRI volumes in 101 very premature-born adults (< 32 weeks of gestation and/or birth weight below 1500 g) and 108 full-term controls at 26 years of age of a prospectively and longitudinally collected cohort. We found significantly lower whole amygdala volumes in premature-born adults. While premature-born adults had significantly higher T score for avoidant personality reflecting increased social anxiety trait, this trait was not correlated with amygdala volume alterations. Results demonstrate reduced amygdala volumes in premature born adults. Data suggest lasting effects of prematurity on amygdala structure.

Virtual Reality Tour to Reduce Perioperative Anxiety in an Operating Setting Before Anesthesia: Randomized Clinical Trial (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Perioperative anxiety is a major burden to patients undergoing surgeries with general anesthesia. OBJECTIVE This study investigated whether a virtual operating room tour (VORT) before surgery can be used to ameliorate perioperative anxiety. METHODS We employed a randomized parallel-group design with 2 study arms to compare VORT to the standard operation preparation procedure. The study included 84 patients. A validated inventory (state-trait operation anxiety-state) was used to assess perioperative state anxiety before (T1) and after (T2) surgery. In addition, trait operation anxiety was evaluated with an additional validated inventory (state-trait operation anxiety-trait). Moreover, user ratings on the usefulness of VORT were assessed with an evaluation questionnaire. Study arms were compared for perioperative state anxiety with two-tailed independent samples <i>t</i> tests. Subjective ratings were correlated with STOA-Trait values to investigate possible associations between perioperative anxiety with perceived usefulness. RESULTS There were no significant differences in perioperative state anxiety between VORT and standard operation preparation procedures before and after the surgery. Nonetheless, patients’ ratings of VORT overall were positive. The tour was perceived as useful and, therefore, showed acceptance for VR use. These ratings were unrelated to the degree of perioperative anxiety. CONCLUSIONS The subjective benefit of VORT could not be explained by a reduction of perioperative anxiety. Instead, VORT appears to serve the need for information and reduce uncertainty. In addition, VORT is perceived as beneficial regardless of the age of the patients. Considering this effect and the manageable organizational and financial effort toward implementation, the general use of VORT can be recommended. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04579354; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04579354

How anxious did you feel during lockdown? The roles resilience, living environment, and gender play on the level of anxiety state during pandemic isolation

In the unique context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, researchers and clinicians alike drew attention to the risks involved by physical and social isolation for mental health. Factors like resilience, gender, urban/rural environment, or preexisting anxiety can impact anxious states produced by home forced isolation. Based on these, we assumed that: i) there are significant differences in the level of anxiety (state) during the pandemic, depending on the living area of the subjects; ii) gender plays a moderating role in the relationship between resilience and anxiety; and iii) anxiety (trait), experiential avoidance, resilience, and family connectedness, determine the level of anxiety (state). The MemoryLab team conducted the present study on 495 subjects (n=411 women, age between 18 and 65). Of these, 350 live in large and medium urban areas, 63 in small urban areas, and 82 in rural areas. As instruments, we used The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI 2.0), The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire 2 (AAQ-2), The Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), The Family Connectedness Questionnaire, and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC-10), as well as the standard division of living areas according to community size. Data collection took place online during the spring peak of the pandemic. According to ANOVA analysis, people living in small urban areas have a higher level of anxiety. The difference is significant compared to those living in large and medium cities and villages. Gender has no moderating role in the relationship between resilience and the anxiety state. Also, experiential avoidance, anxiety (trait), and resilience play a significant role on the level of anxiety (state), measured during social isolation. The results could be an important indicator for understanding psychological mechanisms guiding interventions to support the communities effectively.