A dark place
Mark Hatzenbuehler et al., American Journal of Public Health, January 2015, Pages 138-143
Objectives: We examined whether residence in neighborhoods with high levels of incarceration is associated with psychiatric morbidity among nonincarcerated community members.
Methods: We linked zip code–linked information on neighborhood prison admissions rates to individual-level data on mental health from the Detroit Neighborhood Health Study (2008–2012), a prospective probability sample of predominantly Black individuals.
Results: Controlling for individual- and neighborhood-level risk factors, individuals living in neighborhoods with high prison admission rates were more likely to meet criteria for a current (odds ratio [OR] = 2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.7, 5.5) and lifetime (OR = 2.5; 95% CI = 1.4, 4.6) major depressive disorder across the 3 waves of follow-up as well as current (OR = 2.1; 95% CI = 1.0, 4.2) and lifetime (OR = 2.3; 95% CI = 1.2, 4.5) generalized anxiety disorder than were individuals living in neighborhoods with low prison admission rates. These relationships between neighborhood-level incarceration and mental health were comparable for individuals with and without a personal history of incarceration.
Conclusions: Incarceration may exert collateral damage on the mental health of individuals living in high-incarceration neighborhoods, suggesting that the public mental health impact of mass incarceration extends beyond those who are incarcerated.
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A Not So Happy Day after All: Excess Death Rates on Birthdays in the U.S.
Pablo Peña, Social Science & Medicine, February 2015, Pages 59–66
Abstract:
This study estimates average excess death rates on and around birthdays, and explores differences between birthdays falling on weekends and birthdays falling on weekdays. Using records from the U.S. Social Security Administration for 25 million people who died during the period from 1998 to 2011, average excess death rates are estimated controlling for seasonality of births and deaths. The average excess death rate on birthdays is 6.7% (p<0.0001). No evidence is found of dips in average excess death rates in a ±10 day neighborhood around birthdays that could offset the spikes on birthdays. Significant differences are found between age groups and between weekend and weekday birthdays. Younger people have greater average excess death rates on birthdays, reaching up to 25.4% (p<0.0001) for ages 20-29. Younger people also show the largest differences between average excess death rates on weekend birthdays and weekday birthdays, reaching up to 64.5 percentage points (p=0.0063) for ages 1-9. Over the 13-year period analyzed, the estimated excess deaths on birthdays are 4,590.
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Desire to Work as a Death Anxiety Buffer Mechanism
Erez Yaakobi, Experimental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Four studies were conducted to examine the death anxiety buffering function of work as a terror management mechanism, and the possible moderating role of culture. In Study 1, making mortality salient led to higher reports of participants' desire to work. In Study 2, activating thoughts of fulfillment of the desire to work after mortality salience reduced the accessibility of death-related thoughts. In Study 3, activating thoughts of fulfillment of the desire to work reduced the effects of mortality salience on out-group derogation. In Study 4, priming thoughts about obstacles to the actualization of desire to work led to greater accessibility of death-related thoughts. Although two different cultures with contrasting work values were examined, the results were consistent, indicating that the desire to work serves as a death anxiety buffer mechanism in both cultures.
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Facebook use, envy, and depression among college students: Is facebooking depressing?
Edson Tandoc, Patrick Ferrucci & Margaret Duffy, Computers in Human Behavior, February 2015, Pages 139–146
Abstract:
It is not — unless it triggers feelings of envy. This study uses the framework of social rank theory of depression and conceptualizes Facebook envy as a possible link between Facebook surveillance use and depression among college students. Using a survey of 736 college students, we found that the effect of surveillance use of Facebook on depression is mediated by Facebook envy. However, when Facebook envy is controlled for, Facebook use actually lessens depression.
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Checking email less frequently reduces stress
Kostadin Kushlev & Elizabeth Dunn, Computers in Human Behavior, February 2015, Pages 220–228
Abstract:
Using email is one of the most common online activities in the world today. Yet, very little experimental research has examined the effect of email on well-being. Utilizing a within-subjects design, we investigated how the frequency of checking email affects well-being over a period of two weeks. During one week, 124 adults were randomly assigned to limit checking their email to three times a day; during the other week, participants could check their email an unlimited number of times per day. We found that during the limited email use week, participants experienced significantly lower daily stress than during the unlimited email use week. Lower stress, in turn, predicted higher well-being on a diverse range of well-being outcomes. These findings highlight the benefits of checking email less frequently for reducing psychological stress.
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Effects of biological explanations for mental disorders on clinicians' empathy
Matthew Lebowitz & Woo-kyoung Ahn, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 16 December 2014, Pages 17786–17790
Abstract:
Mental disorders are increasingly understood in terms of biological mechanisms. We examined how such biological explanations of patients' symptoms would affect mental health clinicians' empathy — a crucial component of the relationship between treatment-providers and patients — as well as their clinical judgments and recommendations. In a series of studies, US clinicians read descriptions of potential patients whose symptoms were explained using either biological or psychosocial information. Biological explanations have been thought to make patients appear less accountable for their disorders, which could increase clinicians' empathy. To the contrary, biological explanations evoked significantly less empathy. These results are consistent with other research and theory that has suggested that biological accounts of psychopathology can exacerbate perceptions of patients as abnormal, distinct from the rest of the population, meriting social exclusion, and even less than fully human. Although the ongoing shift toward biomedical conceptualizations has many benefits, our results reveal unintended negative consequences.
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Nitrous Oxide for Treatment-Resistant Major Depression: A Proof-of-Concept Trial
Peter Nagele et al., Biological Psychiatry, forthcoming
Background: NMDA receptor antagonists, such as ketamine, have rapid antidepressant effects in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). We hypothesized that nitrous oxide, an inhalational general anesthetic and NMDA receptor antagonist, may also be a rapidly acting treatment for TRD.
Methods: In this blinded, placebo-controlled crossover trial 20 TRD patients were randomized to a 1-hour inhalation of 50% nitrous oxide/50% oxygen or 50% nitrogen/50% oxygen (placebo control). Primary endpoint was the change on HDRS-21 24 hours after treatment.
Results: Mean duration of nitrous oxide treatment was 55.6 ± 2.5 (SD) minutes at a median inspiratory concentration of 44% (37 – 45%, IQR). In two patients nitrous oxide treatment was briefly interrupted and in three discontinued. Depressive symptoms improved significantly at 2 hours and 24 hours after receiving nitrous oxide compared to placebo (mean HDRS-21difference at 2 hours: -4.8 points, 95% CI -1.8 to – 7.8 points, p= 0.002; at 24 hours: -5.5 points, 95% CI -2.5 to -8.5 points, p<0.001; comparison between nitrous oxide and placebo: p<0.001). Four patients (20%) had treatment response (reduction ≥50% on HDRS); three patients (15%) a full remission (HDRS ≤ 7 points) after nitrous oxide, compared to one patient (5%) and none after placebo (odds ratio [OR] for response 4.0, 95% CI 0.45 – 35.79; OR for remission 3.0, 95% CI 0.31 – 28.8). No serious adverse events occurred; all adverse events were brief and of mild to moderate severity.
Conclusions: This proof-of-concept trial demonstrated that nitrous oxide has rapid and marked antidepressant effects in patients with treatment-resistant depression.
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Neural Emotion Regulation Circuitry Underlying Anxiolytic Effects of Perceived Control over Pain
Tim Salomons et al., Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, February 2015, Pages 222-233
Abstract:
Anxiolytic effects of perceived control have been observed across species. In humans, neuroimaging studies have suggested that perceived control and cognitive reappraisal reduce negative affect through similar mechanisms. An important limitation of extant neuroimaging studies of perceived control in terms of directly testing this hypothesis, however, is the use of within-subject designs, which confound participants' affective response to controllable and uncontrollable stress. To compare neural and affective responses when participants were exposed to either uncontrollable or controllable stress, two groups of participants received an identical series of stressors (thermal pain stimuli). One group ("controllable") was led to believe they had behavioral control over the pain stimuli, whereas another ("uncontrollable") believed they had no control. Controllable pain was associated with decreased state anxiety, decreased activation in amygdala, and increased activation in nucleus accumbens. In participants who perceived control over the pain, reduced state anxiety was associated with increased functional connectivity between each of these regions and ventral lateral/ventral medial pFC. The location of pFC findings is consistent with regions found to be critical for the anxiolytic effects of perceived control in rodents. Furthermore, interactions observed between pFC and both amygdala and nucleus accumbens are remarkably similar to neural mechanisms of emotion regulation through reappraisal in humans. These results suggest that perceived control reduces negative affect through a general mechanism involved in the cognitive regulation of emotion.
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Gender Differences in the Expression of PTSD Symptoms among Active Duty Military Personnel
Laurel Hourani et al., Journal of Anxiety Disorders, January 2015, Pages 101–108
Abstract:
This study examined gender differences in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and symptom factors in the total U.S. active duty force. Data were drawn from the 2008 Department of Defense Survey of Health Related Behaviors among Active Duty Military Personnel including 17,939 men and 6,751 women from all services. The results indicated that women expressed more distress than men across almost all the symptoms on the PTSD Checklist except for hypervigilance. Women also scored significantly higher on all four factors examined: Re-experiencing, Avoidance, Emotionally Numb, Hyperarousal. More women than men were distressed by combat experiences that involved some type of violence, such as being wounded, witnessing or engaging in acts of cruelty, engaging in hand-to-hand combat, and, to a lesser extent, handling dead bodies. Men who had been sexually abused had a greater number of symptoms and were consistently more distressed than women on individual symptoms and symptom factors.
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Understanding associations among family support, friend support, and psychological distress
Briana Horwitz, Chandra Reynolds & Susan Charles, Personal Relationships, forthcoming
Abstract:
Emotional support from family and friends is associated with lower psychological distress. This study examined whether genetic and environmental influences explain associations among family support, friend support, and psychological distress. Data were drawn from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study and included 947 pairs of monozygotic (MZ), same-sex dizygotic (DZ), and opposite-sex DZ twins. Results showed that a genetic factor explains the relation between friend support and psychological distress, independent of family support. Alternatively, a nonshared environmental factor accounts for an association between family support, friend support, and psychological distress. Thus, heritable factors shape a distinct relation between friend support and psychological distress, but unique experiences contribute to a link between family support, friend support, and psychological distress.
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5-HTTLPR, Suicidal Behavior by Others, Depression, and Criminal Behavior During Adolescence
Stephen Watts, Journal of Adolescent Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Vicarious strains like suicidal behavior on the part of others have been shown to be predictive of both negative emotions and antisocial behavior during adolescence. Little research to date, however, has examined the role that biological factors play in moderating these relationships. Using a sample of adolescents drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (N = 7,995), and drawing on two separate, but related, theories, I explore whether the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) interacts with suicidal behavior by others to affect depression and self-reported crime. Results of ordinary least squares and negative binomial regressions reveal that suicide by others interacts with 5-HTTLPR to increase both depression and crime for males but not females, net of controls. Thus, 5-HTTLPR may be implicated in shaping negative emotions and antisocial behavior among males during adolescence by moderating the effects of suicide by others. Implications for theory are discussed.
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Melissa Cortina & Mina Fazel, The Arts in Psychotherapy, forthcoming
Abstract:
The Art Room is a targeted group intervention delivered in schools for students with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Since the start of the project, over 10,000 students have been through The Art Room intervention, which aims to address psychological difficulties that impede students' school experience. This paper reports on a quantitative evaluation of the impact of The Art Room on students' emotional and behavioural problems. Questionnaires on psychological functioning were administered before and after attending the intervention. Teachers completed the SDQ and children completed the sMFQ. Students showed a significant reduction in emotional and behavioural problems (teacher-reported SDQ scores) and clinical caseness. There was also a significant improvement in their mood and feelings (child-reported sMFQ), with an 87.5% improvement in those students who were depressed at baseline. The intervention is improving students' emotional and behavioural problems and promoting prosocial behaviour at school.
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Workplace problems, mental health and substance use
Johanna Catherine Maclean, Douglas Webber & Michael French, Applied Economics, Winter 2015, Pages 883-905
Abstract:
Little is known about how workplace problems may influence diagnosable mental health and substance use (MHSU) disorders. We examine the associations between three common workplace problems (experiencing problems with co-workers, job changes and perceived financial strain) and three MHSU disorders (mood, anxiety and substance abuse/dependence). The analysis utilizes longitudinal data on a sample of working-age adults from the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. These data are well suited for our research objective as the survey was specifically designed to study MHSU disorders. Results show that experiencing these workplace problems is associated with an increased risk for mental health disorders, but not substance use disorders. Importantly, various robustness checks and sensitivity analyses demonstrate that our findings cannot be not fully explained by omitted variables, reverse causality or sample attrition.
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When past meets present: The relationship between website-induced nostalgia and well-being
Cathy Cox et al., Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present research examined whether social media websites increase feelings of nostalgia, and whether this nostalgic reverie promotes psychological and social health. Specifically, in comparison to control conditions, participants exposed to the websites Dear Old Love and Dear Photograph reported greater feelings of nostalgia (Studies 1–3), positive affect (Studies 1 and 3), life satisfaction (Study 1), and relationship need satisfaction (Study 2). Further, mediational analyses revealed that increased thoughts of nostalgia heightened subjective well-being and social connectedness. Study 3 showed that the relationship between nostalgia and positive affect was specific to the Dear Photograph website and did not generalize to any website focused on close relationships. The implications of this research for nostalgia, internet use, and well-being are further discussed.
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Benzodiazepine Use in the United States
Mark Olfson, Marissa King & Michael Schoenbaum, JAMA Psychiatry, forthcoming
Objective: To describe benzodiazepine prescription patterns in the United States focusing on patient age and duration of use.
Design, Setting, and Participants: A retrospective descriptive analysis of benzodiazepine prescriptions was performed with the 2008 LifeLink LRx Longitudinal Prescription database (IMS Health Inc), which includes approximately 60% of all retail pharmacies in the United States. Denominators were adjusted to generalize estimates to the US population.
Results: In 2008, approximately 5.2% of US adults aged 18 to 80 years used benzodiazepines. The percentage who used benzodiazepines increased with age from 2.6% (18-35 years) to 5.4% (36-50 years) to 7.4% (51-64 years) to 8.7% (65-80 years). Benzodiazepine use was nearly twice as prevalent in women as men. The proportion of benzodiazepine use that was long term increased with age from 14.7% (18-35 years) to 31.4% (65-80 years), while the proportion that received a benzodiazepine prescription from a psychiatrist decreased with age from 15.0% (18-35 years) to 5.7% (65-80 years). In all age groups, roughly one-quarter of individuals receiving benzodiazepine involved long-acting benzodiazepine use.
Conclusions and Relevance: Despite cautions concerning risks associated with long-term benzodiazepine use, especially in older patients, long-term benzodiazepine use remains common in this age group. More vigorous clinical interventions supporting judicious benzodiazepine use may be needed to decrease rates of long-term benzodiazepine use in older adults.
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Lisa Starr et al., Development and Psychopathology, November 2014, Pages 1241-1254
Abstract:
Previous research supports gene–environment interactions for polymorphisms in the corticotropin hormone receptor 1 gene (CRHR1) and the serotonin transporter gene linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) in predicting depression, but it has rarely considered genetic influences on stress sensitization processes, whereby early adversities (EA) increase depressive reactivity to proximal stressors later in life. The current study tested a gene–environment–environment interaction (G × E × E; specifically, gene–EA–proximal stress interaction) model of depression in a 20-year longitudinal study. Participants were assessed prospectively for EA up to age 5 and recent chronic stress and depressive symptoms at age 20 and genotyped for CRHR1 single nucleotide polymorphism rs110402 and 5-HTTLPR. EA predicted stronger associations between recent chronic stress and depression, and the effect was moderated by genes. CRHR1 A alleles and 5-HTTLPR short alleles were associated with greater stress sensitization (i.e., greater depressive reactivity to chronic stress for those also exposed to high levels of EA). The results are consistent with the notion that EA exposure results in neurobiological and cognitive–emotional consequences (e.g., altered hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis functioning), leading to emotional distress in the face of recent stressors among those with certain genetic characteristics, although further research is needed to explore explanatory mechanisms.
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Feng Kong et al., Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although much attention has been directed towards life satisfaction that refers to an individual's general cognitive evaluations of his or her life as a whole, little is known about the neural basis underlying global life satisfaction. In the present study, we used voxel-based morphometry to investigate the structural neural correlates of life satisfaction in a large sample of young healthy adults (n = 299). We showed that individuals' life satisfaction was positively correlated with the regional gray matter volume (rGMV) in the right parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), and negatively correlated with the rGMV in the left precuneus and left ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). This pattern of results remained significant even after controlling for the effect of general positive and negative affect, suggesting a unique structural correlates of life satisfaction. Furthermore, we found that self-esteem partially mediated the association between the PHG volume and life satisfaction as well as that between the precuneus volume and global life satisfaction. Taken together, we provide the first evidence for the structural neural basis of life satisfaction, and highlight that self-esteem might play a crucial role in cultivating an individual's life satisfaction.
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fMRI feedback enhances emotion regulation as evidenced by a reduced amygdala response
Pegah Sarkheil et al., Behavioural Brain Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Deficits in emotion regulation are a prominent feature of psychiatric conditions and a promising target for treatment. For instance, cognitive reappraisal is regarded as an effective strategy for emotion regulation. Neurophysiological models have established the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) as a key structure in the regulation of emotion processing through modulations of emotion-eliciting structures such as the amygdala. Feedback of the LPFC activity by real-time functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) may thus enhance the efficacy of cognitive reappraisal. During cognitive reappraisal of aversive visual stimuli, LPFC activity was fed back to the experimental group, whereas control participants received no such information. As a result, during reappraisal, amygdala activity was lower in the experimental group than in the controls. Furthermore, an increase of inter-hemispheric functional connectivity emerged in the feedback group. The current study extends the neurofeedback literature by suggesting that fMRI feedback can modify brain activity during a given task.
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Uneasy Lies the Head that Bears the Trust: The Effects of Feeling Trusted on Emotional Exhaustion
Michael Baer et al., Academy of Management Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
The construct of feeling trusted reflects the perception that another party is willing to accept vulnerability to one's actions. Although the construct has received far less attention than trusting, the consensus is that believing their supervisors trust them has benefits for employees' job performance. Our study challenges that consensus by arguing that feeling trusted can be exhausting for employees. Drawing on conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 2001), we develop a model where feeling trusted fills an employee with pride — a benefit for exhaustion and performance — while also increasing perceived workload and concerns about reputation maintenance — burdens for exhaustion and performance. We tested our model in a field study using a sample of public transit bus drivers in the London, England. Our results suggest that feeling trusted is a double-edged sword for job performance, bringing with it both benefits and burdens. Given that recommendations for managers generally encourage placing trust in employees, these results have important practical implications.
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Personality and gene expression: Do individual differences exist in the leukocyte transcriptome?
Kavita Vedhara et al., Psychoneuroendocrinology, February 2015, Pages 72–82
Background: The temporal and situational stability of personality has led generations of researchers to hypothesise that personality may have enduring effects on health, but the biological mechanisms of such relationships remain poorly understood. In the present study, we utilized a functional genomics approach to examine the relationship between the 5 major dimensions of personality and patterns of gene expression as predicted by 'behavioural immune response' theory. We specifically focussed on two sets of genes previously linked to stress, threat, and adverse socio-environmental conditions: pro-inflammatory genes and genes involved in Type I interferon and antibody responses.
Methods: An opportunity sample of 121 healthy individuals was recruited (86 females; mean age 24 years). Individuals completed a validated measure of personality; questions relating to current health behaviours; and provided a 5 ml sample of peripheral blood for gene expression analysis.
Results: Extraversion was associated with increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes and Conscientiousness was associated with reduced expression of pro-inflammatory genes. Both associations were independent of health behaviours, negative affect, and leukocyte subset distributions. Antiviral and antibody-related gene expression was not associated with any personality dimension.
Conclusions: The present data shed new light on the long-observed epidemiological associations between personality, physical health, and human longevity. Further research is required to elucidate the biological mechanisms underlying these associations.