Development and evaluation of a placebo for studies of operant behavioral intervention

The role of credible placebo conditions in operant intervention research is reviewed. Three studies are presented which were designed to help develop such a placebo condition and then to evaluate its credibility. The results of the studies underscore the necessity for evaluating a placebo condition before employing it in the actual intervention study. Data are offered suggesting that a credible placebo for behavioral treatment of hyperactive children can be developed for use in teacher consultation studies. The data also suggest, however, that credibility ratings are influenced by the manner in which the evaluations are undertaken. The nature of the concept of credibility is also briefly discussed.     

Cardiovascular consequences of expressing anger in a mutually-dependent relationship

Twenty males were harrassed by a confederate of the experimenters while solving anagrams. Following this experience they played a mixed-motive, interpersonal game with the confederate. In comparison with non-harrassed controls the harrassed subjects expressed more anger at the end of the task. While solving anagrams they also exhibited greater increases in systolic blood pressure and heart rate and greater decreases in finger pulse amplitude and pulse wave transit time. The post- harrassment adjustment of cardiovascular behavior during the interpersonal games was contingent upon the subject's aggression guilt, level of exploitativeness, and uncertainty concerning the consequences of exploiting the confederate. The greater the subject's aggression guilt the less anger he expressed at the end of the anagrams task and the less he exploited the confederate. The more a subject exploited the confederate the lower his diastolic blood pressure at the end of the game. The greater the uncertainty of consequences of behavior the faster the transmission of pulses and the smaller the drop in blood pressure during the game. The potential utility of interpersonal games for studying behavioral and biological adjustments during post-anger interpersonal transactions in a mutually-dependent relationship is illustrated.     

Patterns of illness behaviour in patients with intractable pain.

A 52 item self-administered questionnaire was constructed to assess illness behaviour. It was administered to 100 patients referred for the management of pain that had not responded adequately to conventional treatment. Responses were factor analysed using principal component analysis and rotated to orthogonal structure. Seven meaningful factors accounting for 63·3% of the the variance were extracted and labelled as follows: general hypochondriacal factor, disease conviction factor, psychological vs somatic factor, affective inhibition factor, affective disturbance factor, denial factor and irritability factor. The significance of these dimensions of illness behaviour was discussed.     

Outcome of psychiatric consultation in a Dutch university hospital

Concordance by treating physicians with the recommendations of consultation psychiatrists was examined in this retrospective study, using specific outcome criteria. Recommendations for use of psychotropics were accepted in 80% (72 of 90) of the consultations involving prescribing advice. Diagnosis and other nondrug advice presented by the psychiatrist were embodied in the treating physician's discharge summary 49% of the time (114 of 233 summaries). Similarities and differences with related recent American studies are discussed.     

Relationship between obsessional personality traits,neuroticism and extraversion in normal subjects

On the basis of the available literature, the relationships between obsessional personality traits, neuroticism, and extraversion are unclear. Two studies on recovered depressed patients yielded conflicting results.^1,2 In our present study we attempted to investigate this issue by using a large group of normal individuals.     

Depression in young women who have attempted suicide. An international replication study

In accord with a recent Australian study, a greater proportion of young women who attempted suicide in 4 centres in Australia, Canada and New Zealand were designated as manifesting a depressive syndrome by a depression questionnaire than would have been anticipated on the basis of previous clinical reports. Furthermore, on the basis of a decision-rule applied to the questionnaire responses, one-third of subjects in each centre were allocated to the "endogenous' category of depression.     

Anxious depressions. Clinical, family history, and naturalistic outcome--comparisons with panic and major depressive disorders

Patients with anxiety and depressive states were divided into 4 groups: those with panic attacks only, those with panic disorder and secondary depression, those with depression and secondary panic attacks, and those with depression only. Clinical and familial differences between the groups are described. Patients with both depression and panic attacks had the poorest outcome, and were most likely to be chronically depressed.