Pain in the mind: Neuroticism, defense mechanisms, and dreaming as indicators of hysterical conversion and dissociation.

This study examined the extent to which the intrinsic predispositions that modulate dream content serve as indicators of the hysterical tendency to conversion and dissociation. The Dream Themes Inventory, Dream Intensity Scale, Limbic System Checklist-33, Dissociative Experiences Scale, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised-Short Form, Boundary Questionnaire-18, and scales for evaluating defense mechanisms were administered to 585 Chinese participants. The findings indicate that the intensity of dream experiences and the narrative content of dreams are useful for identifying individuals with clinically significant hysterical symptoms. Hysterical dissociation is better predicted by the Ego Ideal, Appetite-Instinctual, and Sexual scales of the Dream Themes Inventory, whereas hysterical conversion is better indicated by the Persecution scale. This finding is discussed in relation to the neuropsychological mechanisms of dreaming and delusions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociation, forced normalization and dynamic multi-stability of the brain

Dissociated states represent pathological conditions where psychological trauma may emerge in a variety of forms such as psychic dissociative symptoms (hallucinations, derealization etc.) or on the other hand as somatoform symptoms (paroxysms, loss of motor control, involuntary movements etc.). Recent findings suggest that neurophysiological level of dissociative phenomena may be linked to the same neurophysiological principles that emerge in multi-stable perception of ambiguous stimuli likely caused by competing interpretations with mutual exclusivity. At this time there is evidence that temporal lobe seizure activity can produce dissociative syndrome and from these findings may be inferred that temporal lobe epileptic activity existing independently of neurological focal may share common neurobiological mechanism with dissociative symptoms. This conceptualization of dissociative phenomena is also in accordance with findings that originate from the study of the relationship between epilepsy and mental illness. The relationship was for the first time described in Meduna's concept of antagonism between epilepsy and psychosis and from the study of forced normalization introduced by Landolt in 1950s. The findings reported similar pathological conditions as in dissociative states when psychopathological symptoms and paroxysms may represent two different forms of the pathological process. Following the concept of forced normalization Tellenbach in 1965 introduced the term alternative psychosis implicating that stopping seizures does not mean vanishing or inactivity of the pathological state and that the epilepsy is still active subcortically and supplies energy for psychopathological symptoms. In the present review chaos in brain neural networks as a possible explanation of the relationship between dissociation and epileptic activity has been suggested that represents testable hypothesis for future research.     

Effect of the Interplay between Trauma Severity and Trait Neuroticism on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms among Adolescents Exposed to a Pipeline Explosion

Background

While numerous studies have explored relevant factors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, there have been few joint investigations of trauma severity and trait neuroticism on the development of PTSD symptoms. This study aims to assess the involvement and interrelationship of trauma severity and neuroticism in the expression of PTSD symptoms among adolescents exposed to an accidental explosion.

Methods

Six hundred and sixty-two adolescents were recruited from a junior middle school closest to the 2013 pipeline explosion site in China and were assessed using the Explosion Exposure Questionnaire, the NEO Five Factor Inventory-Neuroticism Subscale (FFI-N), and the PTSD Checklist-Civilian (PCL-C). A battery of hierarchical multiple regression analyses and two-way ANOVAs were performed to examine the effect of trauma severity and trait neuroticism on adolescent PTSD symptoms.

Results

Eighty-seven adolescents (13.1%) showed PTSD symptoms after the pipeline explosion. Correlation analysis showed that all the factors of explosion exposure and trait neuroticism were positively associated with adolescent PTSD symptoms. Being male and younger was linked to lower risk for PTSD symptoms. The regression models identified explosion exposure and neuroticism as independent risk factors for PTSD symptoms, and the interactions between trait neuroticism and trauma exposure (personal casualty, degree of influence, total traumatic severity) were related to PTSD symptoms.

Conclusions

The results highlight the role of trauma exposure and trait neuroticism as risk factors for PTSD symptoms. Therefore, the combination of these two factors should be investigated in clinical settings due to an augmented risk for more severe PTSD symptoms.     

Liraglutide Exerts Protective Effects by Downregulation of PPARγ, ACSL1 and SREBP-1c in Huh7 Cell Culture Models of Non-Alcoholic Steatosis and Drug-Induced Steatosis

(1) Background: With the aging of the population and polypharmacy encountered in the elderly, drug-induced steatosis (DIS) has become frequent cause of non-alcoholic steatosis (NAS). Indeed, NAS and DIS may co-exist, making the ability to distinguish between the entities ever more important. The aim of our study was to study cell culture models of NAS and DIS and determine the effects of liraglutide (LIRA) in those models. (2) Methods: Huh7 cells were treated with oleic acid (OA), or amiodarone (AMD) to establish models of NAS and DIS, respectively. Cells were treated with LIRA and cell viability was assessed by MTT, lipid accumulation by Oil-Red-O staining and triglyceride assay, and intracellular signals involved in hepatosteatosis were quantitated by RT-PCR. (3) Results: After exposure to various OA and AMD concentrations, those that achieved 80% of cells viabilities were used in further experiments to establish NAS and DIS models using 0.5 mM OA and 20 µM AMD, respectively. In both models, LIRA increased cell viability (p < 0.01). Lipid accumulation was increased in both models, with microsteatotic pattern in DIS, and macrosteatotic pattern in NAS which corresponds to greater triglyceride accumulation in latter. LIRA ameliorated these changes (p < 0.001), and downregulated expression of lipogenic ACSL1, PPARγ, and SREBP-1c pathways in the liver (p < 0.01) (4) Conclusions: LIRA ameliorates hepatocyte steatosis in Huh7 cell culture models of NAS and DIS.     

Personality and Dreaming: Boundary Structure and Dream Content

Prior studies indicate that a personality dimension reflecting thin versus thick boundaries is related to global ratings of dream vividness, amount of emotion, and amount of interaction. In the present study, these relationships were examined by relating scores from the Boundary Questionnaire ( Hartmann, 1991) to dream content among 80 patients seen at a sleep disorders center. Thinness of boundaries was significantly correlated with dream length, vividness, amount of detail, and amount of emotion, and showed a trend towards correlation with aggressive interaction and nightmare-likeness. When dream length was statistically controlled, the relationships between boundary structure and dream content were no longer statistically significant, although amount of emotion and amount of detail showed a trend in the original direction. A principal components analysis was used to identify three factors in the dream content data (eigenvalues > 1.0). The first factor involved dream length, vividness, detail, and emotion; the second involved love/tender interaction and sexual interaction; and the third involved aggressive interaction. Thinness of boundaries showed a significant correlation with only the first factor. We suggest that the trait continuum ranging from thick to thin boundaries is similar to the state continuum running from focused waking thought to dreaming, and that both continua refer to the same aspects of cortical activity.     

Affected by smells? Environmental chemical responsivity predicts odor perception

Strong negative reactions, physical symptoms, and behavioral disruptions due to environmental odors are common in the adult population. We investigated relationships among such environmental chemosensory responsivity (CR), personality traits, affective states, and odor perception. Study 1 showed that CR and neuroticism were positively correlated in a sample of young adults (n = 101), suggesting that persons high in neuroticism respond more negatively to environmental odors. Study 2 explored the relationships among CR, noise responsivity (NR), neuroticism, and odor perception (i.e., pleasantness and intensity) in a subset of participants (n = 40). High CR was associated with high NR. Regression analyses indicated that high CR predicted higher odor intensity ratings and low olfactory threshold (high sensitivity) predicted lower pleasantness ratings. However, neuroticism was not directly associated with odor ratings or thresholds. Overall, the results suggest that CR and odor thresholds predict perceptual ratings of odors and that high CR is associated with nonchemosensory affective traits.     

Dream Recall Frequency, Attitude Towards Dreams and Openness to Experience

The question whether personality dimensions explain the interindividual differences in dream recall frequency has often been investigated by dream researchers. The present findings confirm previous research which has shown that traits such as openness-to-experience and thin boundaries correlate substantially with dream recall frequency. However, correlation coefficients are small and are much larger if attitude towards dreams or a scale measuring different aspects of dream recall are considered. Thus, future studies should consider the differentiation between items measuring dream recall and related aspects and items measuring attitudes towards dreams. Schonbar's life-style hypothesis should be revised slightly: not dream recall frequency but attitude towards dreams and the way to deal with dreams are part of a broader life style.     

The role of mood congruency memory effects in dream recall: A pilot study.

A methodological issue in research relating daytime mood to dream content is the question of whether mood congruency effects—that is, recalling more negative events if the current mood is more negative—also play a role in the dream recall process. This study adopted an indirect approach by testing the hypothesis that interindividual differences in mood congruency effects in a memory task carried out in the daytime correlate with mood congruency effects in dream recall (recalling more negative dream emotions, as one would predict on the basis of the current stress level or overall mood state). The findings, however, did not support the hypothesis of mood congruency effects and, thus, rule out that the findings regarding the continuity hypothesis of dreaming are biased by selective recall. Studies with different methodological approaches are necessary to validate this study’s findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dream intensity scale: Factors in the phenomenological analysis of dreams.

The present study aimed to develop a comprehensive assessment tool for measuring subjective dream intensity by revising the original probes and response scales of the Dream Intensity Inventory and incorporating new variables. The factor analyses suggested that 18 items of the new instrument, Dream Intensity Scale, could form four scales and six subscales. The revision of the probes and response scales did not have major effects on the clustering of the indicator variables, which was highly consistent with the original three-factor measurement model. The alpha coefficients, interitem correlations, and item-scale correlations indicated a good internal consistency for the Dream Intensity Scale. Moreover, the convergent and discriminant concurrent validity of the Dream Intensity Scale and the clinical utility of its scale and subscale scores were substantiated by their selective correlations with neuroticism and extraversion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Meteorite or gemstone? Dreaming as one end of a continuum of functioning: Implications for research and for the use of dreams in therapy and self-knowledge.

Is a dream a meteorite—a bit of material arriving from a distant place that needs to be carefully analyzed to give us knowledge about that place (outside or inside us)? Is it a strange text which has come to us in a foreign language, that needs to be translated into our own? This “meteorite view” is held by some religious and spiritual persons, by many orthodox psychoanalysts and other therapists, and implicitly by many researchers. They all see the dream as something alien, something totally different from our ordinary mental functioning. This paper presents a great deal of research favoring an alternate view—that the dream is an earth-stone, not an alien stone. It may be impressive and beautiful (gemstone), but it's still an earth-stone. The dream is part of our mental functioning. It is one end of a continuum, running from focused waking thought, through looser thought, fantasy, daydreaming, reverie and dreaming. We review reasons why dreams are often considered “totally different”: they're perceptual, not conceptual; they're bizarre; they are “so real”; they're so easily forgotten; they're involuntary; they occur in REM sleep—a totally different state. We demonstrate that none of these reasons are persuasive. In each sense, there is overlap between dreams and other forms of functioning. The continuum view leads to different kinds of research and a different style of dreamwork. It also helps answer questions the field has long struggled with including: Should we study “a dream” or “dreaming”? Are dreams meaningful or meaningless? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The dreams of women with and without severe emotional behavioral premenstrual symptoms.

Women with severe premenstrual symptoms, who tend to have more mood changes during the late luteal phase of their cycle than do women with few or no symptoms, often complain of having unpleasant dreams. This study examined whether these women experienced more intense negative dream emotions during the late luteal phase of their cycle compared with women with minimal symptoms. It also examined whether there was a relationship between presleep mood and dream affect. Seventeen women participated in the study (9 with severe symptoms, 8 with minimal symptoms). Analyses of variance revealed an increase in negative dream affect and misfortunes during the late luteal phase (p     

Prevalence and diagnosis of depression in frail nursing home patients; a pilot study

The prevalence and recognition of depression among physically frail patients living in an urban Dutch nursing home were estimated. To patients with Mini-Mental-Status-Examination (MMSE) scores of 15 or above, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was administered (N = 80). With this screen clinically relevant depressive symptoms can be established. For diagnosing major depression according to the DSM-IV criteria, the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) (N = 57) was administered using a MMSE cut-off of 20. 49% of the respondents showed a score above the GDS cut-off (> 11), which means having clinically relevant depressive symptoms. 16% met the criteria for major depression according to DIS. Nursing home physicians recognized 39% of the patients with clinically relevant depressive symptoms and 67% of those with a major depression. Nurses recognized depressive patients slightly better but they were less specific in their judgement (more false-positive rates). We also found that in situations in which physicians and nurses had the same opinion the recognition of depression improved. Therefore it is recommended that physicians and nurses exchange their judgements on patients' mood on a regular basis.     

Mechanism of nucleocapsid protein catalyzed structural isomerization of the dimerization initiation site of HIV-1

Dimerization of two homologous strands of genomic RNA is an essential feature of retroviral replication. In the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), a conserved stem-loop sequence, the dimerization initiation site (DIS), has been identified as the domain primarily responsible for initiation of this aspect of viral assembly. The DIS loop contains an autocomplementary hexanucleotide sequence flanked by highly conserved 5' and 3' purines and can form a homodimer through a loop-loop kissing interaction. In a structural rearrangement activated by the HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein (NCp7) and considered to be associated with viral particle maturation, the DIS dimer converts from an intermediate kissing to an extended duplex isoform. Using 2-aminopurine (2-AP) labeled sequences derived from the DIS(Mal) variant and fluorescence methods, the two DIS dimer isoforms have been unambiguously distinguished, allowing a detailed examination of the kinetics of this RNA structural isomerization and a characterization of the role of NCp7 in the reaction. In the presence of divalent cations, the DIS kissing dimer is found to be kinetically trapped and converts to the extended duplex isoform only upon addition of NCp7. NCp7 is demonstrated to act catalytically in inducing the structural isomerization by accelerating the rate of strand exchange between the two hairpin stem helices, without disruption of the loop-loop helix. Observation of an apparent maximum conversion rate for NCp7-activated DIS isomerization, however, requires protein concentrations in excess of the 2:1 stoichiometry estimated for high-affinity NCp7 binding to the DIS kissing dimer, indicating that transient interactions with additional NCp7(s) may be required for catalysis.     

Sexual dysfunction among middle aged women in the community

In a community survey of women aged 35-59 sexual functioning was studied in the 436 women with partners. One third of these women had operationally defined sexual dysfunction: impaired sexual interest was identified in 17% of women (68/406), vaginal dryness in 17% (73/434), infrequency of orgasm in 16% (60/379), and dyspareunia in 8% (30/379). Sexual dysfunctions were statistically significantly associated with increasing age and also with psychiatric disorder, neuroticism, and marital disharmony. One in 10 women regarded themselves as having a sexual problem. These women were no older than women with sexual dysfunction who did not regard themselves as having a sexual problem. Nevertheless, they differed from the rest of the sample in having more psychiatric disorder, neuroticism, marital disharmony, and (in women still menstruating) psychological symptoms of the premenstrual syndrome. In the whole sample 16 women (4%) said that they would like help for a sexual problem.The prevalence of sexual dysfunction in this series of women suggests that general practitioners should increase their alertness to the problem in their patients.     

L’intersubjectif et l’intrasubjectif dans l’expérience de souffrance. Un regard psychanalytique

Psychoanalysis characterises subjectivity as a notion based on the “plurality of psychologically troubled persons”, revealed, for instance, in dreams. The author takes a closer look at a number of Freud’s dream analyses and argues that, in working with the dream, subjects often eject one of their psychologically troubled persons (often the “suffering child”) out of themselves, projecting the person into the Other. As a result, an intersubjective space is created, which is required to receive the divisions originating from the intrasubjective space. Freud’s 1895 Project, however, goes farther: the evacuation of the “disparate part” of the child to the Other grants access to logical and rational judgement, guaranteeing a child’s psychological life a fictional stability (the “Thing” or the “ego”). Freud adds that this process is possible if a Nebenmensch — or “fellow creature” — is present and has the quality of a “helping person” capable of receiving the child’s suffering cry. These two lines of thought, together, help clarify the intersubjective position underlying the analytical work: a tentative encounter between the patient’s distress and the analyst’s presence. Free-floating attention will enable the analyst to receive and hear this distress and ease the patient’s recovery of his or her intrasubjective space.     

Personality and Dream Recall Frequency: Further Negative Findings

On the basis of previous findings of dream recall frequency being associated with thin boundariness and sensitivity we assessed the association between DRF and variables that appear related to these two measures. Data from 93 participants (47 males, 46 females, mean age 21.3 yrs., SD = 3.5) show that dream recall frequency (DRF) correlates marginally with neuroticism (r = .20) and interrogative suggestibility (r = .21), the latter result indicating that DRF obtained by questionnaire may be subject to demand bias. DRF had very low correlations with various other personality variables (need for cognition, personal locus of control, hypochondriasis, morningness-eveningness), and with narrative memory, confabulation of narrative memory, and habitual sleep length. DRF correlated positively with POMS elated (-depressed) for males (r = .31) but negatively for females (r = –.19), this significant difference in correlations may be due to sex differences in DRF in response to stress. The frequent findings of small or nonsignificant correlations between DRF and personality are discussed in terms of similar low correlations in personality psychology, but we conclude that DRF is usually sampled adequately, and that the results of no simple relationship with personality (except boundariness, creativity, and positive attitude towards dreams) are therefore robust and may indicate that dream recall is mainly determined physiologically.     

Confirming the factor structure of the dream intensity inventory.

This study’s primary purpose was to examine the overall quality of the factorial structure of the Dream Intensity Inventory (DII). It was hypothesized that dream intensity was a multifaceted construct that could be accounted for by 3 latent factors, namely Dream Quantity, Dream Vividness, and Altered Dream Episodes. The 1st-order oblique, 1st-order orthogonal, and 2nd-order models, which represented 3 possible versions of the structural relations among the 3 latent factors, were subjected to the confirmatory statistical procedures. The goodness-of-fit indices indicated that the 2nd-order model and the 1st-order model hypothesizing 3 oblique factors were superior to that hypothesizing 3 orthogonal factors. The factorial characteristics of the two well-fitting DII models were shown to be equivalent across 2 samples. These results suggest that the theoretical construct of dream intensity can be pertinently described by the 3-factor measurement model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“Gender, sex role orientation and dream recall frequency”: Correction.

Reports an error in "Gender, sex role orientation, and dream recall frequency" by Michael Schredl and Olaf Lahl (Dreaming, 2010[Mar], Vol 20[1], 19-24). In the article, a third author was not listed in the byline and some acknowledgment information was also missing: Third Co-Author: Anja S. G?ritz, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany. The name appears in this record. Additional Acknowledgment: We thank the operators of the sites www.panopia.de, www.yougov.de, and www.studivz.net for providing participants. This work was in part supported by DFG grant GO 1107/4-1 to G?ritz. The online version of the article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-05656-002.) Recently, a large meta-analysis showed that women tend to recall their dreams more often than men. Despite this robust finding, studies focused on explaining the gender difference in dream recall frequency are scarce. The present findings of an online survey indicate that sex role orientation—expressivity/femininity—was related to dream recall frequency but did not fully explain the gender difference in dream recall frequency. Future studies should investigate other variables—in addition to sex role orientation—like verbal memory, recall of emotional experiences, and/or frequency of talking about emotional matters that might play a role in explaining the gender difference in dream recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxious or Depressed and Still Happy?

This study aimed to examine cross-sectionally to what extent persons with higher symptom levels or a current or past emotional disorder report to be less happy than controls and to assess prospectively whether time-lagged measurements of extraversion and neuroticism predict future happiness independent of time-lagged measurements of emotional disorders or symptom severity. A sample of 2142 adults aged 18–65, consisting of healthy controls and persons with current or past emotional disorder according to DSM-IV criteria completed self-ratings for happiness and emotional well-being and symptom severity. Lagged measurements of personality, symptom severity and presence of anxiety and depressive disorder at T0 (year 0), T2 (year 2) and T4 (year 4) were used to predict happiness and emotional well-being at T6 (year 6) controlling for demographics. In particular persons with more depressive symptoms, major depressive disorder, social anxiety disorder and comorbid emotional disorders reported lower levels of happiness and emotional well-being. Depression symptom severity and to a lesser extent depressive disorder predicted future happiness and emotional well-being at T6. Extraversion and to a lesser extent neuroticism also consistently forecasted future happiness and emotional well-being independent of concurrent lagged measurements of emotional disorders and symptoms. A study limitation is that we only measured happiness and emotional well-being at T6 and our measures were confined to hedonistic well-being and did not include psychological and social well-being. In sum, consistent with the two continua model of emotional well-being and mental illness, a ‘happy’ personality characterized by high extraversion and to a lesser extent low neuroticism forecasts future happiness and emotional well-being independent of concurrently measured emotional disorders or symptom severity levels. Boosting positive emotionality may be an important treatment goal for persons personally inclined to lower levels of happiness.