Publications by authors named "Human-F Unterrainer"

Theory of mind (ToM) deficits, difficulties in recognizing the intentions, propensities, and beliefs of others have been shown in individuals with bipolar disorder in several studies; however, it is not yet elucidated how ToM abilities changes over the course of bipolar disorder and is related to illness symptoms. This is one of the first longitudinal studies to compare the ToM abilities of euthymic bipolar individuals and healthy controls over a four and a half years period. ToM abilities were measured using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study focuses on developing a standardized self-report measurement for the LUST (L) dimension of emotion traits, which assesses sexual desire and satisfaction, an area largely neglected in previous research.
  • Two versions of the L-scales (L-12 and L-5) were created from an initial survey of 20 items, tested for reliability and validity using samples of German-speaking adults.
  • Findings revealed high internal consistency for the L-12 scale and acceptable reliability for the L-5 scale, with both models demonstrating good fit and meaningful correlations with other emotional and personality measures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although the term "mental pain" is often the subject of expert opinions regarding claims for damages, there is still no standardized questionnaire in the German-speaking area to operationalize this concept. Therefore, the aim of this work is the development and validation of a self-assessment measurement for psychological pain after traumatic events (FESSTE). = = .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The MI-RSWB 48 was created to assess the role of religious and spiritual well-being in psychological health, with a shorter version, MI-RSWB 12, developed for clinical use.
  • A study involving 1,097 German-speaking adults tested five different structural models of the MI-RSWB 12 to evaluate its validity.
  • The results indicated that the four-factor model was the best fit, suggesting that future assessments should include these sub-scales, alongside a general factor for broader analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Substance use disorders (SUDs) have been described as a dysfunctional way to compensate for deficiencies in that person's underlying attachment system. Furthermore, the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), which is a critical component of the neurobiology of the attachment system, has been shown to effectively reduce addictive behavior and therefore has been discussed as a potential medication in SUD treatment. This study investigates variation in peripheral OT plasma levels as a function of exposure to an attachment-related stimulus in SUD patients compared to healthy controls (HCs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The evolution of the contemporary Therapeutic Community (TC) for addictions over the past 50 years may be characterized as a movement from the marginal to the mainstream of substance abuse treatment and human services. TCs currently serve a wide array of clients and their diverse problems; through advances in research in treatment outcomes, the composition of staff has been reshaped, the duration of residential treatment has been reduced, the treatment goals have been reset and, to a considerable extent, the approach of therapy itself has been modified. An overview of the TC as a distinct social-psychological method for treating addiction and related disorders is provided by this paper.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Supervision is an essential part of the training and work environment of health professionals, especially of psychotherapists and clinical/health psychologists. However, although the supervisory process is always a relational one and may therefore be influenced by attachment dynamics, the importance of the supervisory relationship for the professional's performance and the well-being of the supervisee has yet to be fully examined. In this cross-sectional observational study, the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-RD; avoidant and anxious attachment), the Supervisory Relationship Questionnaire (SRQ), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-13) were analysed for 346 (81.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: While traditional psychoanalysis has been criticized as insufficient for the treatment of substance use disorder (SUD), recent progress in the field of neuropsychoanalysis has generated new and promising hypotheses regarding its etiology. However, empirical research applying this framework has been sparse.

Aim And Scope: The present overview aims at developing and empirically validating a neuroscientifically informed psychodynamic framework regarding the etiology of SUD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Attachment and spirituality are thought to have deep evolutionary roots but are always interpreted within the framework of culture, religion and personal beliefs. While insecure attachment has been observed to be positively related with psychopathology, a positive mental health effect has often been described for spirituality. To examine the cross-cultural validation of previous research focused on Austrian young adults with Western socialization, we attempt to replicate our study examining the influence spirituality has on the connection between insecure attachment and mood-related psychiatric burden with Indian young adults.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Attachment refers to a psychobiological principle that is deeply rooted in evolutionary development; it is thought to contribute a major advantage in the survival of the social group. Within individual development it indicates a primary motivational system that guides the initial transactions between mother and baby and furthermore mediates affective attunement and regulation. Psychosocial learning, in close interaction with genetics and epigenetics, also develops a decisive foundation for further brain development of the infant.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Substance use disorders (SUDs) involve compulsive consumption linked to changes in brain structure, prompting a study comparing poly-drug use disordered (PUD) patients to healthy controls.
  • Significant impairments in white matter (WM) were found in PUD patients, particularly in areas associated with motor and cognitive functions, while no differences were noted in gray matter (GM).
  • PUD patients also exhibited more psychiatric symptoms and cognitive impairments, suggesting a need for neurologically informed treatment approaches and further exploration of neuroplasticity for better recovery outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Current literature suggests a tenuous link among childhood trauma, personality organization, adult attachment, and emotional functioning in various psychiatric disorders. However, empirical research focusing on the interaction of these concepts is sparse. Therefore, this study intends to investigate the influence of personality organization and attachment dimensions on the relationship between childhood maltreatment and emotional functioning in adult life.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Research involving animal models has repeatedly proposed dysregulations in subcortically rooted affective systems as a crucial etiological factor in the development of a variety of psychiatric disorders. However, empirical studies with human participants testing these hypotheses have been sparse. Associations between primary emotions systems and different psychiatric symptoms were investigated in order to gain insights into the influence of evolutionary-rooted primary emotions on psychopathology.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Ambulance personnel, as well as other emergency services like fire-fighters or the police force, are regularly confronted with experiences of extreme psychological distress and potentially traumatizing events in the line of their daily duties. As a consequence, this occupational group is exposed to an elevated risk of developing symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSS). Subsequently, symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress have been observed as potentially co-occurring with Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) in ambulance personnel as well.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There is substantial evidence that traumatic experiences in childhood increase the likelihood of mood pathology and addictive behaviors in adolescence and young adulthood. Furthermore, both forms of psychopathology have been linked to deficiencies in personality organization and a common primary emotion core. In this study, we intended to further investigate these interactions by assuming a mediating role of personality organization and despair regarding the relationship between childhood trauma and psychiatric symptom burden later in life.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The study of human emotions and personality provides valuable insights into the parameters of mental health and well-being. Affective neuroscience proposes that several levels of emotions - ranging from primary ones such as LUST or FEAR up to higher emotions such as spirituality - interact on a neural level. The present study aimed to further explore this theory.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study evaluated the effects of alpha/theta neurofeedback on Clinical Personality Accentuations in individuals with alcohol use disorder. Twenty-five males were investigated using a pre-test/post-test design with a waiting-list control group. Participants were randomly assigned either to an experimental group ( = 13) receiving 12 sessions of neurofeedback twice a week as a treatment adjunct over a period of 6 weeks, or to a control group ( = 12) receiving treatment as usual.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapeutic method that has been shown to be especially effective in traumatic disorders. Since the concept of an addiction memory has become widely accepted, the use of EMDR also in substance use disorders (SUD) treatment might count as a separate field. This review summarizes the current state of research on treatment effects EMDR in SUD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Traditionally, in attachment theory, secure attachment has been linked to parameters of mental health, while insecure attachment has been associated with parameters of psychopathology. Furthermore, spirituality and attachment to God have been discussed as corresponding to, or compensating for, primary attachment experiences. Accordingly, they may contribute to mental health or to mental illness.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The internet has become essential in our daily lives, leading to growing concerns about excessive use resembling addictions, but there's a lack of consensus on how to diagnose it.
  • Different studies use varying diagnostic criteria and assessment tools, causing significant discrepancies in reported prevalence rates of problematic internet use (PIN).
  • This article reviews existing diagnostic criteria, prevalence rates of PIN, and explores associated risk factors, including sociodemographic, psychiatric, and personality traits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The excessive and repetitive use of the internet is raising alarms as a public health issue, with challenges in diagnosing internet addiction.
  • Research indicates that the neurobiological mechanisms of internet addiction closely mirror those found in substance abuse and other behavioral addictions.
  • Current studies highlight prefrontal cortex dysfunction and dopamine issues linked to internet addiction, but the lack of well-designed treatment studies makes it difficult to recommend effective interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the effectiveness of alpha/theta neurofeedback (NF) using a new visual method in 25 patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) at a rehabilitation center in Austria.
  • Participants were split into an experimental group (EG) receiving NF training and a control group (CG) with no extra intervention, with both groups undergoing standard treatment.
  • The results indicated improvements in brain activity control for the EG group and some positive changes in clinical measures like depression and coping, supporting the potential of visual NF as a beneficial addition to traditional therapy for AUD patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In recent years positive effects of Yoga (as a kind of spiritual exercise) in regards to subjective well-being and physical health can be found as well documented in the literature.

Method: Based on a construct-psychological approach a newly developed scale for the assessment of Yoga involvement (immersion) was validated on a sample of 233 non-clinical subjects (210 females) by means of socio-demographic and well established psychometric parameters of psychological well-being and psychiatric symptoms. Furthermore, the group of yoga practitioners was compared with a control group consisting of 93 gymnastics practitioners (83 women) with respect to these parameters.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionu1r8uql8rhjljova7fo1u6ocb7tst4mm): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once