A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of placebo manipulations in alcohol-challenge studies.

Our meta-analysis examined the impact of specific alcohol placebo procedures on two manipulation checks (participant reports of number of alcohol drinks consumed and subjective intoxication) to determine which procedures produced the smallest effect sizes in comparisons between alcohol and placebo conditions. Databases for the years 1990-2007 yielded 44 studies that met inclusion criteria. These were subjected to detailed coding of procedures pertinent to placebo effectiveness.

Effect of alcohol on race-biased responding: the moderating role of internal and external motivations to respond without prejudice.

Objective: This experiment was a systematic examination of how drinking, available response time, and levels of internal and external motivations to respond without prejudice interact to affect responses in a behavioral assessment of the race bias of social drinkers.

Method: Ninety-one white undergraduate social drinkers (45 women) were randomly assigned within gender to alcohol (expect alcohol/receive alcohol), placebo (expect alcohol/receive placebo), or simple no-alcohol control (expect no alcohol/receive no alcohol) conditions. Participants then performed a sequential priming task, the Weapons Identification Task, designed to assess race-biased responding, under nonspeeded (2,000 ms) or speeded (500 ms) instructional sets.

Competencies for infant mental health therapists: A survey of expert opinion.

We report on data provided by a nationwide panel of 23 infant mental health (IMH) experts who provided numerical ratings of the relative importance of 143 competencies desirable for licensed mental health therapists working with infants/children birth to 5 years of age and their families/caregivers. The competencies were developed based on prior state and national efforts and our own experience in training IMH therapists. The competencies were grouped conceptually into seven areas: (a) Normal infant and toddler development; (b) Atypical development (perturbations in development); (c) Emotional/behavioral disorders in infants and young children; (d) Assessment; (e) Intervention; (f) Community resources and referrals; and (g) Organization, communication, and collaboration.

Intoxication level and emotional response.

We used affective modulation of the eye-blink component of the startle reflex to examine effects of three levels of alcohol intoxication and a no-intoxication control on emotional responses to pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures. Non-problematic student drinkers (n=101; 48 female) were randomly assigned to intoxication groups. Normal inhibition of startle during exposure to pleasant pictures was intact across groups.

MMPI-2 F scale as a predictor of acute versus chronic disorder classification.

This study examined the relation between elevation of the infrequency (F) scale on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and the classification of psychological disorders as chronic or acute in an outpatient mental health setting. MMPI-2 and clinician rating data at time of intake were considered for 158 adult patients from an outpatient clinic. The results indicate that elevation on the F scale is associated with more chronic disorders even after the influence of other variables, such as age and comorbidity of other disorders, is statistically accounted for These results are discussed in terms of the utility and incremental validity of including the F scale as part of diagnostic screening.