Implicit and explicit memory for trauma-related information in PTSD.

Experiments on content-dependent memory abnormalities in PTSD suggest several conclusions. First, PTSD patients exhibit enhanced recall of words related to trauma relative to trauma-exposed persons with the disorder. Recognition tests, however, appear insensitive to these effects.

Selective encoding of threat in panic disorder: application of a dual priming paradigm.

Patients with panic disorder and psychiatrically healthy control subjects performed a dual priming task whereby they viewed either lexical or non-lexical prime pairs before naming a target that had either threatening (e.g. collapse) or positive (e.

Visual imagery and perception in posttraumatic stress disorder. A positron emission tomographic investigation.

Background: Relative regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) changes were measured in Vietnam combat veterans with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during exposure to combat-related stimuli.

Methods: Positron emission tomography was used to measure rCBF in 7 combat veterans with PTSD (PTSD group) and 7 healthy combat veterans (control group) who viewed and generated visual mental images of neutral, negative, and combat-related pictures.

Results: Unlike control subjects, subjects with PTSD had increased rCBF in ventral anterior cingulate gyrus and right amygdala when generating mental images of combat-related pictures; when viewing combat pictures, subjects with PTSD showed decreased rCBF in Broca's area.

A comparison of three methods of analysis for age-period-cohort models with application to incidence data on non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Background: Various methods of analysis have been used to study age-period-cohort models. The main aim of this paper is to illustrate and compare three such methods. Those of Clayton and Schifflers, Robertson and Boyle, and De Carli and La Vecchia.

Autobiographical memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (N = 36) and healthy controls (N = 24) participated in an autobiographical memory experiment in which they were asked to retrieve specific personal memories in response to cue words having either positive (e.g. happy) or negative (e.

Regulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase messenger RNA expression and nitric oxide production by lipopolysaccharide in vivo: the roles of macrophages, endogenous IFN-gamma, and TNF receptor-1-mediated signaling.

To evaluate potential roles for macrophages, IFN-gamma, and TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1) in the regulation of LPS-induced inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA expression, we used a model of macrophage depletion as well as IFN-gamma (GKO) and TNFR1 (TNFR1 -/-) knockout mice. LPS-induced iNOS mRNA in spleen was ablated in both macrophage-depleted and GKO mice. In livers of macrophage-depleted mice, LPS-induced iNOS mRNA was reduced by 55 to 85%, with the most profound reductions detected 6 and 8 h after LPS injection.

Changing trends in the incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Europe. Biomed Study Group.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is not a uniform disease entity, and in order to investigate the reported changes in incidence we have set up a study in seven population-based cancer registries in Europe. The study is designed to look at changes in the incidence of total NHL and disease subgroups using standard definitions and methodology. The registries are based in Leeds, Dijon, Kuopio, Odense, Florence, Eindhoven, and Ragussa.

Seeking the source of emotional Stroop interference effects in PTSD: a study of P3s to traumatic words.

We investigated the source of emotional Stroop interference effects in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by measuring reaction times and P3 latencies and amplitudes to personal traumatic, personal positive, and neutral words in a modified Stroop paradigm. Individuals with PTSD were slower to indicate word color, especially for traumatic words, thereby replicating emotional Stroop interference in PTSD. Individuals with PTSD also had significantly reduced and delayed P3 components across word types.

Suppression of the emotional Stroop effect by increased anxiety in patients with social phobia.

Anxious individuals are slower at color-naming threat-related than nonthreat-related words in the emotional Stroop task. Recently, Mathews and Sebastian (1993, Cognition and Emotion, 7, 527-530) reported that this Stroop interference effect disappears when snake-fearful students are exposed to a snake while performing the color-naming task. In the present experiment, we had patients with social phobia and normal control subjects perform an emotional Stroop task under either low anxiety (i.

Directed forgetting in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

We tested whether patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are characterized by dysfunction in the ability to forget disturbing material. Employing a directed forgetting procedure, we presented OCD patients and healthy control subjects with a series of negative, positive, and neutral words, and instructed them either to remember or to forget each item after it was presented. Subjects received free recall and recognition tests for all words, regardless of instructions.

Anxiety sensitivity, suffocation fear, trait anxiety, and breath-holding duration as predictors of response to carbon dioxide challenge.

We investigated predictors of response to carbon dioxide challenge (i.e. breathing deeply and rapidly into a paper bag for 5 min) in college students.

A case of acute myelofibrosis with complex karyotypic changes: a type of myelodysplastic syndrome.

A 73-year-old woman developed a rapidly fatal disease that fit the clinical criteria for acute myelofibrosis. Over a 9 month period she progressed from normal peripheral blood counts to severe pancytopenia and finally a terminal phase with monocytosis and circulating myeloblasts. Morphologic examination of her bone marrow at presentation showed trilineage dysplasia, hypercellularity, and diffuse fibrosis with foci of immature precursors.

Stimulation of the ceramide pathway partially mimics lipopolysaccharide-induced responses in murine peritoneal macrophages.

Recent studies have suggested that lipolysaccharide (LPS) stimulates cells by mimicking the second-messenger function of ceramide, a lipid generated in the cell by the action of sphingomyelinase (SMase). To examine this possibility further, we compared the abilities of LPS, SMase, and/or ceramide analogs to induce cytokine secretion, modulate gene expression, and induce endotoxin tolerance in macrophages. SMase and LPS induced secretion of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) to comparable degrees; however, unlike LPS, SMase failed to stimulate detectable interferon activity.

Neural effects of visualizing and perceiving aversive stimuli: a PET investigation.

Cerebral blood flow was recorded (using positron emission tomography) while middle-aged subjects viewed or visualized pictures of neutral or aversive stimuli, and then determined whether auditorily presented statements correctly described the stimuli. Visualizing aversive stimuli enhanced cerebral blood flow, relative to visualizing neutral stimuli, in areas 17 (right) and 18 (bilateral), as well as the anterior insula (bilateral) and middle frontal cortex (left). Areas 17 and 18 have been identified as supporting the representations that underlie the experience of imagery, and the anterior insula is a major cortical recipient of input from the autonomic nervous system.

The incidence and distribution of leukaemia and lymphoma within Northern Ireland in the period 1989-1993.

This is the first attempt to systematically record haematological malignancies in Northern Ireland. The methods are identical to a similar effort in other parts of the UK, except that an independent cross check with a cancer registry source was not possible. In addition problems with the census may create differences.

Validation of the spanish version of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index in a clinical sample.

In this study we validated the Spanish version of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) in a sample of anxiety disordered patients. The results revealed that: (1) ASI scores were higher for anxiety disordered patients than for normal control subjects, and higher for patients with panic disorder (PD) than for patients with other anxiety disorders (OAD). In contrast, there were no differences among the groups on the Cognitive-Somatic Anxiety Questionnaire (CSAQ).

Methodological controversies in the treatment of panic disorder.

Although the National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference on the Treatment of Panic Disorder endorsed the effectiveness of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT), D. F. Klein (1996) argues that fatal flaws in all but one (negative) CBT study undermine claims about the effectiveness of CBT for panic disorder.

Implicit memory bias for threat in panic disorder: application of the 'white noise' paradigm.

We employed Jacoby's white noise paradigm to investigate implicit memory bias for threat in panic disorder and in normal control subjects. Subjects heard a series of neutral sentences (e.g.

Anxiety sensitivity, suffocation fear, and breath-holding duration as predictors of response to carbon dioxide challenge.

Predictors of response to carbon dioxide challenge (i.e., breathing deeply and rapidly into a paper bag for 5 min) were evaluated in 78 college students.

Trichotillomania and self-esteem: a survey of 62 female hair pullers.

Background: The psychological features of trichotillomania have received little empirical attention, despite the fact that sufferers commonly report negative self-image to be one of the most disturbing aspects of the disorder. We conducted the current study to identify specific factors that predict self-esteem problems in hair pullers.

Method: Sixty-two women with trichotillomania or repetitive hair pulling completed self-report forms assessing factors possibly related to self-esteem in hair pullers.

Automaticity and the anxiety disorders.

Experimental psychopathologists have increasingly relied upon the concepts and methods of cognitive psychology in their attempts to elucidate information-processing biases associated with anxiety disorders. Many of these biases presumably constitute instances of automatic, not strategic, processing. But research has shown that attributes of automaticity (i.

The serine/threonine phosphatase inhibitor, calyculin A, inhibits and dissociates macrophage responses to lipopolysaccharide.

LPS-stimulated macrophages (M phi) produce inflammatory mediators that are largely responsible for the pathophysiology associated with septic shock. M phi respond to LPS with rapid protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation on serine, threonine, and tyrosine residues. If these events are critical for the cellular response to LPS, the kinases and/or phosphatases involved may be vulnerable targets for pharmacologic intervention.

Autobiographical memory disturbance in combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder.

Vietnam combat veterans with (n = 19) and without (n = 13) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) participated in an autobiographical memory experiment in which they attempted to retrieve specific personal memories exemplifying traits denoted by positive (e.g. loyal) and negative (e.