The EUROHIS-QOL 8-item index: comparative psychometric properties to its parent WHOQOL-BREF.

Objectives: To test the psychometric properties of the EUROHIS-QOL 8-item index, a shortened version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument-Abbreviated Version (WHOQOL-BREF).

Methods: The sample consisted of 2359 subjects identified from primary care settings, with 1193 having a confirmed diagnosis of depression. Data came from six countries (Australia, Brazil, Israel, Russia, Spain, and the United States) involved in a large international study, the Longitudinal Investigation of Depression Outcomes.

The role of emotion in PTSD: two preliminary studies.

Background: Two studies are presented that highlight the role of emotion in PTSD in which we examine what emotions in addition to anxiety may be present.

Aims: The first aim was to assess the overall emotion profile across the five basic emotions of anxiety, sadness, anger, disgust, and happiness in clients attending a stress clinic. A small pilot study was also carried out to see how the emotion profiles impacted on outcome for CBT.

What basic emotions are experienced in bipolar disorder?

Aims: The aims of this study were to investigate the basic emotions experienced within and between episodes of bipolar disorder and, more specifically, to test the predictions made by the Schematic, Propositional, Analogical and Associative Representation Systems (SPAARS) model that mania is predominantly characterized by the coupling of happiness with anger whereas depression (unipolar and bipolar) primarily comprises a coupling between sadness and disgust.

Design: A cross-sectional design was employed to examine the differences within and between the bipolar, unipolar and control groups in the emotional profiles. Data were analysed using one-way ANOVAs.

Cross-cultural evaluation of the WHOQOL-BREF domains in primary care depressed patients using Rasch analysis.

Background: The Rasch model prescribes procedures to ensure that a scale constructed from multiple items conforms to fundamental requirements of interval scales of measurement.

Objective: To test the Rasch properties of the domains of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument-abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF) in depressed patients from primary care settings.

Design: Cross-sectional, cross-national study.

Is there a measurement overlap between depressive symptoms and quality of life?

Background: Previous studies found that depression is associated with a broad impairment in quality of life (QOL). This finding might be associated to a measurement overlap.

Methods: The objective of this study was to verify whether the items of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument-Abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF), a measure of generic QOL, are invariant among patients having a current major depressive episode who come from primary care services.

The effect of fear on attentional processing in a sample of healthy females.

The present experiment examines the effect of fear on efficiency of three attention networks: executive attention, orienting and alerting, in a healthy female sample. International Affective Picture System (IAPS) images were used to elicit both a fear response and a non-emotional response in 100 participants. During the emotion manipulation, participants performed a modified version of the Attention Network Test (ANT).

The effect of happiness and sadness on alerting, orienting, and executive attention.

Objective: According to the attention network approach, attention is best understood in terms of three functionally and neuroanatomically distinct networks-alerting, orienting, and executive attention. An important question is whether the experience of emotion differentially influences the efficiency of these networks.

Method: This study examines 180 participants were randomly assigned to a happy, sad, or control condition and undertook a modified version of the Attention Network Test.

Counterfactual thinking and functional differences in depression.

The purpose of the studies reported in this paper was to evaluate the function of counterfactual thinking (CT) in depression. In Experiment 1, depressed and non-depressed participants were asked to imagine themselves as the protagonist of a hypothetical situation, and to think counterfactually about three different scenarios. The results showed that there was a similar CT style (in terms of direction, structure and focus of mutation) for the depressed and the non-depressed groups.

Development and validation of the Brazilian version of the Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire (AAQ): An example of merging classical psychometric theory and the Rasch measurement model.

Background: Aging has determined a demographic shift in the world, which is considered a major societal achievement, and a challenge. Aging is primarily a subjective experience, shaped by factors such as gender and culture. There is a lack of instruments to assess attitudes to aging adequately.

Implicit and explicit memory biases in mixed anxiety-depression.

Background: This study investigated and compared implicit and explicit memory biases in anxiety, depression and mixed anxiety-depression.

Method: Outpatients who were either depressed only (n=18), anxious only (n=18) or mixed (anxious and depressed) (n=18) were compared to normal controls (n=18) on self-report measures and typical experimental tasks assessing memory biases. The implicit memory test was a word identification task and the explicit memory test was an incidental free recall with depression relevant, anxiety relevant, emotional positive and neutral words.