Angry characters and frightened souls: Patients and family explanatory models of bipolar disorder in Taiwan.

Bipolar disorder (BD) affects a significant proportion of Taiwanese individuals (Weissman et al., 1996; Yang, Yeh, & Hwu, 2012). Psychotropic medications are typically the mainstay of treatment for BD, and there is an abundance of international research on biological etiology and medication options.

Multidimensional Model of Disability and Role Functioning in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Objective: To examine a model addressing the roles of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease burden, mood disturbance, and disability as determinants of impairments in role functioning.

Methods: In a cross-sectional design, 103 RA patients recruited from the community to participate in a clinical trial completed assessments of self-assessed disease burden (total joint pain and disease activity), mood disturbance (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale depressed mood, somatic symptoms, lack of positive affect, and interpersonal problems), disability (Health Assessment Questionnaire disability index gross and fine motor), and role functioning (Short Form 36 health survey physical and social). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine direct and indirect mechanisms linking disease burden to role functioning.

Sleep disturbance is common among servicemembers and veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

Sleep routines that develop as an adaptation or reaction to deployment can persist upon return stateside. Sleep problems intensify and are intensified by psychiatric distress. This research presents the findings of a comprehensive survey of sleep impairment in relation to demographic data, military history, combat exposure, and mental illness symptoms among a general sample of 375 servicemembers and veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) at a wide range of times postdeployment.

The contribution of pain and depression to self-reported sleep disturbance in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The objective of this article is to assess the contribution of disease activity, pain, and psychological factors to self-reported sleep disturbance in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to evaluate whether depression mediates the effects of pain on sleep disturbance. The sample included 106 patients with confirmed RA who participated in an assessment of their disease activity, pain, psychological functioning, and sleep disturbance during a baseline evaluation prior to participating in a prospective study to help them manage their RA. Self-measures included the Rapid Assessment of Disease Activity in Rheumatology, the SF-36 Pain Scale, the Helplessness and Internality Subscales of the Arthritis Helplessness Index, the Active and Passive Pain Coping Scales of the Pain Management Inventory, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

Featural versus configural face processing in a rare genetic disorder: Williams syndrome.

Background: Williams syndrome (WMS) is a rare genetic disorder with an estimated prevalence of 1 in 20 000 live births. Among other characteristics, WMS has a distinctive cognitive profile with spared face processing and language skills that contrasts with impairment in the cognitive domains of spatial cognition, problem solving and planning. It remains unclear whether individuals with WMS process faces using a featural strategy that focuses on features or a configural strategy that takes into consideration the contour of a face and spatial relations between features.

Psychological adjustment and treatment of children and families with parents deployed in military combat.

The effects of the military deployment of parent-soldiers on children and families need to be understood in the context of military culture as well as from developmental risk for maladjustment. Although research addressing such effects is limited in both scope and certainty, we can identify several key factors that relate to psychological risk, adjustment, and outcome. Most children are resilient to the effects of deployment of at least one of their parents, but children with preexisting psychological conditions, such as anxiety and depression, may be particularly vulnerable, as well as children with specific risk factors, such as child abuse, family violence, or parental substance abuse.