Stress-induced cortisol elevations are associated with impaired delayed, but not immediate recall.

Glucocorticoids are known to modulate memory functions, with elevated cortisol levels being associated with impaired declarative memory. This specific effect has been shown in several studies using pharmacological doses of cortisol. The present study was designed to assess the effects of stress-induced cortisol elevations on (1) the type of memory processing (encoding, consolidation and retrieval), and (2) on the emotional valence of the material under study.

The effects of stress-induced cortisol responses on approach-avoidance behavior.

High glucocorticoid stress-responses are associated with prolonged freezing reactions and decreased active approach and avoidance behavior in animals. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of cortisol responses and trait avoidance on approach-avoidance behavior in humans. Twenty individuals were administered a computerized approach-avoidance (AA)-task before and after stress-induction (Trier Social Stress Test).

Trauma and dissociation in conversion disorder and chronic pelvic pain.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to: a) assess the link between sexual and/or physical abuse and dissociation in conversion disorder and chronic pelvic pain patients; and b) assess whether this effect is independent of level of general psychopathology.

Method: This report examines data from four separate samples. Fifty-two patients with chronic pelvic pain, 61 patients with non-epileptic seizures, and two samples of patients (102 and 54) with predominantly motor or sensory types of conversion disorder were studied.

Cortisol-induced impairments of working memory require acute sympathetic activation.

The present study assessed whether the effects of cortisol on working memory depend on the level of adrenergic activity (as measured by sympathetic activation) during memory performance. After exposure to a psychosocial stress task, participants were divided into cortisol responders and nonresponders. Cortisol responders showed working memory impairments during the psychosocial stress phase, when cortisol and adrenergic activity were enhanced, whereas nonresponders did not.

The criterion validity of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) in a sample of self-referred elders with depressive symptomatology.

Background: The criterion validity of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D) was assessed in a group of elderly Dutch community-residents who were self-referred to a prevention program for depression.

Methods: Paper-and-pencil administration of the CES-D to 318 elders (55-85 years). Criterion validity was evaluated with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), a clinical diagnostic interview based on DSM-IV.

Personality and affect as determinants of medically unexplained symptoms in primary care; A follow-up study.

Objective: To examine whether the personality dimensions, neuroticism and alexithymia, and the affective state dimensions measuring negative and positive affect significantly contributed to changes over time in the number of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) reported.

Methods: A total of 318 patients, presenting to their primary care physician with MUS, participated in the study. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess to what extent neuroticism, alexithymia, negative affect and positive affect independently contributed to (1) increase vs.

The effects of failing to control pain: an experimental investigation.

Chronic pain patients are often confronted with repeated failure to achieve pain relief. The aim of this study was to experimentally investigate the effects of repeated failing attempts to control pain on pain impact (pain intensity, emotional and physiological responses). Perceived control over an electrocutaneous pain stimulus was manipulated between subjects by success or failure feedback on a task by which control over pain could be acquired.

Anxiety and depression after spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Objective: Relatively little attention has been paid to emotional outcome after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). This study assessed levels of anxiety and depression among SAH survivors and related these to clinical indices.

Methods: Seventy SAH patients from a consecutive series of neurosurgical admissions participated in semistructured assessments of functional outcome; 52 of the patients also returned standardized measures of emotional outcome.

Stability of neuroticism and alexithymia in somatization.

The personality traits neuroticism and alexithymia have been hypothesized as predisposing factors for somatization. Stability over time is a basic assumption underlying any trait construct. Although there are considerable (and sometimes conflicting) data relevant to this issue, the stability of neuroticism and alexithymia has not been assessed in somatization.

Higher cortisol levels following exposure to traumatic reminders in abuse-related PTSD.

Animal studies have found that prior stressful events can result in increased reactivity in the HPA-axis. However, baseline function of the HPA-axis has typically been normal or decreased in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The first purpose of this study was to assess cortisol responsivity to traumatic reminders in women with PTSD related to childhood abuse.

Directed forgetting between, but not within, dissociative personality states.

To investigate amnesia between identities in dissociative identity disorder (DID), the authors assessed explicit and implicit memory performance on a directed-forgetting task in 12 DID patients who switched from one state to an "amnesic" state between presentation and memory testing. DID patients were instructed either to remember or to forget neutral and emotional words. Besides an overall decrease in explicit memory, patients demonstrated selective forgetting of to-be-forgotten, but not of to-be-remembered words in the amnesic state.

Alexithymia and somatisation: quantitative review of the literature.

Objective: To present a quantitative review of the empirical literature on somatisation and alexithymia.

Methods: Medline and PsycLIT searches for relevant studies were conducted. Meta-analytical techniques were applied to quantify the strength of the associations that were found.

Restricted emotional processing and somatic attribution in fibromyalgia.

Objective: Medically unexplained symptoms or syndromes, such as fibromyalgia (FM), might be partly caused or sustained by a mechanism involving restricted emotional processing (REP) and the subsequent attribution of emotional arousal to somatic or syndrome-consistent causes. In this study, it was hypothesized that FM patients, compared to healthy individuals, would be higher on trait measures of REP (defensiveness and alexithymia), and would show affective-autonomic response dissociation, that is, higher standardized scores of heart rate responses than affective responses, during negative emotional stimulation. Additionally, FM patients were expected to attribute their bodily symptoms more to somatic than to psychological causes.

Effects of a Dutch work-site wellness-health program: the Brabantia Project.

Objectives: This study examined a project designed to improve the health and wellness of employees of Brabantia, a Dutch manufacturer of household goods, by means of lifestyle changes and changes in working conditions.

Methods: The workers at one Brabantia site constituted the experimental group, and the workers from two other sites formed the control group. Biomedical variables, lifestyles, general stress reactions, and quality of work were measured identically in both groups at baseline and 1, 2, and 3 years later.