Search results for "Rating scale"
showing 10 items of 537 documents
The effects of social pressure and emotional expression on the cone of gaze in patients with social anxiety disorder
2016
Abstract Background and objectives Patients with social anxiety disorder suffer from pronounced fears in social situations. As gaze perception is crucial in these situations, we examined which factors influence the range of gaze directions where mutual gaze is experienced (the cone of gaze). Methods The social stimulus was modified by changing the number of people (heads) present and the emotional expression of their faces. Participants completed a psychophysical task, in which they had to adjust the eyes of a virtual head to gaze at the edge of the range where mutual eye-contact was experienced. Results The number of heads affected the width of the gaze cone: the more heads, the wider the …
The implicit health-related self-concept in somatoform disorders.
2012
Abstract Background and objective Dual-process theories stress the importance of explicit as well as implicit cognitive processes for the development of somatoform disorders (SFDs). 1 In particular, the self-concept has been demonstrated to be a key factor in SFD. Yet, the self-concept in SFDs has been studied only on an explicit but not on an implicit level. Methods The present study empirically examined the implicit health-related self-concept in SFDs by using the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Twenty-two patients with SFDs (according to DSM-IV) and 27 healthy control participants (CG) completed an IAT to assess associations of the self with illness- versus health-related words. Results…
Cross-national and longitudinal investigation of a short measure of workaholism
2015
The present study investigated the factor structure of the 10-item version of the Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS). The DUWAS-10 is intended to measure workaholism with two correlated factors: working excessively (WE) and working compulsively (WC). The factor structure of the DUWAS-10 was examined among multi-occupational samples from the Netherlands (n=9,010) and Finland (n=4,567) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). CFAs revealed that the expected correlated two-factor solution showed satisfactory fit to the data. However, a second-order factor solution, where WE comprised the first-order factors “working frantically” and “working long hours”, and WC the first-order factors “obsess…
Cross validation of the factor structure of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: An Italian multicenter study
1996
The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) has been shown in previous research to measure a general dimension of alexithymia with three intercorrelated factors. This study evaluated the reliability and factorial validity of an Italian translation of the TAS-20 in a group of normal adults (N = 206) and in a mixed group of medical and psychiatric outpatients (N = 642). Using confirmatory factor analyses, the previously established three-factor model of the TAS-20 was found to be replicable in both groups. In addition, the Italian TAS-20 demonstrated adequate estimates of internal reliability and test-retest reliability. Although evaluation of the convergent, discriminant, and concurrent v…
Hippocampal subfields predict positive symptoms in schizophrenia : First evidence from brain morphometry
2012
Alterations of hippocampal anatomy have been reported consistently in schizophrenia. Within the present study, we used FreeSurfer to determine hippocampal subfield volumes in 21 schizophrenic patients. A negative correlation between PANSS-positive symptom score and bilateral hippocampal subfield CA2/3 as well as CA1 volume was found on high-resolution magnetic resonance images. Our observation opens the gate for advanced investigation of the commonly reported hippocampal abnormalities in schizophrenia in terms of specific subfields.
Nonlinear analysis of sleep EEG data in schizophrenia: calculation of the principal Lyapunov exponent
1995
The generating mechanism of the electroencephalogram (EEG) points to the hypothesis that EEG signals derive from a nonlinear dynamic system. Hence, the unpredictability of the EEG might be considered as a phenomenon exhibiting its chaotic character. The essential property of chaotic dynamics is the so-called sensitive dependence on initial conditions. This property can be quantified by calculating the system's first positive Lyapunov exponent, L1. We calculated L1 for sleep EEG segments of 13 schizophrenic patients and 13 control subjects that corresponded to sleep stages I, II, III, IV and REM (rapid eye movement), as defined by Rechtschaffen and Kales, for the lead positions Cz and Pz. Du…
A double-blind study comparing paroxetine and maprotiline in depressed outpatients.
1997
A double-blind multicenter randomized parallel group study comparing paroxetine and maprotiline was carried out in a total of 544 outpatients. Included were patients with varying degrees of severity of depressive symptoms who fulfilled modified RDC criteria for either Minor or Major Depression and showed a HAMD-17 score of > or = 13. No concomitant benzodiazepine treatment was allowed. Duration of treatment was 6 weeks, after an initial wash-out period. Doses were fixed during the first 3 weeks of treatment, patients receiving either 20 mg paroxetine or 100 mg maprotiline daily. An option for dose escalation was provided for insufficient responders after 3 weeks. The weekly assessments comp…
Online Self-Help as an Add-On to Inpatient Psychotherapy: Efficacy of a New Blended Treatment Approach.
2017
<b><i>Background:</i></b> Depression is one of the most frequent and costly mental disorders. While there is increasing evidence for the efficacy of online self-help to improve depression or prevent relapse, there is little evidence in blended care settings, especially combined with inpatient face-to-face psychotherapy. Therefore, we evaluated whether an evidence-based online self-help program improves the efficacy of inpatient psychotherapy. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> A total of 229 depressed patients were randomly allocated either to an online self-help program (intervention group [IG]; Deprexis) or an active control group (CG; weekly online inf…
Adherence predictors in an Internet-based Intervention program for depression
2017
Internet-delivered psychotherapy has been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of depression. Nevertheless, the study of the adherence in this type of the treatment reported divergent results. The main objective of this study is to analyze predictors of adherence in a primary care Internet-based intervention for depression in Spain. A multi-center, three arm, parallel, randomized controlled trial was conducted with 194 depressive patients, who were allocated in self-guided or supported-guided intervention. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were gathered using a case report form. The Mini international neuropsychiatric interview diagnoses major depression. Beck Depressio…
Virtual reality exposure and imaginal exposure in the treatment of fear of flying: a pilot study
2013
Fear of flying (FF) is an impairing psychological disorder that is extremely common in developed countries. The most effective treatment for this particular type of phobia is exposure therapy. However, there are few studies comparing imaginal exposure (IE) and virtual reality (VR) exposure for the treatment of FF. The present study compared the effectiveness of these two approaches using two manualized interventions based on the exposure technique. Patients with FF ( N = 15) were randomly assigned to either VR ( n = 7) or IE therapy ( n = 8), consisting of a total of eight sessions: two assessment sessions (pre-treatment and after the real flight) and six exposure therapy sessions, which w…