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The role of suggestibility in determinations of Miranda abilities: a study of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales.

Law Hum Behav. 2010 Feb;34(1):66-78

Authors: Rogers R, Harrison KS, Rogstad JE, LaFortune KA, Hazelwood LL

Traditionally, high levels of suggestibility have been widely assumed to be linked with diminished Miranda abilities, especially in relationship to the voluntariness of waivers. The current investigation examined suggestibility on the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales in a multisite study of pretrial defendants. One important finding was the inapplicability of British norms to American jurisdictions. Moreover, suggestibility appeared unrelated to Miranda comprehension, reasoning, and detainees’ perceptions of police coercion. In testing rival hypotheses, defendants with high compliance had significantly lower Miranda comprehension and ability to reason about exercising Miranda rights than their counterparts with low compliance. Implications of these findings to forensic practice are examined.

PMID: 19462223 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Pain catastrophizing and salivary cortisol responses to laboratory pain testing in temporomandibular disorder and healthy participants.

J Pain. 2010 Feb;11(2):186-94

Authors: Quartana PJ, Buenaver LF, Edwards RR, Klick B, Haythornthwaite JA, Smith MT

Pain catastrophizing is an important variable in the context of acute and chronic pain. The neurophysiological correlates of pain catastrophizing, however, have not been rigorously evaluated. We examined the relationship between trait-pain catastrophizing and morning salivary cortisol levels before and following a 45-minute laboratory pain-testing session in healthy, pain-free (n = 22), and temporomandibular disorder (TMD) participants (n = 39). We also examined whether TMD patients evidenced generalized hyperalgesia and hypercortisolism. Pain catastrophizing was associated with a flattened morning salivary cortisol profile in the context of pain testing, irrespective of pain status. Cortisol profiles did not differ between healthy and TMD participants. TMD was associated with mechanical hyperalgesia only at the masseter. These data are the first to show an association between pain catastrophizing and elevated salivary cortisol profiles in the context of standardized experimental pain testing. These findings in both healthy individuals and those with chronic orofacial pain suggest that aberrant adrenocortical responses to pain may serve as a neurophysiologic pathway by which pain catastrophizing enhances vulnerability for development of chronic pain and maintains and/or exaggerates existing pain and associated morbidity. PERSPECTIVE: Neurophysiological mechanisms by which pain catastrophizing is related to acute and chronic pain recently have come under empirical study. Understanding of these mechanisms has the unique potential to shed light on key central-nervous-system factors that mediate catastrophizing-pain relations and therapeutic benefits associated with changes in catastrophizing and related cognitive processes.

PMID: 19853521 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Information for patients. Managing cancer pain.

Oncology (Williston Park). 2009 Feb;23(2 Suppl Nurse Ed):2 p following 48

Authors: Syrop J

PMID: 19856589 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Brief motivational feedback for college students and adolescents: a harm reduction approach.

J Clin Psychol. 2010 Feb;66(2):150-63

Authors: Whiteside U, Cronce JM, Pedersen ER, Larimer ME

Alcohol consumption and its attendant problems are prevalent among adolescents and young adult college students. Harm reduction has been found efficacious with heavy drinking adolescents and college students. These harm reduction approaches do not demand abstinence and are designed to meet the individual where he or she is in the change process. The authors present a case illustration of a harm reduction intervention, the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS), with a heavy-drinking female college student experiencing significant problems as a result of her drinking. BASICS is conducted in a motivational interviewing style and includes cognitive-behavioral skills training and personalized feedback.

PMID: 20049906 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Moral agency, identity crisis and mental health: an anthropologist’s plight and his Hmong ritual healing.

Cult Med Psychiatry. 2010 Mar;34(1):169-85

Authors: Postert C

During anthropological fieldwork, the author had a serious accident on the outskirts of a Hmong village in the highland of Laos. However, this dramatic incident turned out to be the occasion of his ritual initiation into the local village community. An analysis of narratives of the incident reveals Hmong conceptions of the anthropologist’s physical, mental and moral affliction, its causative concomitants and his ritual healing. Hmong mental health and identity are situated in a moral space of exchange relationships to significant others, challenging basic assumptions of concepts of the person widely held in psychiatry and beyond. The healing ritual transformed the author’s being from indeterminate “other,” in a life-threatening state of identity crisis, to a wholesome Hmong “self,” in a state of health and moral agency. This exemplary rite de passage highlights the affinity of ritual healing and constitution of self in a moral space. The underlying relational concept of the person is in sharp contrast to psychiatry’s concepts of the person, which are deeply shaped by values of individualism. Psychiatric services must accommodate substantial differences in the concepts of the person when treating Hmong migrants from Laos.

PMID: 20012472 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Harm reduction therapy with families and friends of people with drug problems.

J Clin Psychol. 2010 Feb;66(2):164-74

Authors: Denning P

This article describes and illustrates the ongoing development of a treatment for working with families and friends of drug users using harm reduction principles. The author was instrumental in applying harm reduction principles to substance abuse and has used these same principles to help families deal with the pessimism, pain, and grief that accompany their relationship to a person with an active substance abuse problem. The treatment involves learning decision-making processes based on both self-care and love for the substance abuser and is based on the values of harm reduction, caring, and incrementalism, rather than those of codependency, tough love, and abrupt behavior change. A long-term family therapy group and two family consultations illustrate the treatment and its applications.

PMID: 20049921 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Harm reduction therapy: a practice-friendly review of research.

J Clin Psychol. 2010 Feb;66(2):201-14

Authors: Logan DE, Marlatt GA

Harm reduction is an umbrella term for interventions aiming to reduce the problematic effects of behaviors. Although harm reduction was originally and most frequently associated with substance use, it is increasingly being applied to a multitude of other behavioral disorders. This article reviews the state of empirical research on harm reduction practices including alcohol interventions for youth, college students, and a variety of other adult interventions. We also review nicotine replacement and opioid substitution, as well as needle exchanges and safe injection sites for intravenous drug users. Dozens of peer-reviewed controlled trial publications provide support for the effectiveness of harm reduction for a multitude of clients and disorders without indications of iatrogenic effects. Harm reduction interventions provide additional tools for clinicians working with clients who, for whatever reason, may not be ready, willing, or able to pursue full abstinence as a goal.

PMID: 20049923 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Partners in treatment: relational psychoanalysis and harm reduction therapy.

J Clin Psychol. 2010 Feb;66(2):136-49

Authors: Rothschild D

A relational psychoanalytic harm reduction orientation to the treatment of substance misusers is presented and illustrated with a clinical example. Both harm reduction therapy and relational psychoanalysis rely on a two-person model in which the therapist and client are collaborators in the treatment. In both, substance use is seen in the context of the user’s internal psychodynamics and external environment, and there is an emphasis on treating the person as a whole individual whose substance use is one aspect of life, rather than focusing on the substance use itself as was often done in the past. Historically, psychoanalysis and substance abuse treatment were so different from each other that their paths rarely crossed. The introduction of harm reduction therapy to substance abuse and the relational orientation in psychoanalysis have brought the fields closer together such that the valuable contributions that each can make to the other can now be appreciated.

PMID: 20049924 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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So glad you came! Harm reduction therapy in community settings.

J Clin Psychol. 2010 Feb;66(2):175-88

Authors: Little J, Franskoviak P

Harm reduction therapy was originally developed as a nonabstinence-based method of treating people with drug and alcohol problems. In this article, we describe and apply the principles and practices of harm reduction therapy in community settings, places where people congregate for nontherapeutic reasons-street corners, community drop-in centers, needle exchanges, and primary care clinics. Low-threshold welcome and flexible session arrangements are defining characteristics of this community-based approach. We have been instrumental in developing several programs, three of which are described here. These programs work with more than 1,000 clients per year, with varying levels of intensity. The programs offer drop-in or sidewalk sessions, drop-in support groups, regular therapy appointments, and psychiatric medications. Many impressive outcomes, such as reduction of harmful drug use, stabilization of psychiatric problems, and permanent housing, are found each year.

PMID: 20066694 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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An approach to addressing depression in patients with chronic kidney disease.

Blood Purif. 2010;29(2):121-4

Authors: Finkelstein FO, Wuerth D, Finkelstein SH

Depressive symptoms and clinical depression are commonly noted in patients with end-stage renal disease and chronic kidney disease (not on dialysis). This association is important since depressive symptoms have been associated with both an impaired quality of life and increased morbidity and mortality. It is, therefore, important to develop strategies to screen patients with chronic kidney disease for depression and to develop strategies to treat clinical depression in this group of patients.

PMID: 20093816 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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