Establishing a trait anxiety threshold that signals likelihood of anxiety disorders

Neural processing of fearful and happy facial expressions during emotion-relevant and emotion-irrelevant tasks: A fixation-to-feature approach

Research suggests an important role of the eyes and mouth for discriminating facial expressions of emotion. A gaze-contingent procedure was used to test the impact of fixation to facial features on the neural response to fearful, happy and neutral facial expressions in an emotion discrimination (Exp.1) and an oddball detection (Exp.2) task. The N170 was the only eye-sensitive ERP component, and this sensitivity did not vary across facial expressions. In both tasks, compared to neutral faces, responses to happy expressions were seen as early as 100-120ms occipitally, while responses to fearful expressions started around 150ms, on or after the N170, at both occipital and lateral-posterior sites. Analyses of scalp topographies revealed different distributions of these two emotion effects across most of the epoch. Emotion processing interacted with fixation location at different times between tasks. Results suggest a role of both the eyes and mouth in the neural processing of fearful expressions and of the mouth in the processing of happy expressions, before 350ms.

Depression and anxiety among parents of phenylketonuria children

Objective:

To investigate the existence of depression and/or anxiety with underlying risk factors among parents of children with classical phenylketonuria (PKU).

Methods:

This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Division of Pediatric Metabolism, Ankara Children’s Hospital, Dokuz Eylul University, Kırıkkale University, and Erzurum Local Research Hospital, Turkey, between January and July 2014. Parents of 61 patients and 36 healthy controls completed the self-report questionnaires. We used Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to assess the parental depression and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory S-T (STAI S-T) to assess parental anxiety.

Results:

Depression and anxiety scores were significantly higher in the case group (BDI 12.3±9.1; STAI-S: 38.2±9.6; STAI-T: 43.2±6.9) than controls (BDI: 5.4±4.1 p=0.000; STAI-S: 31.8±7.6 p=0.001; STAI-T: 37.0±7.2 p=0.000). Mothers of the patients had higher scores than the other parental groups (BDI: p=0.000, STAI-S: p=0.001 and STAI-T: p=0.000). Logistic regression analysis showed that low educational level of the parent was the only independent factor for depression (OR 9.96, 95% CI: 1.89-52.35, p=0.007) and state anxiety (OR: 6.99, 95% CI: 1.22-40.48, p=0.030) in the case group.

Conclusion:

A subset of parents with PKU patients have an anxiety or depressive disorder. Supportive services dealing with the parents of chronically ill children such as PKU are needed in order to reduce the level of anxiety.

Ethnic differences in the links between benefit finding and psychological adjustment in people living with HIV

Experiencing growth after the diagnosis of a life threatening illness is commonly reported among people living with HIV (PLWH). The links between benefit finding and better adjustment in PLWH have been identified, but it is less clear whether these links vary by ethnicity. Minority stress theory suggests that individuals from minority populations may have unique stress experiences, which can have negative health implications but may also provide opportunity for growth. We hypothesized that the association between benefit finding and psychological adjustment would be stronger for Black (n = 80) than White (n = 87) PLWH. Contrary to predictions, the relationship between benefit finding and better adjustment was significant for White but not Black PLWH. Post-hoc analyses suggested that sexual orientation played role in this relationship. The relationship between benefit finding and psychological adjustment may be complex for Black PLWH, or they may achieve adjustment using other resources.

EMOTIONAL MODULATION OF ATTENTION ORIENTING BY GAZE VARIES WITH DYNAMIC CUE SEQUENCE

Recent gaze cueing studies using dynamic cue sequences have reported increased attention orienting by gaze with faces expressing fear, surprise or anger. Here, we investigated whether the type of dynamic cue sequence used impacted the magnitude of this effect. When the emotion was expressed before or concurrently with gaze shift, no modulation of gaze-oriented attention by emotion was seen. In contrast, when the face cue averted gaze before expressing an emotion (as if reacting to the object after first localizing it), the gaze orienting effect was clearly increased for fearful, surprised and angry faces compared to neutral faces. Thus, the type of dynamic sequence used, and in particular the order in which the gaze shift and the facial expression are presented, modulate gaze-oriented attention, with maximal modulation seen when the expression of emotion follows gaze shift.

Fixation to features and neural processing of facial expressions in a gender discrimination task

Early face encoding, as reflected by the N170 ERP component, is sensitive to fixation to the eyes. Whether this sensitivity varies with facial expressions of emotion and can also be seen on other ERP components such as P1 and EPN, was investigated. Using eye-tracking to manipulate fixation on facial features, we found the N170 to be the only eye-sensitive component and this was true for fearful, happy and neutral faces. A different effect of fixation to features was seen for the earlier P1 that likely reflected general sensitivity to face position. An early effect of emotion (∼120 ms) for happy faces was seen at occipital sites and was sustained until ∼350 ms post-stimulus. For fearful faces, an early effect was seen around 80 ms followed by a later effect appearing at ∼150 ms until ∼300 ms at lateral posterior sites. Results suggests that in this emotion-irrelevant gender discrimination task, processing of fearful and happy expressions occurred early and largely independently of the eye-sensitivity indexed by the N170. Processing of the two emotions involved different underlying brain networks active at different times.

Measuring anxiety in the elderly: psychometric properties of the state trait inventory of cognitive and somatic anxiety (STICSA) in an elderly Italian sample

BACKGROUND

Despite its increasing personal and societal impact, assessment of late-life anxiety has received relatively little attention in psychiatric research. Differential symptom presentation and physical comorbidities among the elderly, relative to younger cohorts creates a need for anxiety measures that are psychometrically validated in the elderly.

METHODS

The present study examined the factor structure and discriminant validity of the state-trait inventory for cognitive and somatic anxiety (STICSA) in a sample of Italian middle-aged and older adults. Participants were 396 community-dwelling middle-aged (50-64 years) and older (≥65 years) adults. In addition to the STICSA, participants completed two depression measures and a general well-being survey with physical and mental health subscales.

RESULTS

Factor analysis supported the validity of both state-trait and cognitive-somatic distinctions underlying the STICSA, all dimensions exhibited excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α coefficients ≥ 0.86), and correlations with depression measures provided limited evidence for differentiation of anxious and depressive symptoms. The STICSA also showed evidence of discriminating anxious symptoms from physical health symptoms, a particularly relevant feature of a valid anxiety measure in elderly samples.

CONCLUSIONS

The STICSA appears to be a valid measure of cognitive and somatic anxiety in the elderly.

The relationship between nature relatedness and anxiety

This study investigated the relationship between anxiety and feelings of being connected to nature. Two standardised self-report scales, the Nature Relatedness Scale and the State Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety, were used in tandem with a qualitative question. Quantitative results indicated that connection to nature was significantly related to lower levels of overall, state cognitive and trait cognitive anxiety. Qualitative results revealed seven themes: relaxation, time out, enjoyment, connection, expanse, sensory engagement and a healthy perspective. Taken together, these results suggest that opportunities that enhance experiences of being connected to nature may reduce unhelpful anxiety.

Autistic traits influence gaze-oriented attention to happy but not fearful faces

The relationship between autistic traits and gaze-oriented attention to fearful and happy faces was investigated at the behavioral and neuronal levels. Upright and inverted dynamic face stimuli were used in a gaze-cueing paradigm while event related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Participants responded faster to gazed-at than to non-gazed-at targets, and this gaze orienting effect (GOE) diminished with inversion, suggesting it relies on facial configuration. It was also larger for fearful than happy faces but only in participants with high autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) scores. While the GOE to fearful faces was of similar magnitude regardless of AQ scores, a diminished GOE to happy faces was found in participants with high AQ scores. At the ERP level, a congruency effect on target-elicited P1 component reflected enhanced visual processing of gazed-at targets. In addition, cue-triggered early directing attention negativity and anterior directing attention negativity reflected, respectively, attention orienting and attention holding at gazed-at locations. These neural markers of spatial attention orienting were not modulated by emotion and were not found in participants with high AQ scores. Together, these findings suggest that autistic traits influence attention orienting to gaze and its modulation by social emotions such as happiness.

Determining a diagnostic cut-off on the Teate Depression Inventory

A small but growing body of literature suggests that the Teate Depression Inventory (TDI) may be an "objective" measure of depression compared with other commonly used scales. Furthermore, the TDI has strong psychometric properties in both clinical and nonclinical samples. The present study aimed to extend the use of TDI by identifying cut-off scores that could differentiate varying levels of depression severity in a group of clinically diagnosed depression disorder patients (N=125). Three receiver operating characteristic curve analyses indicated cut-off scores of 21 (sensitivity =0.86, specificity =0.94, and classification accuracy =0.90); 36 (sensitivity =0.84, specificity =0.96, and classification accuracy =0.92); and 50 (sensitivity =0.81, specificity =0.93, and classification accuracy =0.90), for minimal, mild, moderate, and severe depression, respectively. Results suggest that the TDI measures depression severity across a broad range with high test accuracy and may be appropriately used to screen for depression.

Characteristics of clinically anxious versus non-anxious regular, heavy marijuana users

Both the key mechanism of action for marijuana (the endocannabinoid system) and the symptoms associated with marijuana withdrawal suggest an important link to anxiety. Despite this link, there is a dearth of research on the characteristics of heavy marijuana users with clinical-level anxiety compared to those with heavy marijuana use alone. Over 10,000 participants (friends or affiliates of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) provided data via online survey. After careful, conservative screening, anxiety, other psychopathology, other drug use, and marijuana-related problems were examined in 2567 heavy marijuana users. Subsequently, 275 heavy users with clinical-level anxiety were compared to demographically-equivalent non-anxious heavy users on psychopathology, drug use, and cannabis-related problems. Among several psychological variables (including anxiety, depression, schizotypy, and impulsivity), anxiety was most strongly predictive of amount of marijuana used and marijuana-related problems. Group comparison (n=550 total) revealed that clinically anxious heavy users exhibited more use, more non-anxiety psychopathological symptoms, and a greater number and severity of marijuana-related problems than their non-anxious peers. The findings reveal that anxiety shows an important relation to marijuana use and related problems among regular, heavy users. Further examinations of common and unique factors predisposing individuals for anxiety and marijuana abuse appear warranted.