Emotional triggers and their relation to impulsive and compulsive psychopathology

Shame, guilt, and drinking motives as mediators between child maltreatment and problematic alcohol use in college students

Objective: Drinking for emotion regulation may be a concern for college students who have experienced childhood maltreatment, due to high levels of shame and guilt. The present cross-sectional survey study tested how trait shame-proneness, trait guilt-proneness, and trauma-related guilt are differently related to drinking motives and how these pathways mediate the links between maltreatment severity and alcohol outcomes. Participants: Undergraduate student drinkers (n = 464; M age = 19.50, SD = 2.20) from a midsized midwestern University. Methods: Participants completed an online survey inquiring about demographics, childhood maltreatment, shame, guilt, drinking motives, alcohol use, and alcohol-related consequences. Results: There were several significant serial indirect effects of maltreatment on alcohol consumption and related consequences, through trauma-related guilt, shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, drinking-to-cope, and drinking for mood enhancement. Conclusions: On college campuses, to address problematic drinking among childhood maltreatment survivors, interventions may target maladaptive feelings of shame and guilt stemming from trauma exposure.

Deficiency in Self-Control: Unraveling Psychological and Behavioral Risk Factors for Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in College Students

Objective

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a complex mental disorder to treat. However, there are some deficiencies in research performed to date about the psychological and behavioral factors that may trigger obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS). Based on the Psychopathology of Self-Control Theory which states that deficits in self-control underpin psychiatric symptoms, this study investigated the factors influencing OCS among college students.

Methods

A total of 5599 non-clinical Chinese college students were recruited to complete the Chinese version of the Self-Control Scale, Aitken Procrastination Inventory, and Symptom Checklist-90. Pearson's correlation analyses and the bootstrap method were performed to test our hypothesis.

Results

The following results were obtained: (a) There were significant correlations among self-control, procrastination, anxiety, and OCS. (b) When controlling for the effects of age and sex, self-control remained a significant negative predictor of OCS. (c) The mediating roles of procrastination and anxiety, and the chain mediating role of procrastination and anxiety were the three predicted pathways linking self-control and OCS.

Conclusion

This study highlights the significance of self-control deficiencies in OCS. It provides new insights into the psychological and behavioral factors that increase the risk of OCS with important practical implications for early intervention in OCD.

Emotion regulation and executive functions in adolescents with skin picking disorder

AIM

This study aimed to investigate emotion regulation difficulties and executive functions of adolescent outpatients with skin picking disorder (SPD).

METHOD

Ninety six adolescents with SPD and ninety healthy controls were included in the study. All patients were diagnosed with SPD as per the diagnostic criteria of DSM-5. A battery of tests were implemented to evaluate emotional regulation strategies (i.e. acceptance,), as well as associations between those strategies and executive functions, and clinical variables (anxiety, depressive symptoms, impulsivity and illness characteristics).

RESULTS

The SPD group had significantly higher scores in inhibition (t = 2.982, p = 0.030), emotional control (t = 2.461, p = 0.016), and planning-organization (t = 2.139, p = 0.038) Multiple linear regression model explained a considerable amount of variance of executive functions in the patient group (Adjusted R²=66.4%). In the patient group, age at illness-onset and the severity of inhibiton were significantly associated with the disruptions in emotional control functions (For age at illness-onset, β= -0.45, t=-3.0, p = 0.012 and for BRIEF Inhibition scores, β = 0.31, t = 2.8, p = 0.008).

CONCLUSION

The results of this study suggest that those with SPD have more emotion regulation problems and poorer executive function skills compared to those without SPD. Deficits in emotional control were associated with inhibition process and age-onset of the illness.

Examining the influence of substance use on mental health rating during COVID-19: A Canadian perspective

Introduction

Substance use and mental health symptoms (e.g., depression and anxiety) have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, partly due to implementation of physical distancing measures aimed at containing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, there is limited pandemic-specific research that has examined the relationship between substance use and mental health with other correlates of well-being, including life satisfaction and social confidants.

Methods

In the current study, we used ordered logistic regression analyses to examine whether a greater frequency of substance use (e.g., alcohol, cannabis, and opioids) during the pandemic predicted poorer ratings of self-reported mental health in a large sample of Canadians aged 15 to 64 years. We further considered whether life satisfaction and number of social confidants interacted with substance use to influence mental health, and stratified the models by sex and personal feelings of shame surrounding the use of substances (i.e., high and low shame).

Results

Findings indicated that frequency of substance use was significantly associated with increased odds of reporting poorer mental health for males and females exhibiting both low and high shame. In females reporting low shame, we found that as frequency of cannabis use increased, life satisfaction has a much greater positive association with mental health. Whereas, in females disclosing high shame, maintaining social relations was particularly important to benefit the mental health of current users of opioids, relative to past and non-users. No such interaction was found in males.

Discussion

Overall, the findings of the current study showed the negative mental health consequences of substance use during COVID-19 in a large Canadian sample, and most importantly revealed a critical sex difference in the way in which social determinants interact with substance use to influence mental health.

Impulsivity and compulsivity as parallel mediators of emotion dysregulation in eating-related addictive-like behaviors, alcohol use, and compulsive exercise

INTRODUCTION

Transdiagnostically relevant psychological traits associated with psychiatric disorders are increasingly being researched, notably in substance use and addictive behaviors. We investigated whether emotion dysregulation mediated by impulsivity and/or compulsivity could explain variance in binge eating, food addiction, self-starvation, and compulsive exercise, as well as alcohol use (addictive-like behaviors relevant to the obesity and eating disorder fields).

METHOD

A general population sample of adults (N = 500, mean age = 32.5 years), females (n = 376) and males (n = 124), completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-16, the Trait Rash Impulsivity Scale, the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire, the Self-Starvation Scale, the Exercise Dependence Scale, the Yale Food Addiction Scale, and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test online. Besides gender comparisons and intercorrelations between measures, we used predefined multiple mediation models with emotion dysregulation as independent variable, impulsivity and compulsivity as parallel mediators, to investigate whether these factors contributed explanatory power to each addictive-like behavior as outcome, also using age and body mass index as covariates.

RESULTS

Females scored higher than males on emotion dysregulation and the eating-related addictive-like behaviors food addiction, self-starvation, and binge eating. Intercorrelations between measures showed that emotion dysregulation and compulsivity were associated with all outcome variables, impulsivity with all except compulsive exercise, and the eating-related behaviors intercorrelated strongly. Mediation models showed full or partial mediation of emotion dysregulation for all behaviors, especially via compulsivity, suggesting a behavior-specific pattern. Mediation models were not affected by age or gender.

DISCUSSION

Addictive-like behaviors seemed to be maintained by trait levels of emotion dysregulation, albeit channeled via trait levels of compulsivity and/or impulsivity. The role of emotion dysregulation may help us to understand why addictive-like behaviors can be difficult to change in both clinical and nonclinical groups, and may be informative for treatment-planning in patients where these behaviors are present. Our findings support adopting a more dimensional approach to psychiatric classification by focusing psychological facets such as those studied.

The association between shame and substance use in young people: a systematic review

Background. Shame has been associated with a range of maladaptive behaviours, including substance use. Young people may be particularly vulnerable to heightened shame sensitivity, and substance use is a significant problem amongst UK adolescents. Although there appears to be a relationship between shame and substance use, the direction of the relationship remains unclear.

Aim. The purpose of this study was to undertake a systematic review of the literature relating to shame and substance use in young people.

Method. Five electronic databases were searched for articles containing terms related to ‘adolescence,’ ‘shame’ and ‘substance use.’ Six articles were included in the final analyses.

Results. Adverse early experiences, particularly sexual abuse, predict shame-proneness, and substance use is a mechanism by which some individuals cope with negative feelings. In general, there is a dearth of literature investigating the shame-substance use relationship in adolescent samples. The available literature associates shame-proneness with poorer functioning and suggests that it may potentially lead to psychopathology and early-onset substance use. Scant attention has been paid to the cognitive and emotional processes implicated. Further research is required to ascertain the strength of the shame-substance use relationship in young people and to develop appropriate interventions for this population.

Emotion regulation in pathological skin picking: findings from a non-treatment seeking sample

Pathological skin picking (PSP) is characterized by excessive picking of the skin, resulting in significant distress or functional impairment. The aim of the present study was to investigate the emotion regulation hypothesis of PSP. University students with PSP (n = 55) and without history of PSP (n = 55) were asked to retrospectively rate the intensity of affective states before, during, and after skin picking episodes. The results showed that for a majority of the PSP sufferers, intensity of certain negative affective states (i.e. anxiety, tension or boredom) was pronounced just before picking, and diminished significantly in the period from before to after picking. Relief and gratification increased during picking whereas guilt increased afterwards. A similar pattern emerged in the control group, although a much lower level of intensity was reported. Participants were also asked to fill out questionnaires concerning emotion regulation difficulties, emotion reactivity, depression, anxiety and worry. Hierarchical logistic regressions demonstrated that emotion regulation difficulties as well as emotion reactivity predicted PSP diagnosis after depression, anxiety and worry were controlled for. Furthermore, emotion regulation difficulties statistically mediated the relationship between emotion reactivity and PSP. Overall, the findings support an emotion regulation model of PSP.