Memory for emotional information and alexithymia A systematic review

Health Related Quality of Life and Psychopathological Symptoms in People with Hemophilia, Bloodborne Co-Infections and Comorbidities: An Italian Multicenter Observational Study

Background

The health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of people with hemophilia (PWH) is an important issue, especially considering people suffering from chronic diseases beyond hemophilia. The principal aim of this study was to investigate the presence and relevance of psychological symptoms, both internalizing and externalizing, lifestyle, and HRQoL in a group of Italian PWH with chronic bloodborne co-infections and comorbidities. Furthermore, the research describes the association between psychological aspects and the impact of disease-related characteristics (type of hemophilia, presence of co-infections, and comorbidities) on them.

Methods

Seventy patients (mean age 46.77±11.3), 64 with severe hemophilia A (Factor VIII: C < 1 IU/dL) and 6 with severe hemophilia B (Factor IX <1 IU/dL), were consecutively recruited from seven Hemophilia Centers in Italy of Italian Association of Hemophilia Centers (AICE). In order to assess psychological symptoms, HRQoL, and lifestyle, three psychological questionnaires were administered (the SCL-90-R, SF-36, and PSQ, respectively).

Results

A general decline in the quality of life and an increase in the tendency to adopt a lifestyle characterized by hyperactivity emerged. Inverse correlations were found between HRQoL and psychological distress. Although the SCL-90-R did not reveal symptoms above the clinical cut-off, co-infections significantly increased anxiety, depression, somatizations, paranoia, and social withdrawal. Lastly, HRQoL is impaired by co-infections as well as comorbidities.

Conclusion

Our preliminary results must be confirmed to deepen the findings between mental health and hemophilia.

Identifying Complex Emotions in Alexithymia Affected Adolescents Using Machine Learning Techniques

Many scientific researchers' study focuses on enhancing automated systems to identify emotions and thus relies on brain signals. This study focuses on how brain wave signals can be used to classify many emotional states of humans. Electroencephalography (EEG)-based affective computing predominantly focuses on emotion classification based on facial expression, speech recognition, and text-based recognition through multimodality stimuli. The proposed work aims to implement a methodology to identify and codify discrete complex emotions such as pleasure and grief in a rare psychological disorder known as alexithymia. This type of disorder is highly elicited in unstable, fragile countries such as South Sudan, Lebanon, and Mauritius. These countries are continuously affected by civil wars and disaster and politically unstable, leading to a very poor economy and education system. This study focuses on an adolescent age group dataset by recording physiological data when emotion is exhibited in a multimodal virtual environment. We decocted time frequency analysis and amplitude time series correlates including frontal alpha symmetry using a complex Morlet wavelet. For data visualization, we used the UMAP technique to obtain a clear district view of emotions. We performed 5-fold cross validation along with 1 s window subjective classification on the dataset. We opted for traditional machine learning techniques to identify complex emotion labeling.

The role of alexithymia and autistic traits in predicting quality of life in an online sample

BACKGROUND

Autistic people tend to report poorer Quality of Life (QOL) than comparison groups, though some studies do report more optimistic findings. Higher autistic traits are also related to poorer QOL. However, the role of alexithymia in this relationship has not been explored.

METHOD

A total of 163 participants (N = 53 autistic and N = 111 comparison) consented to take part; however, 30 participants were excluded due to missing data (who did not differ from those who were retained on age, gender, education, employment, or living status), leaving a final sample of 133 (N = 42 Autistic and 91 Comparison participants). Demographic information (including age, gender) was collected, alongside self-report measures of autistic traits, mental health, alexithymia, and QOL. We estimated regression models based on pre-registered analysis, and we conducted exploratory network analyses.

RESULTS

Alexithymic traits did not predict QOL when controlling for covariates. Depression significantly predicted Physical, Psychological, and Social QOL. When examining the impact of just alexithymic traits and autistic traits, both were significantly associated with Physical and Psychological QOL. For participants with a low depression score, the correlation between alexithymia and QOL was strong; suggesting that depression occludes the association between alexithymia and QOL. Network analyses suggested that depression and anxiety exert direct effects on Physical and Psychological QOL, whereas alexithymia scores may influence Physical QOL via autistic traits.

CONCLUSION

In sum, depression is a pervasive negative predictor of multiple QOL domains. The role of alexithymia in predicting QOL dimensionally and categorically was not ruled out, given our exploratory analyses, we suggest that interventions which target alexithymia may positively impact QOL for those who score low on depressive symptoms.

The impact of the narrative mindset on effectivity in social problem solving

The narrative mindset is a tendency to interpret social information in the frame of stories. Two experiments were conducted to determine if and why the narrative mindset increases social problem-solving effectivity. The experiments consisted of two parts: the experimental manipulation (inducing the narrative mindset or control condition) and the observation of effects. In the second part, presented as a separate study, a participant was asked to advise other people facing interpersonal problems (experiment 1) or emotional problems (experiment 2). Three pairs of coders judged each piece of advice independently on three scales: Effectivity of the advice, empathy, and personalization (using their own experiences in providing the advice). The results indicate that the narrative mindset increases empathy, supported by the co-occurring increase in the problem's personalization, which leads to higher effectivity. The results reveal the positive real-life implications of structuring social information within a story frame. It may encourage the introduction of the narrative mindset effects into an area of social cognition research. Finally, the experiments show that the narrative mindset may be activated experimentally, providing an effective instrument to test the impact of narrative knowledge on social cognition.

Alexithymia, aggressive behavior and depression among Lebanese adolescents: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

For a long time, Lebanon has been considered an unstable country. This can have a negative impact on Lebanese adolescents that consequently face secondary emotional stress, leading to more mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and alexithymia. The objective of this study was to assess the association between alexithymia, depression and aggressive behavior in a sample of Lebanese adolescents.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional study, conducted between September 2018 and February 2019, which enrolled 568 young adolescents aged between 15 and 18 years using a proportionate sample from two Lebanese governorates. Out of 750 questionnaires distributed, 568 (75.73%) were completed and collected back.

RESULTS

The mean age was 15.87 ± 0.82 years, with 302 (53.2%) females; 180 (31.7%) were alexithymic, 193 (34.0%) and 181 (31.9%) had moderate (scores between (89 and 111) and high (scores ≥ 112) aggression respectively, whereas 176 (31.0%) and 149 (26.2%) had moderate (scores between 3 and 4) and high (scores ≥ 5) depression respectively. Higher levels of alexithymia were significantly associated with higher depression (Beta = 0.44), higher total aggression (Beta = 0.78), higher physical aggression (Beta = 0.24), higher verbal aggression (Beta = 0.14), higher anger (Beta = 0.22), and higher hostility (Beta = 0.19).

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of alexithymic behaviors, as well as aggression and depression in Lebanese students appears to be very high in comparison with students worldwide. Alexithymia was significantly associated with higher depression, physical and verbal aggression, anger and hostility among adolescents. Factors underlying the high level of alexithymia remain not fully elucidated.