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Despite the extensive literature on relative deprivation theory, few studies have examined the longitudinal effects of individual‐ and group‐based relative deprivation (IRD and GRD, respectively) on individual‐ and group‐based outcomes, nor has research investigated the between‐person and within‐person effects of these constructs. Using two random intercept cross‐lagged panel models, we address these oversights by estimating the between‐person and average annual within‐person associations IRD and GRD have with psychological distress and collective action support in a nation‐wide longitudinal panel sample (N = 64,607). As expected, IRD and GRD were more strongly associated with psychological distress and collective action support, respectively, at the between‐person level and contemporaneously at the within‐person level. However, contrary to expectations, temporary departures in IRD and GRD predicted within‐person increases in collective action support and psychological distress, respectively. These results raise questions about how and when people respond to inequality and provide the foundations for future longitudinal research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the month approaching the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum, we tested the Identity‐Deprivation‐Efficacy‐Action‐Subjective Well‐Being model using an electorally representative survey of Scottish adults (N = 1,156) to predict voting for independence and subjective well‐being. Based on social identity theory, we hypothesized for voting intention that the effects of collective relative deprivation, group identification, and collective efficacy, but not personal relative deprivation (PRD), should be fully mediated by social change ideology. Well‐being was predicted to be associated with PRD (negatively) and group identification (positively and, indirectly, negatively). Unaffected by demographic variables and differences in political interest, nested structural equation model tests supported the model, accounting for 82% of the variance in voting intention and 31% of the variance in subjective well‐being. However, effects involving efficacy depended on its temporal framing. We consider different ways that social identification can simultaneously enhance and diminish well‐being and we discuss ramifications of the model for collective mobilization and separatist nationalism. Findings also suggest new directions for research on social identity, collective efficacy, and collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research examined the causal effects of absolute and relative status on experienced deprivation and hostility. On the basis of the theory of relative deprivation, we reasoned that the subjective experience of being worse off than others is a better predictor for hostility than is the absolute level of how well‐off people are. Indeed, three experiments showed that relative more than absolute status has an impact on aggressive affect. That is, even when objective resources were high, people were more hostile when their resources compared negatively to others' resources. Although no consistent direct effects were found for a measure of aggressive behaviour, mediation analyses suggest that relative but not absolute deprivation ultimately impacts aggressive behaviour via increased feelings of disadvantage and aggressive affect. The results emphasize the drastic consequences of the rising income inequality, irrespective of a nation's absolute wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Girls' uptake of physical science, technology, engineering and mathematics (PSTEM) degrees continues to be poor. Identifying and targeting interventions for girl groups that are likely to go into STEM degrees may be a possible solution. This paper, using a self-determination theory and self-socialisation framework, determines whether one girl group's, "geek girls", video gaming behaviour is associated with their choice of undergraduate degree by using two secondary datasets: a cross-sectional study of the Net Generation (n = 814) and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) dataset (n = 7342). Chi-square analysis shows that girls who were currently studying a PSTEM degree were more likely to be gamers and engage in multiplayer gamers. Further, using logistic regressions, girls who were heavy gamers (>9 h/wk) at 13–14 years were found to be more likely to pursue a PSTEM degree but this was influenced by their socio-economic status. Similar associations with boys and PSTEM degrees were not found or were weak. Therefore, girls were self-socialising or self-determining their identity groups through gaming. This research can provide the basis for whether encouraging gaming in adolescent girls can help them onto PSTEM pathways. Highlights • Girls who are heavy gamers are more likely to study a physical STEM degree. • Playing multiplayer games is associated with studying a physical STEM degree. • The studying of physical STEM degrees is dependent on level of social deprivation. • Girls are 58 times less likely to do a physical STEM degree than no degree at all. • Levels of participation in video gaming can change for girls over a year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the present study, we tested whether Muslim minority members are more susceptible to conspiracy theories than majority members in the Netherlands. We examined conspiracy theories that are relevant (portraying the Muslim community as victim or Jewish people as perpetrators) and irrelevant for participants' Muslim identity (about the 2007 financial crisis, and other theories such as that the moon landings were fake). Results revealed that Muslims believed both identity‐relevant and irrelevant conspiracy theories more strongly than non‐Muslims. These differences could not be attributed to the contents of Muslim faith: Ethnic minority status exerted similar effects independent of Muslim identity. Instead, evidence suggested that feelings of both personal and group‐based deprivation independently contribute to belief in conspiracy theories. We conclude that feelings of deprivation lead marginalized minority members to perceive the social and political system as rigged, stimulating belief in both identity‐relevant and irrelevant conspiracy theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Poor early childhood development (ECD) in low- and middle-income countries is a major concern. There are calls to universalise access to ECD interventions through integrating them into existing government services but little evidence on the medium- or long-term effects of such scalable models. We previously showed that a psychosocial stimulation (PS) intervention integrated into a cash transfer programme improved Colombian children's cognition, receptive language, and home stimulation. In this follow-up study, we assessed the medium-term impacts of the intervention, 2 years after it ended, on children's cognition, language, school readiness, executive function, and behaviour.Methods and Findings: Study participants were 1,419 children aged 12-24 months at baseline from beneficiary households of the cash transfer programme, living in 96 Colombian towns. The original cluster randomised controlled trial (2009-2011) randomly allocated the towns to control (N = 24, n = 349), PS (N = 24, n = 357), multiple micronutrient (MN) supplementation (N = 24, n = 354), and combined PS and MN (N = 24, n = 359). Interventions lasted 18 months. In this study (26 September 2013 to 11 January 2014), we assessed impacts on cognition, language, school readiness, executive function, and behaviour 2 years after intervention, at ages 4.5-5.5 years. Testers, but not participants, were blinded to treatment allocation. Analysis was on an intent-to-treat basis. We reassessed 88.5% of the children in the original study (n = 1,256). Factor analysis of test scores yielded 2 factors: cognitive (cognition, language, school readiness, executive function) and behavioural. We found no effect of the interventions after 2 years on the cognitive factor (PS: -0.031 SD, 95% CI -0.229-0.167; MN: -0.042 SD, 95% CI -0.249-0.164; PS and MN: -0.111 SD, 95% CI -0.311-0.089), the behavioural factor (PS: 0.013 SD, 95% CI -0.172-0.198; MN: 0.071 SD, 95% CI -0.115-0.258; PS and MN: 0.062 SD, 95% CI -0.115-0.239), or home stimulation. Study limitations include that behavioural development was measured through maternal report and that very small effects may have been missed, despite the large sample size.Conclusions: We found no evidence that a scalable PS intervention benefited children's development 2 years after it ended. It is possible that the initial effects on child development were too small to be sustained or that the lack of continued impact on home stimulation contributed to fade out. Both are likely related to compromises in implementation when going to scale and suggest one should not extrapolate from medium-term effects of small efficacy trials to scalable interventions. Understanding the salient differences between small efficacy trials and scaled-up versions will be key to making ECD interventions effective tools for policymakers.Trial Registration: ISRCTN18991160. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research demonstrates a link between exposure to childhood adversity and psychopathology later in development. However, work on mechanisms linking adversity to psychopathology fails to account for specificity in these pathways across different types of adversity. Here, we test a conceptual model that distinguishes deprivation and threat as distinct forms of childhood adversity with different pathways to psychopathology. Deprivation involves an absence of inputs from the environment, such as cognitive and social stimulation, that influence psychopathology by altering cognitive development, such as verbal abilities. Threat includes experiences involving harm or threat of harm that increase risk for psychopathology through disruptions in social-emotional processing. We test the prediction that deprivation, but not threat, increases risk for psychopathology through altered verbal abilities. Data were drawn from the Child Development Project (N = 585), which followed children for over a decade. We analyze data from assessment points at age 5, 6, 14, and 17 years. Mothers completed interviews at age 5 and 6 on exposure to threat and deprivation experiences. Youth verbal abilities were assessed at age 14. At age 17, mothers reported on child psychopathology. A path analysis model tested longitudinal paths to internalizing and externalizing problems from experiences of deprivation and threat. Consistent with predictions, deprivation was associated with risk for externalizing problems via effects on verbal abilities at age 14. Threat was associated longitudinally with both internalizing and externalizing problems, but these effects were not mediated by verbal abilities. Results suggest that unique developmental mechanisms link different forms of adversity with psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

in both experiments was higher to detect changes in food size compared with baseline when they were hungry due to a short period of food deprivation. Food deprivation did not lead to any biases in the average perception of food size. The results show that food deprivation changes the way people perceive their environment. We discuss the possible role of attention in mediating the effect of food deprivation on the visual resolution of food size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of a diet, even a successful one, people often return to overeating. One potential reason is that the behavioral inhibition that people learn while dieting might not readily transfer outside the context in which it is learned: Basic research indicates that after a behavior is inhibited, a return to the conditioning context or simple removal from the treatment context can cause the behavior to return (i.e., to renew). Can states of hunger and satiety play the role of context? In two experiments, rats learned a food-seeking response that earned sucrose or sweet, fatty food pellets while they were satiated. Responding was then inhibited (i.e., extinguished) while the rats were hungry. On the rats’ return to the satiated state, their food seeking was renewed. Additional results suggest that associations with hunger or satiety stimuli were learned more readily than associations with other potentially useful exteroceptive stimuli. The findings have implications for understanding the role of interoceptive contexts in controlling the inhibition of motivated behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prospective studies consistently find that smoking is a risk factor for the development of panic disorder (PD). A possible explanation is that nicotine deprivation promotes heightened sensitivity to bodily sensations and/or arterial carbon dioxide (CO2 ). Abrams et al. (2011) previously found that, in response to a CO2 rebreathing challenge, smokers experiencing more (vs. less) intense nicotine withdrawal had more severe panic symptoms and a stronger urge to escape. However, participants were aware of the last time they smoked, leaving unclear the extent to which fear reactivity was influenced by the pharmacologic effects of nicotine deprivation versus beliefs regarding when nicotine was most recently used. The present study aimed to ascertain whether nicotine deprivation, independent of beliefs regarding recent nicotine use, promotes fear reactivity among smokers.Methods: Moderate to heavy smokers without PD (N = 25) participated in a placebo-controlled, double-blind study consisting of two sessions spaced 1 week apart. Participants abstained from nicotine for 2 hr prior to sessions. During one session participants were given a 21 mg nicotine replacement patch and, during the other, a placebo patch, with the order counterbalanced. For both sessions, after a 3-hr absorption period, participants underwent a 10-min CO2 rebreathing challenge.Results: Wearing a nicotine (vs. placebo) patch increased self-reported panic reactivity among participants, but did not significantly affect physiological and behavioral measures of reactivity.Conclusions: In smokers without a history of PD, nicotine deprivation attenuates subjective panic reactivity. Possible explanations for the contrast between theory and laboratory findings as well as clinical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the impact of early visual deprivation on evaluations related to social trust has received little attention to date. This is despite consistent evidence suggesting that early onset blindness may interfere with the normal development of social skills. In this study, we investigated whether early blindness affects judgments of trustworthiness regarding the actions of an agent, with trustworthiness representing the fundamental dimension in the social evaluation. Specifically, we compared performance between a group of early blind individuals with that of sighted controls in their evaluation of trustworthiness of an agent after hearing a pair of two positive or two negative social behaviors (impression formation). Participants then repeated the same evaluation following the presentation of a third (consistent or inconsistent) behavior regarding the same agent (impression updating). Overall, blind individuals tended to give similar evaluations compared to their sighted counterparts. However, they also valued positive behaviors significantly more than sighted controls when forming their impression of an agent’s trustworthiness. Moreover, when inconsistent information was provided, blind individuals were more prone to revise their initial evaluation compared to controls. These results suggest that early visual deprivation may have a dramatic effect on the evaluation of social factors such as trustworthiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the neighborhood effects hypothesis, there is a negative relation between neighborhood wealth and youth's problem behavior. It is often assumed that there are more problems in deprived neighborhoods, but there are also reports of higher rates of behavioral problems in more affluent neighborhoods. Much of this literature does not take into account relative wealth. Our central question was whether the economic position of adolescents' families, relative to the neighborhood in which they lived, was related to adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. We used longitudinal data for youth between 12-16 and 16-20 years of age, combined with population register data ( N = 926; 55% females). We employ between-within models to account for time-invariant confounders, including parental background characteristics. Our findings show that, for adolescents, moving to a more affluent neighborhood was related to increased levels of depression, social phobia, aggression, and conflict with fathers and mothers. This could be indirect evidence for the relative deprivation mechanism, but we could not confirm this, and we did not find any gender differences. The results do suggest that future research should further investigate the role of individuals' relative position in their neighborhood in order not to overgeneralize neighborhood effects and to find out for whom neighborhoods matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negative symptoms in schizophrenia may be classified as primary or secondary. Primary negative symptoms are thought to be intrinsic to schizophrenia, while secondary negative symptoms are caused by positive symptoms, depression, medication side-effects, social deprivation or substance abuse. Most of the research on secondary negative symptoms has aimed at ruling them out in order to isolate primary negative symptoms. However, secondary negative symptoms are common and can have a major impact on patient-relevant outcomes. Therefore, the assessment and treatment of secondary negative symptoms are clinically relevant. Furthermore, understanding the mechanisms underlying secondary negative symptoms can contribute to an integrated model of negative symptoms. In this review we provide an overview of concepts, evidence, assessment and treatment for the major causes of secondary negative symptoms. We also summarize neuroimaging research relevant to secondary negative symptoms. We emphasize the relevance of recent developments in psychopathological assessment of negative symptoms, such as the distinction between amotivation and diminished expression, which have only rarely been applied in research on secondary negative symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tremendous negative impact of conduct problems to the individual and society has provided the impetus for identifying risk factors, particularly in early childhood. Exposure to neighborhood deprivation in early childhood is a robust predictor of conduct problems in middle childhood. Efforts to identify and test mediating mechanisms by which neighborhood deprivation confers increased risk for behavioral problems have predominantly focused on peer relationships and community-level social processes. Less attention has been dedicated to potential cognitive mediators of this relationship, such as aggressive response generation, which refers to the tendency to generate aggressive solutions to ambiguous social stimuli with negative outcomes. In this study, we examined aggressive response generation, a salient component of social information processing, as a mediating process linking neighborhood deprivation to later conduct problems at age 10.5. Participants (N = 731; 50.5 % male) were drawn from a multisite randomized prevention trial that includes an ethnically diverse and low-income sample of male and female children and their primary caregivers followed prospectively from toddlerhood to middle childhood. Results indicated that aggressive response generation partially mediated the relationship between neighborhood deprivation and parent- and teacher-report of conduct problems, but not youth-report. Results suggest that the detrimental effects of neighborhood deprivation on youth adjustment may occur by altering the manner in which children process social information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Exposure to adverse social environments has been associated with psychotic and depressive symptoms in adolescence in cross-sectional studies, but the longitudinal relation is unclear. This study examined whether longitudinal trajectories of exposure to adverse social environments across childhood are associated with psychotic experiences and depressive symptoms in adolescence.Method: Data on participants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) were used to estimate longitudinal trajectories of childhood exposure to neighborhood cohesion (NC), discord (ND), and stress (NS) using latent class growth modeling. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between these trajectories and psychotic experiences and depressive symptoms at 13 and 18 years of age, adjusting for maternal psychopathology, participant sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and area-level deprivation.Results: A dose-response association was observed between higher NS and the odds of psychotic experiences at 13 years (medium NS, adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.25, 95% CI 1.05-1.49; high NS, aOR 1.77, 95% CI 1.30-2.40), whereas high levels of ND predicted psychotic experiences at 18 years (aOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.10-2.07). High levels of NC (aOR 1.43, 95% CI 1.02-1.71) and NS (aOR 1.55, 95% CI 1.07-2.26) were associated with increased odds of high depressive symptoms at 18 years in a dose-response fashion.Conclusion: Prolonged and more severe exposure to adverse social environments is associated with greater odds of developing psychotic and depressive symptoms in late adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due in part to its contributions to physical health and mental well-being, the communication of affection has received much empirical attention in recent years and has been argued to be a fundamental human need. Working from that premise, Floyd (2014b) advanced the theoretic construct of affection deprivation, an acute or chronic state in which one fails to receive the level of affection he or she desires from others. Affection deprivation is empirically associated with multiple relational and health-related outcomes, but its focus on being deprived of meaningful communication and connection with others raises a legitimate question about its distinctiveness from loneliness. This article argues for a conceptual distinction between affection deprivation and loneliness, reanalyzing the original data from Floyd (2014b), and analyzing newly collected data, to show that affection deprivation and loneliness are empirically distinct as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Previous research has identified several risk factors that are strongly associated with suicidal behavior in patients with severe depression. However, the effects of area-level characteristics on suicidal ideation and attempt in this population remain unclear.Methods: The Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) database was used to identify 2587 patients with severe depression who received secondary mental health services from the Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust. Stepwise multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine associations between socio-demographic characteristics, clinical variables, area-level measures, and suicidal ideation and attempt as separate outcomes.Results: Both suicidal ideation and attempts were common among this cohort of severely depressed individuals (70.5% and 37.7%, respectively). While several individual socio-demographic and clinical characteristics were associated with both outcomes, particularly past psychiatric admission (suicidal ideation: adjusted OR=2.86, 95% CI: 2.26-3.62; suicide attempt: adjusted OR=4.00, 95% CI: 3.30-4.89), neither social deprivation nor ethnic density (measured at the area-level) was associated with risk for either outcome.Limitations: Data were not collected specifically for research purposes and hence information on some potential confounders was not available. Additionally, information was restricted to individuals who accessed secondary mental health services in a defined catchment area and period. The study therefore does not take into account individuals who did not access mental health services.Conclusions: The variation in risk for suicidal ideation and attempt among severely depressed individuals is explained by differences in individual socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, most notably past psychiatric admission and substance misuse, and not by area-level measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Borderline personality disorder diagnostic criteria, particularly affective dysregulation and behavioral dysregulation, are avenues through which suicide risk is conferred, though pathways are not well understood. The interpersonal theory of suicide may help elucidate these associations. The current study examined indirect relationships between affective and behavioral dysregulation and suicidal ideation through perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and the acquired capability for suicide. 169 outpatients completed measures prior to their intake assessment. Perceived burdensomeness accounted for the relationship between affective dysregulation and suicidal ideation. The acquired capability did not explain the association between behavioral dysregulation and suicide attempt history. Affective and behavioral dysregulation may be key targets in treatment for reducing suicide risk. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on narcissism and envy suggests a variable relationship that may reflect differences between how vulnerable and grandiose narcissism relate to precursors of envy. Accordingly, we proposed a model in which dispositional envy and relative deprivation differentially mediate envy's association with narcissistic vulnerability, grandiosity, and entitlement. To test the model, 330 young adults completed dispositional measures of narcissism, entitlement, and envy; one week later, participants reported on deprivation and envy feelings toward a peer who outperformed others on an intelligence test for a cash prize (Study 1) or earned higher monetary payouts in a betting game (Study 2). In both studies, structural equation modeling broadly supported the proposed model. Vulnerable narcissism robustly predicted episodic envy via dispositional envy. Entitlement-a narcissistic facet common to grandiosity and vulnerability-was a significant indirect predictor via relative deprivation. Study 2 also found that (a) the grandiose leadership/authority facet indirectly curbed envy feelings via dispositional envy, and (b) episodic envy contributed to schadenfreude feelings, which promoted efforts to sabotage a successful rival. Whereas vulnerable narcissists appear dispositionally envy-prone, grandiose narcissists may be dispositionally protected. Both, however, are susceptible to envy through entitlement when relative deprivation is encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children raised in institutions are at increased risk of developing internalizing and externalizing problems. However, not all children raised in institutions develop psychopathology. Deficits in error monitoring may be one risk pathway for children with a history of institutionalization given that these skills are related to both internalizing and externalizing psychiatric disorders. Error monitoring and the neural circuitry that supports it have a protracted developmental time course and are highly susceptible to the effects of adversity. As such, they may play an important moderating role between a history of institutional rearing and subsequent psychopathology. Methods: We investigated the impact of psychosocial deprivation on behavioral and neural responses (event-related potentials: ERPs) to a Flanker task assessing error monitoring and the relations between these measures and psychopathology for 12-year-old children in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP). The BEIP involves two groups of institutionalized children randomly assigned in infancy to receive either a foster care intervention (FCG) or care as usual (CAUG). Results: Children who experienced institutional care, particularly those in the CAUG, showed perturbed behavioral performance and ERPs on the Flanker task. Additionally, an ERP measure of error monitoring [error-related negativity (ERN)] moderated the relations between time spent in institutions and externalizing and ADHD behaviors. When the amplitude of the ERN was smaller, time spent in institutional care was positively related to ADHD and externalizing behaviors, whereas time spent in institutions was unrelated to externalizing problems when children evidenced a larger ERN. Neural correlates of error monitoring did not moderate the relations between time spent in institutionalized care and internalizing behaviors. Conclusions: Exposure to institutional care early in life may affect brain circuitry associated with error monitoring. Perturbations in this neural circuitry in combination with psychosocial deprivation are possibly a risk pathway associated with the development of externalizing and ADHD problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Previous studies suggest a higher prevalence of neurological disease within certain ethnic communities, but have not specifically considered neuromuscular diseases (NMDs). The aim of this study was to calculate the prevalence and relationship of NMDs to ethnicity and deprivation status.Method: We undertook a retrospective case-note review of those younger than 16 years with a confirmed diagnosis of NMD in a single centre in Yorkshire in 2010.Results: Two-hundred and sixty-one cases were included. The population (0-16y) in Yorkshire was 707 961. The overall prevalence was 36.9 per 100 000 (95% confidence interval [CI] 34.6-39.1). Dystrophin-related muscle disease was the most common condition, with a prevalence of 16.9 per 100 000 males (95% CI 14.7-19.1). There was a significant difference between ethnic groups, with a total NMD prevalence of 91.2 per 100 000 (95% CI 81.6-100.7) in the South Asian ethnic group compared with 28.7 per 100 000 (95% CI 26.4-30.9) in the White group. Prevalence of non-dystrophin-related NMDs was four times higher in South Asian than in White children. There was a linear relation between increased prevalence and increased deprivation.Interpretation: This study confirms higher levels of NMD, particularly recessively inherited NMDs within the South Asian population, as well as a link with higher deprivation. This has implications for service provision and resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been increased attention to a putative relationship between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and gender dysphoria, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) diagnosis for those whose gender assigned at birth does not match their gender identity. Studies have shown an over-representation of ASD symptoms among transgender youth. These studies, however, have used scales that are non-specific for ASD. These ASD symptoms may represent social deficits that are secondary to social stress and deprivation, as transgender youth suffer high rates of peer and family rejection. These social deficits may not represent true ASD and may be reversible as patients are affirmed in their gender identities and social stress is reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The incidence of psychotic disorders varies according to the geographical area, and it has been investigated whether neighbourhood level factors may be associated with this variation. The aim of this systematic review is to collate and appraise the literature on the association between social deprivation and the incidence or risk for psychotic disorders.Method: A systematic review was conducted, and studies were included if they were in English, provided a measure of social deprivation for more than one geographically defined area and examined either the correlation, rate ratio or risk of psychotic disorder. A defined search strategy was undertaken with Medline, CINAHL Plus and PsychInfo databases.Results: A total of 409 studies were identified in the search, of which 28 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Of these, four examined the association between social deprivation at the time of birth, three examined the putative prodrome of psychosis or those at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis, and 23 examined the time at presentation with a first episode of psychosis (FEP) (one study examined two time points and one study included both UHR and FEP). Three of the studies that examined the level of social deprivation at birth found an association with a higher risk for psychotic disorders and increased social deprivation. Seventeen of the 23 studies found that there was a higher risk or rate of psychotic disorders in more deprived neighbourhoods at the time of presentation; however, adjusting for individual factors tended to weaken this association. Limited research has been conducted in the putative prodromal stage and has resulted in conflicting findings.Conclusions: Research conducted to date has not definitively identified whether the association is a result of social causation or social drift; however, the findings do have significant implications for service provision, such as the location and access of services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the risk-need-responsivity model of offender, assessment and rehabilitation treatment should target specific factors that are related to re-offending. This study evaluates the residential care of Filipino juvenile offenders using the risk-need-responsivity model. Risk analyses and criminogenic needs assessments (parenting style, aggression, relationships with peers, empathy, and moral reasoning) have been conducted using data of 55 juvenile offenders in four residential facilities. The psychological care has been assessed using a checklist. Statistical analyses showed that juvenile offenders had a high risk of re-offending, high aggression, difficulties in making pro-social friends, and a delayed socio-moral development. The psychological programs in the residential facilities were evaluated to be poor. The availability of the psychological care in the facilities fitted poorly with the characteristics of the juvenile offenders and did not comply with the risk-need-responsivity model. Implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on suicide and homicide rates has neglected an integrated model seeking to explain social variation in the direction of lethal violence. The present investigation explores the association between measures of social deprivation on the relative incidence of suicide over homicide in Italian provinces. Data refer to official government sources on lethal violence rates and measures of social deprivation. The central dependent variable (SHR) is the tendency towards suicide measured as the suicide rate divided by the sum of the suicide and homicide rates. Data were available for 102 Italian provinces in the Census year 2001. The percentage of the population marked by two indicators of deprivation (low education, household population density) were negatively associated with the SHR. The results are largely consistent with a stream of previous research that connects deprivation with a relatively high probability for disadvantaged populations to direct aggression outwardly in the form of homicide rather than inwardly in the form of suicide. The present study specifies which elements of deprivation best predict the direction of violence and is the first study for the Italian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As adults live longer, multiple chronic conditions have become more prevalent over the past several decades. We describe the prevalence of, and patient characteristics associated with, cardiac- and non-cardiac-related multimorbidities in patients discharged from the hospital after an acute coronary syndrome.Methods: We studied 2174 patients discharged from the hospital after an acute coronary syndrome at 6 medical centers in Massachusetts and Georgia between April 2011 and May 2013. Hospital medical records yielded clinical information including presence of eight cardiac-related and eight non-cardiac-related morbidities on admission. We assessed multiple psychosocial characteristics during the index hospitalization using standardized in-person instruments.Results: The mean age of the study sample was 61 years, 67% were men, and 81% were non-Hispanic whites. The most common cardiac-related morbidities were hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes (76%, 69%, and 31%, respectively). Arthritis, chronic pulmonary disease, and depression (20%, 18%, and 13%, respectively) were the most common noncardiac morbidities. Patients with ≥4 morbidities (37% of the population) were slightly older and more frequently female than those with 0-1 morbidity; they were also heavier and more likely to be cognitively impaired (26% vs 12%), have symptoms of moderate/severe depression (31% vs 15%), high perceived stress (48% vs 32%), a limited social network (22% vs 15%), low health literacy (42% vs 31%), and low health numeracy (54% vs 42%).Conclusion: Multimorbidity, highly prevalent in patients hospitalized with an acute coronary syndrome, is strongly associated with indices of psychosocial deprivation. This emphasizes the challenge of caring for these patients, which extends well beyond acute coronary syndrome management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deprivation of one modality can lead to the improvement of other intact modalities. We have previously reported that visual deprivation drives AMPA receptors into synapses from layer4 to 2/3 in the barrel cortex and sharpens functional whisker-barrel map at layer2/3 2 days after the beginning of visual deprivation. Enhanced excitatory synaptic transmission at layer4-2/3 synapses is transient and returns to the base line level a week after the beginning of visual deprivation. Here we found that sharpened whisker-barrel function is maintained at least for a week in visually deprived animals. While increased AMPA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission at layer4-2/3 synapses dropped to the base line a week after the beginning of visual deprivation, lateral inhibitory synaptic transmission onto the neighboring barrel was kept strengthened for a week of visually deprived animals. Thus, transient strengthening of excitatory synapses at layer4-2/3 in the barrel cortex could trigger the enhancement of inhibitory inputs to neighboring barrel, and sustained lateral inhibition can maintain the sharpening of whisker-barrel map in visually deprived animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the extent of deprivation and vulnerability among children who live and work on the streets of Harare. A questionnaire survey was administered to 100 children in Harare's central business district; this was supplemented by in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The study found that these children suffered severe deprivation, in particular in terms of shelter and education. The majority of the children obtained their income from begging and selling small items. They were exposed to verbal, physical, sexual and emotional abuse by the public, as well as by other children and adults on the streets. Poverty was the main reason for the children being on the streets, while social factors such as family disintegration or the death of their parents also played a role. These push factors can be addressed through providing more social protection, cash transfers to families, and education and health assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Amelogenesis imperfecta (AI) is a rare, genetically determined defect in enamel mineralization associated with poor esthetics and dental sensitivity. Because the condition is associated with negative social outcomes, this study evaluated oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL), dental fear, and dental beliefs before and after early prosthetic crown therapy for AI during adolescence.Methods: The study included 69 patients with AI, aged 6-25 yr: 33 males and 36 females (mean age 14.5 ± 4.3); healthy controls (n = 80), patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP; n = 30), and patients with molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH; n = 39). All matched in age and gender, and all but the CLP group insocioeconomic area. Patients completed three questionnaires measuring OHRQoL (OHIP-14), dental fear (CFSS-DS), and dental beliefs (DBS-R). Twenty-six patients with severe AI between ages 9 and 22 yr received crown therapy and completed the questionnaires twice: before and after therapy.Results: OHIP-14 scores were significantly higher among patients with AI (7.0 ± 6.7), MIH (6.8 ± 7.6) and CLP (13.6 ± 12.1) than healthy controls (1.4 ± 2.4) (p < 0.001). After crown therapy, quality of life problems in the 26 patients with severe AI decreased significantly, from 7.8 ± 6.1 to 3.0 ± 4.8 (p < 0.001). Early prosthetic therapy did not increase dental fear or negative attitudes toward dental treatment.Conclusions: OHRQoL increased after early crown therapy in patients with severe AI. Therapy did not increase dental fear or negative attitudes toward dental treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Callous-unemotional (CU) traits in childhood are a developmental precursor to psychopathy, yet the origins and etiology of CU traits are not known. We examined CU traits among 12-year-old children exposed to severe early deprivation and evaluated whether a high-quality foster care intervention mitigated the development of high levels of CU traits.Method: Participants were from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a randomized controlled trial of foster care for children in institutions. Children were recruited from institutions in Bucharest, Romania, along with age- and sex-matched children who were never institutionalized. Children raised in institutional settings were randomized (mean age = 22 months) to either a foster care group (n = 68) or a care-as-usual group (n = 68). CU traits were assessed at age 12.75 years in available participants from the randomized trial (n = 95) and children who were never institutionalized (n = 50).Results: Children who experienced institutional rearing as young children had significantly higher levels of CU traits in early adolescence compared to children who were never institutionalized. Intent-to-treat analysis indicated that, among boys, CU traits were significantly lower among those who received the foster care intervention compared to those randomized to care as usual. Caregiver responsiveness to distress, but not caregiver warmth, mediated the intervention effect on CU traits in boys.Conclusion: These findings provide the first evidence to date that psychosocial intervention can prevent the onset of CU traits. Although severe early deprivation predicted higher levels of CU traits, high-quality foster care that emphasized responsive caregiving reduced the impact of deprivation on CU trait development for boys.Clinical Trial Registration Information: The Bucharest Early Intervention Project; http://clinicaltrials.gov; NCT00747396. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deciding on where the tipping point between restrictions and deprivation arises in care settings has important legal implications, but until recently case law has not much helped to resolve these challenging issues. An important milestone has been the Supreme Court judgment in the so-called Cheshire West case. This judgment, handed down in March 2014, set a low threshold to apply (the 'acid test') in deciding when someone may be being deprived of their liberty and therefore that additional legal authorisation is required. The application of the acid test is not straightforward and its effects are wide-ranging. In this article, I discuss the evolution of the concept of deprivation of liberty in health and social care, the implications of the judgment and the application of the acid test. I also briefly highlight the interface between the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Mental Health Act 1983. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal Fun was designed to enhance motor and social development in young children. Its efficacy in improving motor skills was presented previously using a randomised controlled trial and a multivariate nested cohort design. Based on the Environmental Stress Hypothesis, it was argued that the program would also result in positive mental health outcomes, investigated in the current study. Pre-intervention scores were recorded for 511 children aged 4.83-6.17 years (M=5.42, SD=.30). Intervention and control groups were compared 6 months following intervention, and again in their first school year. Changes in teacher-rated prosocial behaviour and total difficulties were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and data analysed using Generalised Linear Mixed Models. There was a significant improvement in prosocial behaviour of children in the intervention group six months after initial testing, which remained at 18-month follow-up. Total difficulties decreased at 6 months for the intervention group, with no change at 18 months. This effect was present only for the hyperactivity/inattention subscale. The only significant change for the control group was an increase in hyperactivity/inattention scores from pre-intervention to 18-month follow-up. The Animal Fun program appears to be effective in improving social and behavioural outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theorists have long argued that two forms of relative deprivation exist: individual-based relative deprivation (IRD) whereby a person feels deprived relative to other individuals and group-based relative deprivation (GRD) whereby a person feels his/her ingroup is deprived relative to other groups. Combinations of IRD and GRD are therefore assumed to produce four response profiles: (i) high on IRD and GRD (i.e. 'doubly deprived'); (ii) high on IRD, low on GRD; (iii) low on IRD, high on GRD; or (iv) low on IRD and GRD. The existence of these profiles, however, has never been assessed. We address this oversight by using latent profile analysis to identify distinct response patterns to measures of IRD and GRD. Across two studies, we found no support for this typology, nor the oft-assumed doubly deprived profile. Rather, response patterns showed moderate levels of IRD across discrete profiles accompanied by considerable variability in GRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political imprisonment is a traumatic event, often accompanied by torture and deprivation. This study explores the association of political imprisonment between 1987 and 2011 with political, economic, community, psychological, physical, and family functioning in a population-based sample of Palestinian men ages 32-43 years ( N = 884) derived from a dataset collected in 2011. Twenty-six percent ( n = 233) had been politically imprisoned. Men imprisoned between 1987 and 2005 reported functioning as well as never-imprisoned men in most domains, suggesting that men imprisoned as youth have moved forward with their lives in ways similar to their nonimprisoned counterparts. In an exception to this pattern, men imprisoned during the Oslo Accords period (1994-1999) reported higher levels of trauma-related stress ( B = 0.24, p = .027) compared to never-imprisoned men. Men imprisoned since 2006 reported lower functioning in multiple domains: human insecurity ( B = 0.33, p = .023), freedom of public expression ( B = −0.48, p = .017), perceived government stability ( B = −0.38, p = .009), feeling broken or destroyed ( B = 0.59, p = .001), physical limitations ( B = 0.55, p = .002), and community belonging ( B = −0.33, p = .048). Findings pointed to the value of examining the effects of imprisonment on functioning in multiple domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For children reared in institutions for orphaned or abandoned children, multiple aspects of the early environment deviate from species-typical experiences, which may lead to alterations in neurobehavioral development. Although the effects of early deprivation and early life stress have been studied extensively in animal models, less is known about implications for human brain development. This structural neuroimaging study examined the long-term neural correlates of early adverse rearing environments in a large sample of 12–14 year old children ( N = 110) who were internationally adopted from institutional care as young children (median age at adoption = 12 months) relative to a same age, comparison group reared with their biological families in the United States. History of institutional rearing was associated with broad changes in cortical volume even after controlling for variability in head size. Results suggested that prefrontal cortex was especially susceptible to early adversity, with significant reductions in volume (driven primarily by differences in surface area rather than cortical thickness) in post-institutionalized youth. Hippocampal volumes showed an association with duration of institutional care, with later-adopted children showing the smallest volumes relative to non-adopted controls. Larger amygdala volumes were not detected in this sample of post-institutionalized children. These data suggest that this temporally discrete period of early deprivation is associated with persisting alterations in brain morphology even years after exposure. Furthermore, these alterations are not completely ameliorated by subsequent environmental enrichment by early adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Limited access nicotine self-administration decreases hippocampal neurogenesis, providing a mechanism for the deleterious effects of nicotine on hippocampal neuronal plasticity. However, recent studies have shown that limited access nicotine self-administration does not exhibit key features of nicotine dependence such as motivational withdrawal and increased motivation for nicotine after deprivation. Objectives: The present study used extended access nicotine self-administration (0.03 mg/kg/infusion, 21 h/day, 4 days) with intermittent periods of deprivation (3 days) for 14 weeks, to test the hypothesis that this model enhances nicotine seeking and produces distinct responses in hippocampal neurogenesis when compared with limited access (1 h/day, 4 days) intake. Animals in the extended access group were either perfused prior to or following their final deprivation period, whereas animals in the limited access group were perfused after their last session. Results: Limited- and extended access nicotine self-administration with periodic deprivation did not affect proliferation and differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitors in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Conversely, extended access nicotine self-administration with periodic deprivation enhanced proliferation and differentiation of hippocampal neural progenitors. Furthermore, in the hippocampus, the number of differentiating NeuroD-labeled cells strongly and positively correlated with enhanced nicotine seeking in rats that experienced extended access nicotine self-administration. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that extended versus limited access to nicotine self-administration differentially affects the generation of new oligodendroglia and new neurons during adulthood. The increases in the number of differentiating cells in extended access nicotine self-administering rats may consequently contribute to aberrant hippocampal neurogenesis and may contribute to maladaptive addiction-like behaviors dependent on the hippocampus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A trend of higher suicide rates in rural and remote areas as well as areas with low socioeconomic status has been shown in previous research. Little is known whether the influence of social deprivation on suicide differs between urban and rural areas. This investigation aims to examine how social deprivation influences suicide mortality and to identify which related factors of deprivation have a higher potential to reduce suicide risk in urban and rural Queensland, Australia. Methods: Suicide data from 2004 to 2008 were obtained from the Queensland Suicide Register. Age-standardized suicide rates (15+ years) and rate ratios, with a 95 % confidence interval, for 38 Statistical Subdivisions (SSDs) in Queensland were calculated. The influence of deprivation-related variables on suicide and their rural-urban difference were modelled by log-linear regression analyses through backward elimination. Results: Among the 38 SSDs in Queensland, eight had a higher suicide risk while eleven had a lower rate. Working-age males (15-59 years) had the most pronounced geographic variation in suicide rate. In urban areas, suicide rates were positively associated with tenant households in public housing, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the unemployment rate and median individual income, but inversely correlated with younger age and households with no internet access. In rural areas, only tenant households in public housing and households with no internet access heightened the risk of suicide, while a negative association was found for younger and older persons, low-skilled workers or labourers, and families with low income and no cars. Conclusions: The extent to which social deprivation contributes to suicide mortality varies considerably between rural and urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: The original Psychological Strain Scales (PSS) was published with data from a sample of Chinese population, which consisted of four strain scales: value strain, aspiration strain, deprivation strain, and coping strain. This study aims to validate and develop the English version of the PSS instrument. Method: Together with the PSS, Moos׳s Coping Response Inventory (CRI), Spielberger Trait-Anxiety scale, CES-D depression scale, and the NCS suicidal behavior scales were administered in a survey to a sample (N=280) of American college students. Item-total statistics, Cronbach׳s Alpha, Guttman Split-Half coefficient, factor analyses, correlation analysis and t tests were applied to test the reliability and validity of the English version of the PSS. Univariate and multivariable regression analyses were operated to know how extent the PSS predicts psychopathology such as anxiety, depression and suicidal behaviors. Results: Cronbach׳s Alpha coefficient of PSS was 0.936. The Split-Half coefficient of PSS was 0.839. The reliability of the PSS was excellent. The factor analysis results demonstrated strong construct validity of each scale. The criterion validity and the discriminant validity were both excellent for the English version of PSS instrument. Conclusions: With the excellent scores on both reliability and validity, the English version of the PSS scales can be an excellent measurement for estimating the psychological strain levels of American college students as well as predicting their psychopathology. The PSS can be applicable for research to evaluate and predict suicidal behaviors and mental disorders. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Huntington disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor, cognitive, psychiatric and metabolic symptoms. Animal models of HD show phenotypes that can be divided into similar categories, with the metabolic phenotype of certain models being characterized by obesity. Although interesting in terms of modeling metabolic symptoms of HD, the obesity phenotype can be problematic as it might confound the results of certain behavioral tests. This concerns the assessment of cognitive function in particular, as tests for such phenotypes are often based on food depriving the animals and having them perform tasks for food rewards. The BACHD rat is a recently established animal model of HD, and in order to ensure that behavioral characterization of these rats is done in a reliable way, a basic understanding of their physiology is needed. Here, we show that BACHD rats are obese and suffer from discrete developmental deficits. When assessing the motivation to lever push for a food reward, BACHD rats were found to be less motivated than wild type rats, although this phenotype was dependent on the food deprivation strategy. Specifically, the phenotype was present when rats of both genotypes were deprived to 85% of their respective free-feeding body weight, but not when deprivation levels were adjusted in order to match the rats' apparent hunger levels. The study emphasizes the importance of considering metabolic abnormalities as a confounding factor when performing behavioral characterization of HD animal models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the associations between social deprivation, depression, and psychotic symptoms such as paranoia, hallucinations, and mania using the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey dataset. Topics include the mediating roles of stress, discrimination, trust, and social support; the relationship between paranoid ideation and participants' index of multiple deprivation (IMD); and investigations of the role of social inequalities in psychopathology.

The article reports on the ecological study regarding the association between excess winter mortality (EWM) and deprivation that is according to the particular domains of deprivation which is included in the multiple deprivation (IMD) and the classified areas as rural and urban.

Abstract: This paper understands inhalant use – the deliberate inhalation of volatile solvents or glues with intentions of intoxication – as a socially and culturally constituted practice. It describes the inhalant use of young street people in Mexico City from their perspective (“the vicioso or inhalant fiend's point of view”). Background: Even if inhalant use is globally associated with economic inequality and deprivation, there is a marked lack of ethnography. Incomprehension and indignation have blocked our understanding of inhalant use as a form of marginalised drug use. The current explanation models reduce inhalant consumption to universal factors and individual motives; separating the practice from its context, these models tend to overlook gustatory meanings and experiences. Methods: The paper is informed by long-term, on-going fieldwork with young street people in Mexico City. Fieldwork was done from 1990 through 2010, in regular periods of fieldwork and shorter visits, often with Mexican colleagues. We created extensive sets of fieldnotes, which were read and re-read. Results: “Normalcy” is a striking feature of inhalant use in Mexico City. Street-wise inhabitants of popular neighbourhoods have knowledge about inhalants and inhalant users, and act accordingly. Subsequently, Mexico City's elaborate street culture of sniffing is discussed, that is, the range of inhalants used, how users classify the substances, and their techniques for sniffing. The paper also distinguishes three patterns of inhalant use, which more or less correlate with age. These patterns indicate embodiments of street culture: the formation within users of gusto, that is, an acquired appetite for inhalants, and of vicio, the inhalant fiends’ devotion to inhalants. Conclusion: What emerges from the ethnographic findings is an elaborate street culture of sniffing, a complex configuration of shared perspectives and embodied practices, which are shaped by and shaping social exclusion. These findings are relevant to appreciate and address the inhalant fiends’ acquired appetite and habit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the current study, we investigated how complete infant deprivation to out-group race impacts behavioral and neural sensitivity to race. Although monkey models have successfully achieved complete face deprivation in early life, this is typically impossible in human studies. We overcame this barrier by examining youths with exclusively homogenous racial experience in early postnatal development. These were youths raised in orphanage care in either East Asia or Eastern Europe as infants and later adopted by American families. The use of international adoption bolsters confidence of infant exposure to race (e.g., to solely Asian faces or European faces). Participants com-pleted an emotional matching task during functional MRI. Our findings show that deprivation to other-race faces in infancy disrupts recognition of emotion and results in heightened amygdala response to out-group faces. Greater early deprivation (i.e., later age of adoption) is associated with greater biases to race. These data demonstrate how early social deprivation to race shapes amygdala function later in life and provides support that early postnatal development may represent a sensitive period for race perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is a common treatment for non-metastatic, low-risk prostate cancer, but a potential side effect of ADT is impaired brain functioning. Previous work with functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated altered prefrontal cortical activations in cognitive control, with undetectable changes in behavioral performance. Given the utility of brain imaging in identifying the potentially deleterious effects of ADT on brain functions, the current study examined the effects of ADT on cerebral structures using high resolution MRI and voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Methods: High resolution T1 weighted image of the whole brain were acquired at baseline and six months after ADT for 12 prostate cancer patients and 12 demographically matched non-exposed control participants imaged at the same time points. Brain images were segmented into gray matter, white matter and cerebral ventricles using the VBM toolbox as implemented in Statistical Parametric Mapping 8. Results: Compared to baseline scan, prostate cancer patients undergoing ADT showed decreased gray matter volume in frontopolar cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and primary motor cortex, whereas the non-exposed control participants did not show such changes. In addition, the decrease in gray matter volume of the primary motor cortex showed a significant correlation with longer reaction time to target detection in a working memory task. Conclusions: ADT can affect cerebral gray matter volumes in prostate cancer patients. If replicated, these results may facilitate future studies of cognitive function and quality of life in men receiving ADT, and can also help clinicians weigh the benefits and risks of hormonal therapy in the treatment of prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: It is well established that nicotine improves, and deprivation impairs, cognitive performance and mood in smokers. Prospective memory (PM), remembering to execute a delayed intention at a given time point, is under-explored in smokers. Whilst a handful of studies have shown improved PM with nicotine, the effects of nicotine delivered via the electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) have not been investigated. Objective: This study explores whether, by comparison with placebo, nicotine delivered via the e-cigarette can improve PM, tobacco withdrawal symptoms and desire to smoke in abstinent smokers. Methods: Twenty smokers, abstinent for 8-10 h, each completed two experimental sessions under nicotine (18 mg) and placebo (0 mg) e-cigarette conditions. Participants completed a single-item desire-to-smoke scale and the Mood and Physical Symptoms Scale. PM was measured using the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test. Results: Compared with placebo, the nicotine e-cigarette reduced the desire to smoke and tobacco withdrawal symptoms, and improved time-based but not event-based PM. There was a moderate, marginally significant negative correlation between PM performance during abstinence and nicotine dependence. Conclusions: This is the first study to show that nicotine derived via e-cigarette can improve PM in abstinent smokers, suggesting efficient nicotine delivery. The finding that the effect of nicotine was restricted to time-based rather than event-based PM is consistent with the view that nicotine acts to improve performance on strategic (effortful) rather than automatic processing. These findings add to the growing body of evidence that the e-cigarette can replace some of the effects of nicotine derived from tobacco smoking, thus highlighting its potential for smoking cessation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal conditions associated with overstimulation or understimulation may precipitate and maintain oppression among individuals and communities by inducing dissociation. Distortion of reality and the flooding of everyday awareness with irrelevant information by mass media is a type of community-wide overstimulation. Alternatively, stimulus deprivation enables single-minded thinking to be narrowly preoccupied with rigid religious ideas, traditional rituals, and postmodern thought and behavior patterns. Provoked sex is utilized as a soothing tool for those who live in overstimulation and as an opportunity for transient enjoyment and rejuvenation for those who live in stimulus deprivation. Chronic exposure to disproportionate stimuli resurrects the trauma-based developmental detachment between the sociological and psychological selves of the individual at the cost of the latter. The enlarged sociological self of the individual is misused to induce a conforming identity transformation of individuals and entire communities that is a prerequisite to setting and maintaining an oppressive system. Constituting overstimulation itself, the enduring fear of chaos in a world akin to crisis enables deliberate acceptance of oppression to restore a sense of control. In fact, the expectancy of crisis triggers the trauma-related dissociative fears of individual internal chaos, which are misused, in turn, to aggravate fears of external chaos again. By facilitating the denial of internal fears rather than integrating them, psychological theories and practices of the past century have failed in addressing the problem of individual and societal oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Cue-induced cravings may hinder behavior change efforts such as smoking cessation. Correlation of cue-induced cravings across multiple stimuli would provide evidence for a cue-reactive phenotype that may have implications for behavior change therapies. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between cue-induced cravings for cigarettes and cue-induced cravings for a highly preferred food (chocolate) in a sample of smokers not subjected to lengthy deprivation for either of these two appetitive outcomes. Adult smokers (N=164) were assessed for chocolate cravings before and after exposure to chocolate cues and cigarette cravings before and after exposure to smoking cues. Consistent with previous reports, cigarette cravings increased significantly post-cue exposure and chocolate cravings increased significantly post-cue exposure (p''s<.0001). Consistent with study hypotheses, the magnitude of the increase in chocolate cravings after cue-exposure was significantly related to the increase in post-cue cigarette cravings (r=0.38; p<.0001), and was significantly related to scores on a retrospective, self-report, measure of cue-induced food cravings in daily life. These findings are consistent with the idea of a general “cue-reactive” phenotype that varies across individuals, a conceptualization of risk that may point the way toward improved interventions for a variety of hedonically mediated behaviors with negative health outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Consumers assess their well-being subjectively, largely by comparing the present state of their lives to the state of comparable others and to their own state earlier in time. The authors suggest that consumers similarly assess their financial wellbeing, and when these evaluations highlight a deficit in their financial position, they pursue strategies that mitigate the associated sense of financial deprivation. Specifically, consumers counteract the relative deficit in their financial resources by acquiring goods that are consequently unavailable to other consumers in their environment. The results from five studies suggest that the inferiority and unpleasant affect associated with financial deprivation motivates consumers to attend to, choose, and consume scarce goods rather than comparable abundant goods. These effects diminish when scarce goods are limited because other people have already obtained them and when consumers attribute their unpleasant feelings to a source unrelated to financial deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the efficacy of the natural experiment longitudinal study design in psychological research, focusing specifically on the English and Romanian Adoptees Study into the effects of institutional care on children. It comments on the impact of psychosocial deprivation and the establishment of deprivation-specific patters (DSPs). Other topics explored include general population samples, high-risk samples, and the psychology of orphaned children.

Abstract: Smokers with symptoms of social anxiety often report smoking as a way to cope with negative affect. These individuals have lower success rates when attempting cessation compared with the general population. However, there is a paucity of research examining the role of social anxiety in nicotine dependence. The present study explored the relationships between symptoms of social anxiety, smoking to cope with these symptoms during social situations (STC), and cigarette craving. Thirty-eight participants completed measures of social anxiety and STC at baseline. Cigarette craving was subsequently assessed pre and post exposure to smoking-related images during periods of nicotine satiation and deprivation. Regression analyses revealed that greater symptoms of social anxiety predicted the frequency of STC behaviors and the number of cigarettes participants thought they would need in order to feel more comfortable in social situations. Symptoms of social anxiety and several behaviors associated with STC (e.g., avoiding social situations in which smoking is not permitted) predicted increases in craving during nicotine deprivation, but not satiation. These findings suggest that symptoms of social anxiety and STC behaviors may play a role in the maintenance of smoking behaviors. Further, targeting symptoms of social anxiety within the context of smoking cessation treatment may be particularly helpful and may improve the rates of smoking cessation among individuals with symptoms of social anxiety. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]