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Biomedical subjects

G E Vaillant

Publications and source records attributed to G E Vaillant.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

A 50-year prospective study of the psychological sequelae of World War II combat.

OBJECTIVE: The authors took advantage of a 50-year prospective study of World War II veterans to examine the predictors and correlates of combat exposure, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and trait neuroticism. METHOD: The subjects were 107 veterans who had been extensively studied before and immediately after serving overseas in World War II. All served as members of the study until the present time, and 91 completed questionnaires of both PTSD symptoms and neuroticism. RESULTS: In this study group, variables associated with positive psychosocial health in adolescence and at age 65 predicted combat exposure. Combat exposure and number of physiological symptoms during combat stress--but not during civilian stress--predicted symptoms of PTSD in 1946 and 1988. Combat exposure also predicted early death and study attrition. Psychosocial vulnerability in adolescence and at age 65 and physiological symptoms during civilian stress--but not during combat stress--predicted trait neuroticism at age 65. CONCLUSIONS: Combat exposure predicted symptoms of PTSD but not nonspecific measures of psychopathology. Premorbid vulnerability predicted subsequent psychopathology but not symptoms of PTSD.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Ego mechanisms of defense and personality psychopathology.

It is often not just life stress but also a person's idiosyncratic response to life stress that leads to psychopathology. Thus, despite problems in reliability, the validity of defenses makes them a valuable diagnostic axis for understanding psychopathology. By including a patient's defensive style as part of the diagnostic formulation, the clinician is better able to comprehend what seems initially most unreasonable about the patient and to appreciate what is adaptive as well as maladaptive about the patient's defensive distortions of inner and outer reality. Clinical appreciation of the immature defenses (e.g., hypochondriasis, fantasy, dissociation, acting out, projection, and passive aggression) is particularly useful in classifying and caring for individuals with personality disorders.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMed1994

Evidence that the type 1/type 2 dichotomy in alcoholism must be re-examined.

Studies supporting Cloninger's original Type 1/Type 2 hypothesis for classifying the genetic transmission of alcoholism have sometimes failed to control for important sources of potential bias. First, the environmental effects of parental alcoholism must be distinguished from the genetic effects of parental alcoholism. Secondly, antisocial personality disorder must be distinguished from alcohol dependence. Thirdly, to control for developmental effects a cohort of alcoholics should be followed into late mid-life. The present report, a 50-year prospective study of the development of alcoholism in two community samples of 456 disadvantaged youth and 204 Harvard graduates, addresses these three potential sources of bias. In this report the age of onset of alcoholism and the degree of antisocial symptomatology was correlated with disturbed family environment but was quite independent of the presence or absence of a heredity positive for alcoholism. The reasons why such findings threaten the validity of the Type 1/Type 2 hypothesis are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

An intriguing association between ancestral mortality and male affective disorder.

We examine the relationship between ancestral age at death and affective disorder. A cohort of 204 socioeconomically favored men was selected for mental and physical health 50 years ago and followed up until age 69 +/- 1 (+/- SD) years in an interdisciplinary study. During follow-up, 49 of these men were identified at some point as being psychosocially impaired. Of these 49 men, 25 were identified as having probable affective disorder based on family history of affective illness, clinical signs, subjective symptoms, clinical diagnosis, and choice of pharmacological treatment. Objective signs and symptoms distinguished these 25 men from the remaining 24 men, whose adjustment over the 50 years was equally psychosocially impaired, but who were never noted to be significantly depressed. The mean age at death of the maternal grandfathers for the 25 depressed men was 60.4 years, significantly younger than the mean age at death of maternal grandfathers for either the total sample (70.1 years) or the 25 psychosocially impaired but not depressed men (68.8 years). The mean age at death of the depressed men's other five first-degree ancestors was not significantly different from the age at death of the ancestors of the rest of the sample. If depressed alcohol abusers were excluded, the mean age at death of maternal grandfathers of alcohol abusers did not differ from that of the controls' maternal grandfathers. The evidence for possible X-chromosome linkage in male psychobiological vulnerability to affective spectrum disorder is discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The association of ancestral longevity with successful aging.

A cohort of 184 men from socioeconomically advantaged ancestors has been followed from ages 18 to 65. In order to test the hypothesis that ancestral longevity would predict both mental and physical vigor, the men's physical and psychosocial health have been prospectively monitored, and the age at death of their parents and grandparents obtained. Ancestral longevity was strongly predictive of chronic illness at age 60 +/- 1 years and mortality at age 68 +/- 1 years. Long-lived ancestors, however, exerted little effect in predicting psychosocial vigor and mental health at age 65.

Affect↗
PubMed1990

Natural history of male psychological health, XII: a 45-year study of predictors of successful aging at age 65.

In order to determine important predictors of psychosocial and physical vitality in late midlife, the authors examined the lives of 173 men prospectively studied from ages 18 to 65. Biopsychosocial predictors--gathered before age 50--were examined for their correlation with three outcome variables measured at age 65: physical health, mental health, and life satisfaction. Extent of tranquilizer use before age 50 was the most powerful negative predictor of both mental and physical health outcomes at age 65. Another important predictor for mental health was maturity of defenses before age 50. Paradoxically, warm childhood environment made an important independent contribution to predicting physical--not mental--health.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Predicting exercise in late midlife from young adult personality characteristics.

This study explored the relationship between personality and exercise over the life span by using young adult personality characteristics to predict current exercise behavior in late middle-aged male graduates from the Harvard University classes of 1942 to 1944. After controlling for prior exercise behavior, body build, and fitness in young adulthood, we found that personality variables improved classification accuracy in discriminant analysis, and especially improved identification of frequent exercisers. Personality variables positively associated with frequent exercise include affective vitality, integration, lack of anxiety, and lack of shyness. Results are interpreted as supporting a psychobiological account of exercise behavior. Caution is suggested in generalizing the results to other populations, such as less privileged socio-economic classes or females.

Aging↗
PubMed1988

What is a case? A 45-year study of psychiatric impairment within a college sample selected for mental health.

Six different models for assessing psychiatric impairment were applied to 188 men who had been studied prospectively for half a century. The six models were categorical DSM-III diagnosis by a senior psychiatrist; objective evidence of impairment in working and loving; relative maturity of ego mechanisms of defense; the Health Sickness Rating Scale; the Global Assessment Scale (Axis V of DSM-III-R); and a "research" scale designed to provide a consensual definition of "caseness." As a test of predictive validity of our impairment measures, assessments before the age of 50 years were used to predict psychosocial adjustment and physical health assessed 15 years later. All six models were highly intercorrelated and proved equally effective in predicting future impairment. Procedures to establish construct validity suggested that the presence of a DSM-III diagnosis was a valid categorical definition of case, and that Axis V of DSM-III-R was a valid dimensional measure of impairment.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Pessimistic explanatory style is a risk factor for physical illness: a thirty-five-year longitudinal study.

Explanatory style, the habitual ways in which individuals explain bad events, was extracted from open-ended questionnaires filled out by 99 graduates of the Harvard University classes of 1942-1944 at age 25. Physical health from ages 30 to 60 as measured by physician examination was related to earlier explanatory style. Pessimistic explanatory style (the belief that bad events are caused by stable, global, and internal factors) predicted poor health at ages 45 through 60, even when physical and mental health at age 25 were controlled. Pessimism in early adulthood appears to be a risk factor for poor health in middle and late adulthood.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Attachment, loss and rediscovery.

This paper suggests that separation and loss in early childhood may be less critical to later life than some people believe. Rather, internalization--after as well as before, age five--may be a developmental process to which psychotherapists need to pay particular attention. By attending to our patient's experiences of separation and loss, we allow them a metaphor, a language, with which they can describe the vicissitudes of lasting attachments. Similarly, the separation/individuation process of infancy, popularized by Klein and Mahler, is important, not just because it describes the biosocial fact of preverbal infancy but because it draws our attention to a metaphor that describes the struggle for identity that characterizes young adulthood.

Grief↗
PubMed1987

Some physiologic antecedents of adult mental health.

The authors report on 188 healthy college men followed biennially from age 19 years to age 63. A relatively low standing heart rate and long treadmill running time in college predicted mental--but not physical--health during the next 40 years, whereas a relatively low blood pressure predicted future physical--but not mental--health. These relationships remained significant when the effects of physical fitness and body build were partialled out, suggesting that psychological components of physiologic phenomena accounted for their prediction of mental health outcome. The authors speculate that a high resting heart rate reflected social anxiety and prolonged running time reflected perseverance and stoicism.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

The Washington University Sentence Completion Test compared with other measures of adult ego development.

One hundred seven men who had been studied prospectively from age 18 to age 63 completed the Washington University Sentence Completion Test at age 55 +/- 2 years. Ego level as assessed by the Sentence Completion Test correlated significantly with psychosocial maturity, with number of psychiatric visits, and, perhaps, with creativity. Ego level as assessed by the Sentence Completion Test did not correlate with mental health, psychopathology, or maturity of defenses. The authors discuss possible reasons for these findings.

Adaptation, Psychological↗