The present study investigates the psychometric adequacy of a self-report inventory of depression (the QD2) with respect to the severity of depressive symptoms, within the framework of a unidimensional model of depressive states. Responses to the 52 QD2 items, by 481 subjects divided into four groups (depressed, psychiatric, somatic and control), were subjected to a Rasch analysis. Results show that 15 items (QSD(R1] display a satisfactory goodness of fit for both items and persons, as defined by the Rasch model. This set of items, solely related to 'pure' depression, gives a measure of the severity of depression, free from anxiety symptoms. The discussion focuses upon the advantages of the Rasch model as compared to traditional tests. The Rasch 15-item solution should provide a parsimonious tool for future studies on the classification of depressive disorders.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Electrodermal asymmetry during human sleep.

The bilateral spontaneous electrodermal activity (EDA) of four paid volunteer male students was recorded during three consecutive complete nights (after a habituation night). The results showed that: (a) there was a high proportion of electrodermal asymmetry (80%) during human sleep; (b) there were no significant differences in asymmetry between sleep stages; (c) electrodermal laterality during sleep seems to be under a random effects model; and (d) laterality appears to be an unreliable parameter. These results are discussed in terms of the activation theory.

Arousal↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Identity disturbances and self-other differentiation in schizophrenics, borderlines, and normal controls.

The present study investigates identity disorders in schizophrenics and borderlines. Nineteen schizophrenics and 17 borderlines were compared with 18 normal controls. The technique used was an adapted version of the repertory grid test to describe the self and nine significant others (i.e., family members). Three indices were derived from the 10 person x 20 self-generated-attribute matrix to measure the extent to which self was differentiated from others: (1) overlap of salient attributes, (2) overlap of opposite attributes, and (3) degree of differentiation among others. Results showed that both schizophrenics and borderlines describe themselves more in terms of opposites than in terms of salient attributes. Differentiation among significant others was severely impaired in schizophrenics and preserved in borderlines. These findings were interpreted as a failure of the individuation process in schizophrenics and as an incomplete construal of self-identity in borderlines.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Morphological and virological studies in six autopsies of children with adenovirus pneumonia.

Pulmonary lesions compatible with adenovirus infection were detected by gross and microscopic examination of autopsy tissues from children aged from 5 to 34 months. Hepatic lesions indicative of systemic infection were also found in four of the children. The viral etiology was confirmed in three cases by in-situ hybridization, electron-microscopy and immunofluorescence performed in paraffin-embedded tissues, and in one case by cell culture isolation of adenovirus type 2 from nasopharyngeal exudate. Routine testing by methods additional to conventional light microscopy would probably have revealed a larger number of adenovirus infections among the 1,103 autopsy records analyzed in this study.

Adenovirus Infections, Human↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Personal identity and multiple personality].

The present study analyses the internal organization of self concepts in a woman who meets the DSM III criteria of multiple personality disorder. The aim of this single case study, was to assess the personal identity of this patient, the degree of internal coherence and the hierarchical structure of the descriptions of self and others in the frame of cognitive theories of personality. After the clinical observation, the experimental procedure is presented. It consists in asking the patient to describe her different roles or alternated personalities (N = 12), as well as the target persons of her familial and social environment (N = 8) on the basis of a preestablished list of adjectives (extracted from the 16 P.F. Cattell sphere of personality). The factorial analysis of the contingency table: traits attributed x persons described shows a Guttman like hierarchical structure. Similarities and differences between the descriptions can be ordered on a unidimensional order, the multiple roles or personalities being no more complex nor simple than the target persons. The present results have been discussed in reference to cognitive theories of personality and their utility in studying personal identity and multiple personality.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Representations of causality and depression. A factorial approach to the resignation model in the depressed patient].

The present study investigates causal attributions for stressful life events within the context of Beck's cognitive theory of affective disorders and Seligman's learned helplessness model of depression. The aim was to assess the validity of the depressive attributional style proposed by Seligman, with a clinically depressed population for negative life events. This study presents a factor analysis of the causal attributions of depressed psychiatric in patients measured in relation to one negative life event per subject. The experimental procedure consisted in asking 71 ward depressed patients (51 females and 20 males) to answer 15 items along a seven point scale in order to assess the causes, consequences and control attributed. Statistical treatment using both multidimensional analyses (to describe the dimensions of causality) and univariate comparisons show: 1. The existence of a three dimensional solution, which is interpreted in terms of Seligman's reformulated helplessness model, and which confirms the notion of a "depressive attributional style". 2. A positive relationship between intensity of depression and the tendency to generalize the effects of negative life events (dimension of globality in Seligman's model and generalizability in Beck's). As this relationship is a function of the level of depression it is considered as a psychological state rather than as a personality trait. 3. Inter-sex differences with regard to the attribution of personal versus universal control, with female patients indicating more personal helplessness in relation to others. The results are discussed in relation to epidemiological data and personality theory.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Research strategies in the evaluation of depressive states].

The present paper discusses the respective benefits of a latent trait model and of factorial correspondence analysis in the research strategies of depression inventory construction. Results on the processing of the same list of depressive symptoms by both analyses are presented. The fact that, in questionnaires based on latent models, each answer brings an information closely dependent on its place in the hierarchical order is underlined. The latent trait strategy construction offers an accurate way to assess how patients recover from depression.

Depressive Disorder↗