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The aim of this study was to develop the use of daily diaries of affects and events as measures of pharmacological effects on affective processes and to apply them to evaluate the possible affective toxicity of metoclopramide and naproxen, two medications commonly used in geriatric practice. In all, 105 adults aged 65 years or older were randomized to receive metoclopramide (up to 40 mg/day), naproxen (up to 1000 mg/day), or placebo under double-blind conditions for a period of 5 weeks. Patients were seen weekly for evaluations of affective and cognitive outcomes as well as safety. In addition, patients kept diaries with daily records of positive and negative affect and reports of significant daily events. Findings included mixed model analyses of drug assignment, time, events, and interactions for both positive affect and days with significant negative affect. Subjects exhibited high levels of adherence in completing daily diaries. Neither the pattern of dropouts nor the weekly assessments demonstrated significant drug effects on mood or affect. However, diary data demonstrated that metoclopramide increased the apparent impact of negative events on both positive and negative affect relative to placebo, and that naproxen increased the apparent impact of positive events on positive affect and, possibly, of negative events on negative affect relative to placebo. The findings confirm the utility of diary methods for studying drug effects on affective processes in normal elderly subjects. They suggest that both metoclopramide and naproxen can affect the associations between daily events and affects. If replicated, they would demonstrate that drug effects can extend beyond the intensity of affect and/or the emergence of full-fledged psychiatric disorders to include moderation of the interactions between daily events and affect.
Affect is central to our understanding of many processes, including dreams. The question has been raised as to whether it is the affective or narrative aspect of dreaming that is central to its development. The purpose of the study is to assess the frequency and valence of affect in the manifest content of dream reports of patients in analytic therapy and if affect is absent to assess the frequency and valence of affect in the associations to the dream reports without affect [MK1]. The presence and valence of affect was evaluated in the first and last manifest dream report of 24 patients who had completed psychoanalytic treatment. If no affect was found, the dream associations were examined for affect and valence. Affect was found in 58.3% of dream reports. The valence of affect in dream reports became more positive during the course of treatment from 19.2% in the first manifest dream report to 53.3% in the last. The associations to the dream reports without affect had affect 94.1% of the time. Affect was present in either the dream report or the associations to it 97.9% of the time. The positive change in affect is most likely the result of psychotherapeutic treatment, although the psychotropic medication 46% of the patients were on at the time of the last dream report and the passage of time may also be factors. The centrality of affect in dream formation and interpretation is supported if the view of the dream experience includes the associations to the dream report.
This study tested anticipated affect as a potential strategy for reducing risky single-occasion drinking (RSOD). The hypothesis was that asking respondents to focus on their anticipated affect following RSOD would lead to higher ratings of negative affect than those obtained when asking respondents to focus on their feelings towards RSOD. In turn, these negative affect ratings were hypothesized as leading to safer behavioural estimates and reductions in RSOD. The study is based on a self-report questionnaire administered at two time points. At Time 1, measures of past drinking and demographic information were collected, along with affect ratings of drinking within safer single-occasion limits and affect ratings of RSOD (within-subjects condition). Time perspective was manipulated whereby the experimental group was asked to focus on affective reactions after RSOD and the control group to focus on affective reactions towards RSOD (between-subjects condition). Two weeks later, drinking behaviour was measured. The findings showed that the time perspective manipulation resulted in significantly higher negative affect ratings in the feeling after condition than in the feeling towards condition. Further, females reported lower negative affect than males. No other main or interaction effects were found. The time perspective manipulation, however, failed to produce safer behavioural estimates and RSOD reduction at follow-up. No significant differences were found between ratings of negative affect when drinking within safe limits as compared with ratings of affect when drinking above such limits. Despite greater negative affect 'after' rather than 'toward' the target behaviour, anticipated affect following RSOD did not yield safer behavioural estimates and subsequent drinking reduction at follow-up. These findings are interpreted in the context of risk perception associated with RSOD. The implications of this study for design of interventions aimed at reducing RSOD are discussed. In particular, ways of intensifying negative affect for RSOD are considered.
This study investigated: (a) whether moderate intensity aerobic exercise exerted a significant affective influence during, and postexercise, (b) the nature of the affective response to exercise in relation to positive and negative affects, and affects associated with physiological distress, and (c) whether exercise induced affect was significantly influenced by exercise behaviour. Habitual exercisers (n = 15) and sedentary participants (n = 13) undertook three randomly allocated interventions; (a) exercise (EX; i.e., 20 min of cycling at 60% estimated VO2max), (b) normal workstation duties for 60 min (WRK), and (c) a 60 min sedentary lunch break (SED). Affect was measured pre, post, and 90 min postintervention, as well as every 5 min during exercise, using the Subjective Exercise Experiences Scale (SEES; McAuley & Courneya, 1994). Exercise behaviour had no significant affect on affective responses to exercise in this study (p > .05). Significant (p < .05) postintervention increases in positive affect were found for EX compared to WRK and SED indicating that exercise did produce a positive affective influence. Despite enduring postexercise (i.e., 90 min) improvements in both positive and negative affects, and affects related to fatigue, the affective response during exercise was characterised by significant (p < .05) decreases in levels of positive affect and increased levels of affects related to fatigue.
The relationships between positive affect, salivary cortisol over the day, and cardiovascular responses to laboratory mental stress tests, were assessed in 72 healthy non-smoking men (mean age 33.6+/-8.8 years). Positive affect was measured by aggregating ecological momentary assessments (EMA) of happiness obtained at four times on each of 2 working days, and by questionnaire using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Saliva was sampled on 2 days, on waking, 30 and 60 min later, and four other times over the day. Blood pressure and heart rate responses to speech and mirror tracing tasks were measured over two sessions 4 weeks apart. Data were analysed using regression of positive affect on biology adjusting for age, body mass and negative affect, with additional adjustment for time of waking in cortisol analyses and for work stress in cardiovascular analyses. EMA positive affect was inversely associated with cortisol early in the day and with the cortisol increase after waking, controlling for age, body mass index, and negative affect (P=0.012). There was no relationship between PANAS positive affect and cortisol, or between EMA positive affect and cortisol later in the day. Diastolic pressure recovery post-stress was more rapid among participants with high positive affect (P=0.022) and with lower systolic pressure throughout the stress sessions, after controlling for covariates including negative affect. PANAS positive affect was also inversely associated with systolic pressure, but not with diastolic stress or heart rate. We conclude that positive affect is related to biological responses in the laboratory and everyday life that may be health protective. Effects were substantially stronger when positive affect was assessed by aggregating EMA samples than with questionnaire measures.
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether positive affect, defined as emotional contentment and happiness, remains stable in late life and to identify predictors of longitudinal change in positive affect. DESIGN: Longitudinal observational study. SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred sixty-three individuals aged 70 and older without disability at baseline and free of chronically depressed mood. MEASUREMENTS: Positive affect, social network, social activity, chronic health conditions, activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), cognitive functioning, and negative affect measured over 54 months, at 18-month intervals, up to four times. RESULTS: Positive affect remained relatively stable over 4.5 years of follow-up. Higher average levels of social activity and lower levels of negative affect were associated with higher positive affect. An increase of 1 point in negative affect (on a 7-point scale) was associated with a 0.23-point concurrent decrease in positive affect (on a 5-point scale). Needing help in an additional IADL was associated with a decrease in positive affect of 0.04 points. A greater number of chronic conditions at enrollment was associated with lower positive affect. CONCLUSION: Positive affect is directly correlated with social involvement and inversely correlated with negative affect, IADL functioning, and comorbidity. Positive affect was mostly related to factors that do not change over time, although it showed some sensitivity to short- and long-term changes in physical health and functioning.
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the factors related to the morphogenesis of the craniofacial complex of the CL/Fr mouse fetus affected with CLP based on the findings of a lateral cephalogram. DESIGN: Embryo transfer experiments were performed to determine the effect of the fetus weight, dam strain, dam weight, and litter size on the Intra-uterine craniofacial morphogenesis of CL/Fr mouse fetuses. On the 18th gestational day, each pregnant dam that had received CL/Fr mouse embryos was laparotomized to remove the transferred fetuses that had developed in the uteri of the cleft lip and palate (CLP)-susceptible CL/Fr strain dam and the CLP-resistant C57BL strain dam. A cephalometric observation of the craniofacial morphology of each fetus was subsequently performed. RESULTS: Based on a multiple regression analysis, the standardized partial regression coefficients of the affected fetus weight, the dam weight, and the litter size on the maxillary size of the affected CL/Fr fetus were 0.71 (p < .01), 0.03, and -0.07. According to a least-squares analysis of variance, the dam strain effect in addition to the effect of the affected fetus weight on the maxillary size and the cranial size of the affected fetuses was significant (p < .01 for cranial size, p < .05 for maxillary size) and close to a significant level (p = .09) for the mandibular size of the affected fetuses. The adjusted maxillary size and cranial size after statistically eliminating the effects of the affected fetus weight, dam weight, and litter size on each original craniofacial size of the affected fetuses that had developed in the CL/Fr dam strain were also significantly smaller than those of the affected fetuses that had developed in the C57BL dam strain. CONCLUSIONS: The present results indicate that the craniofacial growth of the CL/Fr mouse fetus affected with CLP increased in proportion to the fetus weight. The dam strain effect, in addition to the effect of the affected fetus weight, could thus not be ignored when the etiology of the spontaneous CLP was examined, while the uterine environment, provided by the CL/Fr strain dam, retarded the intra-uterine craniofacial growth of the affected fetuses. It was therefore concluded that the dam strain effect, as well as the effect of the affected fetus weight, both play an important role on the craniofacial morphogenesis of the CL/Fr strain of the affected fetuses that developed in both strain dams.
The expressed affect of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers as measured by the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia: Lifetime Version (SADS-L) and their children (1 1/2 to 3 1/2 years) was observed in seminatural situations. The objectives were to investigate how maternal depression enters into affective interactions between mother and child and how the affect patterns of mother and child are related. Forty-nine unipolar and 24 bipolar depressed mothers and 45 nondepressed mothers were observed on 2 days, 2 weeks apart, for a total of 5 h. Each minute was coded for the predominant affect of mother and child. Affects relevant to depression (anxious--said, irritable--angry, downcast, pleasant, tender-affectionate) were coded. Depressed mothers expressed significantly more negative affect than did control mothers. Mothers' expressed affect and their self-reports of affect on days of observation were unrelated. Mother's and child's affects, measured on different days, were significantly correlated. Unipolar mothers and mothers severely depressed spent significantly more time in prolonged bouts of negative affect. There was significant synchrony between their bouts and the negative bouts of their daughters. Gender of child was related to mother's and child's affect, and to relations between mother's and child's affect.
BACKGROUND: Studies examining the effects of oral contraceptives (OCs) on mood, affect, and affect variability are reviewed. METHODS: MEDLINE and PsycLIT data bases were examined to identify studies that compared OC users with nonusers using daily ratings of mood, affect, or affect variability. RESULTS: Compared to non-users, OC users experience less variability in affect across the entire menstrual cycle, and less negative affect during menstruation (i.e. withdrawal bleeding). In women with OC-related negative mood and affect change, potential mediators of the relation between OCs and mood or affect were identified: a history of depression, psychiatric symptoms, dysmenorrhea, and premenstrual mood symptoms prior to OC use; a history of pregnancy-related mood symptoms; a family history of OC-related mood complaints; being in the postpartum period; and age. Furthermore, a lower ratio of progesterone to estrogen is associated with more negative mood change in women with a history of premenstrual emotional symptoms, higher progesterone to estrogen ratios are associated with increased negative mood effects in women without such a history, and monophasic OCs have a greater stabilizing effect on mood than triphasic OCs. LIMITATIONS: The 'survivor effect', psychological factors, and indirect pharmacological effects (e.g. weight gain) have not yet been systematically investigated. Furthermore, most studies have examined only negative mood or affect, as opposed to both positive and negative affect and affect variability; and few affect studies have assessed potential mediators of OC-related affect change. CONCLUSIONS: While the only consistent OC-related mood effects experienced by most women are beneficial, a subgroup of women do experience negative mood change. Future research must focus on expounding the individual difference and OC-related risk factors for negative mood change.
Ratings on a 10-item affect checklist yielding composite positive affect and negative affect scores were made daily for 30 days by older people in residential care: 19 were diagnosed as having major depression, 21 had minor depression, and 37 were without psychiatric diagnosis ("normal"). Mean levels of positive affect were highest in normal people and least in those with major depression; negative affect was lowest in normal ones and highest in those with a major depression. Variability was least among those with major depression in positive affect and among normal people in negative affect, while residents with minor depression showed some tendency, although inconsistent, toward greater day-to-day variability in positive affect. Patterns of invariance were such that those with major depression tended to be consistently lacking in positive affect but were variable in negative affect; normal people showed variability in positive affect but a relatively unvarying lack of negative affect. Clinical major depression was thus characterized less by "pervasive" depressive affect than by anhedonia.
It is thought that the human amygdala is a critical component of the neural substrates of emotional experience, involved particularly in the generation of fear, anxiety, and general negative affectivity. Although many neuroimaging studies demonstrate findings consistent this notion, little evidence of altered emotional experience following amygdala damage has been gathered in humans. In a preliminary test of the amygdala's role in phenomenal affective states, we assessed the extent of experienced positive and negative affective states in patients with amygdala damage and age-, sex-, and education-matched controls. To assess chronic changes in experienced affect, all groups were administered the Positive and Negative Affect Schedules (PANAS, Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). In the first study, we examined the effects of amygdala lesions on affective traits in 10 left and 10 right amygdala-damaged patients, 1 patient with bilateral amygdala damage (SP), and 20 control subjects. Subjects were asked to indicate the typicality of different experiential states of positive (e.g., inspired, excited) and negative (e.g., afraid, nervous) valence. In a second study, we examined more closely the effects of bilateral amygdala damage on the day-to-day generation of affective states by administering the PANAS daily for a 30-day period to patient SP and age-, sex-, and education-matched controls. In both experiments, no differences in the magnitude and frequency of self-reported positive or negative affect were found between control subjects and patients with amygdala damage. Moreover, principal components analyses of the covariation among different affects (across individuals in Study 1 and within individuals across days in Study 2) confirmed a two-factor (positive vs. negative) description of experienced affect in controls. A highly similar two-factor description of experienced affect was found in patients with amygdala lesions. This suggests that the underlying structure of affective states was intact following amygdala damage. It is concluded that the human amygdala may be recruited during phenomenal affective states in the intact brain, but is not necessary for the production of these states.
Collagen was isolated by acetic acid extraction in the presence of protease inhibitors and also by pepsin digestion from the skins of dogs affected with the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and the skins on non-affected dogs. The collagen preparations isolated by acetic acid extraction from the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome-affected dog skin contained a greater proportion of alpha-chains than the collagen preparations from the normal dog skin. When the collagen from the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome-affected dog skin was reduced with NaBH4 before heat denaturation, and electrophoresis, there was a greater proportion of beta-chains present. The collagen isolated from the normal dog skin was not affected by the NaBH4 reduction. Collagen preparations isolated by pepsin digestion from both the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome-affected dog skin and the non-affected dog skin contained the same quantity of alpha- and beta-chains. In addition, collagen from both affected and non-affected dog skins isolated by pepsin digestion contained 10-11% type III collagen as determined by the interrupted sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis method. Pepsin digestion of the collagens isolated by acetic acid extraction in the presence of protease inhibitors from the skins of affected and non-affected dogs eliminated the differences between the alpha:beta ratios of the affected and non-affected collagen preparations.
Verbal marking of affect by older children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and high functioning autism (HFA) during spontaneous interactions is described. Discourse analysis of AS and HFA and typically developing children included frequency of affective utterances, affective initiations, affective labels and affective explanations, attribution of affective responses to self and others, and positive and negative markers of affect. Findings indicate that children with AS and HFA engaged in a higher proportion of affect marking and provided a higher proportion of affective explanations than typically developing children, yet were less likely to initiate affect marking sequences or talk about the affective responses of others. No significant differences were found between groups in terms of the marking of positive and negative affect.
This study investigated the impact of the affective content of imagery scripts used in an imagery paradigm designed to elicit smoking urges in a laboratory setting. Sixty cigarette smokers were instructed to vividly imagine 10 imagery scripts that described negative affect and explicit smoking urges, positive affect and explicit smoking urges, negative affect alone, positive affect alone, and neutral affect alone. Subjects' ratings of the vividness of their images across the five script types did not differ but ratings of urges and cravings indicated that scripts containing descriptions of smoking urges elicited strong reports of smoking urges/cravings comparable in magnitude across positive and negative affective content. Among scripts that did not explicitly describe smoking urges, negative affect scripts were more effective in generating smoking urges/craving than positive affect scripts, although positive affect scripts did produce significantly stronger urges/cravings than neutral affect scripts. An analysis of subjects' reports of the distribution of their strongest urges over imagery trials and regression analyses of the variables predictive of urge/craving report provided converging evidence that the content of the imagery scripts exerted considerable control over the generation of smoking urges in the imagery paradigm. The results indicated that the magnitude of urges and cravings produced by the imagery manipulation were clearly influenced by urge and affective content of the imagery scripts.
Prospect theory's S-shaped weighting function is often said to reflect the psychophysics of chance. We propose an affective rather than psychophysical deconstruction of the weighting function resting on two assumptions. First, preferences depend on the affective reactions associated with potential outcomes of a risky choice. Second, even with monetary values controlled, some outcomes are relatively affect-rich and others relatively affect-poor. Although the psychophysical and affective approaches are complementary, the affective approach has one novel implication: Weighting functions will be more S-shaped for lotteries involving affect-rich than affect-poor outcomes. That is, people will be more sensitive to departures from impossibility and certainty but less sensitive to intermediate probability variations for affect-rich outcomes. We corroborated this prediction by observing probability-outcome interactions: An affect-poor prize was preferred over an affect-rich prize under certainty, but the direction of preference reversed under low probability. We suggest that the assumption of probability-outcome independence, adopted by both expected-utility and prospect theory, may hold across outcomes of different monetary values, but not different affective values.
OBJECTIVES: To test for simvastatin-induced changes in affect and affective processes in elderly volunteers. DESIGN: Randomized, clinical trial. SETTING: The Geriatric Behavioral Psychopharmacology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty older volunteers, average age 70, with high normal/mildly elevated serum cholesterol. INTERVENTION: Simvastatin up to 20 mg/d or placebo for 15 weeks. MEASUREMENTS: Daily diary records of positive and negative affects and of events and biweekly measures of depressive symptoms. Affect ratings were obtained using the Lawton positive and negative affect scales; independent raters coded the valences of events. RESULTS: Thirty-one of 39 subjects assigned to placebo and 33 of 41 receiving simvastatin completed the study. During biweekly assessments, four subjects on simvastatin and one on placebo experienced depressive symptoms, as manifest by Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale scores greater than 16 (exact P=.36). Diary data demonstrated significant effects on affective processes. For positive affect, there was a significant medication-by-time interaction that reflected decreases in positive affect in subjects receiving simvastatin, greatest in those patients whose final total cholesterol levels were below 148 mg/dL. For negative affect, there were significant medication-by-event, and medication-by-event-by-time interactions, reflecting a time-limited increase in the apparent effect of negative events. CONCLUSION: Simvastatin has statistically significant effects on affect and affective processes in elderly volunteers. The decrease in positive affect may be significant clinically and relevant to the quality of life of many patients.