Underlying Dimensions of DSM-5 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder Symptoms

This study examined the relationship between the underlying latent factors of major depression symptoms and DSM-5 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). A nonclinical sample of 266 participants with a trauma history participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate the fit of the DSM-5 PTSD model and dysphoria model, as well as a depression model comprised of somatic and nonsomatic factors. The DSM-5 PTSD model demonstrated somewhat better fit over the dysphoria model. Wald tests indicated that PTSD’s negative alterations in cognitions and mood factor was more strongly related to depression’s nonsomatic factor than its somatic factor. This study furthers a nascent line of research examining the relationship between PTSD and depression factors in order to better understand the nature of the high comorbidity rates between the two disorders. Moreover, this study provides an initial analysis of the new DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for PTSD.     

Memory conformity and suggestibility

Abstract

The present study examined whether the degree to which participants engage in memory conformity, which occurs when a person alters their memory report of an event to be consistent with another person, can be predicted by their levels of interrogative suggestibility (IS), which is the degree to which people are susceptible to altering their memory reports during questioning. Memory conformity was introduced by having participant and confederate pairs study words and then complete a social recognition test where they took turns to make judgements to the same items. When the participants responded after the confederate, they tended to conform to confederate's judgements regardless of whether the confederate had made a correct or incorrect response. IS was measured using the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2. This scale allows separate measures of Yield, which is a measure of how susceptible people are to altering their memory reports of events as a result of leading questions, and Shift, which is a measure of how susceptible people are to changing responses to questions when placed under pressure to do so. Only Yield was a significant predictor of memory conformity.     

Symptom Validity Testing in Claimants with Alleged Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Comparing the Morel Emotional Numbing Test, the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology, and the Word Memory Test

In independent medical examinations, unjustified claims of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are to be expected at an increased rate. In a prospective study, consecutive cases of patients claiming PTSD who underwent independent neuropsychiatric evaluation were analyzed. For 61 adult patients, results of three symptom validity tests (Morel Emotional Numbing Test, Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology, and Word Memory Test) were available. Seventy percent of all claimants showed probable negative response bias in at least one of the three tests, 25% in all three tests. High probability of negative response bias was associated with symptom overreporting and demonstration of cognitive deficits in performance tests. The results indicate that high rates of uncooperativeness must be expected in civil forensic patients with claimed PTSD. A multi-method approach to the assessment of response distortion in PTSD claimants is indicated.     

Mental Disorder, Violence, and Gender

Recent studies have reported comparable rates of violence among men and women with mental disorder, raising important issues for clinical risk assessment. This study examines the relationship between gender and violence using data from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study. Patients in acute psychiatric wards were interviewed 5 times over the year following their discharge to the community. Results showed some differences between men and women in the violence committed immediately following discharge, with rates for men being higher. But the prevalence of violence over the 1 year was similar for female and male discharged patients. However, there were substantial gender differences in the situational context of the violence committed. Men were more likely to have been drinking or using street drugs, and less likely to have been adhering to prescribed psychotropic medication, prior to committing violence. The violence committed by men was more likely to result in serious injury than the violence committed by women, and men were more likely than women to be arrested after committing a violent act. Women were more likely to target family members and to be violent in the home.     

From Traumatic Memory to Traumatized Remembering: Beyond the Memory Wars, Part 1: Agreement

From the mid-1980s onwards, US courts have seen a dramatic increase in personal injury and criminal cases alleging harm caused by sexual abuse whose memories were ??recovered?? after decades of forgetting. These recovered memory claims were countered by the defense that they were false memories. Three types of personal injury cases have been the center of media attention: (1) adult daughters suing their fathers for alleged childhood incest; (2) families and patients suing psychotherapists for allegedly suggesting false incest memories; and (3) adults suing the Catholic Church alleging sexual abuse by priests. Legal outcomes have been inconsistent in part because scientific controversy has called the reliability of recovered memories into question. This article is the first in a three-part series that provides a forensic framework for understanding the current state of the recovered memory/false memory debate. It briefly describes the reasoning behind inconsistent legal decisions, identifying the minimum scientific issues that must achieve consensus to meet the needs of the legal system. It proposes epistemological criteria for determining whether a consensus has been achieved. It then identifies recovered memory issues about which there is now a consensus. The second article identifies recovered memory issues that lack consensus. The third article argues that the scientific controversy reflected confusion about different memory types. It proposes a phenomenological schema to integrate them and reduce legal confusion. It concludes that there is sufficient consensus about some recovered memory issues to meet minimal legal needs, while more research is needed for others.     

Memory in the Construction of Constitutions

In connection with the contemporary debates in political philosophy between liberal, republican and proceduralist–deliberative views of democratic politics, I deal with the question of how the different concepts in these debates can be related to the particular national history, memories and expectations of a polity. I shall concentrate on one German example of the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy, in order to show that political philosophy must pay more attention to the different shared practices and understandings within each liberal society.     

心理学视域的集体记忆研究

集体记忆研究是社会学、历史学、文化人类学的一个重要课题.而近几年来,研究者不断强调人类记忆的社会性特征,重视吸收来自于社会学的记忆研究成果;深刻反思个体心理学对于记忆研究的弊端,积极促进记忆研究的文化转向;主张采纳后现代心理学思想的建构与叙事性观点,勇于借鉴后现代式的研究路径,这些做法促使集体记忆成为心理学界不可忽略的研究主题.目前,在心理学领域内,与集体记忆相关的诸多研究已经逐渐展开,但心理学研究集体记忆也存在着概念解释、方法选择以及具体操作等多方面的挑战.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Current Concepts and Controversies

The diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) sometimes is raised in compensation claims, in tort settings, and in other medical–legal settings. Accordingly, health-care and legal professionals working in these areas need to be familiar with the current findings and controversies concerning the disorder. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, we review the most important findings concerning the clinical features, etiology, and treatment of PTSD. Second, we examine six major controversies concerning the disorder that are relevant to psychologists and other medical–legal practitioners: (a) the issue of what qualifies as a traumatic stressor, (b) the question of whether traumatic stress causes brain damage, (c) the validity of the concept of delayed-onset PTSD, (d) the recovered memory controversy, (e) the question of whether PTSD can arise when the person has no memory of the trauma (e.g., due to concussion), and (f) issues concerning PTSD malingering. Throughout this article we offer recommendations for psychological and other medical–legal practice in relation to the evaluation of PTSD claims.     

司法精神病鉴定基本问题研究

近年来我国刑事司法实践中曝光的若干典型个案凸显精神病鉴定的混乱状况。实证调研发现,精神病鉴定自身的特征——对象的复杂性、过程的回溯性、知识背景的跨学科性、手段的有限性与结论的主观性,影响到其客观性与可信度。目前精神病鉴定存在的问题主要包括启动难、鉴定过程中医学与法学学科错位、诉讼权利保障机制欠缺、强制医疗制度带有行政化特征以及鉴定体制改革引发的问题。应当在坚持职权主义启动模式的基础上,对部分死刑案件增设强制启动机制,增设申请启动鉴定的上诉途径,细化启动考量标准;司法精神病专家与法律职业群体之间应当重新分工;应当增设被鉴定人由于鉴定导致人身自由被剥夺的法定强制措施以及在专家辅助人的帮助下对鉴定意见的质证权;强制医疗程序应当进行司法化改造并通过社会化途径加强执行能力;在鉴定管理体制上,应当取消现有鉴定主体限于医院的规定,恢复等级化的体系设置并建立鉴定人准入与培养机制。     

无晶体眼视觉功能障碍的评价——附个案一例

本文讨论了无晶体眼视觉功能障碍,并对现行标准中"晶体眼"、"单眼无晶体"、"双眼无晶体"的视觉有效率进行了讨论,为进一步规范无晶体眼视觉功能障碍的评定提供参考.     

Mental Disorder, Work Disability and the Law

R.J. Bonnie and J. Monahan, eds., Mental Disorder, Work Disability, and the Law (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997): 321 pp.     

工作记忆中央执行功能研究新进展

中央执行功能是工作记忆系统中最重要却又研究最少的一个成分。对中央执行功能的研究存在神经心理学、认知行为、脑成像，以及计算模拟等多种途径。近年来研究较多的执行功能包括：双任务协调、注意转换、抑制优势反应、记忆刷新等。目前该领域的研究热点是，运用潜变量分析和脑成像等多学科的先进手段，对执行功能的可分离性和结构有效性进行研究。     

The Politics of Memory/Errinerungspolitik and the Use and Propriety of Law in the Process of Memory Construction

The post-Second World War trial for the crime against humanity from the start assumed pedagogical proportions, with the tribunals involved conscious that their legal verdicts would represent historical pronouncement and national values. The newly defined crime has been asked to institutionalize far more than the traditional task of adjudicating the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The trials themselves are meant to define the past, create and crystallize national memory, and illuminate the foundations of the future. I suggest that, by placing a burden on law that it is not designed to bear,we risk deforming law and legal principle. We risk creating an edifice that will not be equal to the task of memory, that will trivialize the memory it seeks to establish and fortify and, worst of all, that may betray law itself by subverting it from within. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.