Psychological Injury: Systems, Change Processes, Development

This paper presents a model of chronic pain [Young and Chapman (Pain, affect, nonlinear dynamical systems, and chronic pain: Bringing order to disorder. In G. Young, A. W. Kane, & K. Nicholson (Eds.), Causality of psychological injury: Presenting evidence in court (pp. 197–241). New York: Springer, 2007)]. It includes extensive coverage of the systems perspective. The paper expands the model to medically unexplained symptoms and provides a developmental model of how these may unfold and influence adult presentation after events such as accidents. Similarly, the model is examined for the developmental roots of personality disorder. The paper examines other threats to validity of diagnosis in cases of psychological injury.     

Chronic Pain in the DSM-IV and the DSM-5 Draft: The Pain of It All

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association 2000) includes the diagnosis of pain disorder, and it has been revised in major ways in the DSM-5 draft (American Psychiatric Association 2010). Pain disorder has been relegated as a specifier of the new diagnosis of complex somatic symptom disorder. It cannot be diagnosed prior to 6 months of the pain’s onset. Also, there are still the pejorative connotations with which the disorder is associated. In terms of treatment, it might be more difficult to get treatment plans accepted as a result of the changes, and in terms of the legal arena, it might prove more difficult to have the disorder serve as the basis of action in legal proceedings.     

The DSM-5 Draft: Critique and Recommendations

The series of articles in this special topic on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) draft (American Psychiatric Association 2010), which is preparatory to publication of the DSM-5, deals with issues and disorders and conditions pertinent to the field of psychological injury and law. The articles describe and critique the changes anticipated for the diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder, pain disorder, and neurocognitive disorder, in particular. Further, changes suggested in the draft for personality disorder are analyzed with a critical eye. In addition, the articles examine the lack of change for dealing with malingering and the general lack of consideration of group differences such as for race, in areas pertinent to psychological injury and law. This summary of the articles concludes that some of the changes in the DSM-5 draft are premature, and it calls for continued research and evidence-informed bases for recommended changes for the DSM-V.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the DSM-5: Group Difference Commentary

This article provides a commentary on the proposed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-5 changes with respect to diagnosing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in diverse cultural groups in clinical and forensic settings. PTSD is the most common diagnosis in personal injury litigants (Koch et al. 2006). By reviewing the symptoms that have been changed in the DSM-5 draft for PTSD in terms of ethnoracial and minority–cultural factors, this article highlights the lack of data needed in the area and that the DSM project should pay more attention to such factors.     

The Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence and Traumatic Brain Injury: A Call for Interdisciplinary Research

An emerging body of research suggests that survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) are at a high risk for sustaining traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, most scholars and practitioners working on the problem of IPV have not examined how TBI could be related to their familiar subject of study. Concomitantly, little work in the brain injury field has been done to examine TBI in the context of IPV. In this paper, we encourage cross-collaboration among these fields. To that end, we consider the relationship between IPV and TBI; the difficulty in detecting and measuring the IPV-related TBI and ethical concerns that may arise when addressing this issue. Our work emphasizes the need to recognize the complex interplay among psycho-physiological health and socio-cultural contexts. As such, we present a socio-ecological perspective of IPV-related TBI to provide a contextual framework to guide future interdisciplinary research. Finally, we outline directions for future research.     

Prospects for health impact assessment in the United States: new and improved environmental impact assessment or something different?

Health impact assessment (HIA) has been advanced as a means of bringing potential health impacts to the attention of policy makers, particularly in sectors where health impacts may not otherwise be considered. This article examines lessons for HIA in the United States from the related and relatively well-developed field of environmental impact assessment (EIA). We reviewed the EIA literature and conducted twenty phone interviews with EIA professionals. Successes of EIA cited by respondents included integration of environmental goals into decision making, improved planning, and greater transparency and public involvement. Reported shortcomings included the length and complexity of EIA documents, limited and adversarial public participation, and an emphasis on procedure over substance. Presently, EIAs consider few, if any, health outcomes. Respondents differed on the prospects for HIA. Most agreed that HIA could contribute to EIA in several areas, including assessment of cumulative impacts and impacts to environmental justice. Reasons given for not incorporating HIA into EIA were uncertainties about interpreting estimated health impacts, that EIA documents would become even longer and more complicated, and that HIA would gain little from the procedural and legal emphasis in EIA. We conclude that for HIA to advance, whether as part of or separate from EIA, well-formulated methodologies need to be developed and tested in real-world situations. When possible, HIA should build on the methods that have been utilized successfully in EIA. The most fruitful avenue is demonstration projects that test, refine, and demonstrate different methods and models to maximize their utility and acceptance.     

"Promises and Pineapples": Post-First World War Soldier Settlement at Beerburrum, Queensland, 1916-1929

Queensland's post-First World War Soldier Settlement Scheme, begun with noble and optimistic intentions in 1916, officially terminated in 1929 after ignominious failure. There were a number of factors which contributed to the erosion and ultimate destruction of this phase of land settlement, but Commonwealth-State antagonism and the incompetence of many State agricultural advisers were certainly significant elements. Beerburrum, just north of Brisbane, was one of the largest groups of settlements which characterised Queensland's attempts to turn swords into ploughshares. Beerburrum soldier settlers and their families strove valiantly to extract a basic living in the face of overwhelming adversity, and an examination of their circumstances offers a valuable window into the trials and tribulations of the entire scheme.     

Ranking economic liberty across countries

We have constructed a number of summary indexes of economic liberty based on principal component and hedonic weighting techniques. While overall these indexes are related to each other in a statistical sense, there are sufficient differences among them to impact the rankings of the individual countries. Because the liberty indicators currently available for use are fairly coarse, the differences that these weighting techniques yield in the summary liberty indexes are understated. As research on liberty yields finer measures of the liberty indicators, the choice of the weighting technique will become more crucial in defining an overall measure of economic liberty. As Table 3 indicates, the simple overall ranking index we created summarizes the information content of all the other indexes (based on hedonic, data variance, etc. rationale) and appears to be very robust with respect to all of them. In addition, all the rankings indicate that economic growth and RGDP are positively correlated with the level of economic liberty within a nation.