Assessing general versus specific liability for externalizing problems in adolescence: Concurrent and prospective prediction of symptoms of conduct disorder, ADHD, and substance use.

This study explored the generality versus specificity of two trait-liability factors for externalizing problems-disinhibition and callousness-in the concurrent and prospective prediction of symptoms of conduct disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and substance use (i.e., alcohol use disorder and history of illicit substance use).

Boldness moderates cognitive performance under acute threat: Evidence from a task-switching paradigm involving cueing for shock.

Understanding factors that influence behavioral performance in high-pressure contexts is relevant to critical occupations such as first responders, military personnel, and frontline medical workers. A recent study by Yancey et al. (2019) demonstrated an association between boldness, a biobehavioral trait reflecting social dominance and fearlessness, and enhanced task-switching performance during threat of shock relative to a no-shock (safe) condition.

Pain processing and antisocial behavior: A multimodal investigation of the roles of boldness and meanness.

Antisocial behavior has been linked to an increased tolerance of painful stimuli; however, there is evidence that pain behavior is multidetermined. The current study used pain measures from 3 different modalities (pain tolerance, pain ratings, electrocortical reactivity) and assessed triarchic traits of boldness and meanness to clarify the dispositional basis of associations between pain processing and antisocial behavior. High boldness was significantly associated with blunted early neural response to painful and nonpainful stimuli as well as increased pain tolerance.

The Prevalence and Characteristics of Phantom Limb Pain and Non-Painful Phantom Phenomena in a Nationwide Survey of 3,374 Unilateral Limb Amputees.

The experience of phantom limb pain (PLP) is a common consequence of limb amputation, resulting in severe impairments of the affected person. Previous studies have shown that several factors such as age at or site of amputation are associated with the emergence and maintenance of PLP. In this cross-sectional study we assessed the presence of several phantom phenomena including PLP and other amputation-related information in a sample of 3,374 unilateral upper and lower limb amputees.

Phantom limb pain after unilateral arm amputation is associated with decreased heat pain thresholds in the face.

Background: The mechanisms underlying chronic phantom limb pain (PLP) are complex and insufficiently understood. Altered sensory thresholds are often associated with chronic pain but quantitative sensory testing (QST) in PLP has so far been inconclusive due to large methodological variation between studies and small sample sizes.

Methods: In this study, we applied QST in 37 unilateral upper-limb amputees (23 with and 14 without PLP) and 19 healthy controls.

Ventral striatal activation during reward differs between major depression with and without impaired mood reactivity.

Background: Recent efforts to classify subtypes of major depressive disorder marked by different psychophysiological indicators have identified blunted reward-related brain activation in gambling tasks as a characteristic linked specifically to depressed participants with impaired mood reactivity.

Methods: The current study compared individuals diagnosed with current depressive disorder (n = 26) with healthy controls (n = 24) regarding brain responses to gain and loss trials in an fMRI version of the "Doors" choice-feedback task. Study aims were to examine reward-related brain activation in relation to depression, depressive subtypes, and course of depression.

A Model-Based Strategy for Interfacing Traits of the AMPD With Neurobiology.

The alternative model for personality disorders (AMPD) groups traits into domains based on factor analyses of self-report data. AMPD traits may need to be configured differently to interface with neurobiology. Focusing on biobehavioral risk for externalizing problems in 334 adults, the authors used structural modeling to evaluate how well alternative configurations of AMPD traits, operationalized using the Personality Inventory for (PID-5), interface with neural indicators of externalizing liability.

Blunted Reward Sensitivity and Trait Disinhibition Interact to Predict Substance Use Problems.

Reward deficit models of addiction posit weaknesses in reward sensitivity to be promotive of substance dependence, while the externalizing spectrum model views substance problems as arising in large part from a general disinhibitory liability. The current study sought to integrate these perspectives by testing for separate and interactive associations of disinhibition and reward dysfunction with interview-assessed substance use disorders (SUDs). Community and college adults ( = 199) completed a scale measure of trait disinhibition and performed a gambling-feedback task yielding a neural index of reward sensitivity, the 'Reward Positivity' (RewP).

Expectation of sexual images of adults and children elicits differential dorsal anterior cingulate cortex activation in pedophilic sexual offenders and healthy controls.

Background: Pedophilic disorder is characterized by increased sexual interest towards children, with comparatively lesser interest towards adults. In real life, the behavior of subjects with pedophilic disorder is shaped by evaluative processes in response to sexually relevant cues. Therefore, brain activation during anticipation of sexually relevant cues is of potential interest.

Boldness moderates the effects of external threat on performance within a task-switching paradigm.

Set shifting involves the capacity to effectively and efficiently direct mental resources in the service of dynamically changing goal representations. This capacity is important in everyday life and may be vital in situations where processing resources needed for adaptive action may be diverted by cues for external danger or threat (e.g.

Biobehavioral threat sensitivity and amygdala volume: A twin neuroimaging study.

Current literature on the relationship between dispositional fear (or threat sensitivity) and amygdala gray matter volume (GMV) is heterogeneous, with findings including positive, negative, and null correlations. A clearer understanding of this relationship would help to determine the potential utility of amygdala volume as a biomarker of anxious/depressive (internalizing) disorders and contribute to understanding of neural mechanisms for variations in fearfulness. The study reported here used voxel-based morphometry to quantify amygdala GMV scores from structural neuroimaging data in a sample of 44 monozygotic twins (i.

Integrating Criminological and Mental Health Perspectives on Low Self-Control: A Multi-Domain Analysis.

Purpose: Criminological theories of crime, delinquency, and deviancy emphasize the causal role of low self-control whereas models of psychopathology posit a general trait liability, "disinhibition", contributing to persistent antisocial behavior and substance use. The aim of the current work was to link these compatible perspectives on deviancy through reference to a biobehavioral conceptualization of disinhibition.

Methods: We examined how the Grasmick et al.

Opioid prescribing for chronic musculoskeletal pain in UK primary care: results from a cohort analysis of the COPERS trial.

Objective: To establish the level of opioid prescribing for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain in a sample of patients from primary care and to estimate prescription costs.

Design: Secondary data analyses from a two-arm pragmatic randomised controlled trial (COPERS) testing the effectiveness of group self-management course and usual care against relaxation and usual care for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain (ISRCTN 24426731).

Setting: 25 general practices and two community musculoskeletal services in the UK (London and Midlands).

Interoception and Its Interaction with Self, Other, and Emotion Processing: Implications for the Understanding of Psychosocial Deficits in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Purpose Of Review: We review evidence for the potential importance of interoception, i.e., the processing of signals arising from inside the body, for deficient psychosocial functioning in borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Extending the Construct Network of Trait Disinhibition to the Neuroimaging Domain: Validation of a Bridging Scale for Use in the European IMAGEN Project.

Trait disinhibition, a clinical-liability construct, has well-established correlates in the diagnostic, self-rating, task-behavioral, and brain potential response domains. Recently, studies have begun to test for neuroimaging correlates of this liability factor, but more work of this type using larger data sets is needed to clarify its brain bases. The current study details the development and validation of a scale measure of trait disinhibition composed of questionnaire items available in the IMAGEN project, a large-scale longitudinal study of factors contributing to substance abuse that includes clinical interview, self-report personality, task-behavioral, neuroimaging, and genomic measures.

Body plasticity in borderline personality disorder: A link to dissociation.

Introduction: Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often report an unstable sense of self, which is further enhanced in dissociative states. As one consequence, BPD patients show a labile body percept, which might result in a higher degree of body plasticity. However, experimental data on body plasticity in BPD are not yet available.

An exploration of opioid medication management for non-malignant pain in primary care.

The present study aimed to explore how prescription of opioid medication for chronic non-malignant pain (CNMP) is managed in primary care. We used audit as a research tool, and one general practitioner (GP) practice in West London acted as an exemplar. Of the practice population with CNMP, 1% had repeat prescription of at least 12 months duration for opioid analgesics at the time of data collection.

Externalizing proneness and brain response during pre-cuing and viewing of emotional pictures.

Externalizing proneness, or trait disinhibition, is a concept relevant to multiple high-impact disorders involving impulsive-aggressive behavior. Its mechanisms remain disputed: major models posit hyperresponsive reward circuitry or heightened threat-system reactivity as sources of disinhibitory tendencies. This study evaluated alternative possibilities by examining relations between trait disinhibition and brain reactivity during preparation for and processing of visual affective stimuli.

Do mirror glasses have the same effect on brain activity as a mirror box? Evidence from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study with healthy subjects.

Since its original proposal, mirror therapy has been established as a successful neurorehabilitative intervention in several neurological disorders to recover motor function or to relieve pain. Mirror therapy seems to operate by reactivating the contralesional representation of the non-mirrored limb in primary motor- and somatosensory cortex. However, mirror boxes have some limitations which prompted the use of additional mirror visual feedback devices.

Unmasking quality: exploring meanings of health by doing art.

Background: Quality in healthcare has many potential meanings and interpretations. The case has been made for conceptualisations of quality that place more emphasis on describing quality and less on measuring it through structured, vertically oriented metrics. Through discussion of an interdisciplinary community arts project we explore and challenge the dominant reductionist meanings of quality in healthcare.