Posttraumatic stress related to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and general psychological distress were examined in six cohorts of college students (N=5,412) enrolled at an American public university between Spring 2000 and Fall 2002 some 2,500 miles from New York. Consistent with data from Schuster et al.'s (2001) national survey, which used a very low threshold criterion, our findings revealed that 44% of women and 32% of men experienced at least one symptom of posttraumatic stress 6-17 days after the attacks. In contrast to these results, depression levels showed only small differences, and self-esteem and trait anxiety showed no changes. Findings indicate that 9/11-related stress responses among distant witnesses were very mild, transitory and focused in scope, suggesting resilience with respect to broader psychological and psychopathological reactions. Findings are discussed with respect to the role of physical and psychological proximity on the reactions to traumatic events in the general population.

This research shows the utility of systematic data-gathering from older people and of a statistical analysis procedure for interpreting the data. Four cases of institutionalized older people are presented, and their scores of depressive symptomatology over a period of one to two years is analyzed. Time-series analysis showed a significant positive trend of depression symptomatology in two of the cases, perhaps too subtle for detection in routine clinical check-up, but statistically verifiable. In one of these cases, none of the factors of the scale stands out, despite the fact that the general index shows a statistically significant change over the 36 observations made, so that the results obtained are related to the syndrome of depletion or exhaustion. In the second of the cases, we detect a significant change in the depressive mood factor, which may indicate a subclinical depressive form in its initial stages. Continuous registers can reveal valuable information about situations and progress in the evolution of an older person's mood, with regard to natural development, the prelude to a mood disorder, or follow-up in clinical cases.

It was hypothesized that individuals of low socioeconomic status are exposed to a greater number of stressful events and therefore have a higher incidence of psychological disorders. However, the way they interpret, evaluate and cope with these stressful situations may either cause them to maintain, intensify or eliminate their overall stress. Past research indicates that the poorest individuals tend most frequently to falsely minimize or avoid stressful situations, which lowers the probability of resolving their problems. The objective of this study is to discover and compare the situations that have produced a high level of stress in subjects of three different socioeconomic groups over the last three months, as well as the strategies they used to cope, and their perceived effectiveness. The sample included 900 subjects of both sexes living in Mexico City. Among them, 346 were extremely poor, 260 were moderately poor and 312 were not poor. The results indicate that socioeconomic status is related to the frequency with which subjects report certain kinds of stressful situations. It was also found that non-poor subjects use problem-focused coping methods more than the other groups, while the poor use more emotionally-focused coping strategies. This article analyzes the strategies used by each group in each type of stressful situation reported.

The study of cardiac defense has a long tradition in psychological research both within the cognitive approach—linked to Pavlov, Sokolov, and Graham's work on sensory reflexes—and within the motivational one—linked to the work of Cannon and subsequent researchers on the concepts of activation and stress. These two approaches have been difficult to reconcile in the past. We summarize a series of studies on cardiac defense from a different perspective, which allows integration of the traditional approaches. This new perspective emphasizes a sequential process interpretation of the cardiac defense response. Results of descriptive and parametric studies, as well as those of studies examining the physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying the response, show a complex response pattern with both accelerative and decelerative components, with both sympathetic and parasympathetic influences, and with both attentional and emotional significance. The implications of this new look at cardiac defense are discussed in relation to defensive reactions in natural settings, the brain mechanisms controlling such reactions, and their effects on health and illness.

Alexithymia refers to a specific disturbance in emotional processing that is manifested by difficulties in identifying and verbalizing feelings and a tendency to focus on and amplify the somatic sensations that accompany emotional arousal. Alexithymia is conceptualized both as an affect-deficit disorder and a continuous personality variable. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the stability levels of alexithymia with regard to changes in emotional distress levels caused by university exams. We tested 20 university students at four different times, before and after the exams. Alexithymic features and self-reported emotional distress (trait anxiety and physical symptoms) were measured. Whereas emotional distress measures changed significantly during the diverse phases, the level of alexithymia remained unchanged. We therefore conclude that alexithymia represents a constant trait.

In current society, body and beauty's cult emerge as one of the main factors of adolescence. That leads adolescents to be dissatisfied with their own appearance, to psychological maladjustment, and nutritional disorders. This quantitative, exploratory, and cross-sectional research evaluates how adolescents perceive their weight and the prevalence of obesity in a sample of adolescents from the district of Viseu (Portugal). It also attempted to compare the relation of body-image and obesity with sociodemographic (school, sex, age, socioeconomic status, family functioning), psychological (self-concept, depression, school success) and behavioral aspects (physical inactivity). After data analyses, it was verified that the prevalence of obesity was 8.8% but 12.7% considered themselves obese. These adolescents had higher physical inactivity, poorer family functioning, a lower self-concept, and a higher depression index. The really obese adolescents were older and had poorer academic results. Obesity was higher in boys, but girls perceived themselves more as being obese. In conclusion, it is essential to evaluate weight perception in addition to body mass index (BMI), because the main problem could be related not only to being obese, but also to the perception of having a higher than ideal weight.

It would be reasonable to expect that our previous experience regarding a stimulus that predicts harm would make the subsequent identification of that stimulus easier when harm happens again. Forty-eight volunteers were submitted to both phases of this sequence of events: learning of the predictive relationship and later priming. A face with neutral expression (CS+) was paired with a moderately aversive electric shock and another (CS−) with a neutral tone. Subsequently, these two faces, as well as other known and new faces, were presented for familiarity judgments. Both the CS+ and the CS− faces were preceded by an aversive stimulus (aversive prime) in one occasion and by a neutral stimulus (neutral prime) in another. The familiarity judgment regarding the CS+ was faster after the aversive prime than after the neutral prime, but there was no difference regarding the CS−. The differential effect of the aversive prime over the CS+ and the CS− showed a significant but small correlation with the differential skin conductance response to CS+ and CS− (signal learning), and with the differential evaluation of those stimuli in terms of like-dislike (evaluative learning). The scope of these results, as well as the usefulness of this methodological model, is discussed.

This semi-experimental study examines how Mindfulness facilitates a distress reduction in a group of health professionals. The sample comprises 29 professionals seeking stress reduction who undertook an 8 weeks psico-educative intervention, involving 28 hours of class, based on a program called Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction or MBSR. Results show a 35% reduction of distress, from percentile 75 to 45, combined with a 30% reduction in rumination and a 20% decrease in negative affect. These benefits lasted during the 3 months of the follow up period. The correlation analysis indicates that the decrease in distress is significantly related to the other two variables. These results confirm the effectiveness of MBSR to decrease distress and its applicability in training programs for health professionals.

El propósito del estudio era 1) identificar estreses vitales recientes y antiguos con un riesgo diferencial significative, de depresión infantil frente a otras enfermedades psiquiátricas de la infancia, y 2) establecer si los estreses vitales compartidos con otros miembros de la familia tenían un impacto mayor sobre la depresión del nifio que los acontecimientos que eran pertinentes sólo personalmente. Utilizando una entrevista semiestructurada desarrollada hace poco (Inventario de Evaluación Diagnóstica para Niños y Adolescentes, versión húngara, DESCA-H), se investigaron 68 acontecimientos vitales de una muestra total de 526 niños. Se comparó a 215 preadolescentes deprimidos (edad media = 12,73 años, DT = 2,58) con variables idénticas de 311 controles clínicos mixtos no deprimidos (edad media = 10,91 afios, DT = 2,46) derivados a la asistencia psiquiátrica infantil con síntomas psiquiátricos distintos a la depresión. La parte del cuestionario de acontecimientos vitales del DESCA-H se administró separadamente por medio de listas de estreses recientes (en un plazo de 1 año) y antiguos (acontecimientos sucedidos más de 1 año antes de la evaluación). Con las dos series de estreses vitales, se realizaron dos análisis de regresión matemática separados. Se encontró que, de los factores estresantes antiguos, el castigo físico del nifio por los profesores, los problemas económicos serios de la familia y los problemas de salud mental de los miembros de la familia eran predictores significativos de la depresión. De la serie de estreses recientes, cambiar a una escuela nueva, las enfermedades somáticas, la muerte de parientes y los trastornos de salud mental de los miembros de la familia resultaron ser factores de riesgo independientes de depresión para los niños. Los hallazgos indican que los estreses significativos del nifio compartidos con otros miembros de la familia dominan al diferenciar a los niños deprimidos de los no deprimidos. Los estreses relacionados con la escuela se analizan críticamente.