Binge eating and temperament in morbidly obese prebariatric surgery patients.

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between binge eating and temperament variables, controlling for depression and adult attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in 90 extremely obese individuals. The participants completed questionnaires assessing eating pathology, reactive temperament, effortful control, depression and ADHD and were grouped based on the presence of regular binge eating. Patients reporting regular binge eating did not differ from patients not reporting regular binge eating with respect to BMI, age, gender, the occurrence of adult ADHD and reactive temperament. However, individuals with binge eating exhibited more pathological scores with regard to eating pathology, depression and effortful control. A logistic regression analysis revealed that only eating concerns and reduced effortful control remained significantly associated with regular binge eating. Binge eating in morbidly obese individuals appears to be associated with a lack of effortful control.

A developmental twin study of church attendance and alcohol and nicotine consumption: a model for analyzing the changing impact of genes and environment.

OBJECTIVE: Church attendance is one of the most consistent predictors of alcohol and nicotine consumption. The authors sought to clarify changes in the role of genetic and environmental factors in influencing church attendance and the interrelationship between church attendance and alcohol and nicotine use from early adolescence into adulthood. METHOD: The authors used data from two interview waves 6 years apart of 1,796 male twins from a population-based register, in which respondents were asked about current and past church attendance and psychoactive drug use. Structural twin models were fitted and tested using the Mx software program. RESULTS: As twins developed from childhood through adulthood, the influence of shared environmental factors on church attendance declined dramatically while genetic factors increased. In early and late adolescence, the negative correlations between church attendance and alcohol and nicotine consumption resulted largely from shared environmental factors. In adulthood, the inverse relationship between church attendance and substance use became stronger and arose largely from genetic factors. CONCLUSIONS: As individuals mature, they increasingly shape their own social environment in large part as a result of their genetically influenced temperament. When individuals are younger and living at home, frequent church attendance reflects a range of familial and social-environmental influences that reduce levels of substance use. In adulthood, by contrast, high levels of church attendance largely index genetically influenced temperamental factors that are protective against substance use. Using genetically informative designs such as twin studies, it is possible to show that the causes of the relationship between social risk factors and substance use can change dramatically over development.

Reatividade em ambiente de contenção móvel: uma nova metodologia para avaliar o temperamento bovino / Animal reactivity in a mobile cage: a new methodology to access bovine temperament

Descreve-se uma nova metodologia para medir o temperamento dos bovinos por meio da reatividade, obtida por um dispositivo eletrônico que quantifica o número e a intensidade dos movimentos do animal em ambiente de contenção móvel, numa escala de 1 a 9.999 pontos. A reatividade foi comparada a características determinadas por outros dois métodos tradicionais para quantificar o temperamento bovino: a velocidade de fuga e o escore de temperamento. Foram utilizados 610 bovinos da raça Nelore, com média de idade de 467 dias e provenientes de dois rebanhos. As observações da reatividade não se ajustaram às distribuições normal, Poisson e binomial negativa. A padronização e as transformações logarítmicas neperianas e na base 10 não foram eficientes para adequar os dados à distribuição normal. Os animais avaliados para a característica apresentaram grande variabilidade fenotípica, com reatividade média de 534±447 pontos na escala original, mediana 442 pontos, moda 372 pontos, variação de 1 a 2.218 pontos e coeficiente de variação de 84 por cento. A correlação de classificação de resíduos encontrada entre reatividade e escore de temperamento variou de 0,75 a 0,85 (P<0,001) e foi superior em valores absolutos às correlações entre reatividade e velocidade de fuga e entre velocidade de fuga e escore de temperamento. A nova metodologia é eficiente para quantificar o temperamento de animais da raça Nelore e possui vantagens em relação às características velocidade de fuga e escore de temperamento. A obtenção da reatividade animal é rápida, prática, objetiva e segura para quem a faz, além de apresentar grande variabilidade fenotípica.

This paper describes a new methodology to access bovine temperament using it's reactivity eletronically measured as the intensity and count of movements in a mobile cage, using a scale from 1 to 9,999 points. The new trait, reactivity, was compared to two other traditional methods, flying speed and temperament scores. Six hundred and ten contemporary Nellores, with average age of 467 days and from two herds were used. Reactivity data did not fit Normal nor Poisson nor Negative Binomial Distibutions. Standartized reactivity data, neperian and base 10 log reactivity transformations were not successful in adjusting data to normal distribution. Reactivity presented large phenotipic variation, with average in the original scale of 534±447 points, median of 442, mode 372, range from 1 to 2,218 points and variation coefficient of 84 percent. Residual rank correlation between reactivity and temperament score vary from .75 to .85 (P<.001), and were larger than the ones between reactivity and flight speed and between flight speed and temperament score. The new methodology is efficient in measuring temperament of Nellore cattle and it has advantages in relation to the traits flight speed and temperament score. The measure of reactivity is easy, fast to get and safe to record. In addition, this trait presents large variability.

Childhood hyperactivity as a predictor of carotid artery intima media thickness over a period of 21 years: the cardiovascular risk in young Finns study.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether childhood temperament was able to predict carotid artery intima media thickness (IMT) and/or its risk factors in adulthood 21 years later. METHODS: The subjects were the three youngest age cohorts of the population-based sample of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study, i.e., those who were aged 3 to 9 years (n = 708) at the baseline. IMT was assessed by ultrasound, and temperament in terms of negative emotionality, hyperactivity, and sociability (following Buss and Plomin). In addition, the levels of traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis were measured in both childhood and adulthood. RESULTS: Childhood temperament was found to predict adulthood risk factors such as smoking in both genders and body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and educational level in women. In women, childhood hyperactivity predicted adulthood IMT after adjustment for childhood and adulthood risk factors for atherosclerosis. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that temperament may contribute to the development of IMT in two ways: indirectly through risk factors in both genders and in women directly through a mechanism that is not considered in the present study. There were no significant gender-related differences in temperament, but it seemed to play different roles in different genders. Hyperactivity was a greater risk for girls than for boys.

Proposal for a bipolar-stimulant spectrum: temperament, diagnostic validation and therapeutic outcomes with mood stabilizers.

BACKGROUND: Stimulant abuse and dependence in confusing admixtures with features of bipolar disorder has been variously conceptualized. DSM-IV-TR rules tend to be liberal in permitting the diagnosis of substance-induced disorder, and rather strict for a bipolar diagnosis in such cases. Accordingly, if bipolarity is ever considered in this interface, it usually pertains to syndromal bipolar I disorder. METHOD: We therefore focused on the more prevalent but relatively neglected admixture of stimulant abuse with bipolar II and lesser degrees of bipolarity. We examined in our dual diagnosis program the longitudinal progression of the dual pathology in 10 patients who had proven refractory to past efforts to treat the stimulant component. In doing so, we wished to better delineate the nature of the clinical interface of the stimulant bipolar spectrum and its response to anticonvulsant mood stabilizers. RESULTS: In nearly all cases cyclothymic and hyperthymic traits preceded the use of stimulants by years, which seemed to serve the purpose of controlling or maintaining the subthreshold rewarding mood condition. Eventually clinically more ominous and socially destructive pathology evolved, with contributions from both the bipolar diathesis and the addictive process. Seven of 10 cases had bipolar familial indicators. Nearly all evidenced hypomanic and/or irritable depressive states with mixed features during protracted sobriety from the stimulant. Except for two of the 10 patients, substantial (30-45 point) gains were made on DSM-IV-TR axis V general assessment of functioning (GAF) scores with the use of largely "mood-stabilizing" anticonvulsants. This was paralleled with the reduction of craving. These data highlight the human dimensions of the bipolar-stimulant abuse interface, and document functional outcomes (rather than mere changes in rating scales which may not necessarily reflect clinically relevant improvement). LIMITATION: Open case series of 10 patients. CONCLUSION: We propose a bipolar-stimulant spectrum-what the senior author has elsewhere labeled bipolar III-1/2-where subthreshold bipolar traits are complicated by stimulant abuse, eventually leading to pathology characteristic of both disorders. The contribution of bipolarity to this spectrum is supported by: (1) premorbid cyclothymic and hyperthymic traits; (2) familial bipolarity; (3) presence of subthreshold bipolar signs and symptoms during protracted sobriety. We further submit that anticonvulsants in this spectrum not only treat the acute escalation of activated and mixed depressive states, withdrawal phenomena, and craving for the stimulant, but also the craving for activation and mood enhancement of the underlying temperament. We submit that the latter might be crucial for the successful attenuation of the underlying diathesis for stimulant seeking behavior, abuse and dependence.

Temperamento: características e determinaçäo genética / Temperament: characteristics and genetic determination

Este estudo investigou características temperamentais de uma amostra de crianças de 7 a 14 anos, verificando inclusive a influência exercida pela genética na determinaçäo do temperamento. Uma amostra de 26 pais forneceu dados sobre o temperamento de 26 pares de gêmeos (15 monozigóticos, 11 dizigóticos), os quais totalizavam 52 sujeitos. Para coleta de dados foi utilizada a Escala Pavlovian Temperament Survey, versäo infantil, que investiga três fatores de temperamento: Força de Excitaçäo (FE), Força de Inibiçäo (FI) e Mobilidade (MO). Resultados obtidos indicaram que a partir da percepçäo dos pais, esta amostra de sujeitos possuía como característica predominante de temperamento a mobilidade. Análise de variância (MANOVA) indicou que as características temperamentais variavam quando consideradas as variáveis sexo e faixa etária. Considerando-se a gemealidade, correlaçöes obtidas entre pares de gêmeos monozigóticos e dizigóticos evidenciaram a influência exercida pela genética na determinaçäo dos três fatores de temperamento

Personalidade, temperamento e carater: influencias culturais e ambientais sobre a constituicao e desenvolvimento / Personality, temperament and character: cultural and environment influences about the development and constitution

O autor sintetiza os diferentes enfoques sobre os conceitos de personalidade, temperamento e carater. Aborda os conceitos de autores que admitem a influencia dos tipos fisicos na formacao do temperamento e carater. Resume as contribuicoes dos antropologos, dos etologos, dos comportamentalistas, dos psicodinamistas e psicanalistas. Finaliza, dando um visao de conjunto sobre o tema.