Negative affect provides a context for increased distrust in the daily lives of individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment.

Evidence on individuals affected by posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following childhood maltreatment (CM) supports cognitive models suggesting that trauma engenders distrust and interpersonal threat sensitivity. We examined the associations between CM and both distrust and interpersonal threat sensitivity in daily life and investigated whether momentary negative affect (NA) provides a context that strengthens this association. Hypotheses were based on cognitive models of trauma and the feelings-as-information theory. In a 7-day ambulatory assessment study with six semirandom daily prompts (2,295 total), we measured self-reported momentary NA and assessed behavioral trust as well as interpersonal threat sensitivity via facial emotion ratings with two novel experimental paradigms in 61 participants with varying levels of CM (45,900 total trials). As hypothesized, NA was associated with increased momentary distrust, ß = .03, p = .002, and interpersonal threat sensitivity, ß = -.01, p = .021. Higher levels of CM were associated with more negative emotion ratings, independent of affective context, ß = -.07, p = .003. Momentary behavioral distrust was associated with CM at high levels of momentary NA, ß = .02, p = .027. The findings for both tasks support the feelings-as-information theory and suggest that cognitive alterations surrounding distrust and interpersonal threat, which were originally proposed for PTSD, likely also affect individuals with a history of CM.

[Domestic violence and its psychological consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic-key findings from German-speaking countries]. / Häusliche Gewalt und ihre psychischen Folgen während der COVID-19-Pandemie ­ Zentrale Befunde aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum.

The impact of traumatic experiences on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic has been insufficiently discussed in the German-speaking countries. Against this background, a working group of scientifically and clinically active colleagues was formed on behalf of the German-Speaking Society for Psychotraumatology (DeGPT). The aim of the working group was to summarize central research findings on the incidence of domestic violence and associated psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in German-speaking countries and to discuss their implications. In addition, associations between pre-existing childhood trauma and psychological distress during the pandemic should be illuminated. The present narrative review was prepared for this purpose.The results of the studies conducted indicate high prevalences of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, which, however, predominantly correspond to pre-pandemic prevalences. Adults with current or pre-existing interpersonal traumatic experiences during childhood or adolescence reported increased psychological distress during the pandemic compared with adults without such experiences. A number of risk factors (e.g., female gender, lower frequency of social contacts) increased the risk of psychological distress and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms during the pandemic. According to these findings, people with current or past interpersonal trauma exposure represent a vulnerable group with special support needs during pandemic contexts.

Affective and cognitive theory of mind in posttraumatic stress, major depressive, and somatic symptom disorders: Association with childhood trauma.

OBJECTIVES: Childhood trauma constitutes a major risk factor for adult psychopathology, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and somatic symptom disorder (SSD). One potential mechanism linking childhood trauma to adult psychopathology may be alterations in theory of mind (ToM). Given the lack of transdiagnostic studies on the association between childhood trauma and ToM, further research is needed to elucidate whether and how childhood trauma relates to ToM impairments across and within diagnostic boundaries. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study design was applied. METHODS: A total of 137 individuals with varying levels of childhood trauma took part in this study, encompassing individuals with PTSD (n = 33), MDD (n = 33), SSD (n = 36), and healthy volunteers (HVs; n = 35). To assess ToM performance and childhood trauma, the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition was administered along with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. RESULTS: Only individuals with PTSD, but not individuals with MDD or SSD, showed a worse ToM performance compared to HVs. In the whole sample, childhood trauma correlated negatively with ToM performance. Exploratory group-specific analyses revealed higher levels of childhood trauma to be associated with more excessive ToM errors in individuals with SSD, and notably with an enhanced ToM performance in individuals with MDD. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate associations between childhood trauma and ToM impairments in a large, transdiagnostic sample. Provided replication in future studies, our findings suggest ToM capacities as a promising treatment target for individuals exposed to severe childhood trauma, at least or particularly with a diagnosis of PTSD. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Our results suggest that individuals with a history of severe childhood trauma, at least or particularly with a clinical diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder, may benefit from therapeutic approaches targeting theory of mind capacities. Our findings indicate that higher levels of childhood trauma may be linked to a specific 'hypermentalizing' bias in somatic symptom disorder. Our findings further point towards an association between higher levels of childhood trauma and a heightened - rather than a diminished - sensitivity towards interpersonal cues in major depressive disorder. Provided further confirmatory evidence, our findings may support diagnosis-specific approaches in ameliorating theory of mind abilities in individuals with different mental disorders and a history of severe childhood trauma.

A Prospective Study of Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Childhood Trauma-Exposed Individuals: Social Support Matters.

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its unprecedented social restrictions may have serious mental health implications, especially in individuals who have experienced childhood traumatic experiences (CTEs). This prospective study aimed to investigate whether general psychopathology and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity increased during the pandemic as compared to prepandemic baseline data collected approximately 1 year earlier. Furthermore, we investigated whether an increase in symptomatology was linked to CTEs and mediated by a lack of perceived social support and fear of COVID-19. An online survey was administered to 85 individuals, including both participants with PTSD, major depression, or somatic symptom disorder (n = 63) and healthy volunteers (n = 22), during a period of the most severe social restrictions in Germany. The survey included the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Brief Symptom Inventory, PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, ENRICHD Social Support Inventory, and Fear of COVID-19 Scale. In the whole sample, we found significant increases in general psychopathology and PTSD symptom severity, ω2 = .07-.08, during as compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, with CTEs predicting increased PTSD symptom severity, ß = .245, p = .042. This effect was mediated by a lack of perceived social support, indirect effect = .101, 95% CI [.013, .209], but not fear of COVID-19, indirect effect = .060, 95% CI [-.035, .167]. These findings emphasize the importance of interventions that promote social inclusion to mitigate the potentially detrimental effects of public health actions implemented against the COVID-19 pandemic in individuals with CTEs.

Feasibility of using death certificates for studying place of death in Latin America.

OBJECTIVE: This paper assesses the availability and quality of death certificate data in Latin America and the feasibility of using these data to study place of death and associated factors. METHODS: In this comparative study, we collected examples of current official death certificates and digital data files containing information about all deaths that occurred during 1 year in 19 Latin American countries. Data were collected from June 2019 to May 2020. The records for place of death and associated variables were studied. The criteria for data quality were completeness, number of ill-defined causes of death and timeliness. RESULTS: All 19 countries provided copies of current official death certificates and 18 of these registered the place of death. Distinguishing among hospital or other health care institution, home and other was possible for all countries. Digital data files with death certificate data were available from 12 countries and 1 region. Three countries had data considered to be of high quality and seven had data considered to be of medium quality. Categories for place of death and most of the predetermined factors possibly associated with place of death were included in the data files. CONCLUSIONS: The quality of data sets was rated medium to high in 10 countries. Hence, death certificate data make it feasible to conduct an international comparative study on place of death and the associated factors in Latin America.

Childhood Maltreatment and Amygdala Response to Interpersonal Threat in a Transdiagnostic Adult Sample: The Role of Trait Dissociation.

BACKGROUND: Childhood maltreatment (CM) confers risk for different mental disorders as well as transdiagnostic symptoms such as dissociation. Aberrant amygdala response to interpersonal threat may link CM to transdiagnostic psychopathology and has recently been shown to depend on type and developmental timing of CM experiences. Still, most studies on CM and threat-related amygdala response employ categorical disorder-specific perspectives and fail to consider type and timing of CM exposure. We aimed to investigate associations between CM, amygdala response to interpersonal threat, and dimensional psychopathological symptoms including trait dissociation in a transdiagnostic adult sample, specifically considering type, timing, and duration of CM. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional neuroimaging study in 141 participants with varying levels of CM, including mostly female participants with major depressive disorder (n = 36), posttraumatic stress disorder (n = 34), and somatic symptom disorder (n = 35) and healthy volunteers (n = 36). Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during an emotional face-matching task, completed the brief German interview version of the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure scale, and answered self-report measures of transdiagnostic CM-related symptoms including trait dissociation. Data were analyzed using a machine learning-based model comparison procedure. RESULTS: In our transdiagnostic sample, neither type nor timing or duration of CM predicted amygdala response to interpersonal threat. Instead, trait dissociation predicted blunted bilateral amygdala response and emerged as a possible mediator between CM and amygdala function. CONCLUSIONS: Trait dissociation may be an important confounder in the widely documented association between CM and threat-related amygdala response, which should be considered in future longitudinal studies.

Your smile won't affect me: Association between childhood maternal antipathy and adult neural reward function in a transdiagnostic sample.

Aberrant activation in the ventral striatum (VS) during reward anticipation may be a key mechanism linking adverse childhood experiences (ACE) to transdiagnostic psychopathology. This study aimed to elucidate whether retrospectively reported ACE, specifically maternal antipathy, relate to monetary and social reward anticipation in a transdiagnostic adult sample. A cross-sectional neuroimaging study was conducted in 118 participants with varying levels of ACE, including 25 participants with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 32 with major depressive disorder (MDD), 29 with somatic symptom disorder (SSD), and 32 healthy volunteers (HVs). Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a monetary and social incentive delay task, and completed a self-report measure of ACE, including maternal antipathy. Neural correlates of monetary and social reward anticipation and their association with ACE, particularly maternal antipathy, were analyzed. Participants showed elevated activation in brain regions underlying reward processing, including the VS, only while anticipating social, but not monetary rewards. Participants reporting higher levels of maternal antipathy exhibited reduced activation in the brain reward network, including the VS, only during social, but not monetary reward anticipation. Group affiliation moderated the association between maternal antipathy and VS activation to social reward anticipation, with significant associations found in participants with PTSD and HVs, but not in those with MDD and SSD. Results were not associated with general psychopathology or psychotropic medication use. Childhood maternal antipathy may confer risk for aberrant social reward anticipation in adulthood, and may thus be considered in interventions targeting reward expectations from social interactions.

The impact of traumatic childhood experiences on interoception: disregarding one's own body.

BACKGROUND: Deficient interoception, the processing and perception of internal bodily signals, has been discussed as a mechanism underlying various mental disorders. First results indicate a mediating role of interoception in the interplay of traumatic childhood experiences and adult mental disorders. Traumatic childhood experiences may hinder the adequate processing, integration, and trust in bodily signals that are important in order to understand and regulate own needs and emotions, thereby increasing the vulnerability for mental disorders. However, an overarching study investigating alterations in different interoceptive measures and trauma-related disorders as well as their mediating role between early trauma and emotion dysregulation is still missing. METHODS: One hundred thirty-six individuals with varying levels of traumatic childhood experiences who either had a current diagnosis of major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, or somatic symptom disorder, or no mental disorder, took part in a multidimensional assessment of interoceptive processes, including interoceptive accuracy, sensibility, and awareness. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare groups regarding interoceptive processes and associations with traumatic childhood experiences and emotion dysregulation were analyzed with Spearman correlations. Furthermore, mediation analyses were computed to examine and compare interoceptive processes as potential mediators between traumatic childhood experiences and emotion dysregulation. RESULTS: Only body dissociation, a measure for interoceptive sensibility, was significantly reduced in individuals with a current mental disorder. Body dissociation was also the only interoceptive measure significantly associated with traumatic childhood experiences and emotion dysregulation and the only significant mediator in the relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and emotion dysregulation across groups. CONCLUSION: Results suggest body dissociation, but not other interoceptive measures, as an important feature linking traumatic childhood experiences to current emotion dysregulation, an important transdiagnostic feature. As body dissociation refers to a habitual non-attendance or disregard of interoceptive signals, integrative therapeutic interventions could help affected individuals to overcome difficulties in emotion perception and regulation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The general study design was preregistered; see the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS-ID: DRKS00015182). This study's analysis plan was not preregistered.

The association between psychopathology, childhood trauma, and emotion processing.

OBJECTIVE: Childhood trauma is highly prevalent and can have a negative impact on the development of socioemotional processes resulting in a higher vulnerability for mental disorders in adulthood. Previous studies have associated the severity of childhood trauma with deficits in social functioning, such as a negative attention bias, suggesting altered social information processing as a mechanism underlying the association between childhood trauma and transdiagnostic psychopathologies. METHOD: In a cross-sectional setup with a total of 103 participants (26 with major depressive disorder, MDD; 24 with posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD; 22 with somatic symptom disorder, SDD; and 31 healthy volunteers, HV), this study applied eye tracking in an emotion recognition paradigm. Reaction times, accuracy, and gaze behavior were analyzed for 4 different facial expressions as a function of self-reported childhood trauma and diagnosis. The aim was to investigate to what extent emotion processing is associated with (a) childhood trauma, (b) psychopathology, and (c) respective interacting effects. RESULTS: Patients showed higher reaction times and error rates overall in classifying emotions than HVs, especially for the recognition of anger and fear. Individuals with a diagnosis of PTSD and MDD were particularly slow in their response to these emotions. Higher scores of reported childhood trauma were associated with faster responses for classifying anger and fear and slower initiation of eye movements for SSD, MDD, and HVs for anger. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that childhood trauma may contribute to attentional and information-processing biases relevant for social interaction. Identifying individual social deficits offers implications for tailored therapeutic interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Measuring types and timing of childhood maltreatment: The psychometric properties of the KERF-40.

Childhood maltreatment, specifically during sensitive developmental periods, is a major risk factor for poor physical and mental health. Despite its enormous clinical relevance, there is still a lack of scales measuring different types, timing, and duration of childhood maltreatment. The current study sought to validate and determine the psychometric properties of the brief German version of the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure (MACE) scale, the KERF-40. The KERF-40 was administered as an interview (i.e., KERF-40-I) to 287 adult participants with and without mental disorders. Based on item response theory, items of the KERF-40-I were assigned to different types of maltreatment, resulting in a scaled version, the KERF-40+. Test-retest reliability was assessed in a small subsample (n = 14). Convergent and relative predictive validity were measured with correlations of the KERF-40+ and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) as well as self-report measures of general and trauma-related psychopathology. Rasch analysis and fit statistics yielded a 49-item version, encompassing ten different types of maltreatment. The test-retest reliability of the KERF-40+ was shown to be acceptable to excellent for almost all global and subscale scores (.74 ≤ ρ ≤ 1.00), with the exception of the subscale emotional neglect (ρ = .55). Convergent validity with the CTQ was confirmed for both KERF-40+ global scores (.72 ≤ r ≤ .87) and corresponding subscale scores (.56 ≤ r ≤ .78). Relative predictive validity was reflected by significant small-to-moderate correlations between KERF-40+ global scores and indices of general and trauma-related psychopathology (.24 ≤ r ≤ .45). Taken together, the KERF-40+ appears to be suited for clinicians and researchers interested in retrospectively assessing different types, timing, and duration of childhood maltreatment experiences during sensitive periods in adults.

Place of death and associated factors in 12 Latin American countries: A total population study using death certificate data.

Background: Little is known about place of death in Latin America, although this data are crucial for health system planning. This study aims to describe place of death and associated factors in Latin America and to identify factors that contribute to inter-country differences in place of death. Methods: We conducted a total population observational study using death certificates of the total annual decedent populations in 12 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay) for the most recent available year (2016, 2017, or 2018). Data were analysed regarding place of death and multivariable logistic regression with place of death as the dependent variable was used to examine associated clinical and sociodemographic factors (independent variables) in each of the countries. Results: The total study sample was 2 994 685 deaths; 31.3% of deaths occurred at home, and 57.6% in hospitals. A strong variation was found among the countries with home deaths ranging from 20% (Brazil) to 67.9% (Guatemala) and hospital deaths from 22.3% (Guatemala) to 69.5% (Argentina). These differences between countries remained largely unchanged after controlling for sociodemographic factors and causes of death. The likelihood of dying at home was consistently higher with increasing age, for those living in a rural area, and for those with a lower educational level (except in Argentina). Conclusions: Most deaths in Latin America occur in hospitals, with a strong variation between countries. As clinical and sociodemographic factors included in this study did not explain country differences, other factors such as policy and health care system seem to have a crucial impact on where people die in Latin America.

An eye-tracking study of interpersonal threat sensitivity and adverse childhood experiences in borderline personality disorder.

BACKGROUND: Previous eye-tracking studies provide preliminary evidence for a hypersensitivity to negative, potentially threatening interpersonal cues in borderline personality disorder (BPD). From an etiological point of view, such interpersonal threat hypersensitivity might be explained by a biological vulnerability along with a history of early life adversities. The objective of the current study was to investigate interpersonal threat hypersensitivity and its association with adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in patients with BPD employing eye-tracking technology. METHODS: We examined a sample of 46 unmedicated, adult female patients with BPD and 25 healthy female volunteers, matched on age and intelligence, with a well-established emotion classification paradigm with angry, fearful, happy, and neutral facial expressions. ACE were assessed retrospectively with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. RESULTS: Patients as compared to healthy volunteers reflexively directed their gaze more quickly towards the eyes of emotional and neutral faces and did not adapt their fixation patterns according to the facial expression presented. Misclassifying emotional and neutral faces as angry correlated positively with the patients' self-reported ACE. CONCLUSIONS: Building on and extending earlier findings, our results are likely to suggest a visual hypervigilance towards the eyes of emotional and neutral facial expressions and a childhood trauma-related anger bias in patients with BPD. Given the lack of a clinical control group, the question whether these findings are specific for BPD has to remain open. Thus, further research is needed to elucidate the specificity of altered visual attention allocation and the role of ACE in anger recognition in patients with BPD.

Heartbeat evoked potentials in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an unaltered neurobiological regulation system?

Background: Early life maltreatment is a risk factor for psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe and heterogeneous disorder with fluctuating states of emotional over- and undermodulation, including hypervigilance, dissociation, and emotion regulation deficits. The perception and regulation of emotions have been linked to interoception, the cortical representation and sensing of inner bodily processes. Although first therapeutic approaches targeting bodily sensations have been found effective in patients with PTSD, and deficits in interoceptive signal representation have been reported in other trauma-related disorders, such as borderline personality disorder (BPD), the role of interoception remains largely unexplored for PTSD. Objective: The objective was to investigate the cortical representation of cardiac interoceptive signals in patients with PTSD and its associations with early life maltreatment, trait dissociation, and emotion dysregulation. Methods: Twenty-four medication-free patients with PTSD and 31 healthy controls (HC) completed a 5-min resting electrocardiogram (ECG) with parallel electroencephalogram (EEG). Heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) amplitudes as a measure for cortical representation of cardiac interoceptive signals were compared between groups and correlated with self-report questionnaires. Results: We did not find significantly different mean HEP amplitudes in patients with PTSD compared to HC, although HEPs of patients with PTSD were descriptively higher. No significant associations between mean HEP amplitudes and early life maltreatment, trait dissociation or emotion dysregulation were obtained within the groups. Conclusion: The current finding does not indicate deficits in interoceptive signal representation at rest in individuals with PTSD. Whether patients with PTSD show altered HEP modulations during emotion regulation tasks and might benefit from therapeutic approaches aiming at changing the perception of bodily signals, needs to be investigated in future studies.

Antecedentes: El maltrato temprano es un factor de riesgo para trastornos psiquiátricos, incluyendo el Trastorno de Estrés Postraumático (TEPT). El TEPT es un desorden severo y heterogéneo con estados fluctuantes de emocionalidad sobre e infra modulada incluyendo hipervigilancia, disociación, y déficit de regulación de las emociones. La percepción y regulación de las emociones han sido ligadas con la interocepción, la representación cortical y la sensación de procesos corporales internos. Aunque los primeros enfoques terapéuticos que abordaban sensaciones corporales han sido efectivos en pacientes con TEPT, y aunque se han encontrado déficit en la representación de señales interoceptivas en otros desordenes relacionados con el trauma como el Trastorno de Personalidad Limite (TPL), el rol de la interocepción permanece vastamente inexplorado para el TEPT.Objetivo: El objetivo fue investigar la representación cortical de las señales interoceptivas cardíacas en pacientes con TEPT y su asociación con maltrato temprano, disociación y regulación emocional.Métodos: 24 pacientes con TEPT sin uso de medicamentos y 31 controles sanos (CS) completaron un electrocardiograma (ECG) de reposo de 5 minutos junto con un electroencefalograma (EEG) en paralelo. Se compararon las amplitudes de los potenciales evocados cardíacos (HEP por sus siglas en inglés) como medida de representación cortical de señales cardíacas interoceptivas y se correlacionaron con cuestionarios de auto-reporte en ambos grupos.Resultados: No encontramos diferencias significativas en las amplitudes medias de HEP en pacientes con TEPT en comparación con CS, aunque las HEP en pacientes con TEPT fueron descriptivamente más altas. No se obtuvieron asociaciones significativas entre las amplitudes medias de HEP maltrato temprano, rasgos disociativos o la desregulación emocional dentro de los grupos.Conclusión: Los hallazgos presentes no indican déficit en la representación de señales interoceptivas en reposo en individuos con TEPT. La posibilidad de que los pacientes con TEPT muestren modulaciones alteradas de HEP durante tareas de regulación emocional y que puedan beneficiarse de enfoques terapéuticos que lleven a cambiar la percepción de señales corporales, necesita ser investigada en futuros estudios.

Feasibility of using death certificates for studying place of death in Latin America

Objective: this paper assesses the availability and quality of death certificate data in Latin America and the feasibility of using these data to study place of death and associated factors. Methods: in this comparative study, we collected examples of current official death certificates and digital data files containing information about all deaths that occurred during 1 year in 19 Latin American countries. Data were collected from June 2019 to May 2020. The records for place of death and associated variables were studied. The criteria for data quality were completeness, number of ill-defined causes of death and timeliness. Results: all 19 countries provided copies of current official death certificates and 18 of these registered the place of death. Distinguishing among hospital or other health care institution, home and other was possible for all countries. Digital data files with death certificate data were available from 12 countries and 1 region. Three countries had data considered to be of high quality and seven had data considered to be of medium quality. Categories for place of death and most of the predetermined factors possibly associated with place of death were included in the data files. Conclusions: the quality of data sets was rated medium to high in 10 countries. Hence, death certificate data make it feasible to conduct an international comparative study on place of death and the associated factors in Latin America.

Parts and wholes in person recognition: developmental trends.

This study's aim is the investigation of short-term visual person recognition in 8- and 10-year-olds and adults, within the part-whole paradigm introduced by. Natural unfamiliar whole persons were contrasted with natural unfamiliar faces to test for differences between person processing and face processing. Two experiments showed advantages of whole face recognition over isolated face feature recognition. Also, these was a complete over part probe advantage (CPA, ) for person recognition in all age groups. Thus, recognition became more accurate between 8 years and adulthood, but no developmental shift in visual information processing was observable with face and whole person recognition. I conclude that person recognition does not rely on processes completely different from those of face recognition and that this holds for 8- and 10-year-olds as well as for adults.