Affective Changes During Cognitive Behavioural Therapy-As Measured by PANAS.

BACKGROUND: Previous researches have indicated that self-reported positive affect and negative affect is changing in a healthy direction during Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to examine how affective personality is related to psychopathology before and after CBT. METHOD: A group of clients (n = 73) was measured before and after CBT, differentiated by their problem areas at pre-therapy (i.e., depressive, anxious and mixed). RESULTS: After therapy, clients experienced higher positive affect (p < .02, d=0.66), lower negative affect (p < .001, d=0.98) and there was a significant change in the distribution of affective personality regardless of problem area, χ2 = 8.41, df = 3, two-tailed p = .04, 99% CI [0.03, 0.04]. The change in the distribution was largest for the two most relevant personality types, self-actualization and self-destructive affective personality. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that CBT can achieve changes in affect and affective personality.

Knowledge of status and assessment of personal health consequences with hepatitis C are not enough to change risk behaviour among injecting drug users in Stockholm County, Sweden.

This was a multicentre study with risk perception as the theoretical framework, investigating if risk behaviours change when injecting drug users (IDUs) are aware of their hepatitis C virus (HCV) status and had assessed the health consequences with HCV infection. Two hundred and thirteen participants aged 15-40 y were analysed. Sharing of needles and of other injecting equipment were common both among participants who reported HCV-positive status (74%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 65.3-80.1%) and among those who reported HCV status unknown (68%, 95% CI 56.0-78.4%). Participants associating very severe health consequences with HCV infection and those who did not know of any health consequences with HCV infection shared needles at almost the same rate (78%, 95% CI 62.5-87.7 vs 69%, 95% CI 8.0-78.9, respectively). Sharing of other injecting equipment was most common among participants with verified HCV-positive status (adjusted risk ratio 5.64, 95% CI 2.64-12.07). Knowledge of HCV status and assessment of health consequences with HCV infection were not enough to change injecting risk behaviours. Sharing of other injecting equipment was a more important risk factor than sharing needles for participants with verified HCV-positive status. It is suggested that professionals engage IDUs in risk analysis and open a dialogue about assessment in order to identify, quantify and characterize risks.

Should mood during intravenous alcohol administration be studied as a bi- or unipolar phenomenon? a pilot study.

In this study, alcohol was administered intravenously to study whether its effects on mood should preferably be studied as a bi- or unipolar phenomenon. This was studied in a double-blind, placebo-balanced, design on six healthy male volunteers. Of the three bipolar aspects of mood (calmness, activity, and pleasantness), only calmness was significantly affected by intravenous alcohol. In contrast, there were significant differences between alcohol and placebo for five of the six unipolar indexes. This support the hypothesis that subjective effects of alcohol on mood are preferably studied with self-ratings that allows positive and negative aspects to be analyzed separately. Further, our data suggest that the effects of alcohol are primarily on negative aspects of mood rather than on positive.

The development of depression during psychodynamic group psychotherapy among subjects in substance abuse remission.

The aim of the present study was to examine the development of self-reported depression during psychodynamic group therapy among patients manifesting a history of substance use-related problems between 1993-2000. Subjects (n = 100) were prospectively followed with respects to depression levels at intake and after 6, 12, and 18 month in therapy. Depression was measured with the Beck Depression Inventory. Overall, there was a significant decrease in depression after 18 months in therapy. The development of depression in different subgroups was also analyzed.