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People who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) often state that it helps them feel better. We tested three hypotheses through which this mood modification might occur. Following a negative mood induction, adults reporting past year NSSI were randomized into a control (i.e., sitting alone quietly), mild distraction, or pain condition. All participants completed mood ratings at regular intervals. No mood repair occurred in the control condition. However, distraction improved mood both during and after the activity. Participants who self-administered pain reported no overall mood change, suggesting that contrary to popular NSSI theories, pain likely does not improve mood via distraction. However, as predicted, level of self-criticism moderated mood change during pain. Participants high on self-criticism felt significantly betterduring pain and participants low on self-criticism felt significantly worseduring pain. Findings shed light on howNSSI improves mood by clarifying the circumstances under which different affect regulation processes may operate.

The preliminary identification of methcathinone and analogues of methcathinone presents a new and growing challenge to law enforcement. Color tests remain an important tool for the preliminary testing of suspected illicit drug samples. In this study, the applicability of a range of color tests to the preliminary identification of methcathinone and analogues of methcathinone was explored. It was found that Marquis reagent is suitable for the preliminary identification of methylenedioxy-substituted analogues of methcathinone. Liebermann's reagent was identified as an appropriate test for the preliminary identification of cathinone, methcathinone and 4-methylmethcathinone. Both of these color tests give rise to intensely yellow colored products. Liebermann's reagent also produced yellow and orange products upon reaction with N,N-dimethylcathinone and 4-methoxy-methcathinone respectively, although these products were less intensely colored. A testing sequence incorporating these tests was utilized on seized illicit drug samples and found to be suitable for use in routine casework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]