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As Forensic Psychology continues to expand as an independent field, professionals regularly resort to psychological assessment tools to assess people involved within the justice system. The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) is a 344-item, self-report inventory that aims to provide meaningful information for diagnosis and clinical decision-making, specifically relating to psychopathology, personality, and psychosocial environment. Its applicability in forensic settings has been increasingly recognized on account of its benefits in comparison to other self-report inventories (e.g., MMPI-2, MCMI-III), since it includes scales that are relevant to forensic settings (e.g., violence risk levels, psychopathy, substance abuse), and the existence of profile distortion indicators is useful when dealing with highly defensive and/or malingering populations. The goal of this paper is to conduct a thorough review of the PAI's utility in forensic settings, by focusing on the relevant forensic constructs assessed by the PAI (e.g., personality disorders, psychosis, substance abuse, aggression, recidivism risk, and response distortion), as well as its application to offender and inmate populations, intimate partner violence contexts, family law cases, and forensic professionals. Overall, the PAI continues to gather international recognition and its relevance and usefulness in forensic settings is generally accepted and acknowledged. • The PAI has great applicability in forensic settings. • The PAI includes scales related to violence, psychopathy, and substance abuse. • The PAI'S profile distortion indicators are useful in forensic settings. • The PAI is applicable to offender and victim samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Study of cognitive and psychomotor predictors of unsafe driving in older adults. [•] The best predictors of the Senior Drivers Battery were derived from reaction time tasks. [•] Additional tests of visuospatial and executive abilities with higher accuracy were identified. [•] Certain tests may be included in predictor models of driving fitness in older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Considerable research has shown that neuropsychological tests are predictive of real-world driving ability. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is a brief cognitive test that has been commonly used in the assessment of older drivers. However, this test has inherent problems that limit its validity to evaluate cognitive abilities related to driving and to screen for driving impairments in non-demented people. Therefore, it is useful to test new screening instruments that may predict potential unsafe drivers who require an in-depth neuropsychological assessment in a specialised centre. To date, the utility of the Addenbrooke''s Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE-R) as an indicator of driving ability has not been established. In the current study, fifty older drivers (mean age=73.1years) who were referred for a psychological assessment, the protocol of which included the ACE-R, underwent an on-road driving test. Using linear discriminant analyses, the results highlighted the higher classification accuracy of the ACE-R compared to the MMSE score, particularly for detecting unsafe drivers. Measures of visuospatial and executive functions, which are not incorporated in the MMSE score, had an incremental value in the prediction of driving ability. This emerging brief cognitive test may warrant additional study for use in the fitness to drive assessment of older adults. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Purpose: Quality of life (QoL) has been increasingly examined in sarcoma patients, but longitudinal research on its variation across different phases of the disease is lacking. The present study aims to analyse change or stability in sarcoma patients’ QoL, and to identify the distinct trajectories of change from diagnostic to treatment phase. Demographic and clinical predictors of QoL during treatments are also explored. Method: QoL of 36 Portuguese sarcoma patients was assessed at time of diagnosis (baseline) and again at 3–6 months after the beginning of treatment (T1), using the EORTC QLQ C-30 (Portuguese version). Results: At diagnostic and treatment phases, patients reported a diminished QoL in the majority of QLQ C-30 domains. From baseline to T1, global health/QoL improved significantly, and physical functioning declined. Over time, 38.9% of patients maintained a poor QoL, 27.8% remained in the “High QoL” cluster, and 22.2% changed towards a worse QoL. Marital status, age, professional status, and radiotherapy predicted QoL scores during treatments. Conclusions: Results suggest that sarcoma patients may experience a diminished QoL, both at diagnosis and during treatments, and reveal a tendency for stability in QoL scores rather than for change. Initial functioning and some demographic and clinical variables have a predictive role for QoL in the treatment phase. Assessment of QoL and multidisciplinary interventions must be a part of routine cancer care, and should be implemented in an initial phase and during treatments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• In nursing homes, neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are particularly frequent. • Cognition, functional status, needs and psychotropic drugs all correlate with NPS. • Unmet needs and hypnotic/sedatives shown to increase the risk of presenting NPS. • Identifying and modifying these factors would benefit residents' symptomatology. • Findings conform with the unmet needs model, placing emphasis on needs assessment. This study aimed to explore neuropsychiatric symptoms' (NPS) risk factors in a sample of nursing home residents. A cross-sectional study was conducted. Residents over 65 years were included, unless they had a known major psychiatric diagnosis. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) was completed, and other measures included residents' sociodemographic characteristics, cognition, functional impairment, regular drugs and number of needs. To explore potential risk factors, a logistic regression was conducted with the presence of NPS (NPI-10 ≥ 1) as dependent variable. Additional exploratory analyses were conducted based on a sub-syndrome approach, and three multivariate models were repeated considering the psychotic, affective and behaviour syndromes as dependent variables. A total of 140 residents were included (age: 83.71 ± 7.29 years). More than half (50.4%) presented at least one NPS. NPI-10 showed significant correlations with cognition (r s =-0.177, p = 0.042), functional impairment (r s = 0.174, p = 0.043), unmet needs (r s = 0.245, p = 0.004) and nervous system-acting drugs (r s = 0.271, p = 0.002), particularly anxiolytics (r s = 0.175, p = 0.047), antidepressants (r s = 0.204, p = 0.019) and hypnotics/sedatives (U = 2434.5, p = 0.028). However, in the multivariate analysis only unmet needs (OR = 1.30; 95% CI: 1.008–1.670) and hypnotic/sedatives (OR = 4.66; 95% CI: 1.132–19.144) showed an independent association with the presence of NPS. Regarding the additional models, unmet needs and literacy, antidepressants and hypnotic/sedatives, and cognitive status, showed to contribute to explain the variability of psychotic, affective and behaviour syndromes, respectively. Identifiable and modifiable factors, including unmet needs and prescribed psychotropic drugs, could have contributed to NPS in this sample, suggesting a role for targeted non-pharmacological and person-centred approaches directed to residents' unmet needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the P-E-N Model, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire -- Revised (EPQ-R; S. Eysenck, H. Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985) is an internationally well-known personality assessment instrument. This questionnaire measures the three fundamental personality dimensions: Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism (also includes a Lie/Social Desirability scale). The aim of the present paper consists in the examination of the factorial structure of the EPQ-R in the Portuguese context and its psychometric properties (validity and reliability). Using a large sample (N=1689, 16-60 years), the construct validity was examined through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and the test reliability through internal consistency analysis and test-retest reliability (temporal stability between 4 and 8 weeks). In general, the EPQ-R (Almiro & Simões, 2013, 2014) showed an adequate reliability and validity indices, replicating on the Portuguese context the factor structure of its original version (English). These results demonstrate that the EPQ-R conveniently measures the Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Psychoticism constructs, defined by H. Eysenck, and the adequacy of the EPQ-R to the Portuguese population as a personality assessment instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only a few studies have prospectively examined the utility of self-reported measures of psychopathic traits in predicting criminal behavior among forensic samples of female youth offenders. The main aim of this study is to compare the utility of two self-report measures of psychopathic-like traits in predicting criminal recidivism among a sample of incarcerated female youths. Participants (N = 76) from the three nation-wide Portuguese juvenile detention centers that admit female youths were followed over two years and prospectively classified as recidivists versus non-recidivists. Logistic regression models controlling for crime frequency and ethnicity revealed that neither the Antisocial Process Screening Device - Self-Report (APSD-SR) nor the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) and their respective dimensions significantly predicted one- and two-year general recidivism and violent recidivism. Findings mostly suggest there are clear limitations in terms of the incremental utility of self-report measures of psychopathic traits in predicting criminal recidivism among incarcerated female juveniles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]