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Introduction: The unlimited access to sexual features in the World Wide Web has raised concerns about excessive and problematic online-sex use. However, little is known about antecedents of internet-sex use of different intensity. Based on a representative German sample of 2,522 participants between the ages of 14 and 97 years, the aims of the present study were (1) to determine the prevalence rates of online-sex users with the short version (ISSTGSV) of the Internet Sex Screening Test and (2) to associate online-sex use with anxious vs. avoidant partner attachment patterns and “Big Five” personality traits as potential antecedents. Results: The ISST is a brief, one-dimensional and reliable measure of online-sex activities (rtt = .69). Overall, 14.7% of respondents reported occasional and 4.2% intensive online-sex use. In multivariate analysis, online-sex use was significantly positively associated with male sex, younger age, unemployment and an anxious partner attachment pattern and negatively with conscientiousness and agreeableness. Conclusions: Arousal and satisfaction by virtual enactment of sexual phantasies may be attractive for anxiously attached persons who find it difficult to commit to a real life relationship due to fear of rejection or low self-esteem. More knowledge about the individual antecedents of intensive online-sex use may also be helpful for the development of consultation and treatment strategies for excessive and addictive online-sex use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Many patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) report some foreignness of the affected limb, which is referred to as "neglectlike symptoms" (NLS). Despite similarities of the NLS reports to symptoms of body image disturbances in mental disorders, no study has been conducted to examine such associations. Methods. We investigated 50 patients with CRPS and 45 pain control patients (N527, chronic limb pain; N518, migraine headache). NLS, anxiety, depression, depersonalization, and somatization were assessed using validated questionnaires. Results. Seventy-two percent of the CRPS patients reported at least one NLS vs 29.6% and 33.3% in the two patient control groups. In limb pain controls, NLS correlated with pain intensity. In CRPS patients, NLS correlated with anxiety (rho50.658, P< 0.001), somatization (rho50.616, P< 0.001), depersonalization (rho50.634, P< 0.001), and pain catastrophizing (rho50.456, P< 0.01), but not with intensity of pain, duration of pain, or pain disability. Conclusions. In CRPS patients, NLS could be a result of somatization, depression, anxiety, and depersonalization, but probably not of pain. Whether these associations are causative must be clarified in longitudinal psychological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While adverse childhood experiences have been shown to contribute to adverse health outcomes in adulthood, specifically distress and somatic symptoms, few studies have examined their joint effects with resilient coping style on adult adjustment. Hence, we aim to determine the association between resilient coping and distress in participants with and without reported childhood adversities. A representative German community sample (N = 2508) between 14–92 years (1334 women; 1174 men) was examined by the short form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Brief Resilience Coping Scale, standardized scales of distress and somatoform symptoms. Childhood adversity was associated with reduced adjustment, social support and resilience. It was also strongly associated with increased distress and somatoform complaints. Resilient coping was not only associated with lower distress, it also buffered the effects of childhood adversity on distress. Our study corroborates the buffering effect of resilience in a representative German sample. High trait resilient subjects show less distress and somatoform symptoms despite reported childhood adversities in comparison to those with low resilient coping abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perception of infant emotions is an integral part of sensitive caregiving within the mother-child relationship, a maternal ability which develops in mothers during their own attachment history. In this study we address the association between maternal attachment representation and brain activity underlying the perception of infant emotions. Event related potentials (ERPs) of 32 primiparous mothers were assessed during a three stimulus oddball task presenting negative, positive and neutral emotion expressions of infants as target, deviant or standard stimuli. Attachment representation was assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview during pregnancy. Securely attached mothers recognized emotions of infants more accurately than insecurely attached mothers. ERPs yielded amplified N170 amplitudes for insecure mothers when focusing on negative infant emotions. Secure mothers showed enlarged P3 amplitudes to target emotion expressions of infants compared to insecure mothers, especially within conditions with frequent negative infant emotions. In these conditions, P3 latencies were prolonged in insecure mothers. In summary, maternal attachment representation was found associated with brain activity during the perception of infant emotions. This further clarifies psychological mechanisms contributing to maternal sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Disembodiment is a core feature of depersonalization disorder (DPD). Given the narratives of DPD patients about their disembodiment and emotional numbing and neurobiological findings of an inhibition of insular activity, DPD may be considered as a mental disorder with specific impairments of interoceptive awareness and body perception. Methods: We investigated cardioceptive accuracy (CA) of DPD patients (n = 24) as compared to healthy controls (n = 26) with two different heartbeat detection tasks (“Schandry heartbeat counting task” and “Whitehead heartbeat discrimination task”). Self-rated clearness of body perception was measured by questionnaire. Results: Contrary to our hypothesis, DPD patients performed similarly to healthy controls on the two different heartbeat detection tasks, and they had equal scores regarding their self-rated clearness of body perception. There was no correlation of the severity of “anomalous body experiences” and depersonalization with measures of interoceptive accuracy. Only among healthy controls CA in the Schandry task was positively correlated with self-rated clearness of body perception. Depersonalization was unrelated to severity of depression or anxiety, while depression and anxiety were highly correlated. Anxiety and depression did not modify the associations of depersonalization with interoceptive accuracy. Conclusions: Our main findings highlight a striking discrepancy of normal interoception with overwhelming experiences of disembodiment in DPD. This may reflect difficulties of DPD patients to integrate their visceral and bodily perceptions into a sense of their selves. This problem may be considered an important target for psychotherapeutic treatment approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]