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Parental rearing styles are often found to be related to adult psychological disorders. In general, conclusions are based on the data of retrospective studies, in which patients' memories of their parents' behaviour are investigated. However, it has been widely recognized that memories may be sensitive to current mood states. The possible mood sensitivity of autobiographic memories is a powerful alternative explanation of the relationship commonly found between parental rearing styles and psychopathology, with implications for the hypothesis of early parenting as a vulnerability factor in the aetiology of such disorders. The present study examined whether memories of parental rearing styles are influenced by present mood. To this aim, both mood and memories of parental rearing styles were assessed on two occasions in a sample of 315 healthy subjects from the general community (Study 1) and in a group of 46 socially phobic patients (Study 2). Results showed that memories of early parenting remained quite stable, even in the face of significant and considerable changes in anxiety, depression, and hostility. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Patients with generalized social phobia (n = 73) were randomly allocated to two treatment modalities: (1) group or (2) individual treatment, and to three treatment packages: (1) two blocks of exposure in vivo (2) a block cognitive therapy followed by a block exposure in vivo, or (3) two blocks cognitive-behavioural treatment in which both strategies were integrated from the start. All treatments consisted of 16 sessions, given in two treatment blocks of 4 weeks each, separated by a no-treatment phase of 4 weeks. Self-report assessments were held before and after the treatment blocks and at 3-months follow-up. Significant differences were found between effects of the first treatment block vs those of the 4-weeks waiting-list period. Repeated measures MANOVA's demonstrated significant time effects after both treatment blocks and at follow-up, indicating improvement for the group as a whole. After the first treatment block the integrated treatment did significantly worse than either exposure in vivo or cognitive therapy in decreasing somatic complaints. On the other variables no differences among the treatments were found. At follow-up a significant interaction was found between treatment package and modality on the variable cognitions: largest progress was found in the group treatment with cognitive therapy followed by exposure in vivo; smallest progress was found in the integrated group treatment. Results are discussed and recommendations for further research are given.

Parental representations of a Dutch sample of psychiatric patients with diagnoses of dysthymia and unipolar depression were compared with those of a matched sample of non-depressed patients and a matched sample of healthy controls. No differences in recalled parental rearing styles were found between depressives with a diagnosis of dysthymia and those with a diagnosis of unipolar depression. Depressive did not differ from the mixed (but non-depressed) sample of psychiatric patients, whereas both the depressed and the mixed group of patients reported more adverse parenting than the healthy controls. Analysis of repeated measurements of parental representations showed that memories of parental behavior were highly stable across clinically significant changes in depressed mood, so that it seems unlikely that patients' relatively negative recollections of their parents' behavior were due to mood state dependent recall. Results are discussed within the framework of depression theories and with regard to the validity and utility of self-report instruments for parental rearing styles.

Social phobic patients (n = 30) with fear of blushing, sweating or trembling as the predominant complaint were randomly assigned to three treatment conditions: (1) exposure in vivo followed by cognitive therapy, (2) cognitive therapy followed by exposure in vivo, or (3) a cognitive-behavioural treatment in which both strategies were integrated from the start. Each treatment condition consisted of 16 sessions, given in two treatment blocks of 4 weeks each, separated by a no-treatment phase of 4 weeks. Self-report assessments were held before and after the treatment blocks and at 3-months follow-up. No significant differences were found between effects of the first treatment block vs those of the 4-weeks waiting-list period. After the second block treatment was significantly more effective than waiting-list. The analyses showed significant time effects after both treatment blocks and at follow-up, indicating improvement for the group as a whole. After two treatment blocks and at follow-up no significant differences among the different treatment packages were found on target problems, avoidance of social situations, cognitions and somatic complaints. After discussion of the results recommendations for further research will be given.

In this report an overview is given of the contribution of cognitive approaches to behavioral medicine. The (possible) contribution of cognitive therapy is reviewed in the area of coronary heart disease, obesity, bulimia nervosa, chronic pain, benign headache, cancer, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome/human immunodeficiency virus and asthma. Although the relative contribution of cognitive therapy varies across these various disorders, its positive effects are now well established and new advances undoubtedly will be made in the next few years.

This study was meant to investigate the psychometric properties and clinical utility of the Lehrer Woolfolk Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (LWASQ), an instrument for assessment of somatic, behavioral and cognitive aspects of anxiety. Confirmatory factor analysis on data from social phobics (n = 108), normal adults (n = 103) and normal adolescents (n = 650) showed that the three original factors were strongly replicated in each sample. The three subscales appeared to have high internal consistency, while data on convergent and divergent validity were satisfactory. In addition, the subscales did very well in discriminating between phobic patients and normals, and were able to detect treatment effects. In the discussion the instrument is compared with other self report measures of anxiety dimensions, like the Cognitive Somatic Anxiety Questionnaire (CSAQ) and the Worry-Emotionality Scale (WES). It is suggested that similar questionnaires, adjusted to the separate anxiety disorders, should be developed.

After a 4-week waiting period 21 obsessive-compulsives were randomly allocated to two treatment conditions (1) Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) and (2) exposure in vivo. RET consisted of analysing irrational thoughts; exposure in vivo was self-controlled. After six sessions and another 4-week waiting period all patients received six sessions of exposure in vivo. Both treatments resulted in significant improvement on anxiety/discomfort, Maudsley Obsessional Compulsive Inventory, and Dutch Obsessional Compulsive Questionnaire and in a reduction of scores on the Irrational Beliefs Test. Results were maintained to a follow-up 6 months later. No significant differences were found between the two conditions.

In a 2 x 2 factorial design massed vs spaced and therapist vs self-controlled exposure were compared with obsessive-compulsive patients. Intersession interval was varied keeping constant the length of exposure time and number of exposure sessions. Treatment in all conditions was home based. Treatment led to highly statistical and significant improvements on all measures. Massed exposure was as effective as spaced exposure; self-controlled exposure proved to be as effective as therapist-controlled exposure.

The parental rearing practices of 43 multiple drug addicts and 111 control subjects were compared using the EMBU, a psychometrically reliable instrument to assess parental attitudes and rearing behavior. Significant differences between addicts and controls were found on three dimensions: Rejection, Lack of Emotional Warmth, and Overprotection. The results were most striking for paternal rejection and lack of paternal emotional warmth.

In the present study, the role of individual response patterns in the treatment of social phobic patients was investigated. Seventy-four patients were diagnosed as social phobics. On the basis of extreme scores on a behavioral test (the Simulated Social Interaction Test) and on a cognitive measure (the Rational Behavior Inventory), the response patterns of 39 patients were analyzed, and the patients themselves were classified as either 'behavioral reactors' or 'cognitive reactors'. Half of the patients with each response pattern received a behavioral focused treatment, i.e. social skills training (SST), while the other half received a cognitive oriented treatment, i.e. rational emotive therapy (RET). Patients received group therapy in eight weekly sessions. Within-group differences showed a considerable improvement in all treatment groups. Between-group differences failed to lend support to the hypothesis that treatment that fits a response pattern (i.e. SST for behavioral reactors and RET for cognitive reactors) will result in a greater improvement than one that does not.

In a recent study Turner et al. (1983) employed Bell & Byrne's (1978) Repression-Sensitization (R-S) scale to test the hypothesis that agoraphobics utilize repression as a method of avoiding anxiety-arousing forms of cognition. However, no support was found for this view. Rather, the R-S scores indicated general sensitization and attention to negative affect. In this paper it is argued that, on both theoretical and psychometric grounds, the R-S scale cannot be considered a suitable measure of the repression-sensitization process. A study was carried out in which a number of other defensivity measures were used in addition to the R-S scale. Weak support was found for Goldstein & Chambless' (1978) view that a defensive cognitive style is characteristic of agoraphobic patients when compared with non-phobic psychiatric controls.