Search

Background: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a new entity affecting a small percentage of children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods: Demography, clinical, and laboratory variables of children admitted from April to September 2020 with MIS-C were studied retrospectively at eight hospitals in Delhi, India. Results: We identified 120 patients [median age: 7 years (interquartile range (IQR): 4-10)] with male-to-female ratio of 2.3:1. Overall, 73 out of 120 children (60.8%) presented with shock, 63 (52.5%) required inopressor support, and 51 (43%) required respiratory support. We categorized the cohort into three observed clinical phenotypes: MIS-C with shock (n = 63), MIS-C with Kawasaki disease (KD) (n = 23), and MIS-C without shock and KD (n = 34). Atypical presentations were hypothermia, orchitis, meningoencephalitis, demyelination, polyneuropathy, pancreatitis, and appendicitis. Ninety-four percent had laboratory evidence of SARS-CoV-2 (78.3%, seropositive and 15.8%, RT-PCR positive). The median C-reactive protein (CRP) was 136 mg/L (IQR, 63.5-212.5) and ferritin was 543 ng/mL (IQR, 225-1,127). More than 90% received immunomodulatory therapy (intravenous immunoglobulins and/or steroids) with an excellent outcome (96% survived). CRP and absolute neutrophil count (ANC) were correlated statistically with severity. Conclusion: MIS-C data from Delhi are presented. Rising CRP and ANC predict the severe MIS-C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies though report that emotion regulation (ER) mediates the relationship of mindfulness with subjective well-being (SWB), there is also an unexamined conjecture that ER skills cultivate mindfulness which consequently enhances SWB. Present study attempts to empirically tests which of the said two models better explains the mindfulness-well-being relationship. Two hundred eleven adults were assessed on the self-report measures of the said constructs. Initially we tested the mediational model assuming that the use of ER (cognitive reappraisal & suppression) would mediate the mindfulness-SWB relationship. This model was found to yield a good fit to the data with some minor modification. The test of alternative model that assumes ER as an antecedent factor in mindfulness - well-being relationship was also found to be a good fit to the data. The comparison of both models revealed that later model yielded a better fit compared to the former model. These findings suggest that the alternate possibility that better emotion regulation helps to attain a mindful state which in turn enhances health/well-being appears to be a better explanatory model than the conventional model which assumes that mindfulness exerts beneficial health effects through its emotion regulatory effect. The findings also implied that there may be a circular relationship between mindfulness and emotion regulation. However, such speculations need to be empirically tested in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the role of childhood parental emotional abuse and neglect in the formation and development of fear of intimacy in the context of romantic relationships and depressive symptoms among a sample of young adults. A total of 275 participants (120 males &155 females) having the age range from 18 years to 25 years were administered Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory-Psychological Abuse Subscale, Multidimensional Neglectful Behaviour-Form A 20 (Adolescent & Adult Recall Version), Fear of Intimacy Scale and Beck Depression Inventory II. The results of the study showed a significant relationship of childhood parental emotional abuse and neglect with fear of intimacy and depressive symptoms. The results also suggested significant gender differences in fear of intimacy among young adults. Childhood parental emotional abuse and neglect were significantly predicted fear of intimacy and depressive symptoms. The results, thus, indicate that childhood parental emotional abuse and neglect play a critical role in the development of fear of intimacy in the context of romantic relationships and depressive symptoms among young adults. Therefore, it may be argued that maltreatment occurring during the childhood may have enduring adverse influences on adult psychological health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ: Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer & Toney, 2006) though is a widely used measure for assessing the trait mindfulness, its five factor structure has been questioned and a four factor model (without observe dimension) has been advocated in several studies. The validity of the initially proposed five factor and the alternative four factor models of the FFMQ was tested in the present study using the Hindi version of this measure (FFMQ-H) on a sample of 300 non-meditators (163 males & 137 females). Findings of the confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the original five factor of the FFMQ do not provide a good fit to the data even after allowing the five dimensions and some of the error terms to correlate. The test of the alternative four factor model (without the observe dimension) yielded a better fit compared to five factor model. The model was further revised by dropping three items (33, 4 & 10) having poor psychometric properties and/or poor loading which resulted in considerable improvement in the model fit. The final 28 item Hindi version of the FFMQ (without observe dimension) and its four factors demonstrated satisfactory reliability (alpha coefficient for the whole scale was .85 & for the four factors it ranged from .61 to .81). The findings suggest that the FFMQ-H can be used to reliably measure the trait mindfulness among Hindi speaking Indians and the trait mindfulness can be better summarized by four factors without the observe dimension that may be redundant for assessing it among non-meditators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is a severe psychopathological disorder that is marked by a constellation of affective, cognitive and memory deficits. These deficits have been observed as being responsible for the onset, maintenance, and recurrence of depressive episodes among individuals diagnosed with depression. However, the nature and course of these cognitive and affective deficits in undiagnosed samples are relatively less explored. The present study examined the nature of autobiographical memory recall and emotion regulation in 38 (19 male and 19 female) depressed participants screened on the basis of their scores on Beck Depression Inventory-II. All the selected participants responded on self-report measure of Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Autobiographical Memory Test. The results showed that both the dimensions of emotion regulation (emotion suppression and cognitive reappraisal) correlated positively and significantly with depression. However, the emotion suppression dimension emerged as best predictor of depression. Results also showed a significant and negative correlation between depression and specificity of positive autobiographical memory recall. Overall, the findings of the present study suggest that the overgeneral autobiographical memory recall, use of inappropriate emotion regulation strategy and lack of motivation to repair negative mood are associated with depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The link between mindfulness and better emotion regulation (ER) has been well documented, but the mechanism through which it improves ER is still unclear. It is likely that the emotion regulatory effects of mindfulness might be occurring indirectly through other affective aspects (e.g., range & differentiation of emotional experiences). The said possibility was tested on a sample of 211 adults, using self-report measures of mindfulness, the use of ER strategies (reappraisal & suppression) and range and differentiation of emotional experience. Analyses revealed that mindfulness and its dimensions correlated negatively with the use of suppression and positively with reappraisal as well as range and differentiation of emotional experiences. The hypothesis that mindfulness influences ER indirectly through altering the range and differentiation of emotions is supported by the findings of structural equation modeling. Findings revealed that mindfulness was indirectly linked with enhanced use of reappraisal through improved emotional differentiation and reduced use of suppression through enhancement of both the range and differentiation of emotional experiences. Further, mindfulness was found to have a significant direct effect on suppression but not on reappraisal. These findings imply that mindfulness exerts its emotion regulatory effect indirectly by enhancing the range and differentiation of emotional experiences but it may also have some direct effect on some aspects of ER such as reduced emotional suppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown that cognitive styles do not remain static, but they change over a period of time. Both boys and girls become more field independent with increase in their age. The present study examines the development of field dependent-field independent cognitive style and related cognitive functioning of school children. A sample of 220 school children (111 boys and 109 girls) of 7-12 years was selected randomly from four schools of Varanasi city and divided into three groups, i e., 7-8 (group-1), 9-10 (group-2), and 11-12 (group-3) years. Each child was given Story-Pictorial Embedded Figures Test (SPEFT), Figure Identification Task and Face Identification Task. Results revealed that the elder children were more Field Independent than younger children. More specifically, children of the second age group (9-10 years) scored significantly higher on SPEFT than the first age group (7-8 years). Similarly children of the third age group (11-12 years) scored higher on SPEFT than the first and second groups. However, the difference was significant only between the first and the third groups. Similar developmental trend has also been observed with regard to children's performance on Figure Identification and Face Identification tasks. Further, FI children scored higher on both Face and Figure Identification tasks as compared to their FD counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A consensus is emerging among the researchers that mindfulness is associated with better physical health and psychological well-being. The present study attempts to explore the posstible role of positive and negative affectivity in explaining the relationship between mindfulness and health. One hundred undergraduate and post-graduate students (52 male and 48 female) were assessed on selfreport measures of mindfulness, positive/negative affectivity and mental illness/distress. Analysis revealed that most of the dimensions of mindfulness as well as the total score of mindfulness were correlated positively with positive affect and negatively with different dimensions of mental illness/ distress and negative affect. Further, positive affect correlated significantly and negatively with the dimensions mental illness/distress whereas negative affect correlated positively with the same. Though, most of the dimensions of mindfulness correlated significantly with mental illness/distress as well as positive/negative affect, the findings of stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that 'acting with awareness' dimension of mindfulness emerged as the best predictor of mental illness/distress. Further, in predicting negative affect 'describe' dimension of mindfulness emerged as best predictor followed by non-judgment of inner experiences. Positive affect was best predicted by 'describe' dimension of mindfulness followed by reactivity to inner experiences. To examine the mediational role of positive/negative affect in mindfulness-mental illness relationship a mediation analysis was carried out. Findings revealed that the negative affect and not the positive affect significantly mediated the relationship between mindfulness and mental illness/distress. The results have been discussed in the light of available empirical researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]