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Background: Prevention of violent behaviors (VB) in the early phase of psychosis (EPP) is a real challenge. Impulsivity was shown to be strongly related to VB, and different evolutions of impulsivity were noticed along treatments. One possible variable involved in the relationship between VB and the evolution of impulsivity is cannabis use (CU). The high prevalence of CU in EPP and its relationship with VB led us to investigate: 1/the impact of CU and 2/the impact of early CU on the evolution of impulsivity levels during a 3-year program, in violent and non-violent EPP patients. Methods: 178 non-violent and 62 violent patients (VPs) were followed-up over a 3 year period. Age of onset of CU was assessed at program entry and impulsivity was assessed seven times during the program. The evolution of impulsivity level during the program, as a function of the violent and non-violent groups of patients and CU precocity were analyzed with linear mixed-effects models. Results: Over the treatment period, impulsivity level did not evolve as a function of the interaction between group and CU (coef. = 0.02, p = 0.425). However, when including precocity of CU, impulsivity was shown to increase significantly only in VPs who start consuming before 15 years of age (coef. = 0.06, p = 0.008). Conclusion: The precocity of CU in VPs seems to be a key variable of the negative evolution of impulsivity during follow-up and should be closely monitored in EPP patients entering care since they have a higher risk of showing VB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since lack of empathy is an important indicator of violent behaviors, researchers need consistent and valid measures. This study evaluated the practical significance of a potential physiological correlate of empathy compared to a traditional self-report questionnaire in 18 male violent offenders and 21 general population controls. Empathy skills were assessed with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) questionnaire. Heart-Rate Variability (HRV) was assessed with an electrocardiogram. The RMSSD (Root Mean Square of the Successive beat-to-beat Differences), an HRV index implicated in social cognition, was calculated. There were no group differences in IRI scores. However, RMSSD was lower in the offender group. Positive correlations between RMSSD and IRI subscales were found for controls only. We conclude that psychometric measures of empathy do not discriminate incarcerated violent offenders, and that the incorporation of psychophysiological measures, such as HRV, could be an avenue for forensic research on empathy to establish translatable evidence-based information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular opinion holds that color has specific affective meaning. Brighter, more chromatic, and warm colors were conceptually linked to positive stimuli and darker, less chromatic, and cool colors to negative stimuli. Whether such systematic color associations exist with actually mood felt remains to be tested. We experimentally induced four moods—joy, relaxation, fear, and sadness—in a between‐subject design (N = 96). Subsequently, we asked participants to select a color, from an unrestricted sample, best representing their current mood. Color choices differed between moods on hue, lightness, and chroma. Yellow hues were systematically associated with joy while yellow‐green hues with relaxation. Lighter colors were matched to joy and relaxation (positive moods) than fear and sadness (negative moods). Most chromatic colors were matched to joy, then relaxation, fear, and sadness. We conclude that color choices represent felt mood to some extent, after accounting for a relatively low specificity for color‐mood associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Research over the past decade has suggested that hoarding symptoms (i.e., persistent difficulty in disposing of or separating from possessions) are not necessarily part of the obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) spectrum. This has led to the conceptualization of OCD and hoarding disorder as separate entities in more recent mental disorders classification systems (e.g., DSM-5). In the present study, we used a psychometric network approach to test whether hoarding symptoms and OCD-related symptoms (e.g., washing, checking) are distinct constructs. Methods: Four independent samples totaling 1,780 participants from the general population completed the revised version of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (OCI-R). The OCI-R is an eighteen-item psychometric instrument that assesses six symptom domains of OCD, namely washing, checking, obsessing, neutralizing, tidying, and hoarding. Data were analyzed by performing network analyses. Results: We showed that five of the six symptoms assessed by the OCI-R had comparable between-symptom associations, whereas only hoarding symptoms had significantly weaker associations within the symptom network. Discussion and conclusions: Overall, our results reinforce and support the conceptualization of hoarding symptoms as a separate entity from OCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far, limited research has been carried out to better understand the interplay between the emotions, the use of emotion regulation strategies, and the well-being of professional caregivers of People with Dementia (PwD). This pilot study (N = 43 professional caregivers) aimed to (1) describe the type and frequency of emotions experienced at work; (2) analyze the associations between experienced emotions, emotion regulation strategies, and well-being; and (3) test whether the use of specific emotion regulation strategies moderates the relationship between experienced emotions and emotional exhaustion. In the challenging context of professionally caring for PwD, results suggest that (1) caregivers experience positive emotions more frequently than negative emotions; (2) caregivers using relatively inappropriate regulation strategies are more likely to experience negative emotions, less likely to experience positive emotions, and have poorer physical and mental health; and (3) expressive suppression significantly moderates the relationship between positive experienced emotions and emotional exhaustion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]