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Women patients with bulimia nervosa (N=17) and anorexia nervosa (N=16) and 32 control subjects were asked to participate in a visual probe detection task to examine possible attentional biases for body shape and weight-related stimulus words. The findings showed that subjects with eating disorders tended to turn their attention toward stimulus words associated with fatness and away from those connoting thinness.

Researchers used the Stroop color-naming test with women with anorexia nervosa and with women with restrained and unrestrained diets. They used words connected with fatness and thinness, and words for foods with high and low calorific values. They controlled for valence effects and presented the stimuli under masked and unmasked conditions. The women with anorexia nervosa displayed delayed color-naming in words relating to both body shapes and, to a lesser degree, to high calorie food words. The restrained and unrestrained eaters in the sample did not have delayed color-naming latencies.

Examined stability of interpersonal problem-solving skills in hospitalized suicide ideators (n=36). Subjects displayed marked changes in depressive symptoms, state anxiety, hopelessness, and suicide intent over time, and these improvements were associated with improvements in interpersonal problem-solving skills. Concluded that interpersonal problem-solving deficits may be concomitant, rather than cause, of depression, hopelessness, and suicide intent. (Author/NB)

This study tests the hypothesis that normal women will score higher on the more 'positive' features of schizotypal personality and normal men will score higher on more 'negative' schizotypal features. Two samples (n = 393, 394) were administered the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, which contains subscales corresponding to the 9 schizotypal personality traits outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (rev. 3rd ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1987). Women scored significantly higher on the positive subscales of Ideas of Reference and Odd Beliefs/Magical Thinking, and men scored significantly higher on the negative subscales of No Close Friends and Constricted Affect. These findings replicated from one sample to another. These results are broadly consistent with previous findings on schizotypal personality and schizophrenia. It is hypothesized that sex differences in schizophrenic symptomatology may in part reflect an exaggeration of normal sex differences in the general population.

We tested the effects of 3 mood inductions (neutral, positive, and negative) on food intake in 91 women of varying degrees of dietary restraint. Mood induction was accomplished by exposure to 1 of 3 film segments: a travelogue (neutral affect), a comedy film (positive affect), and a horror film (negative affect). In subjects exposed to the neutral film, food intake decreased with increasing levels of dietary restraint? Among subjects who viewed either the comedy film or the horror film, however, food intake increased with increasing restraint. Although the horror film appeared to be more disinhibiting than the comedy film, this effect may have resulted from a difference in the intensity of the emotions induced rather than from their valence. These results suggest that emotional arousal, regardless of valence, may trigger overeating among restrained eaters.

Restrained eaters are people who chronically restrict what they eat to avoid gaining weight. Some research has suggested that these individuals may be at high risk for binge-eating episodes if their strict dietary self-control is lost. Factors that may influence the loss of these control mechanisms include alcohol consumption, eating a forbidden food, or strong negative emotions. To examine the effect of a powerful mood induction that produced negative affect (mood), 60 women with an average age of 30 were evaluated and rated as 'low restraint' or 'high restraint' with regard to eating. The subjects were randomly assigned to view either a 20-minute horror film or a neutral film. All of the subjects were given popcorn (with salt and butter) during both films. The subjects were told that they would be evaluated for the effect, if any, the film had on their mood. They were not told that their eating was to be monitored, and were urged to consume as little or as much of the popcorn as they liked. The results showed that the frightening film, as compared with the neutral film, significantly increased food consumption in the restrained eaters. The unrestrained eaters shown the horror film ate less popcorn than the restrained eaters, but the amount they ate was not significantly less. The authors concluded that the theory that overeating in restrained subjects can be induced by negative affect was supported. The clinical implications of these findings include that people who may be vulnerable to binge-eating during negative emotional arousal should be kept in mind when diet programs are devised. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Examined a diathesis-stress-hopelessness model of suicidal behavior. Found that the suicidal group (N=50) differed from the control group (N=50) on a number of dependent measures in accordance with the hypothesis that suicidal individuals are deficient in impersonal and interpersonal problem solving, experience more stress, and are more hopeless. (Author/ABB)

Examined a model of suicide behavior in college-aged suicide ideators. Results indicate that college-student suicide ideators are under higher levels of negative life stress, are more hopeless, and have higher levels of depression. Poor problem-solvers under high stress were higher on suicide intent than other groups. (Author)