Assessing Mood Change With Visual Analogue Scales: Composite Versus Vectorial Approaches

We examined the assessment of mood change using multiple visual analogue scales from the perspectives of computing a composite difference score and verifying the vectorial comparability of test and retest ratings. The composite approach raises the question of whether the true score can measure mood and whether valid conclusions can be derived from true-score differences within individual data. The vectorial approachallows clinicians to use the data to test the causal and functional conception of ordinal measurability of patients' mood. This falsificationistapproach may lead clinicians to recognize that, in some cases, ratings are not measurements and should be treated as speech acts in a conversational setting

Mixtures of Gaussians are Privately Learnable with a Polynomial Number of Samples

We study the problem of estimating mixtures of Gaussians under the constraint of differential privacy (DP). Our main result is that $\tilde{O}(k^2 d^4 \log(1/\delta) / \alpha^2 \varepsilon)$ samples are sufficient to estimate a mixture of $k$ Gaussians up to total variation distance $\alpha$ while satisfying $(\varepsilon, \delta)$-DP. This is the first finite sample complexity upper bound for the problem that does not make any structural assumptions on the GMMs. To solve the problem, we devise a new framework which may be useful for other tasks. On a high level, we show that if a class of distributions (such as Gaussians) is (1) list decodable and (2) admits a "locally small'' cover (Bun et al., 2021) with respect to total variation distance, then the class of its mixtures is privately learnable. The proof circumvents a known barrier indicating that, unlike Gaussians, GMMs do not admit a locally small cover (Aden-Ali et al., 2021b)

Symptoms Moderating the Association between Recent Suicide Attempt and Traumatic Morbidity: Fan-shaped Effects

The present study examines variables affecting the incidence of recent suicide attempt in a large sample of participants who experienced various levels of traumatic morbidity. The sample was drawn from a French nationally representative, general population survey (N= 39,617). In the same line with previous research on the data provided by the survey, five levels of traumatic morbidity were used on the basis of answers to the post-traumatic stress disorder items from the French version of Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Twenty four items, representing Axis I psychopathological symptoms and suicidality indexes, were tested to identify intervening variables moderating the suicide attempt incidence in any given traumatic morbidity level. Seven items yielded a systematic effect: four suicidality items, two major depression items and one panic disorder item. The main findings consist of (i) the suppressing effect of the absence of these symptoms, and (ii) the gradual increasing effect of their presence. These results underline the importance of comorbid symptoms in the association between trauma and suicidality

Conceptualization of Hope for EFL Teaching within the Iranian Context: A Grounded Theoretical Model

Recent interdisciplinary studies have revealed that hope plays a key role in academic achievement and job performance. Due to the paucity of research on the interface of hope and second or foreign (L2) language teaching, for the first time, this paper sets out to develop a categorical conceptualization of hope for teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). While an exploratory mixed-methods research was designed, using observation and in-depth interviews, grounded-based qualitative data were obtained from experienced Iranian EFL teachers until the theoretical saturation of data was achieved. Thirty-eight items linked to seven main categories were identified. To judge the validation of the qualitative findings, a 38-item questionnaire of hope for EFL teaching was designed and then piloted. Next, to test the generalizability of the piloting-phase findings, the modified 35-item questionnaire of hope for EFL teaching was administered to a convenience sample of 228 EFL teachers from three Iranian provinces of Tehran, Chaharmahal Bakhtiari, and Isfahan. Statistical analyses of the testing data confirmed that 35 items are attached to seven broad underlying components of hope for EFL teaching. Therefore, the main factors, including interpersonal relationship, social purpose, goal-setting, emotion, certainty, source, and anticipated effort were confirmed. Further, the explanatory power of all the items involved in developing hope for EFL teaching was tested and estimated. The findings can shed more light on developing educational interventionist programs which can lead EFL teachers into higher levels of hope for EFL teaching

Malingering and PTSD: Detecting malingering and war related PTSD by Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test (M-FAST)

BACKGROUND: Malingering is prevalent in PTSD, especially in delayed-onset PTSD. Despite the attempts to detect it, indicators, tools and methods to accurately detect malingering need extensive scientific and clinical research. Therefore, this study was designed to validate a tool that can detect malingering of war-related PTSD by Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test (M-FAST). METHODS: In this blind clinical diagnosis study, one hundred and twenty veterans referred to War Related PTSD Diagnosis Committee in Iran in 2011 were enrolled. In the first step, the clients received Psychiatry diagnosis and were divided into two groups based on the DSM-IV-TR, and in the second step, the participants completed M-FAST. RESULTS: The t-test score within two groups by M-FAST Scale showed a significant difference (t = 14.058, P < 0.0001), and 92% of malingering war-related PTSD participants scored more than 6 and %87 of PTSD group scored less than 6 in M-FAST Scale. CONCLUSIONS: M-FAST showed a significant difference between war-related PTSD and malingering participants. The ≥6 score cutoff was suggested by M-FAST to detect malingering of war-related PTSD

Suicide risk and post-traumatic stress disorder : rules, risk levels, and moderators

La recherche sur l'association entre l'expérience traumatique et la suicidalité est un domaine en pleine expansion dans la littérature depuis vingt ans. Cette thèse avait originalement pour but d’identifier les conditions suffisantes ou nécessaires de différents types de suicidalité chez les personnes traumatisées. Une procédure d'extraction de règles d'association a été mise en œuvre sur une base de données issue d'une enquête nationale française. Considérant le manque de conditions suffisantes ou nécessaires de suicidalité, deux autres questions liées à la suicidalité ont été envisagées. La première étude porte sur l'ordonnancement empirique des profils de suicidalité et la détection des symptômes qui modèrent les niveaux de risque. En utilisant la tentative de suicide dans le mois passé comme critère prédictif, trois niveaux de risque ont été établis. Tous les niveaux de suicidalité sont systématiquement modérés par le symptôme d'anxiété chronique. La deuxième étude visait à tester la robustesse de l'association entre les niveaux de traumatisme et la fréquence de la tentative de suicide dans le mois passé par l'identification des symptômes modérateurs de l'incidence de tentative de suicide dans chaque niveau de trauma. Sept symptômes concernant l'envie de mourir, l’intention d’automutilation, l’idéation suicidaire, la tentative de suicide au cours de la vie, l'humeur dépressive, la perte d'intérêt, et l'expérience de l'attaque de panique ont démontré un effet «d’éventail». Un examen détaillé de la littérature a révélé la difficulté d'obtenir une vue d'ensemble des types de suicidalité et leurs facteurs de risque dans le contexte «traumatisme-suicidalité». La troisième étude met en avant l’idée d’une plate-forme graphique visant à récapituler les connaissances empiriques obtenues par 26 études portant sur 20 facteurs de risque de six types de suicidalité dans différents échantillons de personnes traumatisées. Les principaux facteurs de risque sont la dépression majeure et le trouble de stress post-traumatique. Cette étude souligne l'importance d'un cadre descriptif commun et de la disponibilité des bases de données recueillies dans les études précédentes.Research on the association between the experience of trauma and suicidality has been a growing field in the literature since two decades. The current dissertation was originally aimed at identifying sufficient or necessary conditions of suicidality outcomes among individuals exposed to trauma. A procedure of association rule extraction was implemented on a database from of a French national survey. Considering lack of sufficient or necessary conditions of suicidality outcomes, two other suicidality related issues were addressed. The first study focuses on the evidence-based ordering of the suicidality profiles and the detection of symptoms that moderate suicidality levels. Using ‘past month suicide attempt’ as the criterion, three suicidality levels were established. All suicidality levels were systematically moderated by the chronic anxiety symptom. The second study aimed at testing the robustness of the association between the trauma levels and the frequency of past month suicide attempt by identification of the symptoms moderating the incidence of outcome in every trauma level. Seven symptoms regarding desire for death, self-harm intention, suicidal ideation, lifetime suicide attempt, depressed mood, loss of interest, and panic attack exhibited a moderating effect with the fan-shaped pattern. A comprehensive review of the literature revealed the difficulty to obtain an overall picture of the investigated outcomes and their risk factors in the trauma-suicidality background. The third study puts forward a graphical platform aimed at recapitulating the evidence found by 26 studies concerning 20 risk factors of six suicidality outcomes among traumatized individuals. The main risk factors are major depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. This review highlighted the importance of a common descriptive framework and the availability of the databases collected in previous studies

Traumatic stress symptoms after the November 13th 2015 Terrorist Attacks among Young Adults: The relation to media and emotion regulation

International audienc

Test Validation without Measurement: A Plea for Disentangling Scientific Explanation of Item Responses and Justification of Focused Assessment Policies Based on Test Data

Test validation based on usual statistical analyses is paradoxical, as, from a falsificationist perspective, they do not test that test data are ordinal measurements, and, from the ethical perspective, they do not justify the use of test scores. This paper (i) proposes some basic definitions, where measurement is a special case of scientific explanation; starting from the examples of memory accuracy and suicidality as scored by two widely used clinical tests/questionnaires. Moreover it shows (ii) how to elicit the logic of the observable test events underlying the test scores, and (iii) how the measurability of the target theoretical quantities—memory accuracy and suicidality—can and should be tested at the respondent scale as opposed to the scale of aggregates of respondents. (iv) Criterion-related validity is revisited to stress that invoking the explanative power of test data should draw attention on counter-examples instead of statistical summarization. (v) Finally, it is argued that the justification of the use of test scores in specific settings should be part of the test validation task, because, as tests specialists, psychologists are responsible for proposing their tests for social uses

Effect of Topical Chamomile Oil (Matricaria chamomile L.) as a Supplementary Method on Colic Symptoms in Infants: A Randomized Placebo-controlled Clinical Trial

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the topical use of chamomile oil as a complementary method in the improvement of infantile colic symptoms. Methods: This randomized controlled trial was carried out on 74 infants with colic at Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences in Sabzevar, Iran. The infants were randomly allocated into two groups. In the intervention group, chamomile oil was applied topically on the abdominal region three times a day for 14 days. The placebo group received paraffin oil in a similar manner. A data collection form was daily filled out for all infants by their parents. Number and duration of crying episodes and duration of sleep were assessed at the baseline and on the 7th and 14th days of the intervention. Results: Results showed that there was a significant difference in the crying time of the two groups on days 7 and 14 as compared to that at the baseline (P=0.03 and P=0.002, respectively). There was a significant increase in sleep duration only on the 14th day of treatment as compared with that at the baseline (P=0.01). Although the number of crying episodes in both groups decreased, there was no significant difference between the two groups (P=0.08). Based on the regression test, although the values obtained on days 1 and 7 were not statistically significant, compared to those at the baseline, the number of crying episodes decreased on the 14th day (95% CI: -115.39 to -15.04; P=0.012). Conclusion: Topical consumption of chamomile oil may be used as a complementary, safe, and cost-effective way to improve and reduce the symptoms of infantile colic

Adaptation et validation française du « Family Needs Questionnaire » : évaluation des besoins familiaux des parents d’enfants avec troubles du spectre de l’autisme

International audienc