Alexithymia in young adults with substance use disorders: Critical issues about specificity and treatment predictivity

Several studies have reported high rates of alexithymia in drug-dependent individuals, but supporting evidence attests association between alexithymia and a variety of psychiatric disorders, raising doubts about its specificity. Moreover, controversies are emerging about alexithymia assessment: self-report measures present shortcomings with respect to discriminant validity and reliability. As regards treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs), alexithymia has been linked to poorer outcomes, but the results are inconsistent. The aim of the present study is to investigate alexithymia in substance-dependent young adults by examining: (a) the specificity of alexithymia in drug-dependent inpatients, compared to healthy individuals and patients with psychiatric disorders (behavioral and emotional disorders) and (b) the predictivity of alexithymia in determining treatment outcomes in terms of relapses, drop outs from treatment and the rate of relapse per month of treatment. Two studies were conducted to fulfill these aims: Study 1 and Study 2. Study 1 involved 90 late adolescents, aged 17-21. To fulfill the first aim, 30 inpatients diagnosed with SUD were compared with 30 healthy controls and 30 individuals referred to an outpatient neuropsychiatric unit (a). The participants completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). The results indicated that both clinical groups reported higher TAS-20 scores than the non-clinical subjects, but they did not differ from each other (a); moreover, a large correlation was detected between alexithymia and depressive symptoms, as assessed by the SCL-90-R. Study 2 involved 55 inpatients with SUD recruited in a therapeutic community. The participants completed the TAS-20, and clinicians filled out the Observer Alexithymia Scale (OAS). No association was found between self-report and observational measures. Neither self-reported nor observed alexithymia predicted the number of relapses, drop-out from treatment, or the rate of relapses per month of treatment (b). When the interaction with gender was explored, the global score of alexithymia and the "Distant" OAS subscale predicted the number rate relapses only in males. The TAS-20 did not discriminate between the clinical groups. The limited ability of both observed and self-reported measures in predicting treatment outcome raises questions on the specificity of alexithymia among the substance-dependent inpatient population

Hyperfine Fields in an Ag/Fe Multilayer Film Investigated with 8Li beta-Detected Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Low energy $\beta$-detected nuclear magnetic resonance ($\beta$-NMR) was used to investigate the spatial dependence of the hyperfine magnetic fields induced by Fe in the nonmagnetic Ag of an Au(40 \AA)/Ag(200 \AA)/Fe(140 \AA) (001) magnetic multilayer (MML) grown on GaAs. The resonance lineshape in the Ag layer shows dramatic broadening compared to intrinsic Ag. This broadening is attributed to large induced magnetic fields in this layer by the magnetic Fe layer. We find that the induced hyperfine field in the Ag follows a power law decay away from the Ag/Fe interface with power $-1.93(8)$, and a field extrapolated to $0.23(5)$ T at the interface.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure. To be published in Phys. Rev.

Ionic and electronic properties of the topological insulator Bi2_2Te2_2Se investigated using β\beta-detected nuclear magnetic relaxation and resonance of 8^8Li

We report measurements on the high temperature ionic and low temperature electronic properties of the 3D topological insulator Bi$_2$Te$_2$Se using ion-implanted $^8$Li $\beta$-detected nuclear magnetic relaxation and resonance. With implantation energies in the range 5-28 keV, the probes penetrate beyond the expected range of the topological surface state, but are still within 250 nm of the surface. At temperatures above ~150 K, spin-lattice relaxation measurements reveal isolated $^8$Li$^{+}$ diffusion with an activation energy $E_{A} = 0.185(8)$ eV and attempt frequency $\tau_{0}^{-1} = 8(3) \times 10^{11}$ s$^{-1}$ for atomic site-to-site hopping. At lower temperature, we find a linear Korringa-like relaxation mechanism with a field dependent slope and intercept, which is accompanied by an anomalous field dependence to the resonance shift. We suggest that these may be related to a strong contribution from orbital currents or the magnetic freezeout of charge carriers in this heavily compensated semiconductor, but that conventional theories are unable to account for the extent of the field dependence. Conventional NMR of the stable host nuclei may help elucidate their origin.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Rings whose proper factors are right perfect

We show that practically all the properties of almost perfect rings discovered by Bazzoni and Salce in "Almost perfect domains" (Colloq. Math. 95 (2) (2003), 285-301) for commutative rings hold in the non-commutative setting

A transient high-coherence oscillation in 4U 1820-30

We re-analyzed two Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer archival observations of the atoll source 4U 1820-30 in order to investigate the detailed time-frequency properties of the source during the intervals when a ~7 Hz QPO was detected by Wijnands et al. (1999, ApJ, 512, L39). We find that in both observations, in addition to a QPO signal lasting a couple of minutes as previously reported, there is a much narrower transient oscillation with a life time of only a few seconds. Within this time, the oscillation is consistent with being coherent. Its integrated fractional rms is around 10% and its frequency 7.3 Hz and 5.7 Hz in the two observations. We discuss the possible association of this QPO with other oscillations known both in Neutron-Star and Black-Hole systems, concentrating on the similarities with the narrow 5-7 Hz oscillations observed at high flux in Black-Hole Candidates.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&A. FIgure 1 is reduced in resolution, full-resolution version of this text available at http://www.merate.mi.astro.it/~belloni/ms0335.ps.g

Attachment Theory and Maternal Drug Addiction: The Contribution to\ua0Parenting interventions.

Children\u2019s emotional and relational development can be negatively influenced bymaternal substance abuse, particularly through a dysfunctional caregiving environment. Attachment Theory offers a privileged framework to analyze how drug addiction can affect the quality of adult attachment style, parenting attitudes and behaviors toward the child, and how it can have a detrimental effect on the co-construction of the attachment bond by the mother and the infant. Several studies, as a matter of fact, have identified a prevalence of insecure patterns among drug-abusing mothers and their children. Many interventions for mothers with Substance Use Disorders have focused on enhancing parental skills, but they have often overlooked the emotional and relational features of the mother\u2013infant bond. Instead, in recent years, a number of protocols have been developed in order to strengthen the relationship between drug-abusing mothers and their children, drawing lessons from Attachment Theory. The present study reviews the literature on the adult and infant attachment style in the context of drug addiction, describing currently available treatment programs that address parenting and specifically focus on the mother\u2013infant bond, relying on Attachment Theory

Effects of reduced-volume of sprint interval training and the time course of physiological and performance adaptations

This study sought to determine the time course of training adaptations to two different sprint interval training programmes with the same sprint: rest ratio (1:8) but different sprint duration. Nine participants (M: 7; F: 2) were assigned to 15-s training group (15TG) consisting of 4 to 6 x 15-s sprints interspersed with 2-min recovery, whereas eight participants (M: 5; F: 3) were assigned to 30-s training group (30TG) consisting of 4 to 6 30-s sprints interspersed with 4-min recovery. Both groups performed their respective training twice per week over 9 weeks and changes in peak oxygen uptake (V̇O2peak) and time to exhaustion (TTE) were assessed every 3 weeks. Additional 8 healthy active adults (M: 6; F: 2) completed the performance assessments 9 weeks apart without performing training (control group, CON). Following 9 weeks of training, both groups improved V̇O2peak (15TG: 12.1%; 30TG: 12.8%, P < 0.05) and TTE (15TG: 16.2%; 30TG: 12.8%, P < 0.01) to a similar extent. However, while both groups showed the greatest gains in V̇O2peak at 3 weeks (15TG: 16.6%; 30TG: 17.0%, P < 0.001), those in TTE were greatest at 9 weeks. CON did not change any of performance variables following 9 weeks. This study demonstrated that whilst the changes in cardiorespiratory function plateau within several weeks with sprint interval training, endurance capacity (TTE) is more sensitive to such training over a longer time frame in moderately-trained individuals. Furthermore, a 50% reduction in sprint duration does not diminish overall training adaptations over 9 weeks