Eglacy Cristina Sophia

Pathological Love: Impulsivity, Personality, and Romantic Relationship

INTRODUCTION Pathological love (PL)--behavior characterized by providing repetitive and uncontrolled care and attention to the partner in a romantic relationship--is a rarely studied condition, despite not being rare and causing suffering. This study aims at investigating impulsivity, personality, and characteristics related to the romantic relationship in this population. METHODS Eighty-nine individuals (50 with PL; 39 individuals with no psychiatric disorder) were compared regarding impulsivity, personality, type of attachment, satisfaction with romantic relationship, and love style. RESULTS Individuals with PL have higher levels of impulsivity (P<.001; Barratt Impulsiveness Scale), higher self-transcendence, that is, are more unconventional and hold sense of communion with a wider reality (P<.001; Temperament and Character Inventory) and keep dissatisfactory romantic relationships (P<.001; Adapted Relationship Assessment Scale). CONCLUSION Individuals with PL present personality traits and relationship aspects that must be taken into account in devising assessment and therapeutic strategies for this population.

Amor patológico: um novo transtorno psiquiátrico?

OBJECTIVE: The pathological love is characterized by being a behavior of taking care and paying attention to the beloved partner in a way which is repetitive and careless of control in an amorous relationship. Although the available data is comprised of case studies, such condition (which is distinguished itself from erotomania or delusional love) seems not to be rare. METHOD: We reviewed the available literature on the clinical characteristics of pathological love (PL), using the Medline, Lilacs and PsychoINFO databases. DISCUSSION: It was verified that low self-esteem, feelings of anger and affectionate deprivation, and emotional distress can be important psychological factors in the evolvement of such clinical diagnosis. Similarly, some family factors could be associated with it, such as substance abuse, and history of physical and/or emotional negligence during childhood. CONCLUSIONS: The progress of research may bring broader precision on the clinical, etiologic and comorbid features. Thus, this woud be favoring an effetive approach to the bearer, adding a potential repercussion on the affective life of a significant number of people.

Pathological jealousy: Romantic relationship characteristics, emotional and personality aspects, and social adjustment

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to identify romantic relationship characteristics, emotional and personality aspects and social adjustment in subjects with pathological jealousy (PJ) and to compare them to control group. METHODS The participants, 32 individuals with PJ and 31 healthy volunteers completed measures of jealousy intensity, attachment type, love and relationship styles, personality, impulsivity, aggressiveness and social adjustment. Socio-demographic profiles were also obtained. RESULTS Participants with PJ were significantly older than the control group, but no other important socio-demographic differences were observed. Participants with PJ were significantly more jealous and were predominately categorized with anxious-ambivalent attachment type, and Mania love style. They presented with elevated novelty seeking and harm avoidance, low self-directedness and cooperativeness, high levels of impulsivity and trait anxiety, and poor social adjustment. Multivariate analysis showed that jealousy intensity and trait anxiety were the variables that best distinguished participants with PJ from the control group. LIMITATIONS This study was limited by the cross-sectional design and relatively small sample size. CONCLUSIONS PJ presents a particular pattern of attachment, love style, and personality structure, and deserves further attention as a specific potential disorder of the romantic bonding.

Group therapy for pathological love

2In this model, the Mania love style corresponds to PL, which is experienced as an obsessive emotion that dominates the individual, who feels forced to continually attract the partner’s attention. We selected through media advertisement 8 individuals that felt that their way of loving made them suffer. The intervention proposed was based on psychodramatic analysis. Psychodrama group therapy is an effective approach for the enhancement of interpersonal relationships by promoting psychological insight, helping self-esteem improvement, and consequently, contributing to the development of healthier relationships. 3 Intervention comprised 18 consecutive weekly sessions summarized on Table 1. Mean age of the participants was 41.5 years (SD = 9.75), the majority were women, currently divorced or sin gle. Psychiatry comorbidity was accessed by the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) 4 and major depression was the most frequent diagnosis (n = 5). Participants answered a 6-point Likert-type analogue scale assessing dependency on the relationship that motivated treatmentseeking (higher scores meaning a healthier relationship). Scoring on this Love Health Scale (LHS), varying from 0 to 100, is initially defined by the patient who shares with the group her/his reasons for such self-score. Then, a final score is defined through interactions and suggestions by other group members, having the therapists as the impartial facilitators of the scoring process. The Love Attitudes Scale (LAS) 5

Validação de escalas para avaliação do amor patológico

CONTEXTO: Diversas metodologias foram desenvolvidas para validar instrumentos psicometricos. No entanto, na literatura cientifica, ha escassez de instrumentos para avaliar os relacionamentos amorosos. OBJETIVO: O presente trabalho tem como objetivo validar para o portugues o conteudo dos instrumentos autoaplicaveis Love Attitudes Scale (Escala de Atitudes do Amor - Hendrick et al., 1998), Relationship Assessment Scale (Escala de Avaliacao do Relacionamento - Hendrick, 1988) e Adult Attachment Types (Tipos de Apego do Adulto - Hazan et al., 1987), levando em consideracao o contexto cultural brasileiro e, consequentemente, possibilitando que o estudo do amor patologico seja viavel na populacao brasileira. METODOS: Tal processo envolveu quatro etapas: (1) traducao para o portugues, (2) retrotraducao, (3) apresentacao da versao corrigida para profissionais de saude mental e estudantes universitarios e (4) aplicacao da versao final em amostra da populacao-alvo utilizando uma escala analogico-visual. RESULTADOS: As escalas foram facilmente compreendidas e discriminaram significativamente individuos com amor patologico de voluntarios saudaveis. CONCLUSAO: Nossos resultados mostram que a versao brasileira desses instrumentos e valida e pode ser usada em investigacoes envolvendo relacionamentos amorosos.

Translation into Portuguese of scales to measure jealousy

Endereco para correspondencia: Andrea Lorena da Costa. Rua Capote Valente, 604 – 05409-001 – Sao Paulo, SP, Brasil. Tel.: (11) 2307-7805. E-mail: alorena.costa@gmail.com Prezado Editor, O ciume excessivo e definido como um complexo de pensamentos, geralmente irracionais, comportamentos (inaceitaveis ou extravagantes) e sentimentos como raiva, culpa e vergonha, diante da perda ou da ameaca da perda de um relacionamento amoroso considerado valioso, provocando prejuizos significativos1-4. Crimes passionais motivados pelo ciume excessivo aparecem em noticias e sao explorados nas artes5. Entre estudos sobre ciume, destacamos o Questionnaire on the Affective Relationship (QAR)2, Interpersonal Jealousy Scale (IJS)6 e Self-Report Jealousy Scale (SRJS)7 por abrangerem a intensidade, os pensamentos e os comportamentos relacionados ao ciume. Porem, esses estudos foram desenvolvidos em outras culturas e receberam forte influencia desses contextos culturais. Nem sempre um conceito pode ser reproduzido em outra cultura sem adaptacao8-9. Portanto, e necessario que os instrumentos citados sejam traduzidos e adaptados para o portugues e para a realidade brasileira, a fim de que sejam sensiveis ao nosso contexto cultural. O QAR e constituido por 30 questoes que avaliam pensamentos/ comportamentos relacionados ao ciume/infidelidade. As respostas variam de “nunca” a “sempre” e a pontuacao varia de 30 a 120. A IJS avalia as crencas relativas ao ciume, a autoestima, ao amor romântico e a inseguranca; e composta por 28 afirmacoes, as respostas variam de +4 = absolutamente falso/discordo completamente a -4 = absolutamente verdadeiro/concordo completamente com α = 0,92. A SRJS consiste em 24 afirmativas sobre situacoes provocadoras de ciume divididas em: muito romântico (α = 0,80), pouco romântico (α = 0,87) e nao romântico (α = 0,79), nas areas do relacionamento amoroso, trabalho, familia e vida social. A pontuacao varia de 24 a 168 e as respostas variam de 1 (satisfeito) a 5 (extremamente aborrecido). Para adaptacao foram realizadas quatro etapas: 1) traducao para portugues; 2) retrotraducao para ingles; 3) foi apresentacao da versao corrigida para profissionais de saude mental e pessoas nao relacionadas com intuito de avaliar a validacao do conteudo e o significado geral; 4) aplicacao da versao modificada em pacientes com ciume excessivo (CE; n = 56) com idade media de 56 anos (DP = 37,1) e individuos com amor patologico (AP; n = 35) com idade media de 38,7 anos (DP = 10,7), e entre sujeitos saudaveis (SS; n = 31) sem transtornos psiquiatricos com idade media de 32,6 anos (DP = 7,6)8-9. Os sujeitos foram escolhidos de forma aleatoria simples e todos concordaram com o Termo de Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido. Para avaliacao da compreensao (de instrumentos e questoes especificas) foi utilizada escala Likert de 5 pontos (0 = nenhum entendimento a 5 = perfeito entendimento). As tres escalas apresentaram boa compreensao e consistencia interna satisfatoria (Tabela 1). Destacaram-se tres questoes: 1) questao 5-QAR: “As vezes voce acha que seu/sua parceiro(a) poderia ser infiel a voce?” [CE: 5,0 (DP = 0,3); AP: 4,6 (DP = 1,0); SS: 4,4 (DP = 0,9), (c2 = 10,719; p = 0,005)]. A correlacao entre compreensao e escore total foi significativa, porem fraca (r = 0,258; p = 0,004); 2) questao 28-IJS: “Se ____ acidentalmente me chamasse pelo nome errado, eu ficaria furioso(a)” [CE: 4,9 (DP = 0,6); AP: 4,8 (DP = 0,7); SS: 4,5 (DP = 0,6); c2 = 20,060; p < 0,001]. A correlacao de Pearson entre a compreensao e a pontuacao total foi significativa (r = 0,322; p < 0,001), e nao foi encontrada correlacao significativa entre a compreensao e o nivel de educacao (r = 0,074; p = 0,419), esta questao foi modificada na versao final; 3) questao 6-SRJS: “Seu/sua parceiro(a) passa cada vez mais tempo em atividades externas nas quais voce nao esta incluido(a)?” [CE: 4,8 (DP = 0,8); AP: 4,8 (DP = 0,8); SS: 4,4 (DP = 1,0); c2 = 9,121; p = 0,010]. A correlacao entre a compreensao e o nivel de educacao foi significativa e fraca (r = 0,194; p = 0,010), e entre a compreensao e escore total foi significativa (r = 0,252; p = 0,005). Concluimos que as versoes brasileiras desses instrumentos apresentaram excelente consistencia interna e podem ser utilizadas para a pesquisa e avaliacao do ciume. Devido ao pequeno tamanho da amostra, futuros estudos sao necessarios para determinar outras caracteristicas psicometricas. As traducoes modificadas estao disponiveis mediante pedido aos autores.

Impulsiveness in patients with pathological love

Dear Editor, The behavior of caring and paying too much attention to one’s partner in an excessive and uncontrolled way is called pathological love (PL)1. Impulsiveness is a characteristic of human behavior associated with decision making that may be elevated in several psychiatric disorders2. It has been observed that PL subjects are more impulsive than healthy subjects1. Patton et al.3 conceive impulsiveness as a multidimensional construct composed by lack of attention, lack of planning, and motor impulsiveness. Another paradigm used to measure impulsiveness is the Delay Discount Task4 which is based on the concept that impulsive people tend to prefer immediate rewards, even if smaller, instead of choosing a greater reward to come after some time. Twenty-five PL subjects > 18 years who felt their romantic relationship caused suffering were selected through media advertisement. A personal interview was conducted to eva luate if volunteers fit the following criteria: 1) withdrawal symptoms when far from partner; 2) caring for partner more than wanted; 3) unsuccessful attempts to reduce/control pathological behavior; 4) long time spent trying to control partners activities; 5) abandonment of interests/ activities previously valued; 6) behavior maintained despite personal/family problems1. Thirty healthy subjects were selected among the control participants of a clinical trial using the Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ-20)1. PL subjects and healthy volunteers were mostly women (n = 43; 78.2%) with 36.0 years of age (SD = 9.8) and 15 years of education (SD = 4.3). Subjects gave written consent to fulfill the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and the Delay Discount Task5. For this, subjects should choose between two imaginary monetary rewards being delivered immediately or after a certain time interval. Delay intervals investigated ranged from 6 hours to 25 years. The value of immediate rewards available ranged from R

Pathological jealousy and pathological love: Apples to apples or apples to oranges?

1000 to R

Group therapy for morbid jealousy

1. They were also administered the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview5. Subjective value of time-delayed rewards was studied by the indifference point, the value in which the preference for immediate reward equals the one of the delayed reward. When indifference points are determined to variable intervals of time, an indifference curve is obtained, which provides information about how fast the subjective value of the reward decreases with time. This curve is explained by the equation: Vd = V/(1+kd), in which Vd is the current subjective value of a delayed reward (i.e. the indifference point), V is the value of the delayed reward, d is the delay length, and k is a constant proportional to the speed of reward discount (that can be obtained by the equation given that other values are known). The higher the value of k, the faster the value of a reward falls with rise of the advancement interval to obtain such reward5.

Amor patológico e ciúme excessivo

Pathological jealousy evokes emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that cause damage to social and interpersonal relationships. On the other hand, pathological love is the uncontrollable behavior of caring for a partner that results in neglecting the needs of the self. The aim of the present research was to assess the similarities and differences between the two psychopathologies of love. To this end, thirty-two individuals with pathological jealousy and 33 individuals with pathological love were compared on demographics, aspects of romantic relationship (jealousy, satisfaction, love style), psychiatric co-morbidities, personality and psychological characteristics (e.g., impulsivity). In a univariate analysis individuals with pathological jealousy were more likely to be in a current relationship and reported greater satisfaction. The avoidant attachment and the ludus love style were associated with pathological jealousy whereas the secure attachment and agape love style was associated with pathological love. Almost three-quarters (72.3%) of the sample met criteria for a current psychiatric disorder, however no differences emerged between the pathological jealousy and pathological love groups. In a binary logistic regression, relationship status and impairments in parenting significantly differentiated the groups. While both pathological jealousy and pathological love share similarities, they also present with unique differences, which may have important treatment implications.