Hudson W. de Carvalho

The Affective and Emotional Composite Temperament (AFECT) model and scale: A system-based integrative approach

UNLABELLED Based on many temperament frameworks, here we propose an integration of emotional and affective temperaments (the AFECT model), forming a common substrate for mood, behavior, personality and part of cognition. Temperament is conceived as a self-regulated system with six emotional dimensions: volition, anger, inhibition, sensitivity, coping and control. The different combinations of these emotional dimensions result in 12 affective temperament types, namely depressive, anxious, apathetic, obsessive, cyclothymic, dysphoric, irritable, volatile, disinhibited, hyperthymic and euphoric. We also developed and validated a self-report scale to evaluate this construct, the Affective and Emotional Composite Temperament Scale (AFECTS). METHODS Exploratory and confirmatory psychometric analyses were performed with the internet version of the AFECTS in 2947 subjects (72% females, 35±11years old). RESULTS The factors interpreted as volition, anger, inhibition, sensitivity, coping and control showed very good Cronbachs alphas for 5 dimensions (0.87-0.90) and acceptable alpha for inhibition (0.75). Confirmatory factor analysis corroborated this 6-factor structure when considering inhibition as a second-order factor with fear and caution as first-order factors (SRMR=0.061; RMSEA=0.053). In the Affective section, all 12 categorical affective temperaments were selected in the categorical choice, with 99% of volunteers identifying at least one adequate description of their affective temperament. LIMITATIONS Only the internet version was used in a general population sample. CONCLUSION The AFECT model provides an integrated framework of temperament as a self-regulated system, with implications for mental health, psychiatric disorders and their treatment. The AFECTS showed good psychometric properties to further study this model.

Structural validity and reliability of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): Evidence from a large Brazilian community sample

OBJECTIVE Positive and negative affect are the two psychobiological-dispositional dimensions reflecting proneness to positive and negative activation that influence the extent to which individuals experience life events as joyful or as distressful. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) is a structured questionnaire that provides independent indexes of positive and negative affect. This study aimed to validate a Brazilian interview-version of the PANAS by means of factor and internal consistency analysis. METHODS A representative community sample of 3,728 individuals residing in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, voluntarily completed the PANAS. Exploratory structural equation model analysis was based on maximum likelihood estimation and reliability was calculated via Cronbachs alpha coefficient. RESULTS Our results provide support for the hypothesis that the PANAS reliably measures two distinct dimensions of positive and negative affect. CONCLUSION The structure and reliability of the Brazilian version of the PANAS are consistent with those of its original version. Taken together, these results attest the validity of the Brazilian adaptation of the instrument.

Temperament and character traits associated with the use of alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, benzodiazepines, and hallucinogens: evidence from a large Brazilian web survey

OBJECTIVES To evaluate how personality traits are associated with occasional use, abuse, and dependence of alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, benzodiazepines, and hallucinogens in a large availability sample of adults via online questionnaires. METHODS The sample consisted of 8,646 individuals (24.7% men and 75.3% women) who completed an anonymous web survey. Involvement with drugs and temperament/character traits were assessed through the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) and the Temperament and Character Inventory - Revised (TCI-R), respectively. Interactions among variables were analyzed using MANOVA with Bonferroni adjustment. RESULTS Novelty seeking was the trait most associated with increased involvement with alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine. There was a significant association between harm avoidance and benzodiazepine use. Persistence was lower in cannabis-, benzodiazepine-, and cocaine-dependent subjects, as well as in hallucinogen abusers. Self-directedness was reduced in dependents of all drug classes. No strong relationships were found between other temperament or character dimensions and the severity of drug use. CONCLUSIONS Novelty seeking was associated with increased involvement with all drugs studied in this sample, although to a lesser extent with benzodiazepines and hallucinogens. The temperament and character profile for benzodiazepine use was different from that of other drugs due to the relationship with higher harm avoidance and self-transcendence and lower self-directedness.

Validation of the structural coherency of the General Health Questionnaire

OBJECTIVE Investigate the structural coherency of the 60-item version of the General Health Questionnaire via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. METHOD The study design is a cross-sectional survey. A random sample of 146 individuals from the city of Divinópolis-MG volunteered to participate in the present study and responded to the 60-item version of the General Health Questionnaire adapted and validated for use in Brazil. Statistics consisted of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was estimated using Cronbachs alpha method. RESULTS Alpha coefficients for all five content scales of the General Health Questionnaire were high (α > 0.8). For four of the five scales, a unifactorial model of constituent items provided a good fit to the data. Items comprising the fifth scale, Psychic Stress, exhibited a two-correlated factor structure. A factor analysis of scores for the five scales yielded strong evidence of coherency, with all scales loading substantially on a single common factor. CONCLUSION The General Health Questionnaire shows good psychometric coherency as evidenced by high internal consistency and unidimensionality of all but one of its constituent scales, and uniformly high loadings of all scales on a single overarching factor. These results are consistent with prior findings from the General Health Questionnaire developmental study and Brazilian adaptation studies.

The joint structure of major depression, anxiety disorders, and trait negative affect

BACKGROUND Dimensional models of psychopathology demonstrate that two correlated factors of fear and distress account for the covariation among depressive and anxiety disorders. Nevertheless, these models tend to exclude variables relevant to psychopathology, such as temperament traits. This study examined the joint structure of DSM-IV-based major depression and anxiety disorders along with trait negative affect in a representative sample of adult individuals residing in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. METHODS The sample consisted of 3,728 individuals who were administered sections D (phobic, anxiety and panic disorders) and E (depressive disorders) of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) 2.1 and a validated version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. Data were analyzed using correlational and structural equation modeling. RESULTS Lifetime prevalence ranged from 2.4% for panic disorder to 23.2% for major depression. Most target variables were moderately correlated. A two-factor model specifying correlated fear and distress factors was retained and confirmed for models including only diagnostic variables and diagnostic variables along with trait negative affect. CONCLUSIONS This study provides support for characterization of internalizing psychopathology and trait negative affect in terms of correlated dimensions of distress and fear. These results have potential implications for psychiatric taxonomy and for understanding the relationship between temperament and psychopathology.

Childhood trauma is associated with maladaptive personality traits

The association between childhood trauma and personality traits has been poorly characterized and reported. Our aim was to evaluate whether distinct types of childhood abuse and neglect are associated with various personality dimensions using data from a large web-based survey. A total of 12,225 volunteers responded anonymously to the Internet versions of the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R) and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) via our research website, but only 8,114 subjects (75.7% women, mean age 34.8±11.3yrs) who met the criteria for validity were included in the analysis. Childhood trauma was positively associated with harm avoidance and was negatively associated with self-directedness and, to a lesser extent, with cooperativeness. The associations were robust with emotional abuse and neglect but were non-significant or mild with physical trauma. Emotional neglect was associated with reduced reward dependence and persistence. All types of abuse, but not neglect, were associated with increased novelty seeking scores. Reporting of childhood trauma, especially of an emotional nature, was associated with maladaptive personality traits. Further investigation of the effects of different types of childhood trauma on psychological and neurobiological parameters is warranted.

The structure of common mental disorders in incarcerated offenders

BACKGROUND Dimensional models of mental disorders in community-based epidemiological samples have consistently demonstrated correlated externalizing and internalizing factors underlying common mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders. However, such analyses tend to exclude populations such as prisoners and psychiatric inpatients. As these samples have been shown to have a much higher prevalence of mental disorders and comorbidity than community samples, whether the internalizing-externalizing structure of psychopathology will replicate in such samples is unknown. OBJECTIVES The current study examined the consistency of this structure in a representative sample of 1837 prisoners through structural equation modeling of 10 common mental disorders along with a record-based index of antisocial behavior. METHOD Diagnoses were determined by administration of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 2.1. Data were analyzed via tetrachoric correlations using the weighted least squares estimator in exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. RESULTS Results revealed that a two-factor solution, entailing correlated internalizing and externalizing factors, displayed the best fit to the data. CONCLUSIONS This study provides additional support for characterizing common psychopathology in terms of internalizing and externalizing factors.

Validade de construto da versão brasileira do Inventário Espectral de Externalização: evidências a partir de uma amostra de estudantes universitários

CONTEXTO: Externalizacao e uma dimensao das diferencas individuais que da substrato e unifica tracos impulsivos e agressivos de personalidade a transtornos mentais relacionados ao uso de substância e a conduta antissocial. OBJETIVOS: O presente estudo objetivou apresentar indicadores de validade de construto da versao brasileira do Inventario Espectral de Externalizacao. METODO: Trata-se de um estudo psicometrico de orientacao correlacional. Foram utilizadas duas tecnicas classicas de representacao de construto: analise exploratoria de fatores comuns e analise de consistencia interna. A amostra consistiu de 258 participantes de ambos os sexos, provenientes de diferentes cursos universitarios de duas instituicoes publicas do estado de Minas Gerais. RESULTADOS: A analise fatorial resultou em um modelo de um fator de segunda ordem (Externalizacao) com tres fatores de primeira ordem (dimensoes de agressao, de uso de substância e de impulsividade/alienacao). Os coeficientes alfa mostraram-se bastante elevados, com indices acima de 0,9 tanto para os tres fatores de primeira ordem quanto para o fator geral. CONCLUSAO: Combinados, os resultados trazem evidencias de validade e de fidedignidade para a versao brasileira do Inventario Espectral de Externalizacao no que tange a sua aplicabilidade a estudantes universitarios.

Distinct sensitivity to caffeine-induced insomnia related to age:

Caffeine acts by antagonizing the effect of the endogenous homeostatic sleep factor adenosine. In the current study we aimed to evaluate the pattern of caffeine-induced insomnia and its relation to age and sex in a general population sample derived from a web survey. The sample included 75,534 participants (28.1% men) from 18 to 75 years who answered self-report questionnaires by accessing a website in Brazilian Portuguese (BRAINSTEP project). In our sample, 3620 (17.0%) men and 9920 (18.3%) women reported insomnia due to caffeine intake. Caffeine-induced insomnia increased with aging in both men and women. This difference remained after adjusting for sociodemographic, psychiatric and sleep related variables as well as caffeine intake. Women showed higher proportion of caffeine-induced insomnia than men, but this difference did not remain after controlling for covariates. Also, individuals with caffeine-induced insomnia reported poorer sleep quality, higher latency to fall asleep and a higher proportion of psychiatric diagnoses and daily use of hypnotic drugs. In conclusion, our results show an age-associated increase in caffeine-induced insomnia and poorer mental health indicators among people with caffeine-induced insomnia complaints.

Reliability and convergent validity of the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index in children and adolescents

OBJETIVO: O objetivo deste estudo foi examinar a confiabilidade e a validade convergente da Children Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) com sintomas de transtornos de ansiedade de acordo com o DSM-IV, por meio da comparacao com a Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). METODOS: Criancas e adolescentes provenientes de cinco escolas foram selecionados de uma amostra de um estudo maior que avaliava diferentes aspectos dos transtornos de ansiedade. Todos os participantes completaram a CASI e a SCARED. RESULTADOS: Esse estudo demonstrou a confiabilidade do escore total da CASI. Meninas apresentaram escores de sensibilidade a ansiedade mais altos do que meninos e nao houve diferenca nos escores totais de sensibilidade de ansiedade entre criancas e adolescentes. Esse estudo encontrou correlacoes de moderada a alta entre os escores da CASI e os escores da SCARED, sendo todas as correlacoes positivas e significativas. CONCLUSOES: Nossos achados demonstraram uma confiabilidade apropriada e evidencia de validade convergente da CASI em uma amostra de criancas e adolescentes brasileiros.