Michael B. Miller

A Longitudinal Study of High Scorers on the Hypomanic Personality Scale

Former college students (n = 36) identified by high scores on the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HYP; Eckblad & Chapman, 1986) were compared with control participants (n = 31) at a 13-year follow-up assessment. As hypothesized, the HYP group reported more bipolar disorders and major depressive episodes than the control group. The HYP group also exceeded the control group on the severity of psychotic-like experiences, symptoms of borderline personality disorder, and rates of substance use disorders. HYP group members with elevated scores on the Impulsive-Nonconformity Scale (Chapman et al., 1984) experienced greater rates of bipolar mood disorders, poorer overall adjustment, and higher rates of arrest than the remaining HYP or control participants.

Magical Ideation and Social Anhedonia as Predictors of Psychosis Proneness: A Partial Replication

The authors compared college students identified by high scores on the Magical Ideation Scale (M. Eckblad & L. J. Chapman, 1983) and the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (MagSoc; n = 28; M. Eckblad, L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, & M. Mishlove, 1982) with control participants (n = 20) at a 10-year follow-up assessment in an attempt to replicate L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, T. R. Kwapil, M. Eckblad, and M. C. Zinsers (1994) report of heightened psychosis proneness in MagSoc individuals. The MagSoc group exceeded the control group on severity of psychotic-like experiences; ratings of schizotypal, paranoid, and borderline personality disorder symptoms; and rates of mood and substance use disorders. Two of the MagSoc participants but none of the control participants developed psychosis during the follow-up period (a nonsignificant difference). Consistent with L. J. Chapman et al.s findings, the groups did not differ on rates of personality disorders or relatives with psychosis.

Mindfulness meditation for alcohol relapse prevention: a feasibility pilot study.

Objectives:Meditation is a promising treatment for alcohol dependence. This 16-week prospective case series was designed to gather preliminary data about the efficacy of meditation for relapse prevention and to evaluate study methods feasibility. Methods:Nineteen adult alcohol-dependent graduates of an intensive outpatient program were enrolled. Fifteen subjects completed the 8-week meditation course supplemented by at-home meditation and “standard of care” therapy. Outcome measures included surveys and 2 stress-responsive biomarkers. Results:Subjects (N = 19, 38.4 standard deviation [SD] = 8.6-year-old) were abstinent for 30.9 (SD = 22.2) days at enrollment. Completers (N = 15) attended 82% of meditation course sessions and meditated on average 4.6 (SD = 1.1) days per week; they were abstinent on 94.5% (SD = 7.4) of study days, with 47% reporting complete abstinence and 47% reporting 1 or more heavy drinking days. Their severity of depression, anxiety, stress (P < 0.05), and craving (P < 0.08), documented relapse triggers, decreased, and the degree of mindfulness increased (P < 0.05). The meditation course was rated as a “very important” (8.7/10, SD = 1.8) and “useful relapse prevention tool” (8.5/10, SD = 2.1); participants reported being “very likely” to continue meditating (9.0/10, SD = 1.5). “Gaining skills to reduce stress,” “coping with craving,” and “good group support” were the most common qualitative comments about the course value. Compared with baseline, at 16 weeks, interleukin-6 levels decreased (N = 12, P = 0.05); cortisol levels (N = 10) were reduced but not significantly. There were no adverse events or side effects. Conclusions:Meditation may be an effective adjunctive therapy for relapse prevention in alcohol dependence, worthy of investigation in a larger trial. The study methods are appropriate for such a trial.

Schizophrenic deficit in span of apprehension.

We investigated two hypotheses about the span of apprehension task in schizophrenia: (a) schizophrenics show performance deficit on the forced-choice (FC) version but not on the full-report (FR) version, and (b) schizophrenic impairment on the FC version is greater when the display subtends a wide visual angle than when it subtends a narrow one. Schizophrenic (n = 21) and normal (n = 22) groups were tested on 3 versions of the task. A narrow-angle FC version was matched psychometrically with a wide-angle one by use of a greater number of noise letters in the narrow version. Schizophrenics reported fewer correct letters than normals on the FR version but did not differ on either the wide or the narrow FC versions. The results imply that schizophrenic deficit is not specific to the FC version and that on the FC version, visual angle is not more important than number of noise letters for demonstrating schizophrenic deficit.