Sue McHale

The psychological impact of alopecia.

Alopecia is a chronic dermatological disorder in which people lose some or all of the hair on their head and sometimes on their body as well. It is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the hair follicles. It is neither life threatening nor painful, though there can be irritation of the skin, as well as physical problems resulting from the loss of eyelashes and eyebrows. The aetiology and subsequent development of alopecia is not fully understood, but it is an autoimmune disorder that arises from a combination of genetic and environmental influences.1 We have included alopecia secondary to chemotherapy in the current review as, although there are fundamental aetiological differences, they may share similarities—for example, anxiety arising from the alopecia and the psychological impact relating to identity. Alopecia has few physically harmful effects, but may lead to psychological consequences, including high levels of anxiety and depression. Medical treatment for the disorder has limited effectiveness, and the failure to find a cure can leave patients very distressed. This article reviews the research into the psychological impact of alopecia. We conducted the searches for this clinical review in September 2005 through Ovid, focusing particularly on Medline, PsycINFO, ScienceDirect, the Cochrane Library, and the Web of Science. Searches went as far back as 1980. The main terms used were: alopecia, stress, psychology, treatment, anxiety, depression, and trauma. We also examined the reference lists of articles found. We included all studies that focused on the psychological consequences of alopecia, irrespective of method used. Studies were excluded if they focused on androgenetic alopecia. We included studies relating to hair loss from chemotherapy, as some of the evidence shows that such hair loss can be psychologically damaging beyond the impact of the chemotherapy. We included a total of 34 studies in the analysis (table). …

A Practical Guide to the E-Mail Interview

The e-mail interview is a novel technique that has a number of advantages over traditional interviewing, but there are also some disadvantages. In this methodological article, the authors review the issues surrounding the use of the e-mail interview, providing a concrete example of its use, that of interviewing people with alopecia areata regarding psychological issues associated with the disorder. The authors show in the article that the e-mail interview is an effective interview technique but that users must take account of a number of sensitive issues, and there are a number of serious disadvantages that limit its use to specific areas. The e-mail interview cannot be used simply as a cheap alternative to face-to-face interviews in all circumstances.

Executive function deficits in short‐term abstinent cannabis users

Few cognitive tasks are adequately sensitive to show the small decrements in performance in abstinent chronic cannabis users. In this series of three experiments we set out to demonstrate a variety of tasks that are sufficiently sensitive to show differences in visual memory, verbal memory, everyday memory and executive function between controls and cannabis users.

The typical developmental trajectory of social and executive functions in late adolescence and early adulthood.

Executive functions and social cognition develop through childhood into adolescence and early adulthood and are important for adaptive goal-oriented behavior (Apperly, Samson, & Humphreys, 2009; Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006). These functions are attributed to frontal networks known to undergo protracted maturation into early adulthood (Barker, Andrade, Morton, Romanowski, & Bowles, 2010; Lebel, Walker, Leemans, Phillips, & Beaulieu, 2008), although social cognition functions are also associated with widely distributed networks. Previously, nonlinear development has been reported around puberty on an emotion match-to-sample task (McGivern, Andersen, Byrd, Mutter, & Reilly, 2002) and for IQ in midadolescence (Ramsden et al., 2011). However, there are currently little data on the typical development of social and executive functions in late adolescence and early adulthood. In a cross-sectional design, 98 participants completed tests of social cognition and executive function, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (Wechsler, 1999), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983), and measures of pubertal development and demographics at ages 17, 18, and 19. Nonlinear age differences for letter fluency and concept formation executive functions were found, with a trough in functional ability in 18-year-olds compared with other groups. There were no age group differences on social cognition measures. Gender accounted for differences on 1 scale of concept formation, 1 dynamic social interaction scale, and 2 empathy scales. The clinical, developmental, and educational implications of these findings are discussed.

Memory and Meaning: Individual and Social Aspects of Memory Narratives

Memory is critical to an understanding of traumatic stress, but most research has focused on individual traumatic memories and not accounted for broader social and cultural memories. The present theoretical article focuses on memory and meaning, and the clinical implications of this, demonstrating that an understanding of traumatic memory requires an understanding of the impact of both individual narrative and societal discourse. Without meaning, memory is nothing. This applies equally to traumatic memory. This position is discussed in relation to the study of aging war veterans, their traumatic memories, and the development of narratives to explain difficult past life events.

Reported Experiences of Persons with Alopecia Areata.

Alopecia is a chronic disease of hair loss. The study focuses on psychological issues relating to the experience of alopecia. Previous research has considered psychological problems as secondary to the medical disorder. The first part consisted of spontaneous written accounts (N = 162) of the experience of alopecia. The second part was an interactive email interview (N = 34). Findings focused on negative personal, social, and medical effects. Successful coping was discussed by very few respondents, but included behavioral changes and acceptance of appearance and identity changes. Suggestions are made for future research. Treatment for alopecia needs to be broadened to include psychological methods. Dr. Nigel Hunt is a Lecturer in Applied Psychology at the Institute of Work, Health and Organisations at the University of Nottingham, specializing in peoples responses to stressful and traumatic situations. He has carried out work in relation to health-related problems, war veterans, and refugees. He is interested in the development of narrative and identity. Dr. Sue McHale is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University specializing in psychobiology and psychoneuroimmunological responses to environmental events.

The longitudinal development of social and executive functions in late adolescence and early adulthood

Our earlier work suggests that, executive functions and social cognition show protracted development into late adolescence and early adulthood (Taylor et al., 2013). However, it remains unknown whether these functions develop linearly or non-linearly corresponding to dynamic changes to white matter density at these age ranges. Executive functions are particularly in demand during the transition to independence and autonomy associated with this age range (Ahmed and Miller, 2011). Previous research examining executive function (Romine and Reynolds, 2005) and social cognition (Dumontheil et al., 2010a) in late adolescence has utilized a cross sectional design. The current study employed a longitudinal design with 58 participants aged 17, 18, and 19 years completing social cognition and executive function tasks, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (Wechsler, 1999), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson et al., 1988), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond and Snaith, 1983) at Time 1 with follow up testing 12–16 months later. Inhibition, rule detection, strategy generation and planning executive functions and emotion recognition with dynamic stimuli showed longitudinal development between time points. Self-report empathy and emotion recognition functions using visual static and auditory stimuli were stable by age 17 whereas concept formation declined between time points. The protracted development of some functions may reflect continued brain maturation into late adolescence and early adulthood including synaptic pruning (Sowell et al., 2001) and changes to functional connectivity (Stevens et al., 2007) and/or environmental change. Clinical implications, such as assessing the effectiveness of rehabilitation following Head Injury, are discussed.

Executive attention, task selection and attention-based learning in a neurally controlled simulated robot

We describe the design and implementation of an integrated neural architecture, modelled on human executive attention, which is used to control both automatic (reactive) and willed action selection in a simulated robot. The model, based upon Norman and Shallices supervisory attention system, incorporates important features of human attentional control: selection of an intended task over a more salient automatic task; priming of future tasks that are anticipated; and appropriate levels of persistence of focus of attention. Recognising that attention-based learning, mediated by the limbic system, and the hippocampus in particular, plays an important role in adaptive learning, we extend the Norman and Shallice model, introducing an intrinsic, attention-based learning mechanism that enhances the automaticity of willed actions and reduces future need for attentional effort. These enhanced features support a new level of attentional autonomy in the operation of the simulated robot. Some properties of the model are explored using lesion studies, leading to the identification of a correspondence between the behavioural pathologies of the simulated robot and those seen in human patients suffering dysfunction of executive attention. We discuss briefly the question of how executive attention may have arisen due to selective pressure.

Individual differences and preference for dietary fat using the Fat Preference Questionnaire© in a UK sample

Dietary fat is a fundamental contributor to the selection of food largely due to its pleasant orosensory characteristics. Consequently high fat foods are often over eaten leading to weight gain and in severe cases, obesity. This paper presents two studies investigating preference for fat. Study 1 is a large-scale questionnaire study which produced both UK normative data for the Fat Preference Questionnaire(©) and the first normative data for males. The results suggest that the Fat Preference Questionnaire(©) is a reliable and valid measure of fat preference in a UK population, although some changes to the measure are recommended. Female data was found to closely mirror the existing US data. Sex differences were established in scores of preference for high fat foods and quantities eaten. Study 2 investigated the extent to which individual difference in eating behaviour, body mass and personality predict preference for dietary fat. High scores in Dietary Restraint were found to be the best predictor of high fat intake, especially dietary restraint specific to fat. Personality weakly predicted preference for dietary fat, and high BMI was associated with high intake of fat.

The Identification of Children with Behavioural Manifestations of Inattention, Hyperactivity and Impulsivity, in Mainstream School: The Development of the Scope Classroom Observation Checklist.

The objective of this paper is to report the development and use of an observation checklist to identify typically developing children with behavioural manifestations associated with inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. This measure is termed the Scope Classroom Observation Checklist (SCOC). The SCOC was developed, assessed for reliability using an independent observer and teacher ratings, and administered to a sample of 157 mainstream schoolchildren. The SCOC revealed a normal distribution of scores on the checklist, and the top and bottom quartiles of this distribution were found, as would be expected, to differ significantly on SCOC score. The SCOC had good inter‐observer reliability and a high rate of concordance with teacher ratings of attentional difficulties. The SCOC has emerged as a reliable measure that could prove to be a useful tool in a battery of screening measures to identify mainstream schoolchildren with difficulties characterised by inattention and hyperactivity‐impulsivity.