Thomas W. Lombardo

Psychometric Properties of the Life Events Checklist.

The Life Events Checklist (LEC), a measure of exposure to potentially traumatic events, was developed at the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) concurrently with the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) to facilitate the diagnosis of PTSD. Although the CAPS is recognized as the gold standard in PTSD symptom assessment, the psychometric soundness of the LEC has never been formally evaluated. The studies reported here describe the performance of the LEC in two samples: college undergraduates and combat veterans. The LEC exhibited adequate temporal stability, good convergence with an established measure of trauma history—the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ)— and was comparable to the TLEQ in associations with variables known to be correlated with traumatic exposure in a sample of undergraduates. In a clinical sample of combat veterans, the LEC was significantly correlated, in the predicted directions, with measures of psychological distress and was strongly associated with PTSD symptoms.

Failure to support the validity of the fagerstrom tolerance questionnaire as a measure of physiological tolerance to nicotine

We tested the validity of the Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire as a measure of physiological tolerance to nicotine. Both clinical and laboratory studies found neither the total questionnaire score nor the individual questionnaire items were related to physiological tolerance as measured by heart rate, skin conductance, blood volume pulse, and skin temperature responses to smoking a cigarette. We hypothesize the questionnaire measures behavioral dependence or perceived dependence rather than physical dependence.

Effects of cigarette smoking on phobic anxiety.

Smokers report that smoking reduces anxiety. However, experimental research on the anxiety-reducing effects of smoking is limited to two self-report studies, both of which have methodological problems. We tested the effects of smoking on self-reported anxiety and avoidance behavior in a behavioral avoidance test (BAT) using a large white rat. In a counterbalanced within subjects design, 20 rat phobic female smokers smoked or were smoking deprived in two separate administrations of the BAT. A second group of 20 rat phobic nonsmokers also received two BATs. Subjects manifested substantial anxiety during BATs. However, neither smoking condition nor smoker versus nonsmoker status affected self-reported or motoric anxiety. Although smoking did not reduce anxiety in this study, smoking may affect anxiety in other situations, such as social settings, where the stimulus is more diffuse or less intense. It may also affect anxiety in individuals who are heavier smokers than our subjects, who smoked only 10-20 cigarettes per day.

Effect of pCPA on Nicotine-Induced Analgesia

This study investigated the effect of para-chlorophenylalanine (pCPA), on nicotine-induced analgesia. pCPA reduces physiological levels of 5-HT, a neurotransmitter that has been linked to pain. The effects of naloxone HCl and mecamylamine HCl on this analgesia were also assessed. Subjects were 24 albino rats. Each group of eight rats was injected subcutaneously (SC) with nicotine sulphate, followed by an intraperitoneal (IP) injection of one of the potential antagonists. Behavioral analgesia was assessed using the tail-flick test. Data analysis revealed that pCPA did not affect nicotine-induced analgesia. Consistent with past research, naloxone also had no effect, and mecamylamine effectively eliminated this analgesia. The results are interpreted in light of current knowledge of this behavioral analgesia and pain perception, in general.

Effects of Smokeless Tobacco-Related Sensory and Behavioral Cues on Urge, Affect, and Stress

The hypothesis that smokeless tobacco-related sensory and behavioral cues can act as conditioned stimuli was tested in a counterbalanced double-blind experimental design. The nicotine content of snuff smokeless tobacco (ST) was manipulated for 24 male ST users by mixing ST with an ST substitute. Affect was manipulated through imagery scripts, stress was induced by a mental arithmetic task, and physiological measures and self-reported affect, stress, and urge for ST were collected. Urge for ST was consistently reduced regardless of the nicotine content in the ST conditions. Urge was increased by the stress manipulation and by negative affect when compared with positive affect. Urge for ST was positively correlated with stress and negative affect but was not correlated with positive affect. Physiological arousal was not related to urge. Results generally parallel studies of smoking and suggest that ST substitute products may aid ST cessation.

CAFFEINE, BUT NOT TIME OF DAY, INCREASES WHOLE-ARM PHYSIOLOGICAL TREMOR IN NON-SMOKING MODERATE USERS

1. Consumptive levels of caffeine significantly increased whole‐arm physiological tremor in young adult males at 3 but not 1 mg caffeine/kg bodyweight.

Beyond Exposure for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Symptoms Broad-Spectrum PTSD Treatment Strategies

Although cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with comorbid disorders are common, the first generation of PTSD treatment approaches, including exposure and cognitive-behavioral therapy, generally ignore symptoms beyond those specific to PTSD. Optimum PTSD treatment outcome requires more comprehensive strategies, and the development and empirical testing of broader approaches is the focus of the articles that follow in this special issue. After providing some background on PTSD and PTSD treatment, this paper gives an overview of these treatment and prevention papers, which represent second-generation strategies to help trauma-exposed individuals.

Self-monitored smoking motives.

The motives for smoking in 73 low, medium, and high rate smokers were surveyed and were evaluated the validity of the Reasons for Smoking scale (RFS) by correlating RFS scores with self-monitored reasons for smoking. Combined sample correlations were significant for 5 of the 6 RFS reasons. However, all correlations were modest, the number of correlations varied with smoking rate, and the RFS was not a valid measure of pleasurable relaxation, the reason most frequently reported during self-monitoring. The unexpected finding that pleasurable relaxation, not reduction of negative affect, was the most frequently endorsed reason conflicts with previous surveys, almost all of which sampled older smokers. Smoking behavior of younger smokers may differ from older smokers in ways important to the study of smoking motivation. These differences may explain why experimental studies with undergraduates generally find no relationship between smoking and negative affect while studies with older subjects do.

Thought-Stopping in the Control of Obsessive Ruminations:

Thought-stopping was used to control obsessive ruminations in a chronic schizophrenic patient. The effects of treatment were evaluated in a single case experimental design, and the results suggest that thought-stopping is an effective technique in controlling obsessive thoughts. `The effects of treatment were maintained at a six-week follow-up.

Teaching LD Children Multiplication Tables

A special technique for remediating difficulty in simple multiplication