Torsten Norlander

Effects of VDT and paper presentation on consumption and production of information: Psychological and physiological factors

Two experiments were performed to investigate the influence of VDT (video display terminals) and paper presentation of text on consumption of information (Study 1) measured in the form of convergent production and production of information (Study 2) measured in form of divergent production. The READ test of reading comprehension was used as the convergent task whereas the “Headlines” test was used as the divergent task. Several other factors pertaining to performance were also studied including the PANAS test of positive and negative affect, the STH test of stress, tiredness and hunger, the TRI (Technology Readiness Inventory) and the SE test of stress and energy.The results show that performance in the VDT presentation condition where inferior to that of the Paper presentation condition for both consumption and production of information. Concomitantly, participants in the VDT presentation condition of the consumption of information study reported higher levels of experienced stress and tiredness whereas the participants in the VDT presentation condition of production of information study reported only slightly higher levels of stress.Although the results are discussed in both physiological and psychological terms arguments are made that the incremental effects of VDT text presentation stem mainly from dual-task effects of fulfilling the assignment and working with the computer resulting in a higher cognitive workload.

Internet Blues Revisited: Replication and Extension of an Internet Paradox Study

This study is a replication of the Kraut et al. Internet paradox study designed to set guidelines for harmless Internet usage, without any potential for personal damage. The present study produced two main results: The first is a partial confirmation of the general response pattern found by Kraut et al. (i.e., that younger individuals tend to use the Internet to a higher degree and that they experience a lesser degree of psychological well-being). The second main result, however, contradicts the interpretation by Kraut et al. of the causal relationship between Internet usage and psychological well-being.

Effects of flotation-restricted environmental stimulation technique on stress-related muscle pain: what makes the difference in therapy--attention-placebo or the relaxation response?

INTRODUCTION The purpose of the present study was to examine the potential effects of attention-placebo on flotation tank therapy. Flotation-restricted environmental stimulation technique is a method whereby an individual lies in a floating tank and all stimuli are reduced to a minimum. METHODS Thirty-two patients were diagnosed as having stress-related muscular pain. In addition, 16 of the participants had received the diagnosis of burnout depression. The patients were treated with flotation-restricted environmental stimulation technique for six weeks. One-half of the patients were also given special attention for 12 weeks (high attention), while the remainder received attention for only six weeks (normal attention). RESULTS The participants exhibited lowered blood pressure, reduced pain, anxiety, depression, stress and negative affectivity, as well as increased optimism, energy and positive affectivity. The results were largely unaffected by the degree of attention-placebo or diagnosis. CONCLUSION It was concluded that flotation therapy is an effective, noninvasive method for treating stress-related pain, and that the method is not more affected by placebo than by other methods currently used in pain treatment. The treatment of both burnout depression and pain related to muscle tension constitutes a major challenge for the patient as well as the care provider, an area in which great gains can be made if the treatment is effective. Flotation therapy may constitute an integral part of such treatment.

Resource Group Assertive Community Treatment (RACT) as a Tool of Empowerment for Clients with Severe Mental Illness: A Meta-Analysis

The aim of the current meta-analysis was to explore the effectiveness of the method here labeled Resource Group Assertive Community Treatment (RACT) for clients with psychiatric diagnoses as compared to standard care during the period 2001 – 2011. Included in the meta-analysis were 17 studies comprising a total of 2263 clients, 1291 men and 972 women, with a weighted mean age of 45.44 years. The diagnoses of 86 % of the clients were within the psychotic spectrum while 14 % had other psychiatric diagnoses. There were six randomized controlled trials and eleven observational studies. The studies spanned between 12 and 60 months, and 10 of them lasted 24 months. The results indicated a large effect-size for the ”grand total measure” (Cohen´s d = 0.80). The study comprised three outcome variables: Symptoms, Functioning, and Well-being. With regard to Symptoms, a medium effect for both randomized controlled trials and non-randomized studies was found, whereas Functioning showed large effects for both types of design. Concerning Well-being both large and medium effects were evident. The conclusions of the meta-analysis were that the treatment of clients with Resource Group Assertive Community Treatment yields positive effects for clients with psychoses and that the method may be of use for clients within the entire psychiatric spectrum.

Case Studies on Fibromyalgia and Burn-out Depression Using Psychotherapy in Combination with Flotation-Rest: Personality Development and Increased Well-Being

The aim of the study was to examine whether and how the combination of therapy and flotation tank could be used to treat patients with severe stress problems. Two women on long-term sick-leave, aged 55 and 58, participated in the study, which was carried out over a period of one year. One of these women was diagnosed as suffering from burn out depression and the other from fibromyalgia. The therapy program had several components: flotation-REST, group therapy, conversational therapy, and picture production. The clients kept journals and were the participants of deep interviews on two occasions. “The Empirical Phenomenological Psychological Method” (Karlsson, 1995) was used in the analysis, which generated four overarching themes: a) the therapeutic work model; b) transformation of feelings; c) self-insight; and d) meaning. These together constituted a “therapeutic circle” which after a while transformed into a “therapeutic spiral” of increased meaning and enhanced well-being.

Measuring adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder using the Quantified Behavior Test Plus

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) occurs in approximately 5% of the adult population and includes cardinal symptoms of hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity that may be difficult to identify with clinical routine methods. Continuous performance tests are objective measures of inattention and impulsivity that, combined with objective measures of motor activity, facilitate identification of ADHD among adults. The aim of the present study was to examine the sensitivity, specificity, and a composite measure of ADHD using objective measures of the ADHD-cardinal symptoms in adult participants with ADHD and non-ADHD normative participants. Cardinal symptoms were measured in 55 participants having ADHD, 202 non-ADHD normative participants, as well as 84 ADHD normative participants using the Quantified Behavior Test Plus. This test measures inattention and impulsivity using a continuous performance test, and hyperactivity using a motion-tracking system. A predictive variable for the detection of ADHD called Prediction of ADHD yielded 86% sensitivity and 83% specificity. A composite measure of ADHD cardinal symptoms was developed using a Weighed Core Symptoms scale that indicated the total amount of ADHD symptoms on a numeric scale from 0 to 100. The total amount of ADHD symptoms was measured on a scale and predicted with the categorical variable in a majority of the cases in the present study. Further studies are needed in order to confirm the results with regard to additional clinical and normative samples. Careful consideration of potential sex and diagnostic subtype differences are noteworthy aspects for future examinations of the new instruments.

Objective Measures of Behavior Manifestations in Adult ADHD and Differentiation from Participants with Bipolar II Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Participants with Disconfirmed ADHD as Well as Normative Participants.

Background: The present study evaluated two psychometric instruments derived from the objective measurement of adult ADHD using the Quantified Behavior Test Plus. The instruments were examined in ADHD versus a clinical group with overlapping symptoms including borderline personality disorder and bipolar II disorder, and another clinical group with participants assessed for but disconfirmed a diagnosis of ADHD as well as adult normative participants. Methods: The Quantified Behavior Test Plus includes Continuous Performance Testing and a Motion Tracking System with parameters related to attention and activity operationalized as the cardinal symptoms of ADHD and then summarized into a Weighed Core Symptoms scale with ten cut-points ranging from 0 to 100. A categorical predictor variable called Prediction of ADHD was used to examine the levels of sensitivity and specificity for the Quantified Behavior Test Plus with regard to ADHD. Results: The Weighed Core Symptoms scale separated ADHD and normative participants from each other as well as from the two clinical reference groups. The scale reported highest levels of core symptoms in the ADHD group and the lowest level of core symptoms in the normative group. Analyses with Prediction of ADHD yielded 85 % specificity for the normative group, 87 % sensitivity for the ADHD group, 36 % sensitivity for the bipolar II and borderline group and 41 % sensitivity for the group with a disconfirmed diagnosis of ADHD. Conclusions: The Weighed Core Symptoms scale facilitated objective assessment of adult ADHD insofar that the ADHD group presented more core symptoms than the other two clinical groups and the normative group. Sensitivity for the Quantified Behavior Test Plus was lower in complex clinical groups with Bipolar II disorder, Borderline disorder and in patients with a disconfirmed diagnosis of ADHD. The psychometric instruments may be further evaluated with regard to well-documented and effective treatment programs for ADHD core symptoms.

Treating stress-related pain with the flotation restricted environmental stimulation technique: Are there differences between women and men?

The aim of the present study was to explore, for the first time, sex differences among patients diagnosed with stress-related pain before and after flotation restricted environmental stimulation technique (REST) treatment, delivered 12 times during seven weeks. The present study included 88 patients (69 women, 19 men) from three different studies (post hoc analysis). They had been diagnosed by a physician as having chronic stress-related muscle tension pain. The analyses indicated that the flotation- REST treatment had beneficial effects on stress, anxiety, depression, sleep quality and pain and that there were few sex differences. Women were more depressed than men before treatment, but after treatment there was no difference between sexes. However, there was a sex difference in the ability to endure experimentally induced pain, suggesting that men exhibited greater endurance both before and after the flotation-REST treatment. The results also showed, for the first time, that both sexes improved their ability to endure experimentally induced pain (higher scores for upper pain threshold) following the successful flotation-REST pain treatment.

Absence of Positive Results for Flexible Assertive Community Treatment. What is the next Approach

Aims were to review results of the five psychiatric studies on Flexible Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) published during 2007-2013, and to compare FACT with Resource-group Assertive Community Treatment (RACT) which specifically focuses on empowerment and rehabilitation of clients in the stable phase. During 2007 articles appeared in scientific journals arguing in favor of the need for the development of the treatment method Assertive Community Treatment (ACT). A particularly notable article was one that featured a Dutch version of ACT, namely FACT. The initiative received great sympathy given that clinical practice and research showed that both American and British versions of ACT were in need of new impulses to be able to maintain an optimal level of care. Seven years have passed since the Dutch model was international presented and five empirical studies about FACT have been published and therefore a first critical examination of FACT was conducted. The review indicated that the five empirical studies failed to show that FACT involves improvement of the clients in terms of symptoms, functioning, or well-being. The conclusions were that at present there is no evidence for FACT and that RACT with its small, flexible ACT teams, where the client him/herself is included and decides on the treatment goals, might be able to provide new impulses and a new vitality to the treatment mode of an assertive community treatment.

A Swedish Version of the Regressive Imagery Dictionary: Effects of Alcohol and Emotional Enhancement on Primary–Secondary Process Relations

ABSTRACT: The Regressive Imagery Dictionary (RID) measures the degree of primary and secondary process content in texts and verbal speech/writing. RID was translated into Swedish and 2 studies were performed to validate it. In Study 1, alcohol was used in a placebo design to induce a shift toward the dominance of primary over secondary process thinking. Surprisingly, the alcohol group showed indications of using more secondary process in written stories than both the control group and the placebo group, although there were no significant differences between the groups in primary and secondary process as measured with the Swedish RID. In Study 2, the participants watched either a neutral film or an action film, whereupon they wrote down an ending of their own choosing. The action film condition produced more primary process than the neutral film condition, as measured by the Swedish RID. These findings underline both alcohol dose relationships in behavioral studies and emotional state in primary–secondary process thinking relationships in creative expression. Above all, in validating the Swedish RID scope for new insights into processes involved creative performance is obtained.