The present study focused on an assessment of humor, depression, and personality. 38 male and 91 female college students responded to five self-report questionnaires, i.e., Martin and Lefcourt's Situational Humor Response Questionnaire and Coping Humor Scale, Svebak's Sense of Humor Questionnaire, Zimmerman's Inventory to Diagnose Depression, and the Eysenck Personality Inventory. Analysis indicated that individuals who scored lower on the depression scale tended to score higher on the Coping Humor Scale, Extraversion, and Neuroticism. Also, individuals scoring higher on the humor scales tended to score higher on Extraversion and Emotional Stability. These personality factors appear to be strongly related to the sense of humor construct and depression. Perhaps the personality factors of introversion and neuroticism may be employed to identify a predisposition toward depression.

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The screening and treatment of psychological distress is an increasingly important aspect of providing comprehensive care to medical patients. The importance of this within oncology was illustrated most recently by the publication of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's Distress Guidelines (Holland, 1997). Some of the conclusions drawn in a recent article by Coyne, Benazon, Gaba, Calzone, and Weber (2000), however, are in contrast to this position. Twenty-three percent of their sample reported emotional distress. However, because they found low rates of psychiatric diagnoses and poor concordance between distress and formal psychiatric diagnoses, the authors determined screening instruments to be inefficient and patients not in need of treatment.Given that measures of general distress assess for symptoms across diagnostic categories, it is not unusual to have a combination of symptoms indicating distress without meeting diagnostic criteria (Derogatis, Morrow, & Petting, 1983). We would suggest that general measures of distress and psychiatric diagnoses not assessed by Coyne et al. (e.g., somatoform or adjustment disorders) may reflect better the distress (health anxiety and somatic preoccupation) of women at increased risk for cancer and be more informative than assessing selectively for mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and alcohol abuse.The authors additionally concluded that ;/ there is not psychiatric disorder, then there is no impairment. They found their sample to be unimpaired with regard to counseling, education, and decision-making, yet 41% of their sample reported worries interfering with daily functioning. Unfortunately, this impairment and its significant association with distress (r = .30, p < .001) were dismissed. Moreover, they used a singleitem measure to support their conclusion. In contrast, Trask et al. (in press), using a more

The implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is an effective treatment device for potentially malignant arrhythmias, including those leading to sudden cardiac death. However, some patients develop a variety of adjustment problems to the ICD. Clinical behavioral scientists have conceptualized ICD adjustment problems using principles of classical conditioning (i.e., cardiophobia), the learned helplessness paradigm of depression, and cognitive-behavioral models of panic. This case study likens ICD adjustment problems to a cognitive-behavioral model of panic and chest pain illustrating the limits of these models in terms of how Type I/Type II threat appraisal by the patient serves as a significant barrier to full symptom resolution. This case study supports the need for modifications in such models and related interventions as they relate to the presence of real comorbid risk factors.