Given the relevance of child maltreatment for the development and treatment of many mental disorders, the objective of our study was the psychometric evaluation of the German version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). In a sample of psychiatric patients (N=1 524) the established factor structure (i.e. sexual, physical and emotional abuse as well as physical and emotional neglect) was replicated by means of confirmatory factor analysis. The internal consistency of all scales (apart from physical neglect) was high (Cronbachs α ≥ 0.89). Correlations between the CTQ and self-report measures for posttraumatic stress, dissociation and general psychopathology were low to moderate. The psychometric properties of the German version of the CTQ were similar to the American original; it proved to be a reliable and valid screen for the retrospective assessment of child maltreatment.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

In healthy individuals, direct eye contact initially leads to activation of a fast subcortical pathway, which then modulates a cortical route eliciting social cognitive processes. The aim of this study was to gain insight into the neurobiological effects of direct eye-to-eye contact using a virtual reality paradigm in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to prolonged childhood abuse. We examined 16 healthy comparison subjects and 16 patients with a primary diagnosis of PTSD using a virtual reality functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm involving direct vs averted gaze (happy, sad, neutral) as developed by Schrammel et al. in 2009. Irrespective of the displayed emotion, controls exhibited an increased blood oxygenation level-dependent response during direct vs averted gaze within the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, left temporoparietal junction and right temporal pole. Under the same conditions, individuals with PTSD showed increased activation within the superior colliculus (SC)/periaqueductal gray (PAG) and locus coeruleus. Our findings suggest that healthy controls react to the exposure of direct gaze with an activation of a cortical route that enhances evaluative 'top-down' processes underlying social interactions. In individuals with PTSD, however, direct gaze leads to sustained activation of a subcortical route of eye-contact processing, an innate alarm system involving the SC and the underlying circuits of the PAG.

No abstract

Neuropsychological research in patients with affective disorders shows heterogeneous results with regard to the severity and profile of cognitive impairments. In this paper we hypothesize that the investigation of clinical (subtypes, comorbidity, traumatization, personality, severity, diurnal swings, course, duration, age of onset, biased processing, rumination, motivation, experience of failure, sleep, suicidal tendencies, computer attitudes), demographic (age, education, gender) and neurobiological factors (structural and functional brain changes, glucocorticoids, medication, ECT) that are related to cognitive performance has specified the understanding of severity and profile of neuropsychological impairments. We reviewed the literature pertaining to clinical, demographic and neurobiological factors following Pubmed and PsychInfo databases using different combinations of general key-terms including "Affective Disorder," "Depression," "Mania," "Neuropsychological," "Neurobiological," "Moderator," and "Review" as well as more specific demographic, clinical and neurobiological search terms. Findings from the literature show that the consideration of these factors has improved knowledge about the severity of neuropsychological impairments in patients with affective disorders whereas the neuropsychological profile is still poorly understood. Despite limited understanding, however, the existent results provide promising suggestions for the development of treatment programs.

Early life stress is said to play a critical role in the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), but the underlying mediating factors remain uncertain. This study aimed to investigate self-reported childhood trauma, emotion regulation difficulties, and their associations in a sample of BPD (n = 49) and MDD (n = 48) patients and healthy control participants (n = 63). Multiple regressions were used to evaluate the impact of the quality and severity of self-reported childhood trauma on self-reported emotion regulation. The results supported an association between self-reported maltreatment experiences, especially emotional abuse and neglect, and emotion regulation difficulties. Additional analyses showed that emotion regulation difficulties influence the association between self-reported emotional abuse and acute symptomatology in the BPD subgroup. Emotion regulation difficulties may be 1 pathway through which early life stress, particularly emotional abuse, increases the risk for developing BPD symptomatology.