The current study assessed the impact of a brief psychoeducational intervention on participants' attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. The 40-minute intervention focused on dispelling myths and stigmas associated with mental illness, modifying expectations about psychotherapy effectiveness, and providing students with information regarding treatment options. Compared to the control condition, participants in the classroom group showed significant improvements in attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, as well as in some of their opinions about mental illness, for up to one month following the intervention. These finding suggest that the use of a brief, classroom-based mental health education program is a promising method to modify help-seeking attitudes and negative opinions of the mentally ill.
Malingering, the exaggeration or fabrication of physical and/or psychological symptoms, can threaten the psychological assessment process (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). To enhance the validity of psychological evaluations, researchers have studied trends in malingering and developed instruments for its detection (Rogers, Bagby, & Dickens, 1992; Tombaugh, 1996). These instruments, however, may not be appropriate for individuals with significant subaverage intellectual functioning. Four instruments assessing malingering, frequently used in forensic evaluations, were administered to individuals with mental retardation. Results show that by utilizing established cut-off scores, we were able to classify a significant percentage of participants as "malingering," in spite of directions to perform optimally. Practical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.
Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is one of the few interventions supported by randomized controlled trials for the treatment of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in active duty service members. A comparative effectiveness study was conducted to determine if virtual reality technology itself improved outcomes, or if similar results could be achieved with a control exposure therapy (CET) condition. Service members with combat-related PTSD were randomly selected to receive nine weeks of VRET or CET. Assessors, but not therapists, were blinded. PTSD symptom improvement was assessed one week and 3 months after the conclusion of treatment using the clinician-administered PTSD scale (CAPS). A small crossover component was included. Results demonstrated that PTSD symptoms improved with both treatments, but there were no statistically significant differences between groups. Dropout rates were higher in VRET. Of those who received VRET, 13/42 (31%) showed >30% improvement on the CAPS, versus 16/43 (37%) who received CET. Three months after treatment, >30% improvement was seen in 10/33 (30%) of VRET participants and 12/33 (36%) in CET. Participants who crossed over (n = 11) showed no statistically significant improvements in a second round of treatment, regardless of condition. This study supported the utility of exposure therapy for PTSD, but did not support additional benefit by the inclusion of virtual reality.
This study was an open-label, single-group, treatment-development project aimed at developing and testing a method for applying virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) to active duty service members diagnosed with combat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Forty-two service members with PTSD were enrolled, and 20 participants completed treatment. The PTSD Checklist-Military version, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depression, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory were used as outcome measures. Of those who completed post-treatment assessment, 75% had experienced at least a 50% reduction in PTSD symptoms and no longer met DSM-IV criteria for PTSD at post treatment. Average PSTD scores decreased by 50.4%, depression scores by 46.6%, and anxiety scores by 36%. Intention-to-treat analyses showed that statistically significant improvements in PTSD, depression, and anxiety occurred over the course of treatment and were maintained at follow up. There were no adverse events associated with VRET treatment. This study provides preliminary support for the use of VRET in combat-related PTSD. Further study will be needed to determine the wider utility of the method and to determine if it offers advantages over other established PTSD treatment modalities.
This study examines the extent to which cognitive ability, the Big Five factor personality dimensions, and emotional intelligence are related to training and job performance of U.S. federal criminal investigators. Training performance measures were collected during a 17-week training program. Job performance measures were collected 1 year after the investigators completed the training program. Conscientiousness was modestly related to training performance. Cognitive ability and emotional intelligence were positively correlated with job performance. Neuroticism was negatively correlated with job performance. The relative benefits of using emotional intelligence and the five-factor model to select law enforcement agents are discussed.
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