Assessing Public Speaking Fear With the Short Form of the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analyses Among a French-Speaking Community Sample.

Assessing public speaking fear with the short form of the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker scale: confirmatory factor analyses among a French-speaking community sample.

Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2013; 9: 609-18
Heeren A, Ceschi G, Valentiner DP, Dethier V, Philippot P

The main aim of this study was to assess the reliability and structural validity of the French version of the 12-item version of the Personal Report of Confidence as Speaker (PRCS), one of the most promising measurements of public speaking fear.A total of 611 French-speaking volunteers were administered the French versions of the short PRCS, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Fear of Negative Evaluation scale, as well as the Trait version of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory-II, which assess the level of anxious and depressive symptoms, respectively.Regarding its structural validity, confirmatory factor analyses indicated a single-factor solution, as implied by the original version. Good scale reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.86) was observed. The item discrimination analysis suggested that all the items contribute to the overall scale score reliability. The French version of the short PRCS showed significant correlations with the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (r = 0.522), the Fear of Negative Evaluation scale (r = 0.414), the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (r = 0.516), and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (r = 0.361).The French version of the short PRCS is a reliable and valid measure for the evaluation of the fear of public speaking among a French-speaking sample. These findings have critical consequences for the measurement of psychological and pharmacological treatment effectiveness in public speaking fear among a French-speaking sample. HubMed – depression

Electrocardiographic abnormalities in acute cerebrovascular events in patients with/without cardiovascular disease.

Ann Indian Acad Neurol. 2013 Jan; 16(1): 66-71
Togha M, Sharifpour A, Ashraf H, Moghadam M, Sahraian MA

Electrocardiographic (ECG) changes are reported frequently after acute strokes. It seems that cardiovascular effects of strokes are modulated by concomitant or pre-existent cardiac diseases, and are also related to the type of cerebrovascular disease and its localization. We aimed to determine the pattern of ECG changes associated with pathophysiologic categories of acute stroke among patients with/without cardiovascular disease and to determine if specific ECG changes are related to the location of the lesion.The electrocardiographic records of 361 patients with acute stroke were studied to assess the relative frequencies of ECG abnormalities among the pathophysiologic categories of stroke.In the present study, the most common ECG abnormalities associated with stroke were T-wave abnormalities, prolonged QTc interval and arrhythmias, which were respectively found in 39.9%, 32.4%, and 27.1% of the stroke patients and 28.9%, 30.7%, and 16.2 of the patients with no primary cardiac disease. We observed that other ECG changes comprising pathologic Q- wave, ST-segment depression, ST-segment elevation, and prominent U wave may also occur in selected or non-selected stroke patients; thereby simulate an acute myocardial injury. We observed an increased number of patients with abnormal T-wave and posterior fossa bleedings and more rhythm disturbances for ischemic lesions, localized in the anterior fossa.Ischemia-like ECG changes and arrhythmias are frequently seen in stroke patients, even in those with no history or signs of primary heart disease, which support a central nervous system origin of these ECG abnormalities. Further study is necessary to better define the brain-heart interaction. HubMed – depression

Ketamine as a new treatment for depression: A review of its efficacy and adverse effects.

Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2013 May 9;
Katalinic N, Lai R, Somogyi A, Mitchell PB, Glue P, Loo CK

Objective:Narrative review of the literature on the efficacy and safety of subanaesthetic doses of ketamine for the treatment of depression.Method:Medline and PubMed databases were searched up to October 2012 using appropriate keywords.Results:The studies consistently report substantial efficacy with high response and remission rates from 4 to 72 hours (averages 77% and 43%, respectively) from single doses, though not all patients respond to ketamine. Early relapse is common. While the usual procedure involves the administration of intravenous ketamine at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg over 40 minutes, some preliminary evidence suggests other dosing regimens and routes of administration may be useful or even better. Repeated doses and maintenance pharmacological treatments have been investigated in order to prolong the antidepressant effects, with only modest success.Conclusions:Current research on the antidepressant effects of ketamine has consistently shown rapid and substantial improvement in mood in the majority of patients. However, these effects have often been found to be short-lived. Future research should focus on identifying predictors of response (e.g. clinical, genetic, pharmacokinetic, environmental), examining different dosing regimens and routes of administration, and strategies to maintain the antidepressant response. HubMed – depression