Dr. Naomi Dambreville

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a high risk and prevalent personality disorder that is associated with increased negative emotions, decreased positive emotions, and impairments in symbolization and impaired reflective functioning. These dimensions, while they may impact one another, have not been investigated concurrently from qualitative, linguistic narratives. We hypothesized a BPD group would have lower expression of positive emotions and greater expression of negative emotions and less reflective function than healthy controls. Additionally, we explored the role of referential activity (an index of symbolic capacity) between BPD and healthy controls in the context of valenced emotional expression. An adult, female BPD group (n = 13) and a demographically matched healthy control group (n = 14) were recruited and administered the Adult Attachment Interview and/or the Object Relations Inventory. Computerized text analyses were used to assess positive emotion and negative emotion, the Weighted Referential Activity Dictionaries to assess referential activity, and the Computerized Reflective Function dictionary. On the Object Relations Inventory, the BPD group expressed more frequent negative emotions and less frequent positive emotions; on the Adult Attachment Interview, the BPD group exhibited less expression of positive emotions. There were no differences between BPD and controls on referential activity or reflective functioning on either interview. However, BPD status fully mediated the significant relationship between referential activity and negative emotion expression. The BPD group utilized more referential activity when expressing negative emotions than controls. Conversely, the control group utilized more referential activity when expressing positive emotions than controls. Referential activity seems to play an important role in explaining the BPD versus control difference in valenced linguistic emotional expression. Furthermore, these results suggest the object relations inventory elicits more robust linguistic features relevant to BPD.

Contribution: Conception and design of study; Data analysis and interpretation; Drafting or revising critically important intellectual content  

Black cigarette smokers experience higher craving, lower cessation rates, and increased health complications from tobacco use than Whites. We examined psychophysiological and behavioral differences in attentional bias to smoking cues between Black and White smokers. Thirty-one participants (Blacks, n = 20; MAge = 45 and Whites, n = 11, MAge = 47.64) discriminated line orientations while ignoring temporally flanking lines and smoking-related, positive-, negative-, and neutral-images as behavioral responses and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Results revealed a three-way interaction in reaction time among Group (White, Black), Congruity (congruent vs. incongruent flankers) and Cue (smoking-related, positive, negative) factors, F(2,58) = 3.63, p = .03, MSe = .001, η2 = .002. Smoking-related cues yielded the largest congruity effects in Whites, but the smallest congruity effects in Blacks. Random presentation of smoking-related cues (re: baseline) weakened P1 ERP amplitude (125 ms after stimulus onset) in Whites, but not Blacks (Cue x Group x Task, F(3,87) = 3.44, p < .05, MSe = 65.96, η2 = .01), suggesting an early sensory effect of smoking cues in Whites. The difference between Whites and Blacks in P2 amplitude (226 ms; amplitude weaker in Whites) was greatest to the smoking-related cues (Cue x Group, F(3,87) = 2.81, p < .05, MSe = 60.68, η2 = .01), indicating a stronger draw in attention from smoking cues in Whites. Findings suggest White and Black smokers respond differently to smoking-related cues during early sensory processing. Findings need to be replicated.

Background: African American smokers suffer disproportionately from tobacco-related disease caused, in part, by lower rates of smoking cessation. We examined whether smoke-free home policies and delay discounting were differentially associated with cigarettes smoked per day (CPD) and nicotine dependence (ND) among African Americans and Whites.

Methods: Secondary data analysis was conducted using data from 65 African American (n = 40) and White (n = 25) smokers who completed measures of CPD, ND, tobacco craving, stress, depression, home smoking policy, and delay discounting.

Results: A significant interaction was found between race and home smoking policy on CPD (B = −11.21, p = 0.002) and ND (B = −3.42, p = 0.004). Smoke-free policies in the home were associated with fewer CPD and lower ND levels among Whites, but not among African Americans. Whites who allowed smoking in their homes had significantly greater mean CPD and higher mean ND than their counterparts who did not allow smoking in the home. Among African American smokers, there were no differences in CPD and ND among those who allowed smoking in their home versus those who did not.

Conclusions: The findings extend the scientific literature by suggesting that a malleable environmental factor (home smoking policy) commonly associated with cessation among Whites does not have the same influence on cessation among African American.

The current pilot study probed the time course of attentional bias to cannabis-related cues among individuals with cannabis use disorders (CUDs) compared with healthy controls. Forty participants (individuals with CUDs, n = 20, M_age = 26.2 and healthy controls, n = 20, M_age = 28) completed a modified visual attention task in which they made decisions about the orientation of a target line while ignoring temporally flanking lines and cannabis-related, positive-, negative-, and neutral-images as behavioral responses and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. To examine the time course of attentional bias, we analyzed ERP responses separately to targets and distractors from 125 ms to 620 ms after stimulus onset. Results showed that, compared with healthy controls, cannabis users demonstrated greater selective attention failure (i.e., had more difficulties ignoring distractor stimuli) when making decisions in the presence of cannabis cues. Likewise, cannabis smokers demonstrated relatively larger differences in accuracy (i.e., committed more errors in target decisions) between trials involving cannabis cues versus neutral cues. ERP data revealed that the N1 component (125–200 ms after stimulus onset) to flankers preceding cannabis cues peaked relatively earlier and was of larger amplitude in cannabis users, suggesting an early perceptual bias toward the cannabis cues. Findings suggest that individuals with CUDs have poorer selective attention, impaired inhibitory control, and early attentional biases toward cannabis uses compared with healthy nonusers. The augmented early perceptual response suggests an involuntary orienting of attention toward cannabis cues. Implications for future research and intervention development for individuals with CUD are discussed.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complex condition with affective components that extend beyond fear and anxiety. The emotion of shame has long been considered critical in the relation between trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms. Yet, to date, no meta-analytic synthesis of the empirical association between shame and PTSD has been conducted. To address this gap, the current study summarized the magnitude of the association between shame and PTSD symptoms after trauma exposure. A systematic literature search yielded 624 publications, which were screened for inclusion criteria (individuals exposed to a Criterion A trauma, and PTSD and shame assessed using validated measures of each construct). In total, 25 studies employing 3,663 participants met full eligibility criteria. A random-effects meta-analysis revealed a significant moderate association between shame and posttraumatic stress symptoms, r = .49, 95% CI [0.43, 0.55], p < .001. Moderator analyses were not completed due to the absence of between-study heterogeneity. Publication bias analyses revealed minimal bias, determined by small attenuation after the superimposition of weight functions. The results underscore that across a diverse set of populations, shame is characteristic for many individuals with PTSD and that it warrants a central role in understanding the affective structure of PTSD. Highlighting shame as an important clinical target may help improve the efficacy of established treatments. Future research examining shame’s interaction with other negative emotions and PTSD symptomology is recommended.

The child victimization rate in the US has rapidly grown over the past five years. Today, nine out of every 1000 children are victims of some type of child maltreatment, and lifetime costs of child victimization exceed $100 billion per year. Effective policies promoting fairness and child safety must target the most salient indicators of child maltreatment. In this study, we examined three groups of risk factors for child abuse potential with the goal of identifying the most prominent indicators in a sample of 170 African-American and Latina mothers. Specifically, we analyzed the effect of socio-demographic variables (e.g., SES), child-specific behaviors, maternal trauma and corresponding psychological sequelae on child abuse potential. Variables from all three groups were significantly associated with child abuse potential with maternal SES, alexithymia, depression, and child self-control as well as internalizing behaviors having the largest effects. All factors combined captured over 50% of the variation in child abuse potential. The results highlight the need for programs that not only address the financial needs of low SES mothers, but also the mental health outcomes correlated with low SES. Particular emphasis should also be placed on interventions that address children’s social needs, specifically their socio-emotional functioning.

We conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data to examine the association of cumulative trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorder (SUD) with the probability of arrest in a sample of socioeconomically disadvantaged African American and Latino mothers (N = 158). Results revealed that 34% of the sample had a history of arrest. Logistic regression revealed that cumulative trauma was significantly and positively associated with the likelihood of arrest. Exposure to increasing numbers of traumas contributed to greater odds of arrest, as much as 62% for each additional trauma exposure. Moreover, binary mediation analyses revealed that PTSD and SUD exerted an intervening influence on the pathway between cumulative trauma and the probability of arrest. Women with a lifetime history of PTSD or SUD were 5–6 times more likely to be arrested than women without either disorder. Lifetime PTSD and lifetime SUD were partial mediators of the association between cumulative trauma exposure and arrest, accounting for 63% of the variance. These findings have important implications for intervention efforts geared toward helping young racial/ethnic minority mothers, especially those with PTSD and SUD, manage the distress and impairment that may contribute to criminal justice involvement.