scholarly journals Between Temperament and Psychopathology: Examples from Neuropharmacological Challenge Tests in Healthy Humans

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-25
Author(s):  
Petra Netter

Background: This paper tries to demonstrate that the questionnaire-based continuum between temperament traits and psychopathology can also be shown on the biochemical level. A common feature is the incapacity to adapt to external demands, as demonstrated by examples of disturbed hormone cycles as well as neurotransmitter (TM) responses related to affective and impulse control disorders. Methods: Pharmacological challenge tests performed in placebo-controlled balanced crossover experiments with consecutive challenges by serotonin (5-HT), noradrenaline (NA), and dopamine (DA) agonistic drugs were applied to healthy subjects, and individual responsivities of each TM system assessed by respective cortisol and prolactin responses were related to questionnaire-based facets of depressiveness and impulsivity, respectively. Results: The depression-related traits “Fatigue” and “Physical Anhedonia” were characterized by low and late responses to DA stimulation as opposed to “Social Anhedonia,” which rather mirrored the pattern of schizophrenia. Reward-related and premature responding-related impulsivity represented by high scores on “Disinhibition” and “Motor Impulsivity,” respectively, as well as the questionnaire-based components of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, “Cognitive” and “Motor Impulsivity,” could be discriminated by their patterns of DA/NA responses. 5-HT responses suggested that instead of the expected low availability of 5-HT claimed to be associated with impulse control disorders, low NA responses indicated lack of inhibition in impulsivity and high NA responses in depression-related “Anhedonia” indicated suppression of approach motivation. Conclusions: In spite of the flaws of pharmacological challenge tests, they may be suitable for demonstrating similarities in TM affinities between psychopathological disturbances and respective temperament traits and for separating sub-entities of larger disease spectra.

Author(s):  
Ashwini K. Padhi ◽  
Ali M. Mehdi ◽  
Kevin J. Craig ◽  
Naomi A. Fineberg

Impulse control disorders (ICDs) are common disabling disorders that have impulsive behavior as a core feature. They emerge early in life and run a chronic lifelong course. They are assumed to lie at the severest end of a continuum of impulsivity that connects normal with pathological states. People with ICDs experience a drive to undertake repetitive acts. Although the consequences are damaging, performance of the impulsive act may be experienced as rewarding, or alternatively may relieve distress, implicating dysfunction of the neural circuitry involved in reward processing and/or behavioral inhibition. Clinical data are increasingly pointing toward an etiological association between some ICDs, such as pathological gambling and addiction, and others, such as trichotillomania and compulsive disorders. Comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders is also common, and hints at overlapping psychobiological processes across several diagnostic groups. The results of neurocognitive studies suggest that impulsivity is multidimensional and comprises dissociable cognitive and behavioral indices governed by separate underlying neural mechanisms. For example, trichotillomania may primarily involve motor impulsivity, whereas problem gambling may involve reward impulsivity and reflection impulsivity. Exploring neurocognitive changes in individuals with ICDs and other mental disorders characterized by poor impulse control, and among their family members, may help to elucidate the underpinning neurocircuitry and clarify their nosological status.


Author(s):  
Alexea Takacs ◽  
Sonia Madrid ◽  
Marc N. Potenza

Although women and men (and girls and boys) share similarities, they also exhibit differences that may contribute to the etiology and development of impulse control disorders. Such differences may hold significant implications for the generation of optimal prevention and treatment strategies. In this chapter, we review data on gender-related differences in impulse control disorders, considering epidemiological, clinical, biological, and therapeutic perspectives. Implications for improving prevention and treatment interventions are discussed.


Author(s):  
Sean G. Sullivan

Impulse control disorders (ICDs) and conditions with impulse control features provide a challenge in terms of identification, treatment, and follow-up when mental health specialists are in short supply. Medical settings, in particular the largest, primary health care, provide an opportunity to address many impulse-affected conditions currently poorly assessed and treated in health care settings. Barriers to intervention for ICDs in primary health care are time constraints; understanding of the etiology, symptoms, and appropriate interventions; the health and social costs; and prioritizing of training in and treatment of conditions perceived as more serious or appropriate to a primary health care service. These barriers may possibly be overcome in primary care settings, and in this chapter, a model to address problem gambling is described.


Impulsivity, to varying degrees, is what underlies human behavior and decision-making processes. As such, a thorough examination of impulsivity allows us to better understand modes of normal behavior and action as well as a range of related psychopathological disorders, including kleptomania, pyromania, trichotillomania, intermittent explosive disorder, and pathological gambling—disorders grouped under the term "impulse control disorders" (ISDs). Recent efforts in the areas of cognitive psychology, neurobiology, and genetics have provided a greater understanding of these behaviors and given way to improved treatment options. The Oxford Handbook of Impulse Control Disorders provides a clear understanding of the developmental, biological, and phenomenological features of a range of ICDs, as well as detailed approaches to their assessment and treatment. Bringing together founding ICD researchers and leading experts from psychology and psychiatry, this volume reviews the biological underpinnings of impulsivity and the conceptual challenges facing clinicians as they treat individuals with ICDs.


Diabetologia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter de Jonge ◽  
Jordi Alonso ◽  
Dan J. Stein ◽  
Andrzej Kiejna ◽  
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola ◽  
...  

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