ObjectiveDepressed patients are prone to perceive that they were exposed to affectionless control by parents. Meanwhile, high neuroticism is a well-established risk factor for developing depression. Therefore, this study examined whether perceived parental affectionless control is associated with high neuroticism.MethodsThe subjects were 664 healthy Japanese volunteers. Perceived parental care and protection were assessed by the Parental Bonding Instrument. Parental rearing was categorized into either optimal parenting (high care/low protection) or three dysfunctional parenting styles including affectionless control (low care/high protection). Neuroticism was evaluated by the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised.ResultsThe subjects with paternal affectionless control had higher neuroticism scores than those with paternal optimal parenting. Similar tendency was observed in maternal rearing. Neuroticism scores increased in a stepwise manner with respect to the increase in the number of parents with affectionless control.ConclusionThe present study shows that perceived parental affectionless control is associated with high neuroticism, suggesting that this parental style increases neuroticism in recipients.

No abstract

ObjectiveCognitive theory assumes a pivotal role of negative core beliefs about the self in dysfunctional attitudes predisposing to depression. Meanwhile, the role of positive core beliefs about the self in cognitive vulnerability to depression is unknown. Therefore, we examined the relationship of negative and positive core beliefs about the self with dysfunctional attitudes in three aspects of life.MethodsThe subjects were 311 Japanese volunteers. Core beliefs of negative-self and positive-self were evaluated by the corresponding subscales of the Brief Core Schema Scales. Dysfunctional attitudes in the areas of achievement, dependency and self-control were measured by the corresponding subscales of the 24-item Dysfunctional Attitude Scale.ResultsThe negative-self subscale was correlated with the achievement, dependency and self-control subscales. The positive-self subscale was correlated with the achievement and self-control subscales.ConclusionThe present study suggests that negative core beliefs about the self underlie all types of dysfunctional attitudes, while positive core beliefs about the self have some connections with dysfunctional attitudes related to achievement and self-control.

The objective of this study was to estimate postprandial hypertriglycemia by a newly designed oral fat-loading test. Twenty-three healthy normolipidemic volunteers were orally administered a test meal consisting of a mixture of Telmeal 2.0  and 20 g of saltfree butter after fasting for 12 h. To measure the levels of total cholesterol (T-Cho), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), remnant-like particlecholesterol (RLP-C), lipoprotein (a) [Lp (a)], free fatty acid, apolipoproteins (Apos), plasma glucose (PG), immunoreactive insulin (IRI), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), venous blood samples were collected before the meal and at each hour until 9 h after fat-loading. The levels of both TG and RLP-C were drastically elevated at 2 h after fat-loading and these levels remained high until 4 h ( p < 0.01). A significant correlation between TG and RLP-C was also observed at 2, 3 and 4 h, and the values of the correlation coefficients (r) were 0.837, 0.838, and 0.908, respectively. In contrast, the levels of T-Cho, HDL-C, Lp (a), Apos, PG, and hs-CRP did not change. Furthermore, there were no gastrointestinal symptoms during or after the study. These results strongly suggested that this newly designed fat-loading test was very useful for evaluating postprandial hypertriglycemia, including remnant concentrations. IntroductionMultiple epidemiological and clinical studies have established that dyslipidemia, e.g., increased total cholesterol (T-Cho), particularly low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and decreased high-density lipoproteincholesterol (HDL-C), is the most crucial factor in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, including coronary heart disease (CHD) and subsequent sudden death (1-5). In contrast, although some investigators have reported that moderately elevated fasting triglycerides (TG) increased coronary events (6-9), the independent role of TG in the contribution of CHD has been controversial, since the fasting level of TG is inversely related to that of HDL-C in lipid metabolism (10). Most studies on the relationship between atherosclerosis and lipids have been based on fasting lipid levels.Recently, however, some prospective studies have clearly shown the potential importance of postprandial hypertriglycemia in the etiology of CHD even after adjusting for HDL-C using multivariate analyses (11,12 A Newly Designed Oral Fat-loading Test TG level could predict the incidence of CHD, even in Japanese subjects who showed a decreased level of T-Cho, followed over a 15.5-year period (11). Talmud et al. have also suggested that the combined evaluation of apolipoprotein (Apo) B with nonfasting TG could provide useful diagnostic criteria for CHD risk (12). In addition, considerable evidence supports the view that postprandial hypertriglycemia is associated with insulin resistance, its concomitant compensatory hyperinsulinemia, and obesity (13,14).In contrast, although several investigators have tried and reported fat-loading tests to examine postprandial hypertrigl...

ObjectiveThe cognitive model of depression posits two distinctive personality vulnerabilities termed sociotropy and autonomy, each of which is composed of a cluster of maladaptive self-schemas. It is postulated that negative core beliefs about self underlie maladaptive self-schemas as a whole, whereas those about others may be implicated in the autonomous self-schemas. Therefore, the present study examined the relations of sociotropy and autonomy with core beliefs about self and others.MethodsThe sample of this study consisted of 321 healthy Japanese volunteers. Sociotropy and autonomy were evaluated by the corresponding subscales of the Sociotropy–Autonomy Scale. Core beliefs about self and others were assessed by the negative-self, positive-self, negative-other and positive-other subscales of the Brief Core Schema Scales.ResultsIn the forced multiple regression analysis, sociotropy scores were correlated with negative-self scores (β = 0.389, P < 0.001). Meanwhile, autonomy scores were correlated with positive-self scores (β = 0.199, P < 0.01) and negative-other scores (β = 0.191, P < 0.01).ConclusionThe present study suggests marked differences in core beliefs about self and others between sociotropy and autonomy, further contrasting the two personality vulnerabilities to depression.