A cross-sectional study of personality traits in women previously treated or untreated for alcohol use disorders

Guilt in alcohol use: A systematic review

For decades, alcohol use disorder has been investigated in an attempt to understand its processes and implications. However, among all of the factors involved in alcohol use disorder, the role of guilt in alcohol use remains poorly explained, with many contradictory results. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to conduct a systematic analysis of the literature from 1990 to 2022 to review the studies investigating the link between guilt and alcohol consumption. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method, 31 studies were included in this review. The results of this work enable to highlight the plurality of guilt that has been studied in the literature. Grouped in two categories: state guilt and trait guilt, they seem to have diverse implications towards alcohol use or misuse. Guilt proneness seems to act as a protective factor towards alcohol use, except for the few studies conducted on a clinical population. Numerous studies indicated that state guilt is deleterious toward alcohol use, even if some results are contradictory. Furthermore, this work allows us to shed light on the limits of the studies currently carried out, and thus to propose new directions for future studies.

Polymorphisms in the serotonin transporter gene of patients with atopic dermatitis-association with personality traits related to high level of anxiety

CONTEXT

The symptoms of atopic dermatitis (AD) are often aggravated by anxiety, and the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) has been shown to be of importance in this context. Three polymorphisms affecting transcription of this gene are known: a repetitive element, in the promoter region (5HTTLPR), a variable number tandem repeats (VNTR) within intron 2 referred to as STin2, and a single-nucleotide (A/G) polymorphism (SNP) located within the 5-HTTLPR.

OBJECTIVE

To examine for possible relationships between these polymorphisms and aggravation of AD by stress.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Thirty-three patients with a history of such aggravation, together with 33 age- and gendermatched healthy control subjects, were recruited. The Karolinska Scales of Personality questionnaire was employed to evaluate anxiety-related personality traits and genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples and analyzed using the polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS

Although the prevalence of the short and long alleles of 5-HTTLPR did not differ between the patients and healthy controls, there was a tendency towards high prevalence of the short (10-copy) variant of STin2 among the patients. When the study population was further analysed by subdivision into subgroups all AD patients with high- anxiety traits carried the short variant of STin2. In the corresponding healthy control group, the prevalences of the 10-and 12-copy variants were 62% and 38%, respectively (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

These findings indicate a possible association between the 10-copy variant of STin2 and aggravation of AD by anxiety.