El presente artículo examina el fenómeno del homicidio en Colombia y busca comprender las condiciones de vulnerabilidad que afectan al homicidio en las ciudades colombianas. A través de un enfoque teórico y metodológico basado en la vulnerabilidad se analizó dicha relación entre la violencia homicida con los mercados ilegales, los mercados laborales pauperizados y la repartición de la riqueza. La muestra se compuso de las treinta y dos ciudades capitales departamentales de Colombia. Se usaron herramientas estadísticas multivariadas (PLS-SEM) para analizar la relación entre estos factores y el homicidio. Los hallazgos sugieren que los bajos ingresos, la falta de empleo, la desigualdad y la violencia están asociados con un mayor riesgo de homicidio.

Conducting experiments on humans may subject them to abuse and exploitation. The international community has developed principles, rules and norms that provide for safeguards against exploitative human experimentation. Recruiting a person by illegal means for illicit purposes has been criminalized as human trafficking. This article attempts, for the first time, to address human experimentation as a form of human trafficking. The article advocates for an expansive definition of the concept of human trafficking to include not only sex or labor but also medical or scientific tests that are conducted in violation of the law, also arguing that the international medical ethical principles, rules and norms may be more appropriately analyzed by using the three basic elements of a case of human trafficking, namely: (a) absence of consent; (b) abuse of a position of vulnerability; and (c) exploitation.

This study was designed to examine selective processing of emotional information in depression. It focuses on possible attentional biases in depression, and whether such biases constitute a cognitive vulnerability factor to suffer from the disorder or, on the contrary, they reflect a feature associated exclusively with the clinical level of depression. 81 participants were included in the study: 15 with a diagnosis of Major Depression; 17 were diagnosed as Dysthymia; 11 participants scored over 18 in the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979); 15 participants, in whom a sad mood state was induced by an experimental mood induction (Velten technique + music, or biographical recall + music); and 23 participants as a normal-control group. All participants were presented with the emotional Stroop task. The data indicated that attentional bias was only present in the group of patients with Major Depression, so it does not seem to be a cognitive vulnerability factor for this disorder.

In order to study neuropsychological characteristics of subcortical-frontal brain regions function and assessment of their relation with vulnerability to schizophrenia 59 patients and 23 controls were investigated using Luria's neuropsychological methods. The analysis established bilateral abnormalities of the function of prefrontal and profound frontal lobe zones in patients as compared with controls. These abnormalities were more predominate in the left hemisphere. Point biserial correlation coefficients of determined integrative neuropsychological indicators with liability to schizophrenia were 0.39 ± 0.11 and 0.28 ± 0.09, for the left and right brain zones respectively. The obtained data permits discussion of the integrative neuropsychological indicators of subcortical-frontal brain regions as potential markers of liability to schizophrenia and confirms the role of structural and functional brain asymmetry in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of sex differences and personality in vulnerability to depression. Sex differences in personality and some clinical variables are described. We also assess the value of the variables that revealed significant sex differences as predictors of vulnerability to depression. In a group of adult participants (N = 112), 50% males and 50% females (mean age = 41.30; SD = 15.09; range 17- 67), we studied sex differences in the three-factor personality model, using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Form A (EPQ-A; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975), and in the Five-Factor Personality Model, with the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI; Costa & McCrae, 1985). The following clinical scales were used: the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979), the Schizotypy Questionnaire (STQ; Claridge & Broks, 1984; Spanish version, Carrillo & Rojo, 1999), the THARL Scales (Dua, 1989, 1990; Spanish version, Dua & Carrillo, 1994) and the Adjustment Inventory (Bell, 1937; Spanish version, Cerdá, 1980). Subsequently, simple linear regression analysis, with BDI scores as criterion, were performed to estimate the value of the variables as predictors of vulnerability to depression. The results indicate that a series of personality variables cause women to be more vulnerable to depression than men and that these variables could be explained by a negative emotion main factor. Results are discussed within the framework of the psychological behaviorism theory of depression.

Since the decade of 1980, the model of stress and coping proposed for the assessment of vulnerability of adoptive families emphasizes that the emotional adjustment of those adopted is moderated by variables such as institutionalization, the manner and age at which the adoption was revealed, the change of first name, and the contact with the biological family. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship of these variables to the perceived parenting style, mood, and self-esteem of the adopted adolescents. Participants in the study were 68 adolescents, between the ages of 14 and 15, adopted during infancy through judicial channels. The adolescents responded to a questionnaire about the history of adoption and to scales of Parenting Styles, Depression and Self-esteem. The main results indicated that the late revelation of adoption and the change of the first name are connected to higher levels of depression and low self-esteem and to more frequent perceptions of negligent or authoritarian parenting style. The contact with the biological family was frequently mentioned among those who perceived their parents as authoritative and presented the best indicator of mood and self-esteem. These findings were discussed in light of the necessity for multidisciplinary actions which can improve the psychological adaptation of the adopting families.

El trastorno de ansiedad generalizada (TAG) y el trastorno depresivo mayor (TDM) son el tipo más común de comorbilidad de ansiedad-estado de ánimo. Hasta el 80% de los sujetos con TAG vital tienen también un trastorno del estado de ánimo comórbido durante suvida. Se han propuesto muchas hipótesis para explicar esta elevada comorbilidad. La pleiotropía, es decir, una mutación genética individual explica (aparentemente) trastornos diferentes, es una de ellas y se revisa aquí. La importancia y fiabilidad de la comorbilidad del TAG y el TDM (1); los datos a favor de la coagregación del TAG y el TDM dentro de las familias (el riesgo de un trastorno en un probando aumenta el riesgo para el otro en los familiares) (2); la herencia sustancial para ambos trastornos según estudios de gemelos con datos para una correlación genética de la unidad entre los dos trastornos (3), y la existencia de numerosos mecanismos (4) que vinculan potencialmente los dos trastornos a genes de vulnerabilidad comunes están de acuerdo con esta hipótesis. Se dan algunos ejemplos de mecanismos potencialmente compartidos (como la disrregulación del CRF o los factores de transcripción anormales) y posibles genes de vulnerabilidad común (por ejemplo, el gen transportador de la serotonina) para destacar la hipótesis de la pleiotropía.

Los datos sobre distimia y personalidad presentados aquí se derivan del Estudio de la cohorte de Zurich, que siguió a 591 sujetos desde los 20 hasta los 35 años de edad. Desde la infancia, los distímicos se percibían como mucho más ansiosos y con menos confianza en sí mismos que los que tenían depresión mayor o los controles. Manifestaban más problemas de comportamiento y tenían puntuaciones altas de neuroticismo e introversión. Los distímicos puntuaban bajo por lo que se refiere a la calidad de vida, la autoestima y el dominio, mientras que lo hacían alto en conductas de evitación/negación. Se avanza la hipótesis de que los problemas de comportamiento, la ansiedad, los niveles elevados de neuroticismo y los trastornos de la personalidad constituyen factores de riesgo para la depresión crónica. Se presentan datos de la existencia de distimia bipolar.