The aim of this study is to know the professional Psychology Association Members' Opinion about the sanitary character of their professional functions. The sample was composed by 1.206 professionals who filled a Questionnaire of Opinion about the Psychology as a Sanitary Profession (COPPS) by the net server of the Professional Psychologist Association. Data were analyzed according to the professional profile and the institution where the psychologists worked. The findings conclude a general favourable opinion about Psychology. Even, these results were more favourable in the case of the Clinical Psychology. Data are very useful for the knowledge about Psychology profession and psychologist functions in the context of the Health Sciences.

The aim of this study is to know the Psychology and Medicine professors' opinion about Psychology as a sanitary profession. A total of 593 Psychology and Medicine University professors participated in the study. A questionnaire about Psychology as a sanitary profession was designed and it was provided to the professors by an e-mail. The data were analyzed according to professors' discipline, academic area and professional profile. The results indicated that there is a favourable opinion of the Psychology and Medicine professors about Clinical Psychology as a sanitary profession. The data obtained are useful as an approximation about the Psychology and Medicine professors' opinion about Psychology as a sanitary profession.

This study explores the general population perception about psychologists as professional in the sanitary system. It is a population study by telephonic surveys with a sample composed by 1.562 people along the different Spanish regions. It is used a Questionnaire of Opinion to assess the perception of Psychologist competences and the assistances and demand of the mental health professional. The results were analyzed by sex, profession and age. Data conclude a favourable position about Psychology as a sanitary profession. It was manifested a clear preference in favour of psychologists to cope emotional situations, catastrophe or emergencies in all the mentioned variables. Data are useful and worthy contributions about the perception of psychologist as a sanitary professional.

Nowadays there exists a trend to homogenize the academic curricula in psychology in order to promote the free circulation and mobility of professionals. In this article, 64 academic programs (4.295 academic subjects) from 22 Latin-American countries are analyzed in order to know the current situation of academic education in psychology in Latin America, as well as the degree of academic convergence in these countries. The results show that there are several academic subjects that are common in most of the countries, namely, general psychology, experimental psychology, assessment and statistics, developmental psychology, educational psychology, neurosciences, and industrial-organizational psychology. The implications of the results for the homogeneity of academic curricula in psychology across Latin-American countries are discussed.

Several studies have shown that sleep fragmentation not only increases daytime sleepiness, but also deteriorates reaction time. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is characterized by interruptions in normal sleep patterns. Nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (nCPAP) is the most frequently used treatment for OSAS. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate changes in daytime sleepiness levels and reaction time in apnea patients after nCPAP treatments of 1 and 3 months. The sample was composed of 51 obstructive sleep apnea patients (47 men and 4 women) with ages ranging between 30 and 65 years of age. Sleep apnea was diagnosed with a cardiorespiratory polygraph of the total hours of sleep. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale was used to assess daytime sleepiness. A BASIC software program was used to measure the simple perceptual reaction times in milliseconds. The results indicated statistically significant decreases in daytime sleepiness levels at 1 month (p < .000) and at 3 months (p < .000) of treatment. The results also showed statistically significant decreases in reaction times at one month (p < .000), as well as at 3 months (p < .000) of treatment. Results indicate an improvement in the vigilance levels of obstructive sleep apnea patients after 1 month and 3 months of nCPAP treatment.

Summary: This study constitutes the first stage of the Spanish adaptation of the Matching Familiar Figures Test 20 (MFFT-20; Cairns & Cammock, 1978 ). The normative data for reflexivity-impulsivity and efficiency-inefficiency were obtained by means of the Salkind and Wright formula (1977) . The study sample was composed of 700 Spanish children, aged 6 to 12. This paper presents the results for reliability and latency-error correlation. The development of errors and latencies at older ages and gender differences were also analyzed. No significant differences between boys and girls were observed with respect to any of the variables. A high reliability was established for errors as well as for latencies. Errors decreased and latency increased with age. It is important to note that the data for both sexes at 8, 9, and 10 years of age reveal a stabilization in the latencies even though the errors continue to decrease. The psychometric properties of the Spanish adaptation of the MFFT-20 are discussed. Results are analyzed by examining the instrument's validation using the normative data presented here. The study concludes that the MFFT-20 is a reliable and valid measure of reflexivity-impulsivity.

The aim of this study was to adapt the HIV/AIDS-164 Scale (Paniagua et al., 1994) into Spanish, in order to allow for future evaluations of correct or incorrect knowledge by teenagers about the ways of transmission and prevention of HIV. Psychological risk variables were also evaluated: attitude towards persons infected with HIV, susceptibility for the infection of HIV and self-perceived efficacy aimed at preventing HIV infection. After a ten-phase adaptation process, a definitive scale was achieved, which was understandable to the studied sample: adolescents with and without psychological disorders.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome, (OSAS) is a disorder characterized by an obstruction in the upper respiratory airway during sleep.. This obstruction provokes a series of complete respiratory pauses (apneas) or partial respiratory pauses (hypopnea) of a duration surpassing 10 seconds, along with a reduction in the arterial oxygen saturation. During sleep, the presence of awakenings, loud snoring, as well as a loss or suppression of the most profound sleep phases (phases III and IV of NREM sleep and REM phase) take place. During the day, the patient exhibits a very varied range of symptoms,which affects his daytime functioning. Specifically the most significant symptoms are excessive daily somnolence, changes in mood and cognitive functioning, fatigue, irritability, cephaleas, etc. It is estimated that OSAS affects 2-4% of the general adult population. It mainly affects middle-aged males. A very high percentage of patients are obese, snorers, as well as habitual consumers of alcohol, tobacco and hypnotic sedatives before sleep, etc. OSAS is one of the disorders which most deteriorates the cognitive execution of patients, where deficits in short term memory, verbal training, perception, thinking and communication are observed, as well as a deficit in the so-called executive functions, and in this process a significant decrease in the ability, to initiate new mental processes, a tendency to commit persistent errors and a deterioration in cognitive processes of planification and execution are the main symptoms observed. It has been considered that the possible factors responsible for these cognitive deficits are both, the lack of oxygen during sleep and excessive daytime somnolence. Nowadays, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure: CPAP is the treatment most used for this sleep disorder. The functioning of CPAP consists in administering a continuous air flow, higher than the environmental pressure, on the upper respiratory airway, by means of a nasal mask. This pressure avoids obstruction of the upper respiratory airway, which allows patients to sleep without experiencing sleep interruptions. The level of pressure necessary to achieve this objective must be determined individually for each patient during the nocturnal sleep recording. Diverse studies have evaluated the efficacy of treatment in the symptomology of OSAS, although the results are not conclusive; in other words, cases have been identified in which patients have improved significantly in some cognitive functions, whilst in others, these improvements were not observed in spite of the decrease found in levels of daytime somnolence. Therefore, in this study, and in regard to the results of previously analysed studies, the objective was to evaluate the effects of CPAP on the short term memory of patients with OSAS after a month of treatment. Material and method The sample was made up of 44 patients (42 men and 2 women) with OSAS, who were chosen from 2 hospital center. The diagnostic criteria used for the selection of these patients was that they presented an index of apnea-hypoprica>10. The age range varied between 30 and 65 (X = 47.84 and DT = 8.15). In 211 the patients CPAP Was used as an alternative therapy The obstructive apneas,ire defined as the cessation of air flow during sleep accompanied by respiratory movements with duration of over 10 seconds. The hypopnea was defined as an episode in which partial obstruction of the upper respiratory airways resulted in a significant decrease in air flow. In order to establish a diagnosis of OSAS, a cardio-respirator polygraph was taken during all the sleeping hours for each one of the patients. This diagnostic technique, which is simpler than the polysomnograph, has made possible in the last few years, to diagnose this disorder and/or treat a greater number of patients. The procedure includes an electrocardiogram and recordings of thoracic and abdominal movements, air flow through the nose and mouth and the level of oxygen saturation in the blood. The patients chose presented ratios of somnolence pathologies according to Epworths Somnolence Scale. The test of WAIS digits in direct and inverse order was used to evaluate short term memory For treatment of the disorder, the systems CPAP Nasal SULLIVAN and the System CPAP PV 100 were used. Both have an apparatus that generates air, a mask, an air tube to connect the generator to the mask, an adjustable frame to hold the mask onto the head and a pad for the nose. The pressures used, oscillated between 5 and 12 cms H2O. Before the sleep recording, a medical examination and interview was carried out for each patient with the objective of obtaining any data of special relevance for the disorder diagnosis. E.g. most frequent symptoms, family and personal history, consumption of alcohol and tobacco, approximate period of time in which the symptoms began to appear, etc. During this first interview, the information provided by relatives (especially the partner) about the symptoms shown by the patient, was assessed. Once the examination was completed, the patient was given an appointment to sleep in the sleep unit, that same night, in which the first carcho-respiratory polygraph Would be taken. The recording began at 11.30 p.m. approximately and finalized at 7.30 a.m. with a recording of 6 hours of sleep. The following morning the sleep recording was analyzed to determine if the patient did or did not show obstructive sleep apnea, and the degree of the disorder. The parameters analyzed were as follows: a) Total obstructive apneas, minimum and maximum duration and index of apneas; b) Total hypopneas, minimum and maximum duration and index of hypopneas; c) De-saturation throughout the night and average fall; d) Average and minimum level of SAO(2)%, and e) Index of apneas-hypopneas. Once the analysis was complited, the selected subjects for the study were those patients who presented an apnea-hypopnea index higher than 10 and those who had established the CPAP as alternative therapy. In addition to the data obtained in the polygraph, the information which the patient himself and his family provided about the symptoms the patient exhibited, were also assessed. Once the diagnosis was concluded, psychological evaluation tests were carried out in the same place and under the same conditions for each subject. Its application was individual. Within the experimental procedures, the following variables were controlled: age, environmental variables (light, noise, temperature), food ingested, the time of day at which the evaluation was made, consumption of alcohol or tobacco, etc. Once this phase was concluded, an appointment was made for the patient to sleep for a second night in the sleep unit to carry out an adaptation to the CPAP. All the patients were given an appointment at approximately one month after the CPAP therapy had begun, in which a new evaluation of short term memory was made. During the follow-up period a specialized team evaluated the compliance of treatment which involved a further 5.51 hours of treatment per month. In order to analyse these data, 2 quasi-experimental multivaried design of repeated measurements was made which allowed us to verify if there existed a main effect of the treatment factor with CPAP. Results The results of the variance analysis indicate statistical significant differences in short term memory after a month of treatment (p<0.05), and to be specific, an increment in the number of digits recorded with reference to the base situation was observed. Conclusions The previous results show that the CPAP improves the cognitive functioning of the patients with OSAS, incrementing the number of digits recorded in a short term memory task, which may be due, amongst other reasons, to an improvement in the level of daytime somnolence or rather, to a significant improvement in the levels of oxygen saturation (SaO(2)).

Abstract Various studies have focused on understanding how the continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) treatment improves the emotional state of obstructive sleep apnea patients, as well as factors that determine improvement. Yet the results are contradictory. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the changes in depression levels, anxiety state and anxiety trait levels of patients with obstructive sleep apnea after 1 month and again after 3 months of CPAP treatment. The sample consisted of 51 obstructive sleep apnea patients. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) standardized spanish version was used to assess depressive symptoms. The State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used to assess two elements of the response to anxiety: anxiety‐state and anxiety‐trait. The results indicate that there exist statistically significant differences in depression levels after 1 month and after 3 months of treatment (P < 0.05). In specific, a drop in depression symptomatology was observed in both experimental conditions. With respect to anxiety state‐trait levels, the obtained results show statistically significant differences in anxiety‐trait levels after 1 month and after 3 months of treatment (P < 0.05) and in anxiety state after 3 months of treatment (P < 0.01). Both variables experienced a decrease after CPAP treatment.

Resumen es: Se ha realizado un estudio comparativo de reflexividad-impulsividad entre una muestra estadounidense y una espanola. El analisis se ha hecho con ninos de...

The objective of this study is to adapt the Modified Health Locus of Control Scale (HLOC) (Kelly, et al., 1990) to Spanish and to evaluate teenager's perceived control about the infection of HIV in order to be able to prevent it. It is a study aimed at attaining a final edited test that is understood by the intended sample of adolescents with and without psychological disorders. The adaptation process is divided into ten phases: 1) the translation of the instrument from English to Spanish; 2) a revision of the translation by two expert translators; 3) inclusion of the pertinent changes as suggested by the expert translators who evaluated the translation; 4) a revision of the edited items by 9 Spanish expert judges in areas related to HIV/AIDS, health psychology, preventive psychology, etc.; 5) an analysis of the results; 6) inclusion of the changes indicated by the expert judges for the edited items that hold an agreement percentage inferior to 85%; 7) the evaluation of item comprehension in two groups of adolescents one with and one without psychological disorders; 8) an analysis of the results for each one of the sample groups and for the total sample of adolescents: 9) inclusion of some of the changes in language terms for those items that did not reach an agreement percentage of 85% in stated comprehension and; 10) the elaboration of the final instrument. Key words: HIV/AIDS, adolescents, locus of control, prevention, adaptation, Spanish.

Introduction Specific studies have demonstrated that young adolescents emit behaviors which entail certain risks with respect to the sexual transmission of HIV. In recent years, many of the HIV/AIDS prevention programs directed to adolescents have focused on evaluating their information sources concerning the sickness, while placing specific emphasis on parents and/or friends. in this context, it has been observed that parents are considered as a less credible and less important source of information, while friends are considered as a more credible and important source. The objective of this study is to adapt into Spanish The HIV/AIDS Adolescent-Friend Communication Scale (Paniagua, Black and O'Boyle, 1997), in order to evaluate the level and quality of the comunication that exists between the adolescent and his friends concerning areas related with HIV/AIDS. Method Subjects The sample was selected by a group of 10 health professionals specialized en areas related with HIV/AIDS. On the other hand, the study sample was randomly selected and included 24 schooling adolescents of both male and female gender. Of the 24 subjects, 15 had no psychological disorders, while the remaining 9 presented psychological disorders. The age range of the total sample varied between 13 and 18 years of age. Instruments The HIV/AIDS Adolescent-Friend Communication Scale (Paniagua et at., 1997). Procedure The stages foil owed in the process of the Spanish adaptation of instrument's were the following: The adaptation process is divided into ten phases: a) translation of the original instrument from English to Spanish; b) revision of the translation by two expert translators; c) introduction of the pertinent changes of the instrument as suggested by the expert translators that evaluate the translation; d) revision of the item wording by the health professionals specialized in areas related with the HIV/AIDS; e) analysis of the results; f) introduction of the changes indicated by the experts for those items with a percentage of agreement lower than 85% in terms of the wording; gf evaluation of the item comprehension in a sample of adolescents formed by one group of adolescents without psychological disorders and another group of adolescents with psychological disorders; h) analysis of the results for each one of the groups and for the total sample of adolescents; i) introduction of some of the changes in the item language in those items that did not reach a percentage agreement of 85% in terms of the stated comprehension, and j) elaboration and writing of the final instrument. Results Percentage of agreement in terms of the item wording between experts. The items that did not obtain more than 85% of agreement were revised. These items were the following: 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, and 10. Percentage of agreement in terms of item comprehension among adolescent without psychological disorders. All of the instrummZt's items obtained a percentage of agreement of 100% in their comprehension by the adolescents. Percentage of agreement in terms of item comprehension among adolescent with psychological disorders. Ail items obtained a percentage of agreement of 100% in their comprehension by the adolescents. Percentage of agreement in terms of the comprehension of the item in the total sample of adolescents. All of the instrument's items obtained a percentage of agreement of 100% in item comprehension by the total sample of adolescents. Conclusion After changing the item wording in those items that did not reach an 85% agreement according to the experts in terms of it comprehension by the sample of adolescent and after evaluating, we elaborated a final edited Spanish instrument to evaluate the level and quality of the existing communication between the adolescent and his friend in areas related with the HIV/AIDS, which were clearly understood by the sample of adolescents with psychological disorders and the sample without psychological disorders. A large number of studies have found that friends are consider as having more credibility and has being more important as sources of information. This is due to the act that adolescents perceive a series of implicit behavioral norms in the group of referent for preventing being rejected by the rest of the group.