Behaviour Research and Therapy最新文献

This cluster randomized controlled trial examined the effectiveness of Positive Events Training (PET), a combined group training aimed at simultaneously improving positive autobiographical memory (AM) and episodic future thinking (EFT) among adolescents (12–16 years). Delivered as a universal school-based program, PET was compared with an active (creative writing) control group (CREAT). Effects on resilience, wellbeing, positive emotions, emotional response styles towards positive emotions (savoring, dampening), anhedonia, depressive symptoms, and multiple AM and EFT indices were examined. Adolescents (N _PET = 95, N _CREAT = 93) completed self-report scales at baseline, post-training and two-month follow-up. Multilevel models revealed that PET led to significant improvements in certain AM and EFT skills. Moreover, a decrease in anhedonia was observed at post-training. However, this effect did not withstand correction for multiple testing. Absence of changes in the other outcomes should be interpreted within the context of the universal school-based approach and the potential limited scope for detectable changes. Exploratory analyses suggest the importance of further investigating PET's potential in addressing positive affect dysregulations in indicated samples, and exploring perceived likelihood of generated future events and dampening as potential underlying mechanisms. Study limitations and future directions to maximize the demonstrated potential of PET are discussed.

We investigated whether informal meditation practice (i.e., self-reported application of meditative techniques outside a period of formal meditation) was associated with outcomes in smartphone-based loving-kindness and compassion training. Meditation-naïve participants (n = 351) with clinically elevated symptoms completed measures of psychological distress, loneliness, empathy, and prosociality at baseline and following a two-week intervention. Informal practice, psychological distress, and loneliness were also assessed daily. Steeper increases in informal practice had small associations with pre-post improvements in distress (r = −.18, p = .008) and loneliness (r = −.19, p = .009) but not empathy or prosociality. Using a currently recommended approach for establishing cross-lagged effects in longitudinal data (latent curve model with structured residuals), higher current-day informal practice was associated with decreased next-day distress with a very small effect size (βs = −.06 to −.04, p = .018) but not decreased next-day loneliness. No cross-lagged associations emerged from distress or loneliness to informal practice. Findings suggest that further investigation into a potential causal role of informal practice is warranted. Future studies experimentally manipulating informal practice are needed.

Alcohol misuse – defined as consuming more than 14 units of alcohol per week - is a well-established problem among veterans. This study investigated the change in quality of life among help-seeking UK veterans who completed a 28-day brief alcohol intervention delivered via a digital smartphone application (called DrinksRation) and have previously sought clinical help for a mental health disorder. This study was a secondary outcome analysis of data collected during a randomised control trial. In total, 123 UK veterans participated in the study and were randomly allocated to either the intervention or control arm. Participants completed self-report questionnaires regarding their alcohol use and quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) at baseline, day 28 (end of intervention), day 84, and day 168. At the primary endpoint (day 84), we found significantly greater improvements in the intervention arm compared to the control arm for psychological quality of life (Cohen's d = 0.47), and environmental quality of life (d = 0.34). However, we observed no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control arm for social relationships and physical quality of life. Further, for day 168 we found no significant differences. Findings suggest that DrinksRation can increase quality of life among help-seeking veterans who have previously sought help for a mental health disorder, but the increases were modest and restricted to certain domains. Additional treatment may be needed for long-term and sustained improvements in quality of life.

Maladaptive emotional memories are a transdiagnostic feature of mental health problems. Therefore, understanding whether and how emotional memories can change might help to prevent and treat mental disorders. We tested whether neutral memories of naturalistic events can retroactively acquire positive or negative affect, in a preregistered three-day Modification of Valence in Episodes (MOVIE) paradigm. On Day 1, participants (N = 41) encoded memories of neutral movie scenes, representing lifelike naturalistic experiences. On Day 2, they retrieved each episode before viewing a happy, sad, or neutral scene from the same movie (yielding a within-subjects design with a neutral-negative, neutral-positive, and neutral-neutral condition). On Day 3, participants again retrieved each memory from Day 1. We assessed the affective tone of episodes through facial expressions of positive and negative affect (using facial electromyography, fEMG) and through self-reported feelings. Positive updating of neutral episodes led to increased expressions of positive affect, whereas negative updating led to increased self-reported negative feelings. These results suggest that complex neutral episodic memories can retroactively acquire an affective tone, but the effects were modest and inconsistent across affect readouts. Future research should investigate alternative approaches to updating emotional memories that produce more profound changes in the valence of memories.

Anxiety and depressive disorders are highly prevalent and a leading cause of disability. Understanding how symptoms develop could lead to new preventive and clinical interventions. This pilot study examined whether systematically restricting specific behaviours (target actions) associated with good psychological health would increase psychological symptoms in healthy participants, and whether resuming those actions would reduce symptoms to baseline levels. Twelve adults participated in a series of N-of-1 trials comprising baseline (A), restriction (B) and recovery (C) phases. Outcomes were assessed weekly using measures of depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), and a validated 15-item measure of target actions (Big 5). Symptoms of depression and anxiety increased significantly from Phase A to Phase B and returned to baseline by the end of Phase C. Increased symptoms during Phase B were only observed in participants who restricted actions by more than 25%. Symptom increases were evident within 2 weeks of restriction, but most participants appeared to take longer to recover to baseline levels. This study demonstrates that reducing the frequency of specific actions may increase symptoms of anxiety and depression, which is reversed when those actions are resumed. This contributes to our understanding of the aetiology, maintenance, and recovery from depression, anxiety, and possibly other disorders.

Objective

This study experimentally compared the effects of emotion regulation (ER) strategies on alcohol craving and examined the mediating effect of state difficulties in emotion regulation (S-DER) on the relationship between negative/positive emotion and alcohol craving.

Method

417 participants (76.74% women, M_age = 20.76 years) endorsing past-month heavy/binge drinking were randomly assigned to one of four ER conditions (positive reappraisal, distancing, distraction, and acceptance). Participants completed state assessments, including negative/positive emotion, S-DER, and alcohol craving, prior to (T0) and after (T1) engaging in a negative emotion induction task. Subsequently, participants completed an ER strategy task based on their assigned ER strategy condition and completed a third state assessment (T2).

Results

Time had a significant quadratic effect on alcohol craving, such that craving increased from T0 to T1 and decreased from T1 to T2. There was no significant effect of ER strategy condition on craving. Change in S-DER mediated the relationship between the change in negative/positive emotion and the change in craving, with emotional modulation and emotional acceptance facets of S-DER dominating the mediating effect during negative emotion induction and ER strategy induction, respectively.

Conclusions

Results suggest interventions targeting S-DER's emotional modulation and acceptance facets could reduce acute craving when experiencing undesired emotions.

This study experimentally investigated the role of anticipated enjoyment and effort in mediating dysphoria-related deficit in activity engagement behavioural choice. Using a novel activity information processing task (about a fictional “new” Nintendo Wii sports game called “Tornado Ball”), N = 249 participants (n = 95 High Dysphoria; n = 154 Low Dysphoria) were presented information about the benefits (enjoyable features) and costs (mental and physical effort barriers) as product reviews from another player. The order of cost vs. benefit information was manipulated such that participants either heard cost information before benefit information, or vice versa. They then rated what their anticipated enjoyment and effort will be if they were to play Tornado Ball, before being given the opportunity to choose to try it themselves or not. The High Dysphoria group reported lower anticipated enjoyment (but not higher effort) relative to the Low Dysphoria group, but only when cost information was presented first. Importantly, a moderated mediation showed that the High Dysphoria group reported lower tendency to choose activity engagement (game play) as a function of having lower anticipated enjoyment, but only when cost information was presented first. The present finding indicate that reduced anticipated enjoyment may causally contribute to dysphoria-linked deficits in activity engagement behavioural choice.

According to the cognitive model of suicide, interactions between hopelessness and attentional biases toward suicidal information create a narrowed attentional focus on suicide as a viable solution, particularly in the presence of life stress, leading to increased suicide risk. This study used a dynamic systems approach to examine the short-term temporal patterns between stress, hopelessness, suicide-specific rumination, and suicidal intent. Adults (N = 237; M = 27.12 years; 62% cisgender women; 87% White/European American) with elevated suicidal ideation completed ecological momentary assessments six times a day for 14 days. A multilevel model approach informed by dynamic systems theory was used to simultaneously assess stable and dynamic temporal processes underlying perceived stress, hopelessness, suicide-specific rumination, and suicidal intent. Each variable demonstrated temporal stability. In support of the cognitive model of suicide, we observed (1) a reciprocal relationship between stress and hopelessness such that stress and hopelessness amplified each other (early-stage processes), and (2) reinforcing loops such that hopelessness, suicide-specific rumination, and suicidal intent amplified each other (later-stage processes). A dynamic systems modeling approach underscored the negative impact of a perpetuating cycle of suicide-specific rumination, deepening hopelessness, and escalating suicidal intent on increasing suicide risk, which may be targets for intervention.

Rising rates of depression on university campuses accentuate the need for specific intervention. Interventions targeting disturbances in positive affect, in particular, remain sparse, yet such deficits interfere substantially with functioning and further exacerbate or maintain negative symptoms. The current study aimed to evaluate the impact of a virtual, two-session Behavioral Activation augmented with Savoring (BA + S) intervention compared to an Emotional Awareness (EA) control group in increasing positive affect. Sixty university students with low positive affect were randomized to BA + S or EA and completed 21 days of experience-sampling of positive affect. Weekly measures of positive and negative valence symptoms were assessed at baseline, sessions one and two, and at one-week follow-up. Through a prori analyses utilizing multilevel and multivariate multilevel models, our results demonstrate that daily positive affect measured via experience-sampling significantly improved in BA + S, whereas positive affect did not change for those receiving EA, though the interaction of condition and time was not significant. Furthermore, interactions in weekly variables were significant. Increases in positive valence symptoms (affect, anhedonia, etc.) were only reported for students receiving BA + S but not EA. Negative valence symptoms (affect, depression, general distress) improved in both conditions but with superior improvements in BA + S compared to EA. BA + S shows promise for a scalable and accessible intervention to university students with clinical levels of positive and negative affect. ClinicalTrials ID: NCT05234476.

Individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) show less specificity and positivity during episodic future thinking (EFT). Here, we present findings from two studies aiming to (1) further our understanding of how STBs may relate to neural responsivity during EFT and (2) examine the feasibility of modulating EFT-related activation using real-time fMRI neurofeedback (rtfMRI-nf). Study 1 involved 30 individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD; half with STBs) who performed an EFT task during fMRI, for which they imagined personally-relevant future positive, negative, or neutral events. Positive EFT elicited greater ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activation compared to negative EFT. Importantly, the MDD + STB group exhibited reduced vmPFC activation across all EFT conditions compared to MDD-STB; although EFT fluency and subjective experience remained consistent across groups. Study 2 included rtfMRI-nf focused on vmPFC modulation during positive EFT for six participants with MDD + STBs. Results support the feasibility and acceptability of the rtfMRI-nf protocol and quantitative and qualitative observations are provided to help inform future, larger studies aiming to examine similar neurofeedback protocols. Results implicate vmPFC blunting as a promising treatment target for MDD + STBs and suggest rtfMRI-nf as one potential technique to explore for enhancing vmPFC engagement.