Outcome evaluation of an in-patient psychotherapy program: mindfulness, difficulty with emotion regulation, and mood and anxiety symptoms

This exploratory enquiry into the effectiveness of an in-patient psychotherapy program measured the changes in mood and anxiety symptoms, difficulty with emotion regulation, and dispositional mindfulness in a clinical population with diverse psychiatric morbidity. Participants were 53 adults (74.5% female, mean age = 35 years) who participated in a 4-week in-patient psychotherapy program offering a variety of interventions, including mindfulness skills training, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy-psychosocial skills training. Program input data, demographic variables, psychiatric morbidity, and medication on discharge were tracked. There was an average improvement of 29.86 ± 20.56 on the Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire-D30 and 12.43 ± 17.75 on the Difficulty with Emotion Regulation Scale-Short Form, indicating an improvement in mood and anxiety symptoms and emotion regulation post-intervention. There was an average improvement of 17.6 ± 23.66 on the Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire, indicating an increase in dispositional mindfulness post-intervention

Increased Perceived Stress is Associated with Blunted Hedonic Capacity: Potential Implications for Depression Research

Preclinical studies suggest that stress exerts depressogenic effects by impairing hedonic capacity, in humans, however, the precise mechanisms linking stress and depression are largely unknown. As an initial step towards better understanding the association between stress and anhedonia, the present study tested, in two independent samples, whether individuals reporting elevated stress exhibit decreased hedonic capacity. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) measured the decree to which participants appraised their daily life as unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overwhelming. Hedonic capacity was objectively assessed using a signal-detection task based on a differential reinforcement schedule. Decreased reward responsiveness (i.e., the participants propensity to modulate behavior as a function of reward) was used as an operational measure of hedonic capacity. In both Study 1 (n = 88) and Study 2 (n = 80), participants with high PSS scores displayed blunted reward responsiveness and reported elevated anhedonic symptoms. Additionally, PSS scores predicted reduced reward responsiveness even after controlling for general distress and anxiety symptoms. These findings are consistent with preclinical data highlighting links between stress and anhedonia, and offer promising insights into potential mechanisms linking stress to depression.Psycholog

Increased Perceived Stress is Associated with Blunted Hedonic Capacity: Potential Implications for Depression Research

Preclinical studies suggest that stress exerts depressogenic effects by impairing hedonic capacity, in humans, however, the precise mechanisms linking stress and depression are largely unknown. As an initial step towards better understanding the association between stress and anhedonia, the present study tested, in two independent samples, whether individuals reporting elevated stress exhibit decreased hedonic capacity. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) measured the decree to which participants appraised their daily life as unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overwhelming. Hedonic capacity was objectively assessed using a signal-detection task based on a differential reinforcement schedule. Decreased reward responsiveness (i.e., the participants propensity to modulate behavior as a function of reward) was used as an operational measure of hedonic capacity. In both Study 1 (n = 88) and Study 2 (n = 80), participants with high PSS scores displayed blunted reward responsiveness and reported elevated anhedonic symptoms. Additionally, PSS scores predicted reduced reward responsiveness even after controlling for general distress and anxiety symptoms. These findings are consistent with preclinical data highlighting links between stress and anhedonia, and offer promising insights into potential mechanisms linking stress to depression.Psycholog

Measures of fibromyalgia: Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI‐20), Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Sleep Scale, and Multiple Ability Self‐Report Questionnaire (MASQ)

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88107/1/20531_ftp.pd

Cognitive awareness after treatment for high-grade glioma

Objective: In patients with brain lesion, awareness of cognitive deficits is an important aspect of disease awareness. Glioblastoma (GBM) and anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) can cause cognitive deficits, but, to date, awareness of these deficits has not been documented. This study aimed to test cognitive awareness in these patients after the end of treatment. Methods: Fifty patients with GBM or AA were assessed using the Multiple Ability Self-Report Questionnaire (MASQ), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Self Rating Depression Scale (SRDS), and memory, attention, mental speed, abstract reasoning, and flexibility neuropsychological tests. Cognitive awareness was calculated as the concordance between the composite score of neuropsychological performance (PEC) and the total MASQ score. The controls were 48 healthy subjects. Analysis of variance and regression analysis compared subject groups and explored variables predicting perceived abilities. Results: Patients with GBM or AA showed similar attention, memory, and executive deficits compared with controls. Cognitive awareness was fair/full in 64% of patients. In the entire patients group, the worst MASQ scores were associated with neuropsychological deficits, anxiety, depression, and glioma location in the right hemisphere . In patients with fair/full awareness, MASQ scores were related to affective status and neuropsychological performance, whereas, in those with scarce/no awareness, they were related only to affective status. Conclusions: After treatment, many patients with GBM or AA are aware of their cognitive deficits. Anxiety, depression, and right hemisphere tumour exacerbate the perceived difficulties. This neurocognitive approach expands the behavioural phenotypes of high-grade gliomas and may have therapeutic implications over the course of the disease.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Acute Stress Reduces Reward Responsiveness: Implications for Depression

Background: Stress, one of the strongest risk factors for depression, has been linked to "anbedonic" behavior and dysfunctional reward-related neural circuitry in preclinical models. Methods: To test if acute stress reduces reward responsiveness (i.e., the ability to modulate behavior as a function of past reward), a signal-detection task coupled with a differential reinforcement schedule was utilized. Eighty female participants completed the task under both a stress condition, either threat-of-shock (h = 38) or negative performance feedback (h = 42), and a no-stress condition. Results: Stress increased negative affect and anxiety. As hypothesized based on preclinical findings, stress, particularly the threat-of-shock condition, impaired reward responsiveness. Regression analyses indicate that self-report measures of anbedonia predicted stress-induced hedonic deficits even after controlling for anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: These findings indicate that acute stress reduces reward responsiveness, particularly in individuals with anhedonic symptoms. Stress-induced hedonic deficit is a promising candidate mechanism linking stressful experiences to depression.Psycholog

Mobile App Service Quality Dimensions and Requirements for Mobile Shopping Companion Apps

The increasing utilization of mobile apps for shopping leads retailers to provide customers with dedicated mobile shopping companion apps to create an omni-channel shopping experience involving traditional brick-and-mortar, electronic and mobile business. Mobile shopping companion apps extend the traditional and electronic services of brick-and-mortar retailers by an additional mobile channel providing the customer with a digital companion supporting the shopping within and outside the stores using mobile technology. A twofold approach is pursued in this thesis. Firstly, a structured literature review is conducted to identify candidate dimensions for developing a scale for measuring the service quality of mobile shopping companion apps. Secondly, design requirements for improving the service quality of these mobile apps are deduced from online customer reviews of three exemplary mobile shopping companion apps applying a qualitative content analysis. The mobile app service quality of mobile shopping companion apps can be measured using a hierarchical and multi-dimensional scale consisting of three primary dimensions, seven secondary dimensions and 22 related items. The primary dimensions interaction quality, environment quality and outcome quality structure the secondary dimensions responsiveness, information, security and privacy, design, performance, technical reliability and valence. Based on these dimensions, 22 implementation guidelines and 14 service design requirements are derived as potential areas for optimizing the mobile app service quality of mobile shopping companion apps and achieving a high overall service quality. A mobile shopping companion app should include a set of features consisting of 16 features from three different areas. Results show that measuring the service quality of mobile shopping companion apps require for a tailored measurement scale. Equally, design requirements are proposed for this particular category of mobile apps. Retailers should provide a single mobile shopping companion app providing all features and mobile services to the customer. Keywords: mobile service; mobile commerce; shopping companion; service quality