What mediates the link between childhood maltreatment and depression? The role of emotion dysregulation, attachment, and attributional style

Background: Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been shown to be related to a severe and/or chronic course of depression. This study investigated which psychological processes mediate this relationship. Method: A large sample of acute or recovered depressed individuals (N = 340) participated in an online survey assessing characteristics of depression, trauma exposure, and potential mediators (emotion regulation difficulties, attributional style, and attachment). Results: The experience of CM was related to more severe depression and more depressive episodes. In multiple mediation models, emotion dysregulation, a depressogenic attributional style, and avoidance in close relationships conjointly mediated the relationship between CM and depression severity as well as number of depressive episodes. However, a significant direct path between CM and depression characteristics remained. Exploratory analyses suggested that posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity was an important additional mediator in our sample. Conclusions: Our findings provide preliminary evidence for psychological mediators between CM and depression that may be promising targets for interventions tailored for the treatment of depression in this subgroup

Development and initial validation of a measure of metacognitive beliefs in health anxiety: The MCQ-HA

Metacognitive beliefs have been shown to correlate with emotional disorders and more recently have been implicated in health anxiety. Research exploring these beliefs have tended to use the Metacognition Questionnaire (MCQ), which is a general measure. To facilitate research on the metacognitive model applied to health anxiety the present study reports on the development and initial evaluation of a new specific metacognitive measure of health anxiety, the Metacognitions Questionnaire-Health Anxiety (MCQ-HA). Principal components analysis identified 14 suitable items to be explored. Subsequent exploratory factor analysis of the MCQ-HA identified three factors: “Beliefs that Thoughts can cause Illness”, “Beliefs about Biased thinking”, and “Beliefs that Thoughts are Uncontrollable”. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three factor model with all selected goodness-of-fit statistics equivalent to or better than recommended values. Preliminary evidence suggests good internal-consistency, incremental, convergent and discriminant validity in relation to associated measures. The MCQ-HA appears to be a potentially useful predictor of health anxiet

Entwicklung und Realisierung eines VMEBUS- Subsystems auf der Basis des Signalprozessors DSP56001

Seit 1987 wird in der Kernforschungsanlage Jülich ein Cooler Synchrotron (COSY)gebaut. COSY ist als Speicherring mit Phasenraumkühlung geplant, der einen Strahlhoher Phasenraumdichte bereitstellt. Erreicht wird dies durch eine Kombination vonElektronenkühlung und stochastischer Kühlung. Die Aufgaben zur Überwachung undSteuerung des Speicherrings werden auf verschiedene Leittechnikebenen verteilt.1. Steuerungsebene: Zu dieser Ebene gehören die Steuer- und Regelungsaufgaben der Haustechnik(Klima, Temperatur), der Aufheizprozeduren und die Aufgaben im Bereich desVakuums.2. Prozeßautomatisierungsebene: In dieser Ebene werden von Mikroprozessor-Kartensystemen Aufgaben der Netzgerätesteuerungund Steuerung für den Elektronen-Kühler erfüllt. Im Diagnosebereichfindet hier die digitale und analoge Ein-/ Ausgabe statt.3. Mikrocomputer- und Minicomputerebene: Auf dieser Ebene sind die leistungsfähigsten Instrumentierungskomponenten untergebracht.Der Anwendungsbereich der Minicomputersysteme beginnt da, woEchtzeit-Datenbankenfunktionen benötigt werden, bei der Parameter aus den ionenoptischenAnforderungen für die einzelnen Komponenten umgesetzt werden.Außerdem werden hier auch die schnellen Interfacesysteme bedient. / Auf der mittleren Ebene, Mikroprozessor Kartensystem, wird der VMEbus mit Motorola680xx Mikroprozessoren betrieben. Für einzelne Steuerungs- und Diagnoseaufgabensirid die Motorola 680xx Mikroprozesssoren ungeeignet. Dies sind z. B. Aufgabender schnellen Regelungen oder der Fourier-Transformation zur Erstellung von Spektralanalysen.Für diese Problemstellungen wurden spezielle Prozessoren entwickelt, die Signalprozessoren. Sie zeichnen sich durch Schnelligkeit und Genauigkeit aus. Zum Anschlußdes Signalprozessors von Motorola (DSP56001) an die 68020-CPU-Karte wurdeeine Schaltung entwickelt und als Prototyp-IPIN getestet

Associations between childhood maltreatment and adult depression: a mediation analysis

Abstract Background There is ample evidence showing that childhood maltreatment (CM) is a risk factor for the development of depression in adulthood. However, little is known about the psychological processes mediating this relationship. This study used a large community sample to investigate the mediating role of emotional, cognitive and/or interpersonal dysfunctions on the one hand and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms on the other hand. Methods One thousand twenty seven participants of a community sample filled out an online survey. Mediation analyses were computed via linear structural equation modelling. Results Results showed a significant mediation of the association between CM and adult depression via emotional impairments, depressogenic attribution style and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. Our study design was cross-sectional and therefore did not allow testing temporal precedence of mediators and causality. Data was collected retrospectively, a confounding effect of current depressive symptoms on retrospective recall of CM therefore cannot be ruled out. Conclusions The a priori mediation model showed a good fit with the data. The model suggests promising objectives for further research on CM-related depression and potential treatment targets in the future

Symptoms of health anxiety in obsessive–compulsive disorder: Relationship with treatment outcome and metacognition

The study aimed to examine symptoms of health anxiety in relation to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the effect health anxiety has on OCD treatment outcome, and how OCD treatment affects health anxiety symptoms. Another objective of the study was to explore the role of metacognition in symptoms of health anxiety. A sample of 313 patients with a primary diagnosis of OCD and 382 community controls were compared on the Whiteley Index (WI), the Metacognitions Questionnaire, and the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. Results showed that 30.4% in the OCD sample scored above an established cut-off for health anxiety on the WI, significantly higher than in the control group. Furthermore, health anxiety did not have a significant effect on OCD treatment outcome. Health anxiety improved moderately following OCD treatment. Finally, symptoms of health anxiety were found to be moderately correlated with metacognition and improvement in health anxiety was associated with changes in metacognitive beliefs. Implications for treatment and future research are discussed