Psychological treatment of depressive symptoms in Chinese elderly inpatients with significant medical comorbidity: A meta-analysis

Abstract Background As it is uncertain whether psychological treatments for depressive symptoms are effective in elderly inpatients with significant medical comorbidity, we aimed to assess the treatment effectiveness not only on depressive symptoms but also on somatic symptoms in these inpatients. Methods We performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies assessing the effects of psychological treatments in Chinese older inpatients with significant medical comorbidity based upon extensive searches of the most comprehensive computerized Chinese academic database. Results The overall effect size for depressive symptoms of twelve studies which compared psychological treatments with a care-as-usual control group was d = 0.80 (95% Confidence Intervals (CI) = 0.60-0.99; p p Conclusions We conclude that psychological treatments of depressive symptoms are effective for Chinese elderly inpatients with significant medical comorbidity which should receive more attention in medical settings.</p

Protective Factors for Subjective Well-being in Chinese Older Adults: The Roles of Resources and Activity

The purpose of current study was to examine the relationships between resources, activity, and subjective well-being in later life. Using a national sample (N = 3,795) of older adults randomly selected from major Chinese mainland cities, we integrated the constructs of resources and activity into a structural model of subjective well-being. In the model, the three key resources, health, economic status and family relations, were specified as having direct effects on both activity and subjective well-being. Additionally, activity was specified as having a direct effect on subjective well-being. AMOS software was used to test and compare the goodness of fit of various models. The data had a satisfactory fit to the model (GFI = 0.980, NNFI = 0.959, CFI = 0.973, RMSEA = 0.049), indicating that the three resources had significant contributions to subjective well-being. Comparisons using several nested models also suggested that family relations had a stronger effect than health and economic status on subjective well-being. Further, activity was a partial mediator in the relationships between resources and subjective well-being

Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive Symptoms

BackgroundDepressed populations demonstrate a greater tendency to have negative interpretations on ambiguous situations. Cognitive theories concerning depression proposed that such a negative bias plays an important role in developing and maintaining depression. There is now fairly consistent evidence arising from different stimuli and assessment methods that depression is featured by such a bias. The current study aimed to explore the neural signatures associated with the interpretation bias in the elderly with depressive symptoms confronted with different facial expressions using event-related brain potentials (ERPs).MethodsParticipants were 14 community-dwelling older adults with depressive symptoms assessed by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale scores. We collected event-related potentials of their brain compared to that of 14 healthy aged-matched adults. The late positive potential (LPP) was used to examine cognitive-affective processes associated with judgment of emotional facial expressions between the two groups.ResultsOld adults with depressive symptoms have much smaller amplitude than healthy older adults irrespective of the prime types. When processing the targets, the two groups showed different patterns regarding the LPP. The healthy control group revealed no differences between ambiguous and happy primes, irrespective of whether the targets were sad or happy facial expressions. However, significant differences were found between happy and sad and between ambiguous and sad primes. Such a pattern indicates a positive bias in healthy elderly adults. Regarding the elderly with depressive symptoms, there were no significant differences between ambiguous versus happy, ambiguous versus sad primes, and happy versus sad primes. Concerning reaction times, there was no group difference. Thus, the findings provide some support for cognitive theories of depression.ConclusionThe current study shows that there is an association between interpretative biases and depressive symptoms in the elderly by using the neuroscientific method of ERPs. The results suggest that ERPs are sensitive to explore the interpretation bias in depressed populations

A comparison of World Wide Web and paper-and-pencil mental health scales

The purpose of this study was to compare data collected via online surveys to via paper-and-pencil ones in mental health fields. Two groups of participants completed the Adult Adaptation Inventory (AAI) and Self-rating depression scale (SDS) either in online format or in paper-and-pencil format independently. Data collected via paper-and-pencil surveys had more missing data than Internet-based ones. As for internal consistency, there were no significant differences in AAI between both two groups, while internal consistency of SDS in the online format was much higher than in the paper-and-pencil format. There was measurement invariance of both two scales across the two conditions. Finally, there were no significant differences in mean scores of both two scales between both two formats. The basic similarity of the properties across the two conditions suggests the viability of the Internet-based surveys for assessing mental health status of adults.<br /

Interpretive bias of ambiguous facial expressions in older adults with depressive symptoms

Cognitive theories of emotional disorders indicate that biases in cognitive processes, such as attention, memory, and interpretation, are common factors that indicate vulnerability to these disorders, although their form varies according to the type of disorder. However, most of the studies have focused on adolescence and adulthood. It is still uncertain whether cognitive biases are risk factors for late-life depression. The present study sought to explore the role of interpretive bias in older adults with depressive symptoms and whether this effect is independent of basic cognitive abilities. Therefore, 18 older adults with depressive symptoms and 21 healthy controls were compared with an ambiguous facial expression identification task, a Mini Mental Status Examination, a Trail Making Test A and B, and a Word Fluency Test. Findings revealed that the depressive group was more likely to identify more ambiguous happy-sad facial expressions as indicative of sadness than were the healthy controls, but the two groups showed no significant differences in the cognitive test scores. These results suggest that interpretive bias indicates vulnerability to late-life depression, but basic cognitive abilities may have no influence in this context.</p

The impact of intolerance of uncertainty on negative emotions in covid-19: Mediation by pandemic-focused time and moderation by perceived efficacy

The COVID-19 global pandemic has resulted in a large number of people suffering from emotional problems. However, the mechanisms by which intolerance of uncertainty (IU) affects negative emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the mediating role of pandemic-focused time and the moderating role of perceived efficacy in the association between IU and negative emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic based on the uncertainty-time-efficacy-emotion model (UTEE). 1131 participants were recruited to complete measures of COVID-19 IU, pandemic-focused time, perceived efficacy, negative emotions and de-mographic variables during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that COVID-19 IU was significantly and positively associated with negative emotions, and this link could be mediated by pandemic-focused time. Moreover, the direct effect of COVID-19 IU on negative emotions was moderated by perceived efficacy. Specifically, the direct effect of COVID-19 IU on negative emotions was much stronger for individuals with lower levels of perceived efficacy. The current study further extended the previous integrative uncertainty tolerance model. Furthermore, the study suggested that policy makers and mental health professionals should reduce the general public&rsquo;s negative emotions during the pandemic through effective interventions such as adjusting COVID-19 IU, shortening pandemic-focused time and enhancing perceived efficacy.</p

The Mediating Role of Coping Styles on Impulsivity, Behavioral Inhibition/Approach System, and Internet Addiction in Adolescents From a Gender Perspective

Previous findings have shown that impulsivity and Behavioral Inhibition/Approach System (BIS/BAS) have substantial effects on adolescents&#39; Internet addiction, but the mechanisms underlying these associations and gender differences in these effects have received little attention. We examined the mediating effects of coping styles from impulsivity, and BIS/BAS to Internet addiction as well as gender differences in these associations. A total of 416 Chinese adolescents were examined using a cross-sectional survey involving Young&#39;s Diagnostic Questionnaire for Internet Addiction, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, BIS/BAS scales, and Coping Style Scale for Middle School Students. The data were analyzed using the independent sample t-test, chi-square test, Pearson correlation, and structure equation modeling. The results from the multiple-group (by adolescent gender) structural model analysis revealed that both impulsivity (p &lt; 0.001) and BIS (p = 0.001) directly predicted positive Internet addiction in girls, while both impulsivity (p = 0.011) and BAS (p = 0.048) directly predicted positive Internet addiction in boys. Furthermore, emotion-focused coping mediated the relationship between impulsivity and Internet addiction (beta = 0.080, 95% CI: 0.023-0.168) and the relationship between BIS and Internet addiction (beta = 0.064, 95% CI: 0.013-0.153) in girls, while in boys, problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping mediated the association between impulsivity and Internet addiction (beta = 0.118, 95% CI: 0.031-0.251; beta = 0.065, 95% CI: 0.010-0.160, respectively) and problem-focused coping mediated the association between BAS and Internet addiction [beta = -0.058, 95% CI: (-0.142)-(-0.003)]. These findings extend our insight into the mechanisms underlying the associations among impulsivity, BIS/BAS, and Internet addiction in adolescents and suggest that gender-sensitive training approaches to decrease adolescents&#39; Internet addiction are indispensable. These interventions should focus on the different gender predictors of adolescent Internet addiction and on the development of specific coping styles for boys and girls respectively.</p

Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive Symptoms

Background: Depressed populations demonstrate a greater tendency to have negative interpretations on ambiguous situations. Cognitive theories concerning depression proposed that such a negative bias plays an important role in developing and maintaining depression. There is now fairly consistent evidence arising from different stimuli and assessment methods that depression is featured by such a bias. The current study aimed to explore the neural signatures associated with the interpretation bias in the elderly with depressive symptoms confronted with different facial expressions using event-related brain potentials (ERPs).</p

The effects of governmental and individual predictors on COVID-19 protective behaviors in China: a path analysis model

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the world into a crisis. To contain the crisis, it is essential to build full cooperation between the government and the public. However, it is unclear which governmental and individual factors are the determinants and how they interact on protective behaviors against COVID-19. To resolve this issue, this study built a multiple mediation model and found government emergency management as information transparency and positive propaganda had more important impacts on protective behaviors than refuting rumors and supplies. Moreover, governmental factors could indirectly affect protective behaviors through individual factors such as perceived control, positive emotions, and risk perception. These findings suggest that systematic intervention programs for governmental factors need to be integrated with individual factors to finally achieve effective prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic among the public

Intolerance of covid-19-related uncertainty and negative emotions among chinese adolescents: A moderated mediation model of risk perception, social exclusion and perceived efficacy

The uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated negative emotions, especially among adolescents, who feel unable to tolerate the uncertainty of the epidemic. However, the mechanism by which the intolerance of COVID-19-related uncertainty (COVID-19 IU) affects negative emotions in adolescents remains unclear. This study explored the underlying mechanism from COVID-19 IU to negative emotions using a moderated mediation model in adolescents. In total, 3037 teenagers completed a cross-sectional survey including measures of COVID-19 IU, risk perception, social exclusion, perceived efficacy, and negative emotions. The results showed that COVID-19 IU positively predicted negative emotions and that risk perception and social exclusion mediated this relationship. In addition, both the direct effect of COVID-19 IU on negative emotions and the mediating effect of risk perception on this relationship were moderated by perceived efficacy; in particular, COVID-19 IU had a greater impact on negative emotions among adolescents with lower levels of perceived efficacy. These findings suggest that COVID-19 IU is closely associated with negative emotions among adolescents and that effective measures should be taken to enable adolescents to improve their perceived efficacy and develop a reasonable perception of risk, help them eliminate the stigma of the disease, and strengthen their connections with society.</p