The biological bases of attachment

From its origins, human attachment has always been viewed as a primary, biologically-based phenomenon with strong evolutionary roots. The last few decades have seen a large increase in research studies from developmental science and neighbouring disciplines that attest the role of biology in attachment processes. This review aims to provide a concise and up-to-date summary of research on the biological bases of attachment throughout the lifespan. We review the role of genetics, physiology ‒ focusing on oxytocin and cortisol ‒ and brain mechanisms that underlie attachment behaviour and its consequences. Findings are complex in that they often do not apply equally to all patterns of attachment, to all ages, or all temperament styles, among other factors. In addition, some important evidence is indirect, coming from studies that investigate the impact of variations in caregiving quality, such as differences in maltreatment and separation from caregiving figures, and on biology, and vice versa, rather than looking at differences in attachment per se, which complicates their interpretation. Implications for practice are raised throughout

The Herts and Minds study: feasibility of a randomised controlled trial of Mentalizationbased Treatment versus usual care to support the wellbeing of children in foster care

© The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Background: There is a lack of well-designed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to investigate the efficacy of psychological therapies for children in foster care with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Mentalization-based therapy (MBT) focuses on supporting the carer-child relationship by promoting reflective capacity. This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of an RCT of MBT, delivered in a family-format, for children who are in foster care in the UK. Method: Herts and Minds was a phase II, blinded feasibility RCT with follow-up of at 12 and 24 weeks post-randomisation. Participants were children (age 5-16) in foster care referred to a targeted mental health service, who had some level of difficulty as identified by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Aims were to assess: the feasibility of recruitment processes and study uptake; capacity to train mental health practitioners to deliver MBT to an acceptable level of treatment integrity; establish acceptability and credibility of MBT as an intervention for children in foster care; establish feasibility and acceptability to participants of conducting an RCT; and estimate the likely treatment efficacy effect size. Participants were randomly allocated to either MBT (n = 15) or Usual Clinical Care (UCC) (n = 21) individually or in sibling groups. A range of qualitative and quantitative data was gathered to assess feasibility. Results: Feasibility was established with regard to: capacity to recruit participants to a study; capacity to train mental health practitioners to deliver MBT to an acceptable level of treatment integrity; acceptability and credibility of MBT; and feasibility and acceptability to participants of conducting an RCT. A number of issues made it difficult to estimate a likely treatment efficacy effect size. Conclusion: With modifications, it is feasible to run an RCT of MBT for children in foster care. Both the therapy and research design were acceptable to participants, but modifications may be needed regarding both the timing of assessments and the identification of appropriate primary outcome measures. Given the lack of evidenced based therapies for this population, such a trial would be a significant contribution to the field. Findings may be useful for other groups planning clinical trials of psychological therapies for children in foster care. Trial registration: ISRCTN 90349442. The trial was retrospectively registered on 6 May 2016.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Prediction of naturally-occurring, industrially-induced and total trans fatty acids in butter, dairy spreads and Cheddar cheese using vibrational spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis

peer-reviewedThis study investigated the use of vibrational spectroscopy [near infrared (NIR), Fourier-transform mid-infrared (FT-MIR), Raman] and multivariate data analysis for (1) quantifying total trans fatty acids (TT), and (2) separately predicting naturally-occurring (NT; i.e., C16:1 t9; C18:1 trans-n, n = 6 … 9, 10, 11; C18:2 trans) and industrially-induced trans fatty acids (IT = TT – NT) in Irish dairy products, i.e., butter (n = 60), Cheddar cheese (n = 44), and dairy spreads (n = 54). Partial least squares regression models for predicting NT, IT and TT in each type of dairy product were developed using FT-MIR, NIR and Raman spectral data. Models based on NIR, FT-MIR and Raman spectra were used for the prediction of NT and TT content in butter; best prediction performance achieved a coefficient of determination in validation (R2V) ∼ 0.91–0.95, root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) ∼ 0.07–0.30 for NT; R2V ∼ 0.92–0.95, RMSEP ∼ 0.23–0.29 for TT.This project was funded by the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine as part of CheeseBoard 2015. Ming Zhao is a Teagasc Walsh Fellow

A Demonstration Study of the Quiet Time Transcendental Meditation Program

This manuscript presents a demonstration study of Quiet Time (QT), a classroom-based Transcendental Meditation intervention. The aim of the study is to assess the feasibility of implementing and evaluating QT in two pilot settings in the United Kingdom and Ireland. This study contributes to the field by targeting middle childhood, testing efficiency in two settings operating under different educational systems, and including a large array of measures. First, teacher and pupil engagement with QT was assessed. Second, the feasibility of using a quasi-experimental design and a wide range of instruments to measure changes in pupil outcomes before and after the intervention was assessed. This allows us to obtain information about which instruments might be feasible to administer and most sensitive to change. The first setting included 89 students from a primary school in the United Kingdom: those in sixth grade received the QT intervention, while those in fifth grade practiced meditation using the Headspace application. The second setting included 100 fifth- and sixth-grade students from two schools in Ireland: one received the QT intervention, the other served as a control. Recruitment and retention rates were high in both settings, and the intervention was feasible and accepted by students, parents and teachers. Implementation fidelity was lower in the United Kingdom setting where delivery started later in the school year and the practice was affected by preparation for the Standard Assessment Tests. These results show that QT may be feasibly delivered in school settings, and suggest the use of a compact battery of tests to measure impact. We find suggestive evidence that the intervention affected executive function as children who practiced QT showed improved working memory in both settings. In the Irish setting, pupils in the QT group had improved ability to control responses. These results have implications for future studies by a) demonstrating that implementation fidelity is highly context dependent and b) providing suggestive evidence of the malleability of children’s skills in middle childhood. The results of this demonstration study will be used to inform a larger RCT of the QT intervention

Factorial invariance of the Patient Health Questionnaire and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire.

The UK's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme uses the Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-9; Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, , J. Gen. Intern. Med., 16, 606) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., , Arch. Intern. Med., 166, 1092) to assess patients' symptoms of depression and anxiety respectively. Data are typically collected via telephone or face-to-face; however, no study has statistically investigated whether the questionnaires' items operate equivalently across these modes of data collection. This study aimed to address this omission

Predicting treatment outcome in psychological treatment services by identifying latent profiles of patients

BACKGROUND: The outcomes of psychological therapies for anxiety and depression vary across individuals and symptom domains. Being able to predict treatment response from readily available patient data at presentation has potentially important benefits in aiding decisions about the most suitable interventions for a patient. This paper presents a method of identifying subgroups of patients using latent profile analysis, and comparing response to psychological treatments between these profiles. METHODS: All outpatients taken into treatment at two psychological treatment services in London, UK and who provided basic demographic information and standardized symptom measures were included in the analysis (n=16636). RESULTS: Latent Profile Analysis was performed on intake data to identify statistically different groups of patients, which were then examined in longitudinal analyses to determine their capacity to predict treatment outcomes. Comparison between profiles showed considerable variation in recovery (74-15%), deterioration rates (5-20%), and levels of attrition (17-40%). Further variation in outcomes was found within the profiles when different intensities of psychological intervention were delivered. LIMITATIONS: Latent profiles were identified using data from two services, so generalisability to other services should be considered. Routinely collected patient data was included, additional patient information may further enhance utility of the profiles. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that intake data can be used to reliably classify patients into profiles that are predictive of outcome to different intensities of psychological treatment in routine care. Algorithms based on these kinds of data could be used to optimize decision-making and aid the appropriate matching of patients to treatment

Reimagining the environment in developmental psychopathology: from molecules to effective interventions

The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry's Annual Research Review (ARR) is a must-read special issue of the journal that presents a series of major reviews of key topics in the field. This year the ARR consists of eight reviews, each accompanied by a commentary from a leading expert in the field, on a diverse range of topics addressing, in complementary ways, the key role of the environment in child psychopathology and in leveraging change in the service of prevention and intervention. Topics include epigenetics, stress physiology, neonatal imaging, interparental conflict, bullying, autism treatments and suicide. The papers considered together represent the very best of contemporary child psychology and psychiatry research

The longitudinal heterogeneity of autistic traits: A systematic review

BACKGROUND: Previous reviews have characterised the mean stability of autistic traits (ATs) across samples on a single measure. However, no review has yet assessed mean change across a range of measures, or described the longitudinal heterogeneity of ATs, i.e. variation in direction and degree of change. METHOD: A systematic literature review was conducted using PubMed, PsycINFO and EMBASE up to May 31 2020. Forty-four studies meeting inclusion criteria were identified. RESULTS: Retrieved studies ranged from N = 20 to N = 9,744. Ages spanned one to 15 years at baseline and two to 23 years at follow-up. The proportion of female participants per study ranged from 0 to 51%. There is some evidence that overall ATs tend to reduce over time for autistic children, reflecting decreases in social communication difficulties but not restricted behaviours. This effect was strongest in clinical samples and using parent-report measures. However, there was good evidence that statistics of mean change obscure between-person differences in within-person change. Decreasing ATs appear linked to higher verbal and non-verbal IQ and female gender in autistic participants. Four patterns of change: increasing, decreasing and stable high and low best characterised the data. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals experience diverse patterns of change over time. More general population studies are needed to reduce male bias. More work is needed to characterise the relationship between trajectories and well-being, functioning and quality of life outcomes. This will help to understand factors that promote resilience and reduce risk, and therefore to improve the timing and targets of intervention