La autoexposición y prevención de respuesta en un caso de trastorno obsesivo-compulsivo con rituales de comprobación

El presente trabajo se enmarca dentro del esfuerzo observado en los últimos años en el ámbito de la psicología clínica por disminuir el coste de los tratamientos psicológicos. Se presenta un caso de trastomo obsesivo-compulsivo con rituales de comprobación, tratado en un centro de asistencia público con un programa de tratamiento de exposición y prevención de respuesta. La aplicación del tratamiento fue llevada a cabo por completo por el paciente, limitándose el papel del psicólogo a la explicación de la técnica, la supervisión de su aplicación y refuerzo de los logros. El tratamiento se realizó en ocho sesiones de unos 30-45 minutos de duración, a lo largo de cuatro meses. Se ofrecen resultados obtenidos al finalizar la terapia, a los ocho meses y al año de seguimiento

Las autoinstrucciones y la prevención de respuesta como tratamiento breve en un caso de Hipocondría

La hipocondría es uno de los trastornos psiquiátricos que tiene una menor representación entre las publicaciones sobre tratamiento, a pesar de su incidencia, sobre todo entre los pacientes que acuden a las consultas de atención primaria y especializada de salud. En este trabajo se presenta el tratamiento de una mujer de 38 años, de nivel sociocultural bajo, que acude por un trastorno hipocondríaco de 19 años de evolución. El tratamiento psicológico tuvo una duración de tres sesiones, y consistió en técnicas de autoinstrucción y prevención de respuesta. Se presentan los datos al mes, tres meses y cuatro meses del alta

Photoswitching-Enabled Contrast Enhancement in Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy

Light sheet fluorescence microscopy enables high-resolution imaging of thick biological samples. By restricting the fluorescence excitation to a single plane, rapid wide-field image acquisition is possible with minimal sample exposure. Although light sheet microscopy is able to resolve subcellular features at depth in model organisms, elevated levels of endogenous autofluorescence often preclude acceptable contrast and may obscure features of interest in general samples. Here we demonstrate how photoswitchable fluorophores can be exploited to boost contrast in light sheet microscopy. The novel detection method enables high specificity while maintaining the optical sectioning capability of the light sheet microscope. Our experiments reveal structures hidden well below the ambient fluorescent background level by enhancing the contrast by 2 orders of magnitude

Assessing the potential of photosensitizing flavoproteins as tags for correlative microscopy

Photosensitizing flavoproteins have great potential as tags for correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM). We examine the photostability of miniSOG mutants and their ability to photo-oxidize diaminobenzidine, both key aspects for CLEM. Our experiments reveal a complex relation between these parameters and the production of different reactive oxygen species. ¸ 2016 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Efficacy of the unified protocol for the treatment of emotional disorders in the Spanish public mental health system using a group format: study protocol for a multicenter, randomized, non-inferiority controlled trial

Background: Emotional disorders, which include both anxiety and depressive disorders, are the most prevalent psychological disorders according to recent epidemiological studies. Consequently, public costs associated with their treatment have become a matter of concern for public health systems, which face long waiting lists. Because of their high prevalence in the population, finding an effective treatment for emotional disorders has become a key goal of today ’ s clinical psychology. The Unified Protocol for the Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders might serve the aforementioned purpose, as it can be applied to a variety of disorders simultaneously and it can be easily performed in a group format. Methods: The study is a multicenter, randomized, non-inferiority controlled clinical trial. Participants will be 220 individuals with emotional disorders, who are randomized to either a treatment as usual (individual cognitive behavioral therapy) or to a Unified Protocol condition in group format. Depression, anxiety, and diagnostic criteria are the primary outcome measures. Secondary measures include the assessment of positive and negative affect, anxiety control, personality traits, overall adjustment, and quality of life. An analysis of treatment satisfaction is also conducted. Assessment points include baseline, post-treatment, and three follow-ups at 3, 6, and 12 months. To control for missing data and possible biases, intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses will be performed. Discussion: This is the first randomized, controlled clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a transdiagnostic intervention in a group format for the treatment of emotional disorders in public settings in Spain. Results obtained from this study may have important clinical, social, and economic implications for public mental health settings in Spain. Trial registration: Retrospectively registered at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ . Trial NCT03064477 (March 10, 2017). The trial is active and recruitment is ongoing. Recruitment is expected to finish by January 202

Reversible Fluorescence Photoswitching in DNA

[Image: see text] We describe the engineering of reversible fluorescence photoswitching in DNA with high-density substitution, and its applications in advanced fluorescence microscopy methods. High-density labeling of DNA with cyanine dyes can be achieved by polymerase chain reaction using a modified DNA polymerase that has been evolved to efficiently incorporate Cy3- and Cy5-labeled cytosine base analogues into double-stranded DNA. The resulting biopolymer, “CyDNA”, displays hundreds of fluorophores per DNA strand and is strongly colored and highly fluorescent, although previous observations suggest that fluorescence quenching at such high density might be a concern, especially for Cy5. Herein, we first investigate the mechanisms of fluorescence quenching in CyDNA and we suggest that two different mechanisms, aggregate formation and resonance energy transfer, are responsible for fluorescence quenching at high labeling densities. Moreover, we have been able to re-engineer CyDNA into a reversible fluorescence photoswitchable biopolymer by using the properties of the Cy3–Cy5 pair. This novel biopolymer constitutes a new class of photoactive DNA-based nanomaterial and is of great interest for advanced microscopy applications. We show that reversible fluorescence photoswitching in CyDNA can be exploited in optical lock-in detection imaging. It also lays the foundations for improved and sequence-specific super-resolution fluorescence microscopy of DNA