Single-Session Attention Bias Modification Training in Victims of Work-Related Accidents

Individuals who experienced traumatic work-related accidents frequently show cognitive deficits and biased processing of trauma-relevant information, which, in turn, could increase the risk of further accidents. The attention bias modification training (ABMT) is designed to reduce hypervigilance toward and enhance attentional disengagement from threat stimuli. The aim of the present study was to assess whether it is possible to implicitly reduce the attentional bias toward trauma-related stimuli through a single session of ABMT in individuals who experienced a traumatic occupational accident. Nineteen individuals who had experienced a traumatic work-related accident and 11 workers who never experienced a work accident (control group) underwent a preliminary assessment of cognitive performance (executive functions and sustained attention) and an evaluation of the attentional bias toward accident-related pictures by means of a dot-probe task. The results showed that injured workers performed more poorly than controls in tasks of executive functions and concentration abilities. Also, injured workers showed an attentional bias toward trauma reminders (i.e., faster reaction times to probes replacing trauma-related pictures). Injured workers were then randomly allocated to a single-session of ABMT (N = 10) or to an Attention Control Condition (ACC; N = 9). After the training, the dot-probe task was administered again to assess changes in the attentional bias toward trauma-relevant pictures. Injured workers who underwent the ABMT, but not those who underwent the ACC, showed a significant reduction of the attentional bias from pre- to post-training. Overall, these results support previous findings reporting an association between traumatic occupational accidents and cognitive dysfunctions. More importantly, these preliminary findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting the effectiveness of a short ABMT in reducing the attentional bias after a traumatic workplace accident

Somatic, but not cognitive-affective, symptoms are associated with reduced heart rate variability in individuals with dysphoria

Background: Somatic, but not cognitive-affective, symptoms of depression have been associated with reduced heart rate variability (HRV), and with poor prognosis in cardiovascular patients. However, factors concomitant with cardiovascular diseases may confound the relationship between somatic symptoms of depression and reduced HRV. Therefore, this study examined whether reduced HRV was differentially associated with cognitive-affective and somatic symptoms of depression in medically healthy individuals with and without dysphoria. Methods: Self-reported cognitive-affective and somatic symptoms as measured with the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) questionnaire and time and frequency domain parameters of HRV were collected in 62 medically healthy individuals, of whom 25 with and 37 without dysphoria. Results: Somatic, but not cognitive-affective, symptoms of depression were inversely associated with standard deviation of NN intervals (SDNN) (beta = -0.476, p .24). Conclusions: By showing that the relationship between somatic depressive symptoms and reduced HRV extends to medically healthy individuals with dysphoria, the present findings suggest that this association is independent of factors concomitant with cardiovascular diseases. The present study also suggests that individuals with somatic rather than cognitive-affective subsets of depressive symptoms may be at greater risk for developing cardiovascular diseases

Posttraumatic and Depressive Symptoms in Victims of Occupational Accidents

The present descriptive study was aimed at evaluating posttraumatic and depressive symptoms and their cooccurrence, in a sample of victims of workplace accidents. Also, posttraumatic negative cognitions were assessed. Eighty-five injured workers were evaluated, using the PTSD Symptom Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory II, and the posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory. 49.4% of injured workers reported both depressive and posttraumatic symptoms of clinical relevance. 20% only reported posttraumatic, but not depressive, symptoms, and 30.6% did not report either type of symptoms. The group with both posttraumatic and depressive symptoms displayed greater symptom severity and more negative cognitions about the self and about the world than the other two groups. The obtained findings indicate that workplace accidents can have a major impact upon the mental health of victims. Early interventions should be focused not only on the prevention or reduction of posttraumatic and depressive symptoms but also on restructuring specific maladaptive trauma-related cognitions

Posttraumatic and Depressive Symptoms in Victims of Occupational Accidents

The present descriptive study was aimed at evaluating posttraumatic and depressive symptoms and their cooccurrence, in a sample of victims of workplace accidents. Also, posttraumatic negative cognitions were assessed. Eighty-five injured workers were evaluated, using the PTSD Symptom Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory II, and the posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory. 49.4% of injured workers reported both depressive and posttraumatic symptoms of clinical relevance. 20% only reported posttraumatic, but not depressive, symptoms, and 30.6% did not report either type of symptoms. The group with both posttraumatic and depressive symptoms displayed greater symptom severity and more negative cognitions about the self and about the world than the other two groups. The obtained findings indicate that workplace accidents can have a major impact upon the mental health of victims. Early interventions should be focused not only on the prevention or reduction of posttraumatic and depressive symptoms but also on restructuring specific maladaptive trauma-related cognitions

A test of the pathway model of problematic smartphone use.

Problematic smartphone use (PSU) has been described as a growing public health issue. In the current study, we aimed to provide a unique and comprehensive test of the pathway model of PSU. This model posits three distinct developmental pathways leading to PSU: (1) the excessive reassurance pathway, (2) the impulsive pathway and (3) the extraversion pathway. Undergraduate students (n = 795, 69.8% female, mean age = 23.80 years, sd = 3.02) completed online self-report measures of PSU (addictive use, antisocial use and dangerous use) and the psychological features (personality traits and psychopathological symptoms) underlying the three pathways. Bayesian analyses revealed that addictive use is mainly driven by the excessive reassurance pathway and the impulsive pathway, for which candidate etiopathological factors include heightened negative urgency, a hyperactive behavioural inhibition system and symptoms of social anxiety. Dangerous and antisocial use are mainly driven by the impulsive pathway and the extraversion pathway, for which candidate etiopathological factors include specific impulsivity components (lack of premeditation and sensation seeking) and primary psychopathy (inclination to lie, lack of remorse, callousness and manipulativeness). The present study constitutes the first comprehensive test of the pathway model of PSU. We provide robust and original results regarding the psychological dimensions associated with each of the postulated pathways of PSU, which should be taken into account when considering regulation of smartphone use or tailoring prevention protocols to reduce problematic usage patterns

Heterogeneity of smartphone impact on everyday life and its relationship with personality and psychopathology: A latent profile analysis

Background The relationships between problematic smartphone use and psychological factors have been extensively investigated. However, previous studies generally used variable-centered approaches, which hinder an examination of the heterogeneity of smartphone impact on everyday life. Objective In the present study, we capitalized on latent profile analysis to identify various classes of smartphone owners based on the impact associated with smartphone use (e.g., unregulated usage, preference for smartphone-mediated social relationships) and to compare these classes in terms of established psychological risk factors for problematic smartphone use. Method We surveyed 934 young adults with validated psychometric questionnaires to assess the impact of smartphones, psychopathological symptoms, self-esteem and impulsivity traits. Results Smartphone users fall into four latent profiles: users with low smartphone impact, users with average smartphone impact, problematic smartphone users, and users favoring online interactions. Individuals distributed in the problematic smartphone user profile were characterized by heightened psychopathological symptoms (stress, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive tendencies) and impulsivity traits. Moreover, users who preferred online interactions exhibited the highest symptoms of social anxiety and the lowest levels of self-esteem. Conclusions These findings further demonstrate the multidimensionality and heterogeneity of the impact of smartphone use, calling for tailored prevention and intervention strategies

Cue reactivity in individuals with problematic use of social media: an event-related potential study

Background: It has been argued that similar to addictive behaviors, problematic use of social media (PSMU) is characterized by sensitized reward processing, craving, and cue-reactivity. However, no study to our knowledge has yet investigated the neural correlates of cue-reactivity in PSMU. The present study aims at investigating cue-reactivity to social media (i.e., Facebook)-related visual cues and craving for using Facebook in individuals identified as problematic vs. non-problematic Facebook users by the Problematic Facebook Use Scale. Method: The Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the passive viewing of Facebook-related, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures in 27 problematic and 26 nonproblematic users. Moreover, craving for Facebook usage was assessed using a Likert scale. Results: Despite problematic users were more likely to endorse higher craving than nonproblematic ones, Facebook-related cues elicited larger ERP positivity (400–600 ms) than neutral, and comparable to unpleasant stimuli, in all Facebook users. Only in problematic users we found larger positivity (600–800 ms) to pleasant than unpleasant cues and higher craving to be related with lower later positivity (800–1,000 ms) to pleasant and unpleasant cues. Conclusion: Regardless of whether Facebook usage is problematic or non-problematic, Facebook-related cues seem to be motivationally relevant stimuli that capture attentional resources in the earlier stages of “motivated” attentional allocation. Moreover, our results support the view that in higher-craving problematic users, reduced abilities to experience emotions would be the result of defective emotion regulation processes that allow craving states to capture more motivational/attentional resources at the expense of other emotional states