Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation and extinction of prepared fear: A conceptual non-replication

Stress-related psychiatric disorders across the life spa

Do parental attachment and prosocial behavior moderate the impairment from depression symptoms in adolescents who seek mental health care?

We investigated parental attachment and prosocial behavior as social protective indicators in adolescents (age 11-17) with symptoms of depression in a clinical setting. Specifically, we tested the moderating effect of these factors on the relation between symptoms of depression and their impairment on daily life. The Development and Well-Being Assessment, as completed by children, mothers, and fathers, was used, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted for these three perspectives. From the adolescents' reports we only found a significant effect of symptoms on impairment indicating that a higher number of symptoms were related to higher impairment. For the mothers and fathers, a higher score on the adolescents' prosocial behavior was related to a lower impairment from depression symptoms on the daily life of the adolescent and the family. Only for the mothers did a higher score on prosocial behavior buffered the effect of symptoms on impairment, while a higher parental attachment score was associated with a lower impairment. Further, when examining maternal and paternal attachment separately, we found that, only the mothers, reported less impairment from the symptoms when they perceived that the adolescent was attached to the father, and paternal attachment even buffered the effect of symptoms on impairment. To conclude, our results indicate that social protective factors, from the parent's perspective, are likely to have a beneficial effect in clinical practice and should be taken into account when examining impairment scores. Future studies should investigate whether additional protective indicators from the adolescents' perspective, such as quality of parental attachment or family climate, may have a positive impact on their daily functioning.Public Health and primary carePrevention, Population and Disease management (PrePoD

Verbeelding in de verhoorkamer: de invloed van het gebruik van beeldmateriaal in het verhoor op verhoortechnieken en proceshouding

In het strafproces is steeds meer beeldmateriaal aanwezig. In de vorm van bewijs bijvoorbeeld, zoals camerabeelden, of voor het visualiseren van informatie, zoals een PowerPointpresentatie ter zitting. Er is echter weinig bekend over de effecten van al dit visuele materiaal op de partijen die hier tijdens de verschillende fasen van het strafproces mee te maken krijgen. In dit rapport wordt verslag gedaan van drie deelonderzoeken waarin is gekeken naar de effecten van beeldmateriaal in het verdachtenverhoor. Social decision makin

Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation and extinction of prepared fear: A conceptual nonreplication

FSW - Self-regulation models for health behavior and psychopathology - ou

Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation and extinction of prepared fear: A conceptual non-replication

Transcutaneous stimulation of the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (tVNS) may accelerate fear extinction in healthy humans. Here, we aimed to investigate this hypothesis in healthy young participants in a prepared learning paradigm, using spider pictures as conditioned stimuli. After a fear conditioning phase, participants were randomly allocated to receive tVNS (final N = 42) or sham stimulation (final N = 43) during an extinction phase. Conditioned fear was assessed using US expectancy ratings, skin conductance and fear potentiated startle responses. After successful fear acquisition, participants in both groups showed a reduction of fear over the course of the extinction phase. There were no between-group differences in extinction rates for physiological indices of fear. Contrary to previous findings, participants in the tVNS condition also did not show accelerated declarative extinction learning. Participants in the tVNS condition did have lower initial US expectancy ratings for the CS- trials than those who received sham stimulation, which may indicate an enhanced processing of safety cues due to tVNS. In conclusion, the expected accelerated extinction due to tVNS was not observed. The results from this study call for more research on the optimal tVNS stimulation intensity settings.status: publishe

Exploring the Affordance of Distance Learning Platform (DLP) in COVID19 Remote Learning Environment

2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Higher Education has been facing the dilemma of the preferred delivery method for over two decades. COVID19 pandemic in 2020 made the need for further exploration of the same even more imperative. Although the urgency of events did not leave much time for policymakers and educators to decide, it did inspire the authors of this article to analyse the affordances of Distance Learning Platform (DLP), and the ways students perceived the online learning due to current uncertain circumstances. Students as critical stakeholders in the learning process were on the receiving end of the decisions taken to facilitate distance learning. The focus of this study was to understand students\u27 experience of using the Distance Learning Platform (DLP) in a crises-induced environment at a university in the United Arab Emirates. A sample size of 60 undergraduate students who took academic study skills classes was used to collect data. Students were asked to reflect on their experience of distance learning, and the data were analysed to understand the students\u27 preferences of their study method while enabling them to recognise their cognitive skillset. The data indicated reasons behind students\u27 preferences of the preferred delivery method

The optimal healthy ranges of thyroid function defined by the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality:systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis

Background: Reference intervals of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) are statistically defined by the 2·5–97·5th percentiles, without accounting for potential risk of clinical outcomes. We aimed to define the optimal healthy ranges of TSH and FT4 based on the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. Methods: This systematic review and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis identified eligible prospective cohorts through the Thyroid Studies Collaboration, supplemented with a systematic search via Embase, MEDLINE (Ovid), Web of science, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Google Scholar from Jan 1, 2011, to Feb 12, 2017 with an updated search to Oct 13, 2022 (cohorts found in the second search were not included in the IPD). We included cohorts that collected TSH or FT4, and cardiovascular outcomes or mortality for adults (aged ≥18 years). We excluded cohorts that included solely pregnant women, individuals with overt thyroid diseases, and individuals with cardiovascular disease. We contacted the study investigators of eligible cohorts to provide IPD on demographics, TSH, FT4, thyroid peroxidase antibodies, history of cardiovascular disease and risk factors, medication use, cardiovascular disease events, cardiovascular disease mortality, and all-cause mortality. The primary outcome was a composite outcome including cardiovascular disease events (coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure) and all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes were the separate assessment of cardiovascular disease events, all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular disease mortality. We performed one-step (cohort-stratified Cox models) and two-step (random-effects models) meta-analyses adjusting for age, sex, smoking, systolic blood pressure, diabetes, and total cholesterol. The study was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42017057576. Findings: We identified 3935 studies, of which 53 cohorts fulfilled the inclusion criteria and 26 cohorts agreed to participate. We included IPD on 134 346 participants with a median age of 59 years (range 18–106) at baseline. There was a J-shaped association of FT4 with the composite outcome and secondary outcomes, with the 20th (median 13·5 pmol/L [IQR 11·2–13·9]) to 40th percentiles (median 14·8 pmol/L [12·3–15·0]) conveying the lowest risk. Compared with the 20–40th percentiles, the age-adjusted and sex-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for FT4 in the 80–100th percentiles was 1·20 (95% CI 1·11–1·31) for the composite outcome, 1·34 (1·20–1·49) for all-cause mortality, 1·57 (1·31–1·89) for cardiovascular disease mortality, and 1·22 (1·11–1·33) for cardiovascular disease events. In individuals aged 70 years and older, the 10-year absolute risk of composite outcome increased over 5% for women with FT4 greater than the 85th percentile (median 17·6 pmol/L [IQR 15·0–18·3]), and men with FT4 greater than the 75th percentile (16·7 pmol/L [14·0–17·4]). Non-linear associations were identified for TSH, with the 60th (median 1·90 mIU/L [IQR 1·68–2·25]) to 80th percentiles (2·90 mIU/L [2·41–3·32]) associated with the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. Compared with the 60–80th percentiles, the age-adjusted and sex-adjusted HR of TSH in the 0–20th percentiles was 1·07 (95% CI 1·02–1·12) for the composite outcome, 1·09 (1·05–1·14) for all-cause mortality, and 1·07 (0·99–1·16) for cardiovascular disease mortality.Interpretation: There was a J-shaped association of FT4 with cardiovascular disease and mortality. Low concentrations of TSH were associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality. The 20–40th percentiles of FT4 and the 60–80th percentiles of TSH could represent the optimal healthy ranges of thyroid function based on the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality, with more than 5% increase of 10-year composite risk identified for FT4 greater than the 85th percentile in women and men older than 70 years. We propose a feasible approach to establish the optimal healthy ranges of thyroid function, allowing for better identification of individuals with a higher risk of thyroid-related outcomes. </b