O desenvolvimento da teoria da mente em psicoterapeutas : um estudo empírico

Dissertação de mestrado em Psicologia (área de especialização em Psicologia Clínica)Já é bastante reconhecida a importância das características pessoais do psicoterapeuta no processo e resultado da psicoterapia. Por essa razão, justificam-se os estudos voltados para o conhecimento de quem é a pessoa do psicoterapeuta. É também reconhecida a importância que a empatia do psicoterapeuta tem para o processo terapêutico. Notamos estudos que apontam para uma alta associação entre a forma como o cliente percebe seu terapeuta em termos de empatia e calor e com a aliança terapêutica e os resultados da psicoterapia. Ao mesmo tempo, poucos estudos avaliam de facto o desenvolvimento dessa competência terapêutica. Em menor número ainda estão os estudos que tentam avaliar de um ponto de vista objectivo e que tentam correlacionar a competência empática com o treino e o nível de experiência como psicoterapeuta. Essa dissertação de mestrado apresenta um estudo cujo objectivo foi avaliar até que ponto um componente cognitivo da empatia (a Teoria da Mente de primeira ordem) se desenvolve ao longo da carreira profissional do psicoterapeuta e se há alguma relação com o treino e a prática da profissão. Para isso, 133 psicoterapeutas brasileiros em diferentes estágios em suas carreiras (desde estagiários em psicologia clínica até psicoterapeutas novatos e seniores) e dois grupos controles (estudantes e profissionais de ciências exactas) responderam a uma tarefa de Teoria da Mente, o Teste de Leittura dos Olhos. Para caracterizar a amostra de psicoterapeutas foram utilizadas partes do Questionário Comum de Desenvolvimento dos Psicoterapeutas. Não foi encontrada nenhuma associação significativa entre o treino e a prática da psicoterapia com a competência em inferir estados mentais em outras pessoas a partir da expressão dos olhos. Essa dissertação apresenta e discute os resultados encontrados e as implicações desse estudo. Para situar nosso estudo na investigação empírica actual, descrevemos o estado da arte da investigação relacionada com as características do psicoterapeuta, especialmente aquelas que são afectadas pela prática da psicoterapia. Também apresentamos algumas visões sobre o desenvolvimento dos psicoterapeutas e alguns estudos sobre o treino e desenvolvimento da empatia e Teoria da Mente nessa população.It is well recognized the importance of psychotherapist characteristics on the psychological treatment. We see studies pointing out that the way patients perceive their therapists in terms of more or less empathic is crucial to the therapeutic alliance and the success of therapy. In the same time, only few studies actually evaluate this ability in therapists in objective terms, or correlate the development of this ability with the practice or training of psychotherapy. This dissertation presents a study in which the aim was to evaluate in what extend a cognitive component of empathy (Theory of Mind) develops along the professional carrier of psychotherapists and its relationship with professional training and practice. Brazilian therapists in different stages in their carrier (undergraduate students in professional training in clinical psychology, young and experienced psychotherapists) and two control groups (students and professionals in mathmatics sciences) have answered the Portuguese version of the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test". To characterize our sample of therapists we have used parts of the Development of Psychotherapists Common Core Questionnaire. We didn’t find any significant association between practice of therapy and the ability of evaluate emotional states in other people through the expression of the eyes. This master dissertation presents and discusses the results and implications of the study. To situate this empirical research within the literature, we describe the current state of art of psychotherapy research, with special emphasis in the research concerning therapists characteristics, particularly those that are enhanced or developed with the practice of psychotherapy. We also present some views about the development of psychotherapists and studies related to the development and training of empathy and theory of mind in this population

Neurobiology of Psychopathology and Psychotherapy and practical implications of materialistic view in mind definition

A psicologia passa no momento atual por uma importante mudança de paradigma teórico e conceitual. Essa mudança ficou bastante marcada na década de 90, considerada a "década do cérebro", quando aumentaram significativamente o número de estudos em comportamento que baseavam-se no funcionamento do cérebro. O mainstream das ciências do comportamento retornou à noção monista materialista de que cérebro e comportamento estão intrinsecamente interligados. Essa noção saiu dos laboratórios de pesquisa básica e chegou com força nas pesquisas aplicadas à psicopatologia e à psicoterapia. A presente revisão narrativa tem como principal objetivo traçar um panorama atual desse empreendimento científico, com ênfase nos esforços feitos dentro dasáreas da psicopatologia e da psicologia clínica. Ao final, discute-se até que ponto essa mudança de paradigma pode chegar na prática profissional do psicólogo.Psychology faces nowadays for a major change of theoretical and conceptual paradigm. This change was quite marked in the 90s, which was considered the "decade of the brain" when the number of behavioral studies based on brain functioning significantly increased. The mainstream of the behavioral sciences returned to the monistic materialistic notion that the brain and behavior are inextricably intertwined. This idea came out of basic research laboratories and influenced strongly in applied research in psychopathology and psychotherapy. This narrative review aims to draw up a current view of the scientific enterprise, with emphasis on efforts within the areas of clinical psychology and psychopathology. It is also discussed to what extent this paradigm shift can reach the professional practice of psychology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Long-term effects of psychotherapy on moderate depression: a comparative study of narrative therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy

Background: In a previous clinical controlled trial (Lopes et al., 2014), narrative therapy (NT) showed promising results in ameliorating depressive symptoms with comparable outcomes to cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT) when patients completed treatment. This paper aims to assess depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems in this clinical sample at follow-up. Methods: Using the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 Interpersonal Relations Scale, naturalistic prospective follow-up assessment was conducted at 21 and 31 months after the last treatment session. Results: At follow-up, patients kept improving in terms of depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems. The odds that a patient maintained recovery from depressive symptoms at follow-up were five times higher than the odds that a patient maintained recovery from interpersonal problems. In the same way, the odds of a patient never recovering from interpersonal problems were five times higher than the odds of never recovering from depressive symptoms. Limitations: The study did not control for the natural course of depression or treatment continuation. Conclusions: For depressed patients with greater interpersonal disabilities, longer treatment plans and alternative continuation treatments should be considered.The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) supported this article through the Research Project "Ambivalence and Unsuccessful Psychotherapy" [PTDC/PSI-PCL/121525/2010], coordinated by M. Goncalves, and through a doctoral grant to R. Lopes [SFRH/BD/47343/2008].The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Narrative Therapy vs. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for moderate depression: empirical evidence from a controlled clinical trial

Background: Systematic studies of the efficacy of Narrative Therapy (NT) for depression are sparse. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of individual NT for moderate depression in adults compared to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Method: Sixty-three depressed clients were assigned to either NT or CBT. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 (OQ-45.2) were used as outcome measures. Results: We found a significant symptomatic reduction in both treatments. Group differences favoring CBT were found on the BDI-II, but not on the OQ-45.2. Conclusions: Pre- to post-treatment effect sizes for completers in both groups were superior to benchmarked waiting-list control groups.FCT -Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(PTDC/PSI-PCL/121525/2010

Encapsulation of Nanostructures in a Dielectric Matrix Providing Optical Enhancement in Ultrathin Solar Cells

The incorporation of nanostructures in optoelectronic devices for enhancing their optical performance is widely studied. However, several problems related to the processing complexity and the low performance of the nanostructures have hindered such actions in real-life devices. Herein, a novel way of introducing gold nanoparticles in a solar cell structure is proposed in which the nanostructures are encapsulated with a dielectric layer, shielding them from high temperatures and harsh growth processing conditions of the remaining device. Through optical simulations, an enhancement of the effective optical path length of approximately four times the nominal thickness of the absorber layer is verified with the new architecture. Furthermore, the proposed concept in a Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cell device is demonstrated, where the short-circuit current density is increased by 17.4%. The novel structure presented in this work is achieved by combining a bottom-up chemical approach of depositing the nanostructures with a top-down photolithographic process, which allows for an electrical contact.This work was funded in part by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under Grants IF/00133/2015, PD/BD/142780/2018 and SFRH/BD/ 146776/2019. The authors also want to acknowledge the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme through the ARCIGS-M project under Grant 720887, the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Hasselt University, the FCT through the project NovaCell (PTDC/CTM-CTM/28075/ 2017), and InovSolarCells (PTDC/FISMAC/29696/2017) co-funded by FCT and the ERDF through COMPETE2020. The authors also want to acknowledge Sandra Maya for the production of images used in this work.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Profile of Central and Effector Memory T Cells in the Progression of Chronic Human Chagas Disease

Chagas disease is a parasitic infection caused by protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi that affects approximately 11 million people in Latin America. The involvement of the host's immune response on the development of severe forms of Chagas disease has not been fully elucidated. Studies on the immune response against T. cruzi infection show that the immunoregulatory mechanisms are necessary to prevent the deleterious effect of excessive immune response stimulation and consequently the fatal outcome of the disease. A recall response against parasite antigens observed in in vitro peripheral blood cell culture clearly demonstrates that memory response is generated during infection. Memory T cells are heterogeneous and differ in both the ability to migrate and exert their effector function. This heterogeneity is reflected in the definition of central (TCM) and effector memory (TEM) T cells. Our results suggest that a balance between regulatory and effectors T cells may be important for the progression and development of the disease. Furthermore, the high percentage of central memory CD4+ T cells in indeterminate patients after stimulation suggests that these cells may modulate host's inflammatory response by controlling cell migration to tissues and their effector role during chronic phase of the disease

ATLANTIC-CAMTRAPS: a dataset of medium and large terrestrial mammal communities in the Atlantic Forest of South America

Our understanding of mammal ecology has always been hindered by the difficulties of observing species in closed tropical forests. Camera trapping has become a major advance for monitoring terrestrial mammals in biodiversity rich ecosystems. Here we compiled one of the largest datasets of inventories of terrestrial mammal communities for the Neotropical region based on camera trapping studies. The dataset comprises 170 surveys of medium to large terrestrial mammals using camera traps conducted in 144 areas by 74 studies, covering six vegetation types of tropical and subtropical Atlantic Forest of South America (Brazil and Argentina), and present data on species composition and richness. The complete dataset comprises 53,438 independent records of 83 species of mammals, includes 10 species of marsupials, 15 rodents, 20 carnivores, eight ungulates and six armadillos. Species richness averaged 13 species (±6.07 SD) per site. Only six species occurred in more than 50% of the sites: the domestic dog Canis familiaris, crab-eating fox Cerdocyon thous, tayra Eira barbara, south American coati Nasua nasua, crab-eating raccoon Procyon cancrivorus and the nine-banded armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus. The information contained in this dataset can be used to understand macroecological patterns of biodiversity, community, and population structure, but also to evaluate the ecological consequences of fragmentation, defaunation, and trophic interactions. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of Americ

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700