Assessing treatments used to reduce rumination and/or worry : a systematic review

Peer reviewedPostprin

Daytime napping associated with increased symptom severity in fibromyalgia syndrome

Background: Previous qualitative research has revealed that people with fibromyalgia use daytime napping as a coping strategy for managing symptoms against clinical advice. Yet there is no evidence to suggest whether daytime napping is beneficial or detrimental for people with fibromyalgia. The purpose of this study was to explore how people use daytime naps and to determine the links between daytime napping and symptom severity in fibromyalgia syndrome. Methods: A community based sample of 1044 adults who had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome by a clinician completed an online questionnaire. Associations between napping behavior, sleep quality and fibromyalgia symptoms were explored using Spearman correlations, with possible predictors of napping behaviour entered into a logistic regression model. Differences between participants who napped on a daily basis and those who napped less regularly, as well as nap duration were explored. Results: Daytime napping was significantly associated with increased pain, depression, anxiety, fatigue, memory difficulties and sleep problems. Sleep problems and fatigue explained the greatest amount of variance in napping behaviour, p 30 minutes had higher memory difficulties (t = -3.45) and levels of depression (t = -2.50) than those who napped for shorter periods (<30mins) (p < 0.010). Conclusions: Frequent use and longer duration of daytime napping was linked with greater symptom severity in people with fibromyalgia. Given the common use of daytime napping in people with fibromyalgia evidence based guidelines on the use of daytime napping in people with chronic pain are urgently needed

A Sustained Dietary Change Increases Epigenetic Variation in Isogenic Mice

Epigenetic changes can be induced by adverse environmental exposures, such as nutritional imbalance, but little is known about the nature or extent of these changes. Here we have explored the epigenomic effects of a sustained nutritional change, excess dietary methyl donors, by assessing genomic CpG methylation patterns in isogenic mice exposed for one or six generations. We find stochastic variation in methylation levels at many loci; exposure to methyl donors increases the magnitude of this variation and the number of variable loci. Several gene ontology categories are significantly overrepresented in genes proximal to these methylation-variable loci, suggesting that certain pathways are susceptible to environmental influence on their epigenetic states. Long-term exposure to the diet (six generations) results in a larger number of loci exhibiting epigenetic variability, suggesting that some of the induced changes are heritable. This finding presents the possibility that epigenetic variation within populations can be induced by environmental change, providing a vehicle for disease predisposition and possibly a substrate for natural selection.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (DP0771859) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (#459412, #635510)

Is Work-Related Rumination Associated with Deficits in Executive Functioning?

Work-related rumination, that is, perseverative thinking about work during leisure time, has been associated with a range of negative health and wellbeing issues. The present paper examined the association between work-related rumination and cognitive processes centred around the theoretical construct of executive functioning. Executive functioning is an umbrella term for high level cognitive processes such as planning, working memory, inhibition, mental flexibility; and it underlies how people manage and regulate their goal directed behaviour. Three studies are reported. Study I, reports the results of a cross-sectional study of 240 employees, and demonstrates significant correlations between work-related rumination and three proxy measures of executive functioning: cognitive failures (.33), cognitive flexibility (-.24) and situational awareness at work (-.28). Study II (n = 939), expands on the findings from study 1 and demonstrates that workers reporting medium and high work-related rumination were 2.8 and 5 times, respectively, more likely to report cognitive failures relative to low ruminators. High ruminators also demonstrated greater difficulties with ‘lapses of attention’ (OR = 4.8), ‘lack of focus of attention’ (OR = 3.4), and ‘absent mindedness’ (OR = 4.3). The final study, examined the association between work-related rumination and executive functioning using interview data from 2460 full time workers. Workers were divided into tertiles low, medium and high. The findings showed that high work-related rumination was associated with deficits in starting (OR = 2.3) and finishing projects (OR = 2.4), fidgeting (OR = 1.9), memory (OR = 2.2), pursuing tasks in order (OR = 1.8), and feeling compelled to do things (OR = 2.0). It was argued that work-related rumination may not be related to work demands per se, but appears to be an executive functioning/control issue. Such findings are important for the design and delivery of intervention programmes aimed at helping people to switch off and unwind from wor

The Pandemic Anxiety Inventory: A validation study

The Pandemic Anxiety Inventory (PAI) assesses anxiety symptoms individuals attribute to the presence of a pandemic. We conducted this study of 379 British adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that the PAI exhibited excellent reliability and solid criterion validity. Pandemic anxiety was associated with reduced social support, anticipated life changes, financial strain, job loss, economic insecurity, and the hospitalization or death of a close friend or relative. Using correlational and bifactor analyses, we found that the PAI demonstrated solid convergent and discriminant validity. The findings suggest that the PAI can be used in research and clinical practice

The Pandemic Anxiety Inventory: A validation study

The Pandemic Anxiety Inventory (PAI) assesses anxiety symptoms individuals attribute to the presence of a pandemic. We conducted this study of 379 British adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that the PAI exhibited excellent reliability and solid criterion validity. Pandemic anxiety was associated with reduced social support, anticipated life changes, financial strain, job loss, economic insecurity, and the hospitalization or death of a close friend or relative. Using correlational and bifactor analyses, we found that the PAI demonstrated solid convergent and discriminant validity. The findings suggest that the PAI can be used in research and clinical practice

Tinnitus and hyperacusis therapy in a UK National Health Service audiology department: Patients' evaluations of the effectiveness of treatments.

OBJECTIVE: To assess patients' judgements of the effectiveness of the tinnitus and hyperacusis therapies offered in a specialist UK National Health Service audiology department. DESIGN: Cross-sectional service evaluation questionnaire survey. Patients were asked to rank the effectiveness of the treatment they received on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 = no effect, 5 = very effective). STUDY SAMPLE: The questionnaire was sent to all patients who received treatment between January and March 2014 (n = 200) and 92 questionnaires were returned. RESULTS: The mean score was greatest for counselling (Mean = 4.7, SD = 0.6), followed by education (Mean = 4.5, SD = 0.8), cognitive behavioural therapy - CBT (Mean = 4.4, SD = 0.7), and hearing tests (Mean = 4.4, SD = 0.9). Only 6% of responders rated counselling as 3 or below. In contrast, bedside sound generators, hearing aids, and wideband noise generators were rated as 3 or below by 25%, 36%, and 47% of participants, respectively. CONCLUSION: The most effective components of the tinnitus and hyperacusis therapy interventions were judged by the patients to be counselling, education, and CBT

Midline brain structures in adult niemann-pick type c disease: A cross-sectional study

Objective: A range of neuropathological changes occur in the brains of individuals with adult Niemann-Pick type C disease (NPC), a recessive disorder of cholesterol trafficking that results in accumulation of cholesterol and gangliosides in lysosomes, particularly in neurons. One of the most significant regions of grey matter loss occurs in the thalami, which abut the midline. What is not known is whether these are neurodevelopmental in origin well prior to symptomatic onset. We aimed to examine other markers of midline developmental anomalies in adults with NPC. Method: We examined the size of adhesio interthalamica (AI) and cavum septum pellucidum (CSP) (if present) in nine individuals diagnosed with NPC and nine healthy comparison subjects, matched for age and gender, using a 3T magnetic resonance volumetric sequence and measured the length of the AI and CSP in mm. Results: We found that 5/9 NPC patients and 0/9 controls had a missing AI. AI length was significantly shorter in the patient group. No subject in other group had a large CSP, and CSP length did not differ. Duration of illness showed a trend to a negative correlation with AI length in patients. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that adult NPC patients show some markers of early neurodevelopmental disturbance, matching findings seen in psychotic disorders. The differences in AI, but not CSP, suggest neurodevelopmental change may occur early in gestation rather than post-partum. The relationship with duration of illness suggests that there may be atrophy over time in these structures, consistent with prior analyses of grey matter regions in NPC