Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Social Anxiety with and without Guidance Compared to a Wait List in China: A Propensity Score Study

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common mental disorders in Western countries. The 12-month prevalence of SAD in China is much lower (0.2%) than in Western countries. However, it translates into an enormous number of people in China (approx. 200 million adult people) in combination with a huge unmet need for treatment of mental disorders [1]. Internet interventions might be an easily accessible and cost-effective way to deliver evidence-based treatment for mental disorders to people who otherwise never would have the opportunity to receive effective treatment

Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Social Anxiety with and without Guidance Compared to a Wait List in China: A Propensity Score Study

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common mental disorders in Western countries. The 12-month prevalence of SAD in China is much lower (0.2%) than in Western countries. However, it translates into an enormous number of people in China (approx. 200 million adult people) in combination with a huge unmet need for treatment of mental disorders [1]. Internet interventions might be an easily accessible and cost-effective way to deliver evidence-based treatment for mental disorders to people who otherwise never would have the opportunity to receive effective treatment

Association between actual weight status, perceived weight and depressive, anxious symptoms in Chinese adolescents: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Backgroud</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to describe actual measured weight and perceived weight and to explore associations with depressive, anxiety symptoms in school adolescents in China.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A sample of 1144 Chinese adolescents was randomly selected from four schools in Wuhan, China, including 665 boys and 479 girls with ages ranging between 10 and 17 years. Actual measured weight and height and perceived weight status were compared to anxiety and depressive symptoms measured using the revised Self-Rating Anxiety Scale and Children's Depression Inventory. A general linear model was used to compare differences in psychological symptoms among the teenagers with different measured and perceived weights.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When compared with standardized weight tables (WHO age- and gender-specific body mass index (BMI) cutoffs (2007 reference)), girls were more likely to misperceive themselves as overweight, whereas more boys misclassified their weight status as underweight. The adolescents who perceived themselves as overweight were more likely to experience depressive and anxiety symptoms (except girls) than those who perceived themselves as normal and/or underweight. However, no significant association was found between depressive and anxiety symptoms actual measured weight status.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Perceived weight status, but not the actual weight status, was associated with psychological symptoms.</p

Transcriptome analysis of secondary cell wall development in Medicago truncatula

This article describes a transcriptome microarray assay and high through-put quantitative real time PCR analysis of Medicago truncatula

Effect of Nano-clay on Rheological and Extrusion Foaming Process of a Block-Copolymerized Polypropylene

The effects of nano-clay and the corresponding coupling agent maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MAH) on thermal properties, rheological properties and extrusion foaming process of a block-copolymerized polypropylene (B-PP) were studied. Supercritical CO2 (SC CO2) was used as the foaming agent with a concentration of 5wt%. Each step of foamed B-PP/ PP-g-MAH/ nano-clay composites processing is addressed, including mixing of the composites, manufacture of the composites, foaming process of the composites and characterization of the cell structure. The results showed that incorporation of nano-clay and PP-g-MAH caused reduced melt strength and complex viscosity of B-PP. However, the heterogeneous nucleation induced by nano-clay and PP-g-MAH improved the maximum foaming expansion ratio and cell-population density of B-PP foam

Effect of Nano-clay on Rheological and Extrusion Foaming Process of a Block-Copolymerized Polypropylene

The effects of nano-clay and the corresponding coupling agent maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MAH) on thermal properties, rheological properties and extrusion foaming process of a block-copolymerized polypropylene (B-PP) were studied. Supercritical CO2 (SC CO2) was used as the foaming agent with a concentration of 5wt%. Each step of foamed B-PP/ PP-g-MAH/ nano-clay composites processing is addressed, including mixing of the composites, manufacture of the composites, foaming process of the composites and characterization of the cell structure. The results showed that incorporation of nano-clay and PP-g-MAH caused reduced melt strength and complex viscosity of B-PP. However, the heterogeneous nucleation induced by nano-clay and PP-g-MAH improved the maximum foaming expansion ratio and cell-population density of B-PP foam

Trait anxiety is associated with a decreased visual working memory capacity for faces

Recent work has suggested that anxiety restricts working memory capacity, which may underlie a wide range of cognitive symptoms in anxiety. However, previous literature on the anxiety-visual working memory association yielded mixed results, with some studies demonstrating an anxiety-related increase in visual working memory capacity. In an attempt to gain a more thorough understanding of the relationship between anxiety and visual working memory maintenance function, the current study examined the influence of trait anxiety on visual working memory capacity and resolution for negative, positive, and neutral faces in a large unselected sample, by conducting two different experiments. Experiment 1 used a change-detection task to estimate visual working memory capacity, while Experiment 2 used a modified time-delay estimation task to measure memory precision. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the relationship between trait anxiety, emotional valence, and visual working memory. Results showed that trait anxiety was associated with decreased visual working memory capacity for faces in a valence-independent manner, whereas anxiety-related change in visual working memory resolution was not significant. This pattern of results was discussed in light of the theories of anxiety and visual working memory.</p

Self-control strength in prison inmates with antisocial personality disorder

The present study aimed to examine the difference in self-control strength between individuals with and without antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in a Chinese male prisoner sample. Thirty-seven male inmates who met the criteria for DSM-IV ASPD and 38 who did not were asked to watch a four-minute silent videotape of an interview, and ignore the words displayed on screen during the videotape to deplete their ego strength. A handgrip task was conducted both before and after watching the videotape, with participants' time squeezing the handgrip being the dependent variable. Result showed a significant interaction between group (ASPD/no-ASPD group) and time (baseline/post-manipulation measure). The post-manipulation result was significantly worse than the baseline result for the ASPD group, but not for the no-ASPD group. These results indicate that tasks that contribute to ego depletion lead to a deficit of self-control strength in prisoners with ASPD

The influence of visual working memory representations on attention bias to threat in individuals with high trait anxiety

Experimental studies have yielded discrepant results regarding the relationship between anxiety and attention bias to threat. Cognitive factors modulating the presence of threat-related attention bias in anxiety have drawn growing attention. Previous research demonstrated that visual working memory (WM) representations can guide attention allocation in a top-down manner. Whether threat-related WM representations affected the presence of attention bias in anxiety awaits examination. Combining a memory task and a dot-probe task, this study investigated how WM representations of faces with neutral or negative expressions modulated the attention bias to threat among highly anxious individuals versus controls. Results showed that highly anxious individuals developed more pronounced attention bias to threat when maintaining WM representations of negative faces as compared to the control group. There were no significant between-group effects when the WM representations were neutral. These results suggested that highly anxious individuals were more susceptible to the influence of mental representations with negative valence on attention deployment