Impact of mental health screening on promoting immediate online help-seeking: Randomized trial comparing normative versus humor-driven feedback

© Isabella Choi, David N Milne, Mark Deady, Rafael A Calvo, Samuel B Harvey, Nick Glozier. Background: Given the widespread availability of mental health screening apps, providing personalized feedback may encourage people at high risk to seek help to manage their symptoms. While apps typically provide personal score feedback only, feedback types that are user-friendly and increase personal relevance may encourage further help-seeking. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of providing normative and humor-driven feedback on immediate online help-seeking, defined as clicking on a link to an external resource, and to explore demographic predictors that encourage help-seeking. Methods: An online sample of 549 adults were recruited using social media advertisements. Participants downloaded a smartphone app known as “Mindgauge” which allowed them to screen their mental wellbeing by completing standardized measures on Symptoms (Kessler 6-item Scale), Wellbeing (World Health Organization [Five] Wellbeing Index), and Resilience (Brief Resilience Scale). Participants were randomized to receive normative feedback that compared their scores to a reference group or humor-driven feedback that presented their scores in a relaxed manner. Those who scored in the moderate or poor ranges in any measure were encouraged to seek help by clicking on a link to an external online resource. Results: A total of 318 participants scored poorly on one or more measures and were provided with an external link after being randomized to receive normative or humor-driven feedback. There was no significant difference of feedback type on clicking on the external link across all measures. A larger proportion of participants from the Wellbeing measure (170/274, 62.0%) clicked on the links than the Resilience (47/179, 26.3%) or Symptoms (26/75, 34.7%) measures (?2=60.35, P<.001). There were no significant demographic factors associated with help-seeking for the Resilience or Wellbeing measures. Participants with a previous episode of poor mental health were less likely than those without such history to click on the external link in the Symptoms measure (P=.003, odds ratio [OR] 0.83, 95% CI 0.02-0.44), and younger adults were less likely to click on the link compared to older adults across all measures (P=.005, OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.25-0.78). Conclusions: This pilot study found that there was no difference between normative and humor-driven feedback on promoting immediate clicks to an external resource, suggesting no impact on online help-seeking. Limitations included: lack of personal score control group, limited measures of predictors and potential confounders, and the fact that other forms of professional help-seeking were not assessed. Further investigation into other predictors and factors that impact on help-seeking is needed

eHealth interventions for the prevention of depression and anxiety in the general population: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Anxiety and depression are associated with a range of adverse outcomes and represent a large global burden to individuals and health care systems. Prevention programs are an important way to avert a proportion of the burden associated with such conditions both at a clinical and subclinical level. eHealth interventions provide an opportunity to offer accessible, acceptable, easily disseminated globally low-cost interventions on a wide scale. However, the efficacy of these programs remains unclear. The aim of this study is to review and evaluate the effects of eHealth prevention interventions for anxiety and depression. METHOD: A systematic search was conducted on four relevant databases to identify randomized controlled trials of eHealth interventions aimed at the prevention of anxiety and depression in the general population published between 2000 and January 2016. The quality of studies was assessed and a meta-analysis was performed using pooled effect size estimates obtained from a random effects model. RESULTS: Ten trials were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. All studies were of sufficient quality and utilized cognitive behavioural techniques. At post-treatment, the overall mean difference between the intervention and control groups was 0.25 (95% confidence internal: 0.09, 0.41; p = 0.003) for depression outcome studies and 0.31 (95% CI: 0.10, 0.52; p = 0.004) for anxiety outcome studies, indicating a small but positive effect of the eHealth interventions. The effect sizes for universal and indicated/selective interventions were similar (0.29 and 0.25 respectively). However, there was inadequate evidence to suggest that such interventions have an effect on long-term disorder incidence rates. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence suggests that eHealth prevention interventions for anxiety and depression are associated with small but positive effects on symptom reduction. However, there is inadequate evidence on the medium to long-term effect of such interventions, and importantly, on the reduction of incidence of disorders. Further work to explore the impact of eHealth psychological interventions on long-term incidence rates

First Fruits of the Spitzer Space Telescope: Galactic and Solar System Studies

This article provides a brief overview of the Spitzer Space Telescope and discusses its initial scientific results on galactic and solar system science.Comment: Review article to appear in slightly different format in Vol.44 of Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 200

Beyond persons: extending the personal / subpersonal distinction to non-rational animals and artificial agents

The distinction between personal level explanations and subpersonal ones has been subject to much debate in philosophy. We understand it as one between explanations that focus on an agent’s interaction with its environment, and explanations that focus on the physical or computational enabling conditions of such an interaction. The distinction, understood this way, is necessary for a complete account of any agent, rational or not, biological or artificial. In particular, we review some recent research in Artificial Life that pretends to do completely without the distinction, while using agent-centered concepts all the way. It is argued that the rejection of agent level explanations in favour of mechanistic ones is due to an unmotivated need to choose among representationalism and eliminativism. The dilemma is a false one if the possibility of a radical form of externalism is considered

Introduction: looking beyond the walls

In its consideration of the remarkable extent and variety of non-university researchers, this book takes a broader view of ‘knowledge’ and ‘research’ than in the many hot debates about today’s knowledge society, ‘learning age’, or organisation of research. It goes beyond the commonly held image of ‘knowledge’ as something produced and owned by the full-time experts to take a look at those engaged in active knowledge building outside the university walls

Sperm design and variation in the New World blackbirds (Icteridae)

Post-copulatory sexual selection (PCSS) is thought to be one of the evolutionary forces responsible for the rapid and divergent evolution of sperm design. However, whereas in some taxa particular sperm traits are positively associated with PCSS, in other taxa, these relationships are negative, and the causes of these different patterns across taxa are poorly understood. In a comparative study using New World blackbirds (Icteridae), we tested whether sperm design was influenced by the level of PCSS and found significant positive associations with the level of PCSS for all sperm components but head length. Additionally, whereas the absolute length of sperm components increased, their variation declined with the intensity of PCSS, indicating stabilizing selection around an optimal sperm design. Given the diversity of, and strong selection on, sperm design, it seems likely that sperm phenotype may influence sperm velocity within species. However, in contrast to other recent studies of passerine birds, but consistent with several other studies, we found no significant link between sperm design and velocity, using four different species that vary both in sperm design and PCSS. Potential reasons for this discrepancy between studies are discussed

Smartphone application for preventing depression: Study protocol for a workplace randomised controlled trial

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2018. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. Introduction Depression is the leading cause of life years lost due to disability. Appropriate prevention has the potential to reduce the incidence of new cases of depression, however, traditional prevention approaches face significant scalability issues. Prevention programmes delivered by via smartphone applications provide a potential solution. The workplace is an ideal setting to roll out this form of intervention, particularly among industries that are unlikely to access traditional health initiatives and whose workplace characteristics create accessibility and portability issues. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a smartphone application designed to prevent depression and improve well-being. The effectiveness of the app as a universal, selective and indicated prevention tool will also be evaluated. Methods and analysis A multicentre randomised controlled trial, to determine the effectiveness of the intervention compared with an active mood monitoring control in reducing depressive symptoms (primary outcome) and the prevalence of depression at 3 months, with secondary outcomes assessing well-being and work performance. Employees from a range of industries will be invited to participate. Participants with likely current depression at baseline will be excluded. Following baseline assessment, participants, blinded to their allocation, will be randomised to receive one of two versions of the application: headgear (a 30-day mental health intervention) or a control application (mood monitoring for 30 days). Both versions of the app contain a risk calculator to provide a measure of future risk. Analyses will be conducted within an intention-To-Treat framework using mixed modelling, with additional analyses conducted to compare the moderating effect of baseline risk level and depression symptom severity on the intervention's effectiveness. Ethics and dissemination The current trial has received ethics approval from the University of New South Wales Human Research Ethics Committee (HC17021). Study results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals and conferences. Trial registration number ACTRN12617000548336; Results

Noncommutative Vortices and Instantons from Generalized Bose Operators

Generalized Bose operators correspond to reducible representations of the harmonic oscillator algebra. We demonstrate their relevance in the construction of topologically non-trivial solutions in noncommutative gauge theories, focusing our attention to flux tubes, vortices, and instantons. Our method provides a simple new relation between the topological charge and the number of times the basic irreducible representation occurs in the reducible representation underlying the generalized Bose operator. When used in conjunction with the noncommutative ADHM construction, we find that these new instantons are in general not unitarily equivalent to the ones currently known in literature.Comment: 25 page

Downward pumping of magnetic flux as the cause of filamentary structures in sunspot penumbrae

The structure of a sunspot is determined by the local interaction between magnetic fields and convection near the Sun's surface. The dark central umbra is surrounded by a filamentary penumbra, whose complicated fine structure has only recently been revealed by high-resolution observations. The penumbral magnetic field has an intricate and unexpected interlocking-comb structure and some field lines, with associated outflows of gas, dive back down below the solar surface at the outer edge of the spot. These field lines might be expected to float quickly back to the surface because of magnetic buoyancy, but they remain submerged. Here we show that the field lines are kept submerged outside the spot by turbulent, compressible convection, which is dominated by strong, coherent, descending plumes. Moreover, this downward pumping of magnetic flux explains the origin of the interlocking-comb structure of the penumbral magnetic field, and the behaviour of other magnetic features near the sunspot

Acute and chronic effects of cannabinoids on effort-related decision-making and reward learning: an evaluation of the cannabis 'amotivational' hypotheses

Rationale: Anecdotally, both acute and chronic cannabis use have been associated with apathy, amotivation, and other reward processing deficits. To date, empirical support for these effects is limited, and no previous studies have assessed both acute effects of Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), as well as associations with cannabis dependence. Objectives: The objectives of this study were (1) to examine acute effects of cannabis with CBD (Cann + CBD) and without CBD (Cann-CBD) on effort-related decision-making and (2) to examine associations between cannabis dependence, effort-related decision-making and reward learning. Methods: In study 1, 17 participants each received three acute vaporized treatments, namely Cann-CBD (8 mg THC), Cann + CBD (8 mg THC + 10 mg CBD) and matched placebo, followed by a 50 % dose top-up 1.5 h later, and completed the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT). In study 2, 20 cannabis-dependent participants were compared with 20 non-dependent, drug-using control participants on the EEfRT and the Probabilistic Reward Task (PRT) in a non-intoxicated state. Results: Cann-CBD reduced the likelihood of high-effort choices relative to placebo (p = 0.042) and increased sensitivity to expected value compared to both placebo (p = 0.014) and Cann + CBD (p = 0.006). The cannabis-dependent and control groups did not differ on the EEfRT. However, the cannabis-dependent group exhibited a weaker response bias than the control group on the PRT (p = 0.007). Conclusions: Cannabis acutely induced a transient amotivational state and CBD influenced the effects of THC on expected value. In contrast, cannabis dependence was associated with preserved motivation alongside impaired reward learning, although confounding factors, including depression, cannot be disregarded. This is the first well powered, fully controlled study to objectively demonstrate the acute amotivational effects of THC