Trauma Centrality and PTSD Symptom Severity in Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Theorists have posited that regarding a trauma as central to one's identity leads to greater posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. To test this hypothesis, we administered the Centrality of Events Scale (CES) to women reporting a history of childhood sexual abuse (N = 102). The CES scores were correlated with PTSD symptom severity, depression severity, and self-esteem. In addition, we conducted a principal component analysis (PCA) to evaluate factors underlying the CES. The PCA yielded 3 factors reflecting (a) the centrality and integration of the trauma, (b) whether the event is regarded as a turning point in one's life story, and (c) whether the event is a reference point for expectations about the future. Each factor was associated with PTSD symptom severity.Psycholog

Risk Factors and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Are They Especially Predictive Following Exposure to Less Severe Stressors?

Background: The diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) requires exposure to a traumatic stressor, as defined by Criterion A in the DSM criteria for PTSD. Yet, over the course of successive revisions of the diagnostic manual, the range of qualifying stressors has expanded considerably (e.g., watching terrorist attacks on television). Moreover, stressors that fall short of qualifying for even an expanded Criterion A can produce apparent PTSD. Taken together, these findings imply that people who do satisfy symptomatic criteria for PTSD following exposure to less severe stressors carry a heavy burden of risk factors. Method: To test this hypothesis, we examined whether the association between the risk factor of lower intelligence and more severe PTSD and depression symptoms would be greater among women reporting less severe CSA (n = 15) relative to women who reported moderate (n = 54) or high (n = 31) severity CSA. Results: The evidence was consistent with this hypothesis for subjects in the low and moderate severity groups, but less so for those in the high severity group. Conclusions: Lower intelligence was a more potent risk factor for posttraumatic distress among people exposed to less severe relative to moderately severe stressors.Psycholog

The structure of feared social situations among race-ethnic minorities and Whites with social anxiety disorder in the United States

We investigated feared social situations in individuals with social anxiety disorder from different racial and ethnic groups in the United States. The sample included 247 African Americans, 158 Latinos, and 533 non-Latino Whites diagnosed with social anxiety disorder within the past 12 months from the integrated Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Studies data set. After randomly splitting the full sample, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis with half of the sample to determine the structure of feared social situations in a more diverse sample than has been used in previous studies. We found evidence for a model consisting of three feared social domains: performance/public speaking, social interaction, and observational. We then conducted a confirmatory factor analysis on the remaining half of the sample to examine whether this factor structure varied significantly between the race-ethnic groups. Analyses revealed an adequate fit of this model across all three race-ethnic groups, suggesting invariance of the factor structure between the study groups. Broader cultural contexts within which these findings are relevant are discussed, along with important implications for comprehensive, culturally sensitive assessment of social anxiety.R01 MH078308 - NIMH NIH HHS; R01 MH081116 - NIMH NIH HHS; MH-081116 - NIMH NIH HHS; K23 MH096029 - NIMH NIH HHS; MH-078308 - NIMH NIH HH

Does Cooling Therapy Improve Functional Mobility in Heat-Sensitive Adults Diagnosed With Multiple Sclerosis?

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this selective EBM review is to determine whether or not cooling therapy improves functional mobility in heat-sensitive adults diagnosed with MS. STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review of three randomized controlled trials published between 2007 and 2011, all in the English language. DATA SOURCES: Three randomized controlled trials were found using the PubMed/MEDLINE database. OUTCOMES MEASURED: Functional mobility as measured by the Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite (MSFC), postural control, exercise duration, walking speed, and timed up and go examinations. RESULTS: In one study, MeyerHeim, et al. demonstrated significant improvements with the experimental intervention on the 25-foot walk, 9-hole peg test, as well as the total MSFC, and no significant different on tests of postural sway and knee spasticity. In terms of exercise duration, Grahn, et al. found a significant improvement of 33% increase with cooling therapy. Finally, the study by Reynolds, et al. showed an improvement on the 6-minute walk test when comparing true cooling to the other tested conditions; on the 25-foot walk test and the timed up and go, true cooling was not associated with a significant improvement with regard to the other conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The reviewed studies, representing the best evidence currently available, suggest the efficacy of cooling therapy as a well-tolerated method for improving functional mobility in heat-sensitive adults diagnosed with multiple sclerosis

On the control of psychological networks

The combination of network theory and network psychometric methods has opened up a variety of new ways to conceptualize and study psychological disorders. The idea of psychological disorders as dynamic systems has sparked interest in developing interventions based on results of network analytic tools. However, simply estimating a network model is not sufficient for determining which symptoms might be most effective to intervene upon, nor is it sufficient for determining the potential efficacy of any given intervention. In this paper, we attempt to remedy this gap by introducing fundamental concepts of control theory to both psychometricians and applied psychologists. We introduce two controllability statistics to the psychometric literature, average and modal controllability, to facilitate selecting the best set of intervention targets. Following this introduction, we show how intervention scientists can probe the effects of both theoretical and empirical interventions on networks derived from real data and demonstrate how simulations can account for intervention cost and the desire to reduce specific symptoms. Every step is based on rich clinical EMA data from a sample of subjects undergoing treatment for complicated grief, with a focus on the outcome suicidal ideation. All methods are implemented in an open-source R package netcontrol, and complete code for replicating the analyses in this manuscript are available online.Stress and Psychopatholog

Memories of shame experiences with others and depression symptoms: the mediating role of experiential avoidance

Background: Shame experiences have been suggested to be related with psychopathological symptoms and with self-relevant beliefs. Recent studies also suggest that avoidant-focused strategies (e.g., rumination, thought suppression and dissociation) mediate the impact of shame memories and depression symptoms. However, experiential avoidance has been found to mediate the relation between early experience of abuse and psychopathological symptoms. Our goal was to test the mediating effect of experiential avoidance in the relation between both the nature of shame experiences at the hands of caregivers and the centrality of shame memories with others, and depression symptoms. Method: Using structural equation modelling, we assessed the frequency and nature of recalled shame experiences at the hands of caregivers, the centrality of shame experiences with others throughout childhood and adolescence, experiential avoidance and depression symptomatology in 161 participants from general population. Results: Experiential avoidance mediates the impact of shame experiences with caregivers and depression symptoms. Experiential avoidance also mediated the association between the centrality of shame experiences with others and depression symptoms. Conclusion: Our results suggest that shame memories with others do not per se impact on depression symptoms, but rather the unwillingness to experience them and the attempts to control them. Hence, our results emphasize the importance of addressing affect regulation processes such as avoidance when dealing with shame memories, particularly with patients who experience depression symptoms

The course of symptoms in the first 27 months following bereavement: A latent trajectory analysis of prolonged grief, posttraumatic stress, and depression

Background: Much remains unknown about the course of grief in the early months following bereavement, including the prevalence and timing of a recovery trajectory, whether specific symptoms mark a failure to recover, and the co-occurrence of chronic prolonged grief (PG), posttraumatic stress (PTS) and depression symptoms. Methods: Two hundred fifty-nine participants completed PG, PTS and depression questionnaires up to eleven times every six weeks during the two years post-bereavement. We used Latent Class Growth Mixture Modeling (LCGMM) to identify subgroups of bereaved individuals sharing similar trajectories for each disorder. We used repeated measures ANOVA to evaluate differences in individual symptoms between trajectories. Finally, we investigated to what extent chronic trajectories of these three disorders co-occurred. Results: Three trajectories of PG symptoms emerged: resilient (66.4%), chronic (25.1%) and acute recovery (8.4%). The overall severity and symptom profile of the acute recovery group were indistinguishable from that of the chronic group through 6 months post-bereavement, followed by reduction in PG from 6 to 18 months post-bereavement. Chronic PTS in the first-year post-bereavement tended to co-occur with chronic PG and/or chronic depression. Conclusions: Twenty five percent of those with initial elevations in grief recovered in the period of 6 to 12 months post-bereavement. These findings highlight the clinical importance of severe grief in the initial months following loss, but also suggests caution in diagnosing a grief disorder within the first-year post-bereavement

Revisiting the theoretical and methodological foundations of depression measurement

Stress and Psychopatholog

Bridging the gap between complexity science and clinical practice by formalizing idiographic theories: a computational model of functional analysis

Background: The past decades of research have seen an increase in statistical tools to explore the complex dynamics of mental health from patient data, yet the application of these tools in clinical practice remains uncommon. This is surprising, given that clinical reasoning, e.g., case conceptualizations, largely coincides with the dynamical system approach. We argue that the gap between statistical tools and clinical practice can partly be explained by the fact that current estimation techniques disregard theoretical and practical considerations relevant to psychotherapy. To address this issue, we propose that case conceptualizations should be formalized. We illustrate this approach by introducing a computational model of functional analysis, a framework commonly used by practitioners to formulate case conceptualizations and design patient-tailored treatment. Methods: We outline the general approach of formalizing idiographic theories, drawing on the example of a functional analysis for a patient suffering from panic disorder. We specified the system using a series of differential equations and simulated different scenarios; first, we simulated data without intervening in the system to examine the effects of avoidant coping on the development of panic symptomatic. Second, we formalized two interventions commonly used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT; exposure and cognitive reappraisal) and subsequently simulated their effects on the system. Results: The first simulation showed that the specified system could recover several aspects of the phenomenon (panic disorder), however, also showed some incongruency with the nature of panic attacks (e.g., rapid decreases were not observed). The second simulation study illustrated differential effects of CBT interventions for this patient. All tested interventions could decrease panic levels in the system. Conclusions: Formalizing idiographic theories is promising in bridging the gap between complexity science and clinical practice and can help foster more rigorous scientific practices in psychotherapy, through enhancing theory development. More precise case conceptualizations could potentially improve intervention planning and treatment outcomes. We discuss applications in psychotherapy and future directions, amongst others barriers for systematic theory evaluation and extending the framework to incorporate interactions between individual systems, relevant for modeling social learning processes. With this report, we hope to stimulate future efforts in formalizing clinical frameworks