Contesting realities

In 2004, an unnamed Bush adviser accused a senior Wall Street Journal reporter of belonging to the “reality based community”—a community that believed solutions stem from the judicious study of reality. “We're history's actors, “ he told the journalist, “and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” Overwhelmingly, the response of those on the left, and of US progressives to this comment was to smugly deride the irrationalism and the arrogance of the Bush Administration. This paper, in contrast, will examine what is missed in the rush to accept membership of the reality based community. It will suggest that that the advisor's comments express something that was once a central tenet of the left: the belief that political action is capable of transforming reality. Today, on the left, this belief has been all but abandoned in the face of a seemingly unstoppable onslaught of free market capitalism and increasingly repressive state power. This paper will ask what it would mean today, to begin to re-imagine political action as capable of remaking the world

An exploration of psychological wellbeing support for individuals with Parkinson’s disease

No abstract available

Are different forms of repetitive negative thinking associated with interpretation bias in generalized anxiety disorder and depression?

Worry and rumination, two forms of repetitive negative thinking (RNT), are prevalent in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression. Cognitive processing biases, especially the tendency to draw negative conclusions from ambiguous information (interpretation bias), may maintain worry and rumination. Yet the relationship between interpretation bias and both forms of RNT has not been explored in clinical versus nonclinical samples. In this cross-sectional study, participants with GAD (n = 72), depression (n = 79), or neither disorder (n = 71) completed two tasks assessing interpretation bias, measures of worry and rumination, and reported negative thought intrusions during a behavioral task. Interpretation bias was associated with higher levels of worry, rumination, and negative thought intrusions. Both clinical groups generated significantly more negative interpretations than healthy comparison participants. These findings link interpretation bias to worry and rumination and establish the need for research investigating the causal role of interpretation bias in maintaining RNT

Cognitive bias modification for interpretation with and without prior repetitive negative thinking to reduce worry and rumination in generalised anxiety disorder and depression: protocol for a multisession experimental study with an active control condition

INTRODUCTION: Worry and rumination are two forms of repetitive thinking characterised by their negative content and apparently uncontrollable nature. Although worry and rumination share common features and have been conceptualised as part of a transdiagnostic repetitive negative thinking (RNT) process, it remains unclear whether they share the same underlying cognitive mechanisms. This multisession experimental study investigates the tendency to make negative interpretations regarding ambiguous information as a cognitive mechanism underlying RNT. We compare multisession cognitive bias modification for interpretations (CBM-I) with an active control condition to examine whether repeatedly training positive interpretations reduces worry and rumination in individuals with generalised anxiety disorder or depression, respectively. Further, we examine the potential modulatory effects of engaging in RNT immediately prior to CBM-I. DESIGN, METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A community sample of individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for either generalised anxiety disorder (n=60) or current major depressive episode (n=60) will be randomly allocated to CBM-I with prior RNT, CBM-I without prior RNT (ie, standard CBM-I), or an active control (no resolution of ambiguity) condition. All conditions receive a 3-week internet-based intervention consisting of one initial session at the first study visit and nine home-based sessions of CBM-I training (or active control). We will assess and compare the effects of CBM-I with and without prior RNT on ‘near-transfer’ measures of interpretation bias closely related to the training as well as ‘far-transfer’ outcomes related to RNT and emotional distress. Impact on questionnaire measures will additionally be assessed at 1-month follow-up. Multigroup analyses will be conducted to assess the impact of CBM-I on near-transfer and far-transfer outcome measures

Internet-delivered interpretation training reduces worry and anxiety in individuals with Generalized Anxiety Disorder: a randomized controlled experiment

Objective: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a debilitating condition, characterized by negative interpretations about ambiguous situations. This study tested whether entirely internet-delivered interpretation training [cognitive bias modification (CBM)] versus control promotes positive interpretations and reduces worry and anxiety in individuals with GAD, with or without depression. Method: A two-arm (CBM; control) parallel-group randomized controlled experiment. Assessments were preintervention (T0), postintervention (T1), 1-month (T2) postintervention, and 3-month (T3) postintervention. Participants with GAD (with or without comorbid depression) were randomly allocated to either CBM (n = 115) or control (n = 115). Participants, but not researchers, were blind to allocated condition. Participants completed up to 10 online CBM or control sessions across 1 month. Interpretation bias [coprimary outcomes: scrambled sentence test (SST), recognition test (RT)], and number of negative thought intrusions during a breathing focus task were measured at T0 and T1. Self-reported levels of worry [Penn State Worry Questionnaire-trait (PSWQ trait); Penn State Worry Questionnaire-past week (PSWQ weekly)], anxiety [Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7)], depression [Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)], rumination [Ruminative Response Scale (RRS)], and repetitive negative thinking [RNT; Repetitive Thinking Questionnaire-trait (RTQ-trait)] were assessed at T0–T3. Results: The per-protocol analyses included N = 186 participants (CBM n = 94; control n = 92). As predicted, we found moderate-to-large training effects on the primary outcome of interpretation bias at T1. Secondary outcomes of negative thought intrusions at T1 and self-reported symptoms at T2 were all significantly lower in the CBM versus control condition. All but one effect (trait RNT) were sustained at T3. Conclusions: In this randomized controlled study, we found that fully online interpretation training ameliorated core features of GAD in individuals with or without comorbid depression up to 3 months posttraining

Effects of modifying interpretation bias on transdiagnostic repetitive negative thinking.

Objective: Repetitive negative thinking (RNT; e.g., worry and rumination) is common across emotional disorders, as is the tendency to generate negative interpretations (interpretation bias). Ameliorating negative interpretations via cognitive bias modification of interpretations (CBM-I) reduces worry/rumination, and improves mood in people diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or depression. We investigated whether these findings generalize to high worry or rumination populations, irrespective of diagnosis, and whether effects are increased by enhancing emotional engagement with training with active generation of positive resolutions of ambiguity and imagery. Method: Community volunteers with excessive worry and/or rumination, who were above clinical cut-off on anxiety and/or depression measures, were allocated to an active control condition (n = 54), interpretation training condition with prior activation of RNT (CBM_RNT; n = 54), or training condition augmented with positive outcome generation and imagery (CBM_ENH; n = 53). Interpretation bias, RNT, and mood were assessed before and following 10 Internet-based sessions completed within a 1-month period. RNT and mood questionnaires were also completed at 1-month follow-up. Results: After training, both forms of CBM-I (vs. control) facilitated more positive interpretations and reduced negative intrusions during a worry task. At 1-month follow-up, anxiety, depression, RNT, and worry in the past week were lower in the CBM-I than control conditions, but not rumination or trait worry. Compared with standard CBM-I, the augmented form facilitated more positive interpretations, reduced negative intrusions after training, and reduced trait rumination at 1-month follow-up, but it did not augment effects on trait worry, anxiety or depression. Conclusions: Interpretation bias maintains transdiagnostic RNT and Internet-based CBM-I can reduce longer-term RNT

Knowledge and attitudes to prescription charges in New Zealand and England

Prescription charge regimes vary between countries but there is little research on how much people know about these or support values underlying them. To explore, in New Zealand (NZ) and England, the public's knowledge of, and attitudes to, charges and whether knowledge and attitudes varied by demographic characteristics or by values about entitlement to public goods. A questionnaire was developed and administered to people over 18 recruited in public places in NZ and England. 451 people in NZ and 300 people in England participated. Less than half in each country knew the current prescription charge. In each country 62% of people were unaware of arrangements to protect people from excessive annual charges. Support for free or lower cost medicines for children, people over 65, people on low incomes, people on benefits, and people with chronic health problems was higher in England than in NZ. Support varied by participants' demographic characteristics and, in the case of people on low incomes and people on benefits, by values about universal entitlements. Gaps in knowledge, particularly about mechanisms to protect people from high costs, are concerning and may lead to people paying excessive charges. There was consensus about the elderly, children and the chronically ill being "deserving" of lower prescription charges, but people who did not believe in universal access to public goods appeared to see people on low incomes or benefits as less "deserving". In general, public views resembled those underlying the prescription charge regime in their country. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Phosphorylation regulates targeting of cytoplasmic dynein to kinetochores during mitosis

Cytoplasmic dynein functions at several sites during mitosis; however, the basis of targeting to each site remains unclear. Tandem mass spectrometry analysis of mitotic dynein revealed a phosphorylation site in the dynein intermediate chains (ICs) that mediates binding to kinetochores. IC phosphorylation directs binding to zw10 rather than dynactin, and this interaction is needed for kinetochore dynein localization. Phosphodynein associates with kinetochores from nuclear envelope breakdown to metaphase, but bioriented microtubule (MT) attachment and chromosome alignment induce IC dephosphorylation. IC dephosphorylation stimulates binding to dynactin and poleward streaming. MT depolymerization, release of kinetochore tension, and a PP1-γ mutant each inhibited IC dephosphorylation, leading to the retention of phosphodynein at kinetochores and reduced poleward streaming. The depletion of kinetochore dynactin by moderate levels of p50(dynamitin) expression disrupted the ability of dynein to remove checkpoint proteins by streaming at metaphase but not other aspects of kinetochore dynein activity. Together, these results suggest a new model for localization of kinetochore dynein and the contribution of kinetochore dynactin