An acceptance and commitment therapy and mindfulness group intervention for the psychological and physical well-being of adults with body mass indexes in the overweight or obese range: The Mind&Life randomized controlled trial

This trial aimed to assess the effect of an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and mindfulness-based intervention on the various psychological and physical issues associated with obesity. A parallel group randomized controlled trial was conducted with 142 adults with body mass indexes in the overweight or obesity range seeking treatment. Participants were assigned either to the ACT and mindfulness-based group intervention (Mind&Life intervention) plus treatment as usual (TAU) or the TAU-only condition. Individuals receiving the Mind&Life intervention with TAU showed more adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and greater decrease in external eating, weight, and visceral fat both at posttreatment and at 6-month follow-up. Moreover, they displayed a greater reduction in total protein and animal protein intake and GPT enzymes level. By 6-month follow-up, the Mind&Life group experienced a lower impact of weight on quality of life than TAU participants. However, Mind&Life intervention completers showed greater restrained eating levels at follow-up. Overall, this study suggests that an ACT and mindfulness-based group intervention could produce improvements in the impact of weight on quality of life, some eating behaviors, dietary habits, and weight and body composition parameters of people facing weight-related challenges.This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain – MINECO (grant number PSI2017-88583-R) and the Basque Government (grant number PRE_2018_1_0326). Open access funding was provided by University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)

Funcionamiento global entre pacientes de mediana edad con esquizofrenia crónica: el papel de la medicación, la memoria de trabajo y la comprensión verbal.

The chronic phase of schizophrenia is characterized by illness progression and patients encountering difficulties to return to premorbid level of functioning. The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics of a sample of patients with chronic schizophrenia, as well to assess differences between patients under and over 45 years of age. In a clinical sample of 77 chronic schizophrenia patients, we assessed basic symptoms, cognitive performance, social functioning and quality of life. All participants obtained very high scores in residual symptoms, and no differences in sociodemographic or clinical characteristics between the age groups were found. Younger patients had better cognitive performance and older patients obtained better scores for social functioning and quality of life. Number of psychotropic drugs, verbal learning delayed of SCIP, errors in WCST, Similarities and Digit Symbol Coding of WAIS were the most important variables to predict global functioning of patients over 45 years old. Increasing our understanding of differences in characteristics of the chronic phase of the illness and the profile of functioning at different ages, may help us design intervention strategies to improve adaptation in young and middle-aged patients with chronic schizophrenia.La fase crónica de la esquizofrenia se caracteriza por la progresión de la enfermedad y por las dificultades que presentan los pacientes para volver al nivel de funcionamiento premórbido. El objetivo de este estudio fue describir las características de una muestra de pacientes con esquizofrenia crónica, y conocer las diferencias entre los pacientes menores y mayores de 45 años. En una muestra clínica de 77 pacientes con esquizofrenia crónica, se han evaluado síntomas básicos, el rendimiento cognitivo, el funcionamiento social y la calidad de vida. Todos los participantes obtuvieron puntuaciones muy altas en los síntomas residuales, y no se encontraron diferencias en las características sociodemográficas o clínicas entre los grupos de edad. Los resultados señalan que los pacientes más jóvenes tienen mejor rendimiento cognitivo, y los mayores, mejor funcionamiento social y calidad de vida. El número de fármacos utilizados, los valores en la escala de aprendizaje verbal diferido del SCIP, los errores en WCST, los subtests de Semejanzas y Dígitos del WAIS fueron las variables que mejor pronostican el funcionamiento global de los pacientes mayores de 45 años. Por lo tanto, aumentar nuestra comprensión de las características de la fase crónica de la enfermedad y el perfil de funcionamiento en función de la edad, puede ayudarnos a diseñar estrategias de intervención para mejorar la adaptación en pacientes jóvenes y de mediana edad con esquizofrenia crónica

WHO World Mental Health Surveys International College Student Project: Prevalence and Distribution of Mental Disorders

Increasingly, colleges across the world are contending with rising rates of mental disorders, and in many cases, the demand for services on campus far exceeds the available resources. The present study reports initial results from the first stage of the WHO World Mental Health International College Student project, in which a series of surveys in 19 colleges across 8 countries (Australia, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Spain, United States) were carried out with the aim of estimating prevalence and basic sociodemographic correlates of common mental disorders among first-year college students. Web-based self-report questionnaires administered to incoming first-year students (45.5% pooled response rate) screened for six common lifetime and 12-month DSM-IV mental disorders: major depression, mania/hypomania, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, alcohol use disorder, and substance use disorder. We focus on the 13,984 respondents who were full-time students: 35% of whom screened positive for at least one of the common lifetime disorders assessed and 31% screened positive for at least one 12-month disorder. Syndromes typically had onsets in early to middle adolescence and persisted into the year of the survey. Although relatively modest, the strongest correlates of screening positive were older age, female sex, unmarried-deceased parents, no religious affiliation, nonheterosexual identification and behavior, low secondary school ranking, and extrinsic motivation for college enrollment. The weakness of these associations means that the syndromes considered are widely distributed with respect to these variables in the student population. Although the extent to which cost-effective treatment would reduce these risks is unclear, the high level of need for mental health services implied by these results represents a major challenge to institutions of higher education and governments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).status: publishe

Barriers of mental health treatment utilization among first-year college students: First cross-national results from the WHO World Mental Health International College Student Initiative.

BACKGROUND: Although mental disorders and suicidal thoughts-behaviors (suicidal thoughts and behaviors) are common among university students, the majority of students with these problems remain untreated. It is unclear what the barriers are to these students seeking treatment. AIMS: The aim of this study is to examine the barriers to future help-seeking and the associations of clinical characteristics with these barriers in a cross-national sample of first-year college students. METHOD: As part of the World Mental Health International College Student (WMH-ICS) initiative, web-based self-report surveys were obtained from 13,984 first-year students in eight countries across the world. Clinical characteristics examined included screens for common mental disorders and reports about suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Multivariate regression models adjusted for socio-demographic, college-, and treatment-related variables were used to examine correlates of help-seeking intention and barriers to seeking treatment. RESULTS: Only 24.6% of students reported that they would definitely seek treatment if they had a future emotional problem. The most commonly reported reasons not to seek treatment among students who failed to report that they would definitely seek help were the preference to handle the problem alone (56.4%) and wanting to talk with friends or relatives instead (48.0%). Preference to handle the problem alone and feeling too embarrassed were also associated with significantly reduced odds of having at least some intention to seek help among students who failed to report that they would definitely seek help. Having 12-month major depression, alcohol use disorder, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors were also associated with significantly reduced reported odds of the latter outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of first-year college students in the WMH-ICS surveys report that they would be hesitant to seek help in case of future emotional problems. Attitudinal barriers and not structural barriers were found to be the most important reported reasons for this hesitation. Experimental research is needed to determine whether intention to seek help and, more importantly, actual help-seeking behavior could be increased with the extent to which intervention strategies need to be tailored to particular student characteristics. Given that the preference to handle problems alone and stigma and appear to be critical, there could be value in determining if internet-based psychological treatments, which can be accessed privately and are often build as self-help approaches, would be more acceptable than other types of treatments to student who report hesitation about seeking treatment.status: publishe

Cuestionario breve de juego patológico en estudiantes colombianos: propiedades psicométricas

There are few studies on pathological gambling (PG) tests and prevalence for Colombian population. The aim of this paper was to obtain both psychometric properties of the Pathological Gambling Short Questionnaire (PGSQ), as well as to calculate the prevalence of pathological gambling (PG) for a non-randomized sample of university and technical courses from all Colombian capital cities. Results showed a PGSQ good internal reliability (0.74) and convergent validity with a cognitive distortions indicator -r(5618)= 0.462, p < 0.001-. The prevalence of possible pathological gamblers was similar to other studies which have used broader measures of pathological gambling (19.2 %). Men, youngest people and members of low social class had higher scores in PG. According to these results, it should be confirmed PG prevalence with other measures, in order to boost legal and socio-health actions for prevention of PG in high risk groups and to know utility of PGSQ for Colombian clinical samples.Son escasos los estudios sobre instrumentos de evaluación de la ludopatía en población colombiana, así como sobre su prevalencia. El objetivo de este trabajo fue obtener las propiedades psicométricas del Cuestionario Breve de Juego Patológico (CBJP), así como determinar la prevalencia de probable juego patológico en una muestra no aleatoria (n= 5858) de estudiantes de formación superior de todas las ciudades capitales de Colombia. El CBJP mostró una fiabilidad interna (0.74) aceptable y validez convergente con una medida de distorsiones cognitivas sobre los juegos de azar -r(5618)= 0.462, p < 0.001-. La prevalencia de posibles problemas de adicción al juego fue similar a la encontrada con instrumentos más amplios en población análoga (19.2 %), y dicha prevalencia fue más alta en hombres, en personas más jóvenes y de nivel socioeconómico más bajo. De acuerdo con estos resultados, es necesario confirmar con otros instrumentos la prevalencia del juego patológico, impulsar medidas legales y sociosanitarias de prevención para los grupos en riesgo alto, y conocer la utilidad del CBJP en muestras clínicas colombianas.jo

First-onset and persistence of suicidal ideation in university students: A one-year follow-up study

Background: Longitudinal evidence about risk and protective factors for suicidal ideation among university students is limited. Methods: 12-month first-onset and persistence of suicidal ideation (SI) among Spanish first-year university students were estimated using baseline (T1) and 12-month follow-up (T2) online surveys. Information about STBs, childhood/adolescence adversities, positive relationships, mental disorders, recent stressful experiences, and university sense of membership was assessed. Logistic regression analysis was used to study risk/protective factors of first-onset and persistence of suicidal ideation (SI). Results: A total of 1,248 respondents (58.9% response) were included. Mean age at baseline was 18.7 (SD = 1.3) and 56.0% were female. 7.3% reported 12-month SI at T2. Incidence of new SI cases was 3.4% and, among students with SI at T1, 21.2% also reported SI at T2 (persistence). Risk factors of T2 SI included 12-month mood disorder at T2 both without (aOR = 12.08 95% CI 5.45-26.80) or with (aOR = 7.2 95% CI 2.91-17.80) lifetime mood at T1, past lifetime suicide attempt (aOR = 8.79 95% CI 2.37-32.64) and plan without attempt (aOR = 4.72 95% CI 2.32-9.61), and 12-month physical or sexual assault (aOR = 3.28 95% CI 1.13-9.46). Twelve-month mood at T2 withoutT1 lifetime mood (aOR = 11.27 95% CI 3.02-42.14) and childhood/adolescence emotional abuse or neglect (aOR = 3.41 95% CI 1.10-10.57) or having been bullied (aOR = 3.2 95% CI 1.08-9.53) were associated with first-onset of SI. Twelve-month mood at T2 either without (aOR = 13.92 95% CI 3.76-51.59) or with (aOR = 8.03 95% CI 2.13-30.29) were associated to T2 SI persistence. University sense of membership was protective for overall 12-month SI at T2 (aOR = 0.25 95% CI 0.12-0.53 for middle tertile), first-onset SI (aOR = 0.1 95% 0.02-0.55 for middle tertile) and persistence (aOR = 0.3 95% CI 0.11-0.81 for middle tertile). Limitations: Analysis was based on self-report data focusing on SI only, and conclusions about the direction of the associations are limited. Conclusions: High proportion of SI suggests the need of suicide prevention strategies. The potential role of university sense of membership in reducing suicidal behaviour among university students deserves further investigation

Severe role impairment associated with mental disorders: results of the WHO World Mental Health Surveys International College Student Project

BACKGROUND: College entrance is a stressful period with a high prevalence of mental disorders. AIMS: To assess the role impairment associated with 12-month mental disorders among incoming first-year college students within a large cross-national sample. METHODS: Web-based self-report surveys assessing the prevalence of DSM-IV mental disorders and health-related role impairment (Sheehan Disability Scale) were obtained and analyzed from 13,984 incoming first-year college students (Response = 45.5%), across 19 universities in eight countries. Impairment was assessed in the following domains: home management, work (e.g., college-related problems), close personal relationships, and social life. ESULTS: Mean age of the sample was 19.3 (SD = 0.59) and 54.4% were female. Findings showed that 20.4% of students reported any severe role impairment (10% of those without a mental disorder vs. 42.9% of those with at least one disorder, P < 0.01). In bivariate analyses, panic disorder, and mania were associated most frequently with severe impairment (60.6% and 57.5%, respectively). Students reporting three or more mental disorders had almost fivefold more frequently severe impairment relative to those without mental disorders. Multiple logistic regression showed that major depression (OR = 4.0; 95%CI = 3.3, 4.8), generalized anxiety (OR = 3.9; 95%CI = 3.1, 4.8), and panic disorder (OR = 2.9; 95%CI 2.4, 4.2) were associated with the highest odds of severe impairment. Only minimal deviations from these overall associations were found across countries. CONCLUSION: Mental disorders among first-year college students are associated with substantial role impairment. Providing preventative interventions targeting mental disorders and associated impairments is a critical need for institutions to address