Valence in the eyes: An emotion decoding profile of adults with major depressive disorder and a history of childhood maltreatment

Background: Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) and childhood maltreatment have been proposed to constitute a subgroup with worse illness course and outcomes. To elucidate a potential social cognitive vulnerability in this subgroup, this study compared the emotion decoding abilities of MDD patients with and without a history of childhood maltreatment. Methods: Participants with a diagnosis of MDD were recruited from nationwide mental health organizations. Emotion decoding abilities were assessed using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, while childhood maltreatment was measured with the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire. Results: The MDD patients with a history of childhood maltreatment exhibited poorer emotion decoding abilities than MDD patients without such past. This difference applied specifically to the decoding of positive and negative emotions, while no group differences emerged for the decoding of neutral emotions. When specific maltreatment types were considered as predictors only emotional neglect was associated with lower emotion decoding abilities. These associations remained when adjusting for demographic and clinical covariates. Conclusions: By indicating that emotion decoding difficulties characterize the MDD subgroup with childhood maltreatment, the findings highlight a potential vulnerability that merits further examination in terms of its developmental antecedents and prognostic relevance.</p

Effect of deliberate practice training of graduate students in general psychotherapeutic skills compared with theoretical teaching:protocol for the randomised controlled TRIPS trial

INTRODUCTION: Psychology students at universities in Denmark and worldwide often receive relatively little clinical training, even though such training is crucial to job performance after graduation. Training common psychotherapeutic skills, such as being empathic and facilitating the therapeutic alliance, is critical since these skills are related to psychotherapy outcomes. In this study, a deliberate practice-based approach to student training will be compared with theoretical teaching. The main hypothesis is that deliberate practice training will result in a larger improvement in students’ observer-rated interpersonal skills. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The TRaining of graduate students In general Psychotherapeutic Skills study has a double-centre, randomised, assessor-blinded, two-way crossover study design. About 200 graduate students from two Danish universities will be randomised into two groups, (a) deliberate practice training of common psychotherapeutic skills using role-play and Skillsetter, an online skill-building system with therapy videos or (b) theoretical teaching. Group a will first receive the experimental condition, followed by the control condition, while group b will receive the conditions in reverse order. Each condition consists of 15 hours of classroom participation and homework. The primary outcome is facilitative interpersonal skills—observer. Secondary outcomes include the facilitative interpersonal skills—self-report, the Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scales and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Outcomes will be measured at baseline (week 0), after the first condition (week 5; before the crossover, reflecting true randomisation) and after both conditions (week 10). Main outcome analyses will be performed at week 5. Several predictors of the effect of deliberate practice will be explored. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval from university ethics boards has been obtained. All participants will be asked to provide informed consent before participation. Once completed, the study can potentially transform the training of psychotherapy in graduate education, which, ultimately, may positively influence psychotherapy outcomes (IP-IRB / 03092021). TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05164497