Behaviour research and therapy
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Randomized Controlled Trial
How does mindfulness-based cognitive therapy work?
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is an efficacious psychosocial intervention for recurrent depression (Kuyken et al., 2008; Ma & Teasdale, 2004; Teasdale et al., 2000). To date, no compelling research addresses MBCT's mechanisms of change. This study determines whether MBCT's treatment effects are mediated by enhancement of mindfulness and self-compassion across treatment, and/or by alterations in post-treatment cognitive reactivity. ⋯ Greater reactivity predicted worse outcome for mADM participants but this relationship was not evident in the MBCT group. MBCT's treatment effects are mediated by augmented self-compassion and mindfulness, along with a decoupling of the relationship between reactivity of depressive thinking and poor outcome. This decoupling is associated with the cultivation of self-compassion across treatment.
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Comparative Study
Specificity of cognitive emotion regulation strategies: a transdiagnostic examination.
Despite growing interest in the role of regulatory processes in clinical disorders, it is not clear whether certain cognitive emotion regulation strategies play a more central role in psychopathology than others. Similarly, little is known about whether these strategies have effects transdiagnostically. ⋯ In addition, this latent factor of cognitive emotion regulation was significantly associated with symptoms of all three disorders. Overall, these results suggest that the use of maladaptive strategies might play a more central role in psychopathology than the non-use of adaptive strategies and provide support of a transdiagnostic view of cognitive emotion regulation.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Transdiagnostic Internet treatment for anxiety disorders: A randomized controlled trial.
Clinician-guided Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) programs are clinically effective at treating specific anxiety disorders. The present study examined the efficacy of a transdiagnostic Internet-based cognitive behavioural treatment (iCBT) program to treat more than one anxiety disorder within the same program (the Anxiety Program). Eighty six individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, and/or social phobia were randomly assigned to a treatment group, or to a waitlist control group. ⋯ The clinician spent a total mean time of 46min per person over the program, participants rated the procedure as moderately acceptable, and gains were sustained at follow-up. Modifications to the Anxiety program, based on post-treatment feedback from treatment group participants, were associated with improved outcomes in the control group. These results indicate that transdiagnostic programs for anxiety disorders may be successfully administered via the Internet.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on recurrence of depressive episodes, mental health and quality of life: A randomized controlled study.
Depression is characterized by a large risk of relapse/recurrence. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a recent non-drug psychotherapeutic intervention to prevent future depressive relapse/recurrence in remitted/recovered depressed patients. In this randomized controlled trial, the authors investigated the effects of MBCT on the relapse in depression and the time to first relapse since study participation, as well as on several mood states and the quality of life of the patients. 106 recovered depressed patients with a history of at least 3 depressive episodes continued either with their treatment as usual (TAU) or received MBCT in addition to TAU. ⋯ At the end of the study period relapse/recurrence was significantly reduced and the time until first relapse increased in the MBCT plus TAU condition in comparison with TAU alone. The MBCT plus TAU group also showed a significant reduction in both short and longer-term depressive mood and better mood states and quality of the life. For patients with a history of at least three depressive episodes who are not acutely depressed, MBCT, added to TAU, may play an important role in the domain of relapse prevention in depression.
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A large body of research suggests that common and specific psychopathology dimensions underlie the symptoms that occur within mood and anxiety disorders. As of yet, it is unclear precisely how the facets of Anxiety Sensitivity (AS), or fear of the symptoms of fear and anxiety, relate to these latent factors. Using data from 606 adolescents participating in the baseline phase of a longitudinal study on risk factors for emotional disorders, we modeled the facets of AS as measured by the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Expanded Form (ASI-X) and related these facets to a hierarchical model of latent symptoms of psychological distress. Results suggest that one facet of AS is associated with a broad General Distress factor underlying symptoms of most emotional disorders while others relate to intermediate-level and conceptually-meaningful narrow factors representing aspects of psychological distress specific to particular emotional disorders.