Although mental health concerns represent one of the largest contributors to global burden of disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that this burden is not being sufficiently met with accessible and effective treatment. Indeed, significant barriers to accessing mental health treatment exist throughout much of the world, including …
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Therapist rated alliance can predict outcome in blended Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for depression
How important is alliance in blended Cognitive Behaviour Therapy? That is the research question that we tried to answer in this study that was conducted at Linköping University as part of a larger European project (the E-COMPARED project) on blended treatment for depression. The study was also included in a …
Read More »Better with Age? A Comparison of Geriatric and Non-Geriatric Trauma Patients’ Psychological Outcomes Six Months Post-Injury
In the United States, the geriatric population – adults ages 60 and older – is growing and expected to represent 16% of Americans by 2020. [1] Unfortunately, older adults are more prone to potential physical injury and often have a higher risk of morality, relative to the severity of their …
Read More »Cognitive processing therapy for PTSD works well! A meta-analysis of RCTs in adult patients
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating condition that can develop following exposure to traumatic events, such as sexual assault, motor vehicle collision, natural disasters, and war. The course of the disorder is often chronic and costly, leading to increased risk for developing other psychiatric disorders (e.g., substance use disorder, …
Read More »Inside the Black Box: What Accounts for Improvement in Internet-Delivered CBT for Maternal Depression
The World Health Organization ranks depression as the greatest contributor to disability world-wide. Mothers of young children are at high risk for depression, especially mothers experiencing economic difficulties. The impairment depression creates for women places their children at increased risk of emotional and behavioral difficulties. Though effective treatments exist, barriers …
Read More »Meta-analysis of the effects of third-wave behavioural interventions on disordered eating and body image concerns
Third-wave behavioural interventions are becoming increasingly popular in treating and preventing various mental health problems, and scholars are beginning to test whether these interventions can effectively target eating disorder (ED) risk factors (e.g., disordered eating, body image concerns). While several studies have examined the effects of third-wave interventions on ED …
Read More »Predictors of Improvement in an Open Trial Multi-Site Evaluation of Emotion Regulation Group Therapy
Emotion Regulation Group Therapy (ERGT; Gratz & Gunderson, 2006; Gratz & Tull, 2011; Gratz, Tull, & Levy, 2014b) is a brief, behavioural group treatment aimed at reducing deliberate non-suicidal self-harm (DSH) in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). ERGT was designed as an adjunctive (i.e., add-on) treatment to augment the …
Read More »Comparing cognitive fusion and cognitive reappraisal as predictors of college student mental health
Do painful or negative thoughts get in your way? Try holding them lightly. There is widespread consensus in modern cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) that thought processes play a large role in mental health. For example, we know that people who experience more negative thoughts about themselves and their lives are …
Read More »The Predictive Capacity of Self-Reported Motivation vs. Early Observed Motivational Language in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder
How important is client motivation in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)? As many practitioners know, delivering CBT to clients who are not quite ready to change can be a challenge. For example, client completion of homework between sessions is an important component of CBT, and when …
Read More »Exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy for atopic dermatitis: an open trial
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is the most common inflammatory dermatological disorder and is marked by itch and inflamed skin. For many patients, AD leads to substantial suffering, reduced quality of life, and an increased risk for depression and anxiety. Psychological treatments have been studied to a limited extent, despite that the …
Read More »Anxiety sensitivity and attentional bias to threat interact to prospectively predict anxiety
The purpose of the present study was to examine anxiety sensitivity, attentional bias to threat (ABT), and the aggregate influence of these constructs as prospective predictors of anxiety. Participants (N = 176) completed a baseline assessment session which included the completion of self-report measures of anxiety and anxiety sensitivity, as well as …
Read More »Can the REBT theory explain loneliness? Theoretical and clinical applications
Cognitive-behavioural models have been applied with great success to numerous forms of psychopathology including mood disorders (David, Kangas, Schnur, & Montgomery, 2004), anxiety- and stress-related disorders (Clark & Beck, 2011), and psychotic-based disorders (Birchwood et al., 2014). A robust, and commonly identified, correlate of all of these forms of psychopathology …
Read More »Phone coaching in Dialectical Behavior Therapy: frequency and relationship to client variables
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive treatment for borderline personality disorder and, in its standard form, involves individual therapy, group skills training, consultation team for therapists, and phone coaching. Phone coaching is designed to help clients generalize the skills they are learning in treatment to the rest of their …
Read More »Comparing in-the-moment skill coaching effects from tailored versus non-tailored Acceptance and Commitment Therapy mobile apps in a non-clinical sample
There is growing research demonstrating that mobile apps can be used to improve mental health and help address many common psychological disorders (e.g., Firth et al., 2017; Torous, Levin, Ahern & Oser, 2017). Typically, these apps teach new psychological skills to users to learn how to better cope with difficult …
Read More »Executive Attention Moderates the Effect of Trait Anxiety on Hyperarousal Symptoms
People differ in the ability to control what they pay attention to, especially when they experience emotional distress. Drs. Bardeen and Fergus previously identified this difference in executive attention as a potentially important variable for understanding how posttraumatic stress develops and is maintained. This research study further supports those prior …
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