Psychosomatic distress symptoms among international students in Germany: Role of academic stress and socio-demographic factors.

Objective: To assess the predictive role of academic stress in anxiety, depression and somatisation among international students in Germany, and to explore if socio-demographic factors were of any significance in this regard.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2017 to March 2018 in Germany and comprised students at universities offering programmes in the general subject category and had a strength of 1000 international students. Data was collected using the Student Stress Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Major Depression Inventory, Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness and a socio-demographic questionnaire.

Depression and Anxiety among International Medical Students in Germany: The Predictive Role of Coping Styles.

Objective: To explore the predictive role of dispositional coping styles in determining the level of depression and anxiety among international medical students in Germany.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in Germany from September 2016 to February 2017 and comprised international students studying medicine in Germany. Data were collected through an electronic survey using reliable instruments, including Major Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Problem-Focussed Styles of Coping Inventory, and a demographic sheet.

The effects of prior pain experience on neural correlates of empathy for pain: An fMRI study.

Neuroimaging studies have revealed partially shared neural substrates for both the actual experience of pain and empathy elicited by the pain of others. We examined whether prior pain exposure increased neural activity in the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) and bilateral anterior insula (AI) as a correlate of empathy for pain. Participants (N=64: 32 women, 32 men) viewed pictures displaying exposure to pressure pain (pain pictures) and pictures without any cue of pain (neutral pictures).

Self-reported and behavioral sound avoidance in tinnitus and hyperacusis subjects, and association with anxiety ratings.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to analyse the role of sound avoidance and anxiety in tinnitus subjects with hyperacusis, defined as hypersensitivity to low to moderate intensity sounds.

Design: A group of tinnitus subjects with hyperacusis was compared to tinnitus subjects without hyperacusis, and healthy controls. For assessing noise avoidance, a questionnaire was developed (noise avoidance questionnaire, NAQ) and the duration of self-exposure to a pure tone was assessed as a behavioral index.

Development of an outcome prediction measure for alcoholism therapy by multimodal monitoring of treatment processes.

Outcome prediction in alcoholism therapy is of major sociopolitical and economic significance. Instruments based on psychotherapeutic processes are lacking. Therefore, treatment processes of 64 chronic alcohol dependent patients have been investigated at three time-points, t(1) (week 3), t(2) (month 6), and t(3) (month 12) during the first year of a comprehensive outpatient treatment program, guaranteeing strictly controlled alcohol abstinence.

Personality disorder and chronicity of addiction as independent outcome predictors in alcoholism treatment.

Objective: A prospective four-year study examined which components of addiction severity predicted time to relapse among 112 adults with chronic alcoholism who participated in a comprehensive outpatient treatment program.

Methods: Recruited from emergency, inpatient, and outpatient facilities, patients were admitted into the program consecutively between March 1998 and June 2002. Alcohol abstinence was carefully monitored for four years from admission by regular contacts and urine and blood analyses.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy of pediatric headache: are there differences in efficacy between a therapist-administered group training and a self-help format?

Objective: The efficacy of cognitive-behavioral training in a therapist-administered group format (TG) and a self-help format (SH) for children with recurrent headache was compared.

Methods: A total of 77 children (10-14 years) were randomly assigned to TG (n=29), SH (n=27) and a waiting-list control group (WC; n=19). TG consisted of eight 90-min sessions with groups of five children.