Publications by authors named "Christian G Jensen"

Background: Diabetes distress refers to the negative emotional reaction to living with the demands of diabetes; it occurs in >40% of adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, no interventions to reduce diabetes distress are specifically designed to be an integral part of diabetes care.

Objective: This study aims to modify and adapt existing evidence-based methods into a nurse-led group intervention to reduce diabetes distress among adults with T1D and moderate to severe diabetes distress.

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Purpose: Endophytic renal cancer treatment is a challenge. Due to difficulties in endophytic tumor visualization during surgical extirpation, image-guided percutaneous cryoablation (PCA) is an attractive alternative. The minimally invasive nature of PCA makes it favorable for comorbid patients as well as patients in which surgery is contraindicated.

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The aim of this study was to determine the association between intergenerational workplace climate (attitudes, feelings, and perceptions about workers of different ages in the workplace) and self-perceived aging, work engagement, and turnover intention. A cross-sectional study was conducted via an online survey including answers from a representative sample of 1571 individuals aged 18-74 years, living and working in Denmark. In line with our hypotheses, we found that a more positive intergenerational workplace climate was related to a better self-perceived aging as well as to more work engagement and less turnover intention.

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Biopsychosocial intervention has been suggested as a complementary treatment strategy for patients with chronic conditions. We compared the effect of a mind-body intervention (MBI), relative to treatment-as-usual (TAU) on WHO-5 Well-being Index during an intensive period of 12 weeks and follow-up at week 26 among patients with either psoriasis (PsO) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The MBI was based on the '' and the '', as well as '' (MBSR).

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We developed the Verbal Affective Memory Test-26 (VAMT-26), a computerized test to assess verbal memory, as an improvement of the Verbal Affective Memory Test-24 (VAMT-24). Here, we psychometrically evaluate the VAMT-26 in 182 healthy controls, examine 1-month test-retest stability in 48 healthy controls, and examine whether 87 antidepressant-free patients diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) tested with VAMT-26 differed in affective memory biases from 335 healthy controls tested with VAMT24/26. We also examine whether affective memory biases are associated with depressive symptoms across the patients and healthy controls.

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Rationale: The serotonergic system has been repeatedly linked to visual attention in general, but the effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) on specific components of visual attention remain unknown. Changes in distinct perceptual and cognitive processes are not readily evident in most attention paradigms.

Objective: In this study, we isolate basic components of visual attention to investigate potential effects of longer-term SSRI administration on non-emotional aspects of visual attention in healthy males.

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The Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) measures 5 factor-analytically derived mindfulness aspects (Observe, Describe, Non-Judgment, Non-Reactivity, and Acting with Awareness) and is commonly used as an indicator of mindfulness in population surveys and studies of mindfulness-based interventions (MBI). Outside MBI, FFMQ scores are hypothesized to reflect relatively stable human dispositions of importance to psychological health. However, the long-term test-retest reliability of FFMQ scores is virtually untested and it remains unknown whether FFMQ scores predict psychological health after controlling for standardized socioeconomic status classifications.

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Background: Depressed individuals often exhibit impaired inhibition to negative input and identification of positive stimuli, but it is unclear whether this is a state or trait feature. We here exploited a naturalistic model, namely individuals with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), to study this feature longitudinally.

Aim: The goal of this study was to examine seasonal changes in inhibitory control and identification of emotional faces in individuals with SAD.

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The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) measures perceived degree of inattentiveness in different contexts and is often used as a reversed indicator of mindfulness. MAAS is hypothesized to reflect a psychological trait or disposition when used outside attentional training contexts, but the long-term test-retest reliability of MAAS scores is virtually untested. It is unknown whether MAAS predicts psychological health after controlling for standardized socioeconomic status classifications.

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Background: Prolonged psychological stress is a risk factor for illness and constitutes an increasing public health challenge creating a need to develop public interventions specifically targeting stress and promoting mental health. The present randomized controlled trial evaluated health effects of a novel program: Relaxation-Response-based Mental Health Promotion (RR-MHP).

Methods: The multimodal, meditation-based course was publicly entitled "Open and Calm" (OC) because it consistently trained relaxed and receptive ("Open") attention, and consciously non-intervening ("Calm") witnessing, in two standardized formats (individual or group) over nine weeks.

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We here present the development and validation of the Verbal Affective Memory Test-24 (VAMT-24). First, we ensured face validity by selecting 24 words reliably perceived as positive, negative or neutral, respectively, according to healthy Danish adults' valence ratings of 210 common and non-taboo words. Second, we studied the test's psychometric properties in healthy adults.

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Serotonin critically affects the neural processing of emotionally salient stimuli, including indices of threat; however, how alterations in serotonin signaling contribute to changes in brain function is not well understood. Recently, we showed in a placebo-controlled study of 32 healthy males that brain serotonin 4 receptor (5-HT4) binding, assessed with [(11)C]SB207145 PET, was sensitive to a 3-week intervention with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine, supporting it as an in vivo model for fluctuations in central serotonin levels. Participants also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a gender discrimination task of fearful, angry, and neutral faces.

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Objective: To analyze whether qualitative themes in breast cancer patients' self-presentations predicted symptoms of psychological distress and depression in order to improve the consultation process.

Methods: Ninety-seven breast cancer patients gave unstructured, 10-min self-presentations at their first consultation in a clinical registered trial (CRT identifier: NCT00990977). Self-presentations were categorized thematically and the most prevalent themes investigated as predictors for scores on the symptom check-list 90-revised (SCL-90-R) and the center for epidemiological studies depression scale (CES-D).

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Self-generated thoughts unrelated to ongoing activities, also known as "mind-wandering," make up a substantial portion of our daily lives. Reports of such task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) predict both poor performance on demanding cognitive tasks and blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the default mode network (DMN). However, recent findings suggest that TUTs and the DMN can also facilitate metacognitive abilities and related behaviors.

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Objective: Studies of synchronous physiological responses to startle stimuli between monozygotic twins and other paired subjects have suffered from methodological flaws such as post-hoc specifications of "connectedness" criteria. The mechanisms that affect any such connectedness are unknown. With the logistic and financial support of a television company, we conducted a methodological pilot study with predefined objective hit criteria in which we used four pairs of twins with frequent experiences of connectedness.

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The cerebral serotonin (5-HT) system is involved in cognitive functions such as memory and learning and animal studies have repeatedly shown that stimulation of the 5-HT type 4 receptor (5-HT4 R) facilitates memory and learning and further that the 5-HT4 R modulates cellular memory processes in hippocampus. However, any associations between memory functions and the expression of the 5-HT4 R in the human hippocampus have not been investigated. Using positron emission tomography with the tracer [(11) C]SB207145 and Reys Auditory Verbal Learning Test we aimed to examine the individual variation of the 5-HT4R binding in hippocampus in relation to memory acquisition and consolidation in healthy young volunteers.

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Improvements in attentional performance are at the core of proposed mechanisms for stress reduction in mindfulness meditation practices. However, this claim can be questioned because no previous studies have actively manipulated test effort in control groups and controlled for effects of stress reduction per se. In a blinded design, 48 young, healthy meditation novices were randomly assigned to a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), nonmindfulness stress reduction (NMSR), or inactive control group.

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