Indirect exposure to client trauma and the impact on trainee clinical psychologists: Secondary traumatic stress or vicarious traumatization?

Objectives: The study investigated the relationship between exposure to trauma work and well-being (general psychological distress, trauma symptoms, and disrupted beliefs) in trainee clinical psychologists. It also assessed the contribution of individual and situational factors to well-being.

Design: A Web-based survey was employed.

Attitudes and Preferences towards Self-help Treatments for Depression in Comparison to Psychotherapy and Antidepressant Medication.

Background: Self-help is an effective treatment for depression. Less is known, however, about how acceptable people find different self-help treatments for depression.

Aims: To investigate preferences and attitudes toward different self-help treatments for depression in comparison to psychotherapy and antidepressants.

The journey through cannabis use: a qualitative study of the experiences of young adults with psychosis.

The present study explored the personal experiences of cannabis and psychosis among young adults, including the reasons and meanings of cannabis use and the perceived relationship between cannabis and mental health. Interviews with seven young adults with psychosis who described regular current or past cannabis use were conducted and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Four master themes emerged: The Journey Through Cannabis Use, The Social and Cultural World, The Struggle to Make Sense, and The Depths and Beyond.

A qualitative exploration of communication within the community mental health team.

This qualitative study sought to explore conceptual models employed by community mental health team (CMHT) staff in the care of their clients and how CMHT clinicians communicated with one another, particularly in relation to complex clinical work. The qualitative method of interpretive phenomenological analysis was used, and semistructured in-depth interviews with seven UK CMHT clinicians were conducted and analyzed. Four themes were evident in the data and showed that clinicians face complex and competing demands and draw on a range of therapeutic models in their work.

Habituation and sensitization of protective reflexes: dissociation between cardiac defense and eye-blink startle.

We examined the habituation and recovery of two protective reflexes, cardiac defense and eye-blink startle, simultaneously elicited by a white noise of 500ms as a function of the time interval between stimulus presentations. Participants were 90 volunteers (54 women) randomly distributed into 6 inter-trial interval (ITI) conditions. They all received three presentations of the stimulus with a time interval of 30min between the first and third noise.

Visuospatial working memory interference with recollections of trauma.

Objectives: Laboratory research using a working memory framework has shown modality-specific reductions in image vividness and emotionality when concurrent tasks are performed while maintaining the image in consciousness. We extended this research to trauma images in a clinical population awaiting treatment for post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Design: A within-subjects design was used, with each participant completing an imagery task under three concurrent task conditions: side-to-side eye-movements, counting, and exposure only (no concurrent task).

A randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness of writing as a self-help intervention for traumatic injury patients at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

The study investigated the effects of writing and self-help information on severity of psychological symptoms in traumatic injury patients at risk for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Patients attending Accident and Emergency (A & E), were screened for Acute Stress Disorder and randomised to an information control group (n=36) or a writing and information group (n=31). Participants in both groups received an information booklet one-month post-injury.

Multidisciplinary community mental health team staff's experience of a 'skills level' training course in cognitive analytic therapy.

This study sought to explore community mental health teams' (CMHTs) experiences of receiving an innovative introductory level training in cognitive analytic therapy (CAT). CMHTs are important providers of care for people with mental health problems. Although CMHTs have many strengths, they have been widely criticized for failing to have a shared model underlying practice.

A randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of providing self-help information to people with symptoms of acute stress disorder following a traumatic injury.

Background: Patients attending accident and emergency (A&E) may develop long-term psychological difficulties. Psycho-education has been suggested to reduce the risk of post-injury disorders.

Aims: We tested the efficacy of providing self-help information to a high-risk sample.

Self-reported attachment styles and therapeutic orientation of therapists and their relationship with reported general alliance quality and problems in therapy.

The aims of this study were to explore the relationship between therapists' self-reported attachment styles and therapeutic orientation with the self-reported general therapeutic alliance and therapist-reported problems in psychological therapy.A sample of 491 psychotherapists from differing therapeutic orientations responded to a postal questionnaire. The questionnaire contained standardized measures of therapeutic alliance quality, attachment behaviours, a checklist of problems in therapy, and a brief personality inventory.

An attitudinal study of responses to a range of dermatological conditions using the implicit association test.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to explore implicit attitudes to dermatological conditions. The stimuli employed were photographs representing skin conditions and clear skin. Explicit attitudes were measured using rating scales and questions concerning participants' experience of dermatitis.

Investigation of social and emotion information processing in temporal lobe epilepsy with ictal fear.

This study examined whether patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and ictal fear (IF) show emotion recognition deficits similar to those associated with amygdala damage. Three groups of patients (13 with TLE and IF, 14 with TLE and nonfear auras (non-IF), and 10 with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE)) completed tests of visual and face processing, face emotion recognition and social judgment, together with measures of psychological adjustment (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; SCL-90-R) and Quality of Life (QOLIE-31). All three epilepsy groups had fear recognition deficits, with relatively greater impairments in the IF group.

Effectiveness of providing self-help information following acute traumatic injury: randomised controlled trial.

Background: Patients attending an accident and emergency department may exhibit psychological disturbances post-injury. Early interventions have been suggested to reduce the risk of post-injury disorder, including psychoeducation.

Aims: We assessed the efficacy of providing such self-help information.

Covert and overt attention in trait anxiety: a cognitive psychophysiological analysis.

The effect of threatening cues and anxiety upon attention within a Posner paradigm was investigated in two experiments. It was predicted anxious individuals would show a bias to threat-related material. Heart rate and eye movements were obtained to assess the attentional processes associated with this cognitive bias.

Determinants of the vividness of visual imagery: the effects of delayed recall, stimulus affect and individual differences.

This study investigated the influence of emotion on vividness of imagery. A total of 80 undergraduate participants saw 25 pictures from the International Affective Picture System, representing different dimensions of valence and arousal. They rated each stimulus for valence, arousal, and emotionality.

Intrusive and non-intrusive memories in a non-clinical sample: the effects of mood and affect on imagery vividness.

We studied the number, valence, and vividness of intrusive and non-intrusive memories in two groups (N = 20) of pre-screened non-depressed mood and depressed mood undergraduate participants. They were asked to generate as many intrusive memories (IMs) as possible from the prior 2 weeks, together with pleasant and unpleasant non-intrusive memories from the same period. They subsequently formed images of these memories and rated them on measures of vividness, valence, arousal, and overall affect, while having their heart rate, skin conductance, and electromyogram monitored.

Vicarious traumatization: implications for the mental health of health workers?

It has been suggested that a unique feature of some mental heath practitioners' work is exposure through their role as therapists to clients' descriptions of and reactions to trauma, and that these experiences may actually indirectly cause distress and traumatization to the therapist. This proposed phenomenon has been termed "vicarious traumatization" (VT) and is the focus of the current review. The concept of VT, together with other related concepts such as "burnout," "compassion fatigue," "secondary traumatic stress" (STS), and "work stress" are appraised.

Implicit memory bias and trait anxiety: a psychophysiological analysis.

The effect of threatening words and anxiety upon implicit memory performance was investigated. It was predicted that anxious individuals would show a bias to threat-related material. In addition, psychophysiological measures were obtained to assess the attentional and encoding processes that might underlie this cognitive bias.

Outcomes after injury: a comparison of workplace and nonworkplace injury.

Background: Factors affecting recovery from injury are investigated comparing male emergency department patients involved in work-related and non-work-related accidents.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of 154 injured employed male emergency department patients recording demographic and accident details, return to work information, and involvement in litigation. Standardized questionnaires measured psychological, physical, and social responses.