Publications by authors named "Hitchcock C"

Partial remission after major depressive disorder (MDD) is common and a robust predictor of relapse. However, it remains unclear to which extent preventive psychological interventions reduce depressive symptomatology and relapse risk after partial remission. We aimed to identify variables predicting relapse and to determine whether, and for whom, psychological interventions are effective in preventing relapse, reducing (residual) depressive symptoms, and increasing quality of life among individuals in partial remission.

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Background: Depression and self-harm are two of the most prevalent mental health challenges experienced by adolescents. Sharing their experiences with a parental figure (herein, self-disclosure) can be an important step in getting help, and ultimately, reducing symptoms. Understanding factors that predict self-disclosure can inform public health approaches to support adolescent mental health.

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Objectives: Trauma-related conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, are associated with high rates of impairment and distress. Evidence-based interventions for many trauma-related conditions exert robust effects on their primary outcomes. However, logistical, financial, geographic and stigma-related barriers to accessing these interventions exist.

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Background: ICU-survivors are likely to struggle with psychological wellbeing. Providing post-ICU therapeutic interventions is a relatively novel field and little is known about patients' experiences.

Methods: Thematic analysis was used to analyze semi-structured interviews with 20 ICU-survivors who had accessed psychological therapy following discharge from an ICU in the Southwest of Britain.

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The authors propose a concept of "systems engineering," the approach to assessing the extent of diseased tissue (EODT) in solid tumors. We modeled the proof of this concept based on our clinical experience with colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and gastrinoma that included short and long-term survival data of CRC patients. This concept, applicable to various solid tumors, combines resources from surgery, nuclear medicine, radiology, pathology, and oncology needed for preoperative and intraoperative assessments of a patient's EODT.

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Gram-positive bacterial infections present a major clinical challenge, with methicillin- and vancomycin-resistant strains continuing to be a cause for concern. In recent years, semisynthetic vancomycin derivatives have been developed to overcome this problem as exemplified by the clinically used telavancin, which exhibits increased antibacterial potency but has also raised toxicity concerns. Thus, glycopeptide antibiotics with enhanced antibacterial activities and improved safety profiles are still necessary.

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Positive autobiographical memories (AMs) have the potential to repair low mood, but previously depressed individuals have difficulty leveraging their positive AMs for emotion regulation purposes. We examined whether previously depressed individuals benefit from guided, deliberate recollection of preselected AMs to counteract low mood in daily life, utilizing individuals' smartphones to facilitate recollection. Sixty participants enrolled in 2020 were randomly allocated to retrieval of positive or everyday activity AMs and completed ecological momentary assessment of emotional experience for 3 weeks.

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DNA retrieval methods traditionally used during forensic evidence recovery including swabbing and tape lifting, can have limited effectiveness when used on porous, rough substrates such as bricks and carpet. This is possibly due to the DNA material being dispersed and unreachable for surface sampling techniques. In this evaluation we investigated the effectiveness of the Microbial Wet-Vacuum System (M-Vac®; M-Vac® Systems, Inc.

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Background: Low-intensity interventions targeting a range of mental health issues offer a scalable approach for young trauma survivors in low-middle income countries.

Aims: Here, we present results from a proof-of-concept, randomized, waitlist-controlled trial evaluating MemFlex, an autobiographical memory-based intervention, for trauma-exposed Afghan youth residing in Iran. MemFlex seeks to reduce the negative and overgeneral memory biases which maintain and predict poor mental health.

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Biases in the retrieval of personal, autobiographical memories are a core feature of multiple mental health disorders, and are associated with poor clinical prognosis. However, current assessments of memory bias are either reliant on human scoring, restricting their administration in clinical settings, or when computerized, are only able to identify one memory type. Here, we developed a natural language model able to classify text-based memories as one of five different autobiographical memory types (specific, categoric, extended, semantic associate, omission), allowing easy assessment of a wider range of memory biases, including reduced memory specificity and impaired memory flexibility.

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Aberrations to metacognition-the ability to reflect on and evaluate self-performance-are a feature of poor mental health. Theoretical models of post-traumatic stress disorder propose that following severe stress or trauma, maladaptive metacognitive evaluations and appraisals of the event drive the development of symptoms. Empirical research is required in order to reveal whether disruptions to metacognition cause or contribute to symptom development in line with theoretical accounts, or are simply a consequence of ongoing psychopathology.

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Background: Mindfulness-based programmes (MBPs) are increasingly offered at work, often in online self-guided format. However, the evidence on MBPs' effect on work performance (WP) is inconsistent.

Objective: This pragmatic randomised controlled feasibility trial assessed procedural uncertainties, intervention acceptability and preliminary effect sizes of an MBP on WP, relative to an alternative intervention.

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Cognitive models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) highlight characteristics of trauma memories, such as disorganisation, as key mechanisms in the aetiology of the disorder. However, studies investigating trauma memory in youth have provided inconsistent findings. Research has highlighted that PTSD in youth may be accompanied by difficulties in neurocognitive functioning, potentially impacting ability to recall the trauma memory.

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Background: Increasing an individual's ability to focus on concrete, specific detail, thus reducing the tendency toward overly broad, decontextualised generalisations about the self and world, is a target within cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). However, empirical investigation of the impact of within-treatment specificity on treatment outcomes is scarce. We evaluated whether the specificity of patient dialogue predicted a) end-of-treatment symptoms and b) session completion for CBT for common mental health issues.

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Background: Existing clinical trials of cognitive behavioural therapies with a trauma focus (CBTs-TF) are underpowered to examine key variables that might moderate treatment effects. We aimed to determine the efficacy of CBTs-TF for young people, relative to passive and active control conditions, and elucidate putative individual-level and treatment-level moderators.

Methods: This was an individual participant data meta-analysis of published and unpublished randomised studies in young people aged 6-18 years exposed to trauma.

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Background The success of cardiac auscultation varies widely among medical professionals, which can lead to missed treatments for structural heart disease. Applying machine learning to cardiac auscultation could address this problem, but despite recent interest, few algorithms have been brought to clinical practice. We evaluated a novel suite of Food and Drug Administration-cleared algorithms trained via deep learning on >15 000 heart sound recordings.

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This paper reports the findings of a project that conducted a rapid review of evidence regarding assessment and intervention approaches responding to children and young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviors. A literature review was conducted using a systematic search of academic databases and consultation with subject matter experts. The process resulted in 27 scholarly publications being included and analyzed to explore what was known about effective approaches with children and young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behavior.

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Individuals with depression typically remember their past in a generalised manner, at the cost of retrieving specific event memories. This may impair engagement with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) tasks that use concrete episodic information to challenge maladaptive beliefs, potentially limiting their therapeutic benefit. Study 1 demonstrated that an episodic specificity induction increased detail and specificity of autobiographical memory in people with major depression, relative to control conditions (N = 88).

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Background: Cognitive distancing is an emotion regulation strategy commonly used in psychological treatment of various mental health disorders, but its therapeutic mechanisms are unknown.

Methods: 935 participants completed an online reinforcement learning task involving choices between pairs of symbols with differing reward contingencies. Half (49.

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Article Synopsis
  • A randomized, double-blind study tested 300 mg of oral micronized progesterone against a placebo for treating hot flushes and night sweats in perimenopausal women over three months.* -
  • The primary outcome measured was the change in vasomotor symptom scores, but no significant difference was found between the progesterone and placebo groups, although participants reported improvements in sleep quality and reduced night sweats.* -
  • While the trial's findings were inconclusive about the overall effectiveness of progesterone, women felt it benefited their night sweats and sleep without causing serious side effects.*
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Individuals differ markedly in how they experience the ebb and flow of emotions. In this study, we used daily experience sampling to examine whether these differences reflect the nature and presence of mood disorders or whether they can better be characterized as distinct dynamic emotion profiles that cut-across diagnostic boundaries. We followed 105 individuals in 2019-2020 with diagnoses of major depression, remitted major depression, bipolar disorder, or no history of disorder, over 14 days ( = 6,543 experience-sampling assessments).

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Objective: To determine the relative efficacy of structured named diet and health behaviour programmes (dietary programmes) for prevention of mortality and major cardiovascular events in patients at increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Design: Systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Data Sources: AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine Database), CENTRAL (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), Embase, Medline, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and ClinicalTrials.

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Evolutionary models of depression posit that depressed mood represents an adaptive response to unacceptably low social status, motivating the inhibition of social risk-taking in favor of submissive behaviors which reduce the likelihood of social exclusion. We tested the hypothesis of reduced social risk taking using a novel adaptation of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) in participants with major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 27) and never-depressed comparison participants (n = 35). The BART requires participants to pump up virtual balloons.

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