Examining the relationship between emotion regulation, sleep quality, and anxiety disorder diagnosis.

Anxiety disorders are highly comorbid with sleep disturbance and have also been associated with deficits in emotion regulation, the ability to control and express emotions. However, the extent to which specific dimensions of sleep disturbance and emotion regulation are associated with anxiety diagnosis is not well-explored. This study examined dimensions of emotion regulation and sleep disturbance that may predict greater likelihood of anxiety diagnosis using novel machine learning techniques.

The impact of exercise interventions on sleep in adult populations with depression, anxiety, or posttraumatic stress: review of the current evidence and future directions.

Consistent evidence suggests that exercise leads to improvements in subjective sleep quality and also objective sleep metrics in non-psychiatric adult populations. However, the degree to which exercise provides sleep benefits for adults with psychiatric disorders is less known, despite the potential benefits given that sleep disturbance is prevalent in these populations. In this narrative review, we synthesize results of randomized controlled trials examining the influence of aerobic and/or resistance exercise interventions on sleep outcomes in adult psychiatric populations.

Predictors of Long-Term Exercise Engagement in Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: The Role of Physical Activity Enjoyment.

Most U.S. adults, even more so those with psychiatric conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), do not engage in the recommended amount of physical activity (PA), despite the wide array of physical and mental health benefits associated with exercise.

Physical activity may buffer against depression and promote resilience after major life stressors.

As many individuals experience potentially traumatic or stressful life events, understanding factors that are likely to promote resilience is imperative. Given the demonstrated efficacy of exercise for depression treatment, we examined if exercise buffers against the risk of developing psychiatric symptoms following life stressors. 1405 participants (61% female) from a longitudinal panel cohort experienced disability onset (43%), bereavement (26%), heart attack (20%), divorce (11%), and job loss (3%).

Anxiety Disorders: A Review.

Importance: Anxiety disorders have a lifetime prevalence of approximately 34% in the US, are often chronic, and significantly impair quality of life and functioning.

Observations: Anxiety disorders are characterized by symptoms that include worry, social and performance fears, unexpected and/or triggered panic attacks, anticipatory anxiety, and avoidance behaviors. Generalized anxiety disorder (6.

The influence of posttraumatic stress disorder treatment on anxiety sensitivity: Impact of prolonged exposure, sertraline, and their combination.

Trauma-informed beliefs often decrease during posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment. This may also extend to anxiety sensitivity (AS), defined as a fear of anxiety-related sensations and beliefs that anxiety is dangerous and/or intolerable. However, little is known about how AS changes during exposure-based and psychopharmacological PTSD treatments.

Impact of preference for yoga or cognitive behavioral therapy in patients with generalized anxiety disorder on treatment outcomes and engagement.

There is some, but inconsistent, evidence to suggest that matching patient treatment preference enhances treatment engagement and outcome. The current study examined differential preferences and factors associated with treatment preference for 12-week group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), yoga, or stress education in 226 adults with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; 70% female, Mean age = 33 ± 13.5).

Heterogeneity of posttraumatic stress, depression, and fear of cancer recurrence in breast cancer survivors: a latent class analysis.

Purpose: Breast cancer survivors may demonstrate elevated psychological distress, which can also hinder adherence to survivorship care plans. Our goal was to study heterogeneity of behavioral health and functioning in breast cancer survivors, and identify both risk and protective factors to improve targets for wellness interventions.

Methods: Breast cancer survivors (n = 187) consented to complete self-reported psychological measures and to access their medical records.

Prolonged Grief Disorder: Course, Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment.

Losing a loved one is one of life's greatest stressors. Although most bereaved individuals navigate through a period of intense acute grief that lessens with time, approximately 10% will develop a prolonged grief condition. This review provides an overview of the course of grief and describes risk factors for developing prolonged grief disorder.

Barriers and engagement in breast cancer survivorship wellness activities.

Purpose: Breast cancer survivors may be at risk for increased rates of emotional distress and poorer quality of life. Survivorship care plans (SCPs) promoting wellness activities may support well-being; however, survivors may not receive or engage in their SCPs. This study aimed to assess receipt and participation in SCP activities as well as barriers to engagement amongst breast cancer survivors.

Posttraumatic Distress Symptoms and Their Response to Treatment in Adults With Prolonged Grief Disorder.

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder and prolonged grief disorder (PGD) arise following major life stressors and may share some overlapping symptomatology. This study aimed to examine the presence and response to treatment of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in bereaved adults with a primary diagnosis of PGD.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial of 395 adults with PGD (defined as an Inventory of Complicated Grief score ≥ 30 plus confirmation on structured clinical interview) randomly assigned participants to either complicated grief treatment (CGT) with citalopram, CGT plus placebo, citalopram, or placebo between March 2010 and September 2014.

Assessing BDNF as a mediator of the effects of exercise on depression.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is associated with neuronal growth and reduced BDNF has been implicated in depression. A recent meta-analysis documented reliable effects of exercise on BDNF levels (Szuhany et al., 2015); although, few studies included participants with mental health conditions.

Impact of sleep on complicated grief severity and outcomes.

Background: Complicated grief (CG) is characterized by persistent, impairing grief after losing a loved one. Little is known about sleep disturbance in CG. Baseline prevalence of subjective sleep disturbance, impact of treatment on sleep, and impact of mid-treatment sleep on CG and quality of life outcomes were examined in adults with CG in secondary analyses of a clinical trial.

The new TV dinner: effects of television programming content on eating and attitudes towards exercise.

Evidence exists for a negative influence of exercise/weight-loss television on explicit attitudes towards exercise. However, it is unclear if this is specific to viewing intense exercise or the overweight/obese status of the viewed exercisers. Additionally, exposure to exercise cues can induce people to eat more, reflecting compensatory eating in response to exercise cues rather than actual exercise.

Catching As and Zs: poor sleep quality predicts failures to increase studying time.

Objective: We examined the association between sleep quality and academic performance by attending to university students' self-defined goals to increase studying behaviors over a four-week period.

Methods: We evaluated this association in 100 undergraduates, who self-elected to change their studying behaviors and were randomly assigned to one of three interventions (action planning, dissonance-based, or reflection).

Results: We found a negative association between the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) at baseline and subsequent studying time over the next four weeks, reflecting a small to medium effect size (partial r = .

Efficacy evaluation of exercise as an augmentation strategy to brief behavioral activation treatment for depression: a randomized pilot trial.

Exercise is an efficacious intervention for mental and physical health, but few studies have identified the additive benefits of exercise prescriptions for those undergoing empirically supported psychosocial treatment. Behavioral activation (BA) involves completing activities to improve mood, an ideal format for exercise augmentation. The purpose of this study was to examine the credibility and exploratory effect size estimates of augmenting BA with exercise.

The impact of depressed mood, working memory capacity, and priming on delay discounting.

Background And Objectives: The impaired ability to delay rewards, delay discounting (DD), is associated with several problematic conditions in which impulsive decision-making derails long-term goals. Working memory (WM), the ability to actively store and manipulate information, is associated with DD. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cognitive priming on DD and to identify moderation of this effect dependent on degree of WM capacity (WMC) and depressed mood.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder in individuals with severe mental illness and borderline personality disorder.

Secondary analyses were performed on data from two randomized controlled trials of a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) to examine the feasibility, tolerability, and effectiveness for individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). In Study 1, 27 participants received CBT or treatment as usual. In Study 2, 55 participants received CBT or a Brief treatment.

RANDOMIZED TRIAL OF D-CYCLOSERINE ENHANCEMENT OF COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY FOR PANIC DISORDER.

Background: Initial studies have provided a mixed perspective of the efficacy of d-cycloserine (DCS) for augmenting the efficacy of exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for panic disorder. In this multicenter trial, we examine the magnitude of DCS augmentation effects for an ultra-brief program of CBT.

Methods: We conducted a double-blind, controlled trial at three treatment sites, randomizing 180 adults with a primary diagnosis of panic disorder to five sessions of treatment, with study pill (50 mg DCS or matching placebo) administered 1 hr prior to the final three sessions.

A confirmatory factor analysis of the MATRICS consensus cognitive battery in severe mental illness.

Background: A recent factor analysis of Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) data in a sample of schizophrenia-spectrum patients described a three factor model representing processing speed, attention/working memory, and learning; the social cognition measure was excluded from the analysis. The current analyses sought to replicate a three factor structure of the MCCB in a larger, more diagnostically diverse sample of participants.

Methods: Confirmatory factor analyses were performed to evaluate the factor structure of the MCCB in 300 outpatients with severe mental illness (54.

Contextual Influences on Distress Intolerance: Priming Effects on Behavioral Persistence.

Distress intolerance (DI), the inability to tolerate stressful experiences, has been linked to multiple psychiatric conditions and maladaptive coping patterns. Although DI is often considered a trait-like variable, evidence indicates that self-report and behavioral indices of DI can be manipulated by contextual factors. Understanding such contextual influences is important given evidence of unexpected variability in these presumed trait-like measures over brief intervals.

Anxiety Sensitivity Uniquely Predicts Exercise Behaviors in Young Adults Seeking to Increase Physical Activity.

Individuals with elevated levels of anxiety sensitivity (AS) may be motivated to avoid aversive emotional or physical states, and therefore may have greater difficulty achieving healthy behavioral change. This may be particularly true for exercise, which produces many of the somatic sensations within the domain of AS concerns. Cross-sectional studies show a negative association between AS and exercise.

A meta-analytic review of the effects of exercise on brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

Consistent evidence indicates that exercise improves cognition and mood, with preliminary evidence suggesting that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) may mediate these effects. The aim of the current meta-analysis was to provide an estimate of the strength of the association between exercise and increased BDNF levels in humans across multiple exercise paradigms. We conducted a meta-analysis of 29 studies (N = 1111 participants) examining the effect of exercise on BDNF levels in three exercise paradigms: (1) a single session of exercise, (2) a session of exercise following a program of regular exercise, and (3) resting BDNF levels following a program of regular exercise.