Ecological momentary assessment in prolonged grief research: Feasibility, acceptability, and measurement reactivity.

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a method of data collection that entails prompting individuals to report their experiences (e.g., thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) in real time over the course of their day-to-day lives.

Within-person relationships between catastrophizing and pain intensity during a mind-body intervention to prevent persistent pain and disability after acute traumatic orthopedic injury.

Interventions aimed at preventing chronic pain after acute traumatic injury have significant potential to reduce healthcare expenditures and improve quality of life for millions of individuals. Given recent development of such interventions, limited research has examined mechanisms of change using repeated measures (e.g.

Heterogeneity in Temporal Dynamics of Pain and Affect Among Individuals With Chronic Back Pain and Associations With Risk for Future Opioid-Related Problems.

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a biopsychosocial phenomenon involving complex relationships between pain and psychosocial factors. In preregistered analyses, we examined dynamic relationships between pain and negative affect among individuals with CLBP ( 87). We found that increased negative affect was concurrently and prospectively associated with increased pain for individuals on average.

Predictors of Response to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Patients With Tinnitus.

Importance: Clinical guidelines recommend cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a treatment for tinnitus. However, patient response to CBT is variable, and currently, there are no known predictors of response to CBT treatment for tinnitus.

Objective: To identify the clinical predictors of patient response to CBT for treatment of tinnitus.

Examining time-varying dynamics of co-occurring depressed mood and anxiety.

Background: Dimensional frameworks of psychopathology call for multivariate approaches to map co-occurring disorders to index what symptoms emerge when and for whom. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) offers a method for assessing and differentiating the dynamics of co-occurring symptoms with greater temporal granularity and naturalistic context. The present study used multivariate mixed effects location-scale modeling to characterize the time-varying dynamics of depressed mood and anxiety for women diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and major depression (MDD).

Use and co-use of alcohol and cannabis following physical pain in the daily life of community adults engaged in regular substance use.

Objective: Alcohol and cannabis are often perceived as pain-relieving. However, minimal work has examined whether people use and co-use these substances following pain in daily life.

Method: Forty-six adults reporting weekly use of alcohol and/or cannabis completed a 60-day ecological momentary assessment protocol, answering at least four daily reports on their alcohol and cannabis use and pain ( = 10,769 over 2,656 days).

Modeling momentary reciprocal associations between negative affect and craving for alcohol and cannabis using dynamic structural equation modeling.

Objective: Negative reinforcement models suggest that negative affect should predict event-level substance use, however, supporting daily-life evidence is lacking. One reason may be an emphasis in ecological momentary assessment (EMA) research on use behavior, which is subject to contextual and societal constraints that other substance outcomes, such as craving, may not be subject to. Therefore, the present study tested momentary, within-person reciprocal relations among negative affect and craving for alcohol and cannabis in daily life.

Implications of Preoperative Depression for Lumbar Spine Surgery Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Importance: Comorbid depression is common among patients with degenerative lumbar spine disease. Although a well-researched topic, the evidence of the role of depression in spine surgery outcomes remains inconclusive.

Objective: To investigate the association between preoperative depression and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) after lumbar spine surgery.

Avoidance and fear day by day in social anxiety disorder.

Objective: Theories assert that avoidance maintains maladaptive anxiety over time, yet a clear prospective test of this effect in the day-by-day lives of people with social anxiety disorder (SAD) is lacking.

Method: We used intensive longitudinal data to test prospective relationships between social fear and social avoidance in 32 participants with SAD who reported on a total of 4256 time points.

Results: Results suggested that avoidance strongly predicted future anxiety, but only in a minority of people with SAD.

Investigating Individual Variation Using Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling: A Tutorial with Tinnitus.

A growing body of research suggests that standard group-based models might provide little insight regarding individuals. In the current study, we sought to compare group-based and individual predictors of bothersome tinnitus, illustrating how researchers can use dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM) for intensive longitudinal data to examine whether findings from analyses of the group apply to individuals. A total of 43 subjects with bothersome tinnitus responded to up to 200 surveys each.

Establishing the Reliability, Validity, and Prognostic Utility of the Momentary Pain Catastrophizing Scale for Use in Ecological Momentary Assessment Research.

Despite the marked increase in ecological momentary assessment research, few reliable and valid measures of momentary experiences have been established. The goal of this preregistered study was to establish the reliability, validity, and prognostic utility of the momentary Pain Catastrophizing Scale (mPCS), a 3-item measure developed to assess situational pain catastrophizing. Participants in 2 studies of postsurgical pain outcomes completed the mPCS 3 to 5 times per day prior to surgery (N = 494, T = 20,271 total assessments).

Accurate Prediction of Momentary Cognition From Intensive Longitudinal Data.

Background: Deficits in cognitive performance are implicated in the development and maintenance of psychopathology. Emerging evidence further suggests that within-person fluctuations in cognitive performance may represent sensitive early markers of neuropsychiatric decline. Incorporating routine cognitive assessments into standard clinical care-to identify between-person differences and monitor within-person fluctuations-has the potential to improve diagnostic screening and treatment planning.

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Preoperative Multimodal Mobile Health Assessment in Spine Surgery Candidates.

Background: Rapid growth in smartphone use has expanded opportunities to use mobile health (mHealth) technology to collect real-time patient-reported and objective biometric data. These data may have important implication for personalized treatments of degenerative spine disease. However, no large-scale study has examined the feasibility and acceptability of these methods in spine surgery patients.

The role of affect in chronic pain: A systematic review of within-person symptom dynamics.

Objective: Chronic pain is conceptualized as a biopsychosocial phenomenon that involves both physical and emotional processes. The vast majority of research regarding these facets of chronic pain characterizes differences between individuals. In this review, we describe problems with assuming that differences between persons accurately characterize within-person processes.

Development and Preliminary Evaluation of the Tinnitus Severity Short Form.

Purpose Tinnitus, or the perception of sounds that occur without an external sound source, is a prevalent condition worldwide. For a subset of adults, tinnitus causes significant distress and impairment. Several patient-reported outcome measures have been developed to assess severity of tinnitus distress.

Acute Symptoms of Mild to Moderate COVID-19 Are Highly Heterogeneous Across Individuals and Over Time.

Background: The symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) appear to be heterogenous, and the typical course of these symptoms is unknown. Our objectives were to characterize the common trajectories of COVID-19 symptoms and to assess how symptom course predicts other symptom changes as well as clinical deterioration.

Methods: One hundred sixty-two participants with acute COVID-19 responded to surveys up to 31 times for up to 17 days.

Feasibility and utility of idiographic models in the clinic: A pilot study.

Idiographic, or individual-level, methodology has been touted for its potential clinical utility. Empirically modeling relationships between symptoms for a single individual may offer both the client and therapist information that is useful for case conceptualization and treatment planning. However, few studies have investigated the feasibility and utility of integrating idiographic models in a clinical setting.

Examining emotional pain among individuals with chronic physical pain: Nomothetic and idiographic approaches.

Objective: Emotional pain (i.e., pain affect in response to psychological experiences such as rejection or loss) may be a component of chronic pain syndromes given high co-occurrence with depression and neurobiological overlaps in pain affect resulting from physical and emotional experiences.

mHealth Assessment and Intervention of Depression and Anxiety in Older Adults.

Mobile technology is increasingly being used to enhance health and wellness, including in the assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders. Such applications have been referred to collectively as mHealth, and this article provides a comprehensive review and clinical perspective of research regarding mHealth in late-life mood and anxiety disorders. The novel data collection offered by mHealth has contributed to a broader understanding of psychopathology, to an increased diversity of psychological interventions, and to novel methods of assessment that may ultimately provide individually adaptive mental health care for this population.

Facets of Mindfulness in Adults with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Impact of Co-occurring Depression.

Anxiety and depressive symptoms are associated with lower levels of mindfulness, yet few studies to date have examined facets of mindfulness in adults with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). In this study, we examined differences in mindfulness between individuals with GAD with and without concurrent Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and/or Dysthymic Disorder (DD). We also examined the associations of anxiety and depressive symptoms with facets (subscales) of mindfulness.