Measuring double awareness in patients with advanced cancer: A preliminary scale development study.

Background: Individuals with advanced cancer face the challenge of living meaningfully while also preparing for end of life. The ability to sustain this duality, called "double awareness," may reflect optimal psychological adaptation, but no psychometric scale exists to measure this construct.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to develop a novel scale to measure double awareness in patients living with advanced cancer.

Developing an ACT-based intervention to address lung cancer stigma: Stakeholder recommendations and feasibility testing in two NCI-designated cancer centers.

Few psychosocial interventions have been tailored to meet the unique needs of patients diagnosed with lung cancer. This pilot study developed and tested a six-week intervention for reducing lung cancer stigma. Guided by qualitative interviews conducted with 9 lung cancer patients and 5 thoracic oncology care providers, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy was adapted for treatment of lung cancer stigma (ACT-LCS).

A preventive intervention to modify depression risk targets after breast cancer diagnosis: Design and single-arm pilot study.

Objective: Apply the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Stage Model to design and test an intervention to prevent depression in breast cancer patients at risk for depression.

Methods: We identified mindful emotion awareness, along with approach and avoidance strategies for cancer-related coping and emotion regulation, as targets for a preventive intervention adapted from the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders. Patients' preferences for individual, in-person, and time-efficient sessions informed the design.

Yearning predicts subgenual anterior cingulate activity in bereaved individuals.

Complicated grief, or persistent complex bereavement disorder, is a condition that affects approximately 10% of bereaved individuals and is marked by intense longing and yearning for the deceased. Little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms contributing to this syndrome, but previous research suggests that reward pathways in the brain may play a role. Twenty-five older adults were categorized based on grief severity into one of three groups: complicated grief (CG), non-complicated grief (NCG) and non-bereaved married controls (NB).

The Vivid Present: Visualization Abilities Are Associated with Steep Discounting of Future Rewards.

Humans and other animals discount the value of future rewards, a phenomenon known as delay discounting. Individuals vary widely in the extent to which they discount future rewards, and these tendencies have been associated with important life outcomes. Recent studies have demonstrated that imagining the future reduces subsequent discounting behavior, but no research to date has examined whether a similar principle applies at the trait level, and whether training visualization changes discounting.