Publications by authors named "Maria Jesus Blasco"

Background: Previous studies conducted in various nationally representative samples of the general population show that positive mental health is related to social prosperity. However, specific studies in university populations are scarce. In this study, we set out to explore factors associated with mental well-being (MWB) in a representative sample of first-year university students in Spain.

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Introduction: There is a high prevalence of mental health problems among university students. Better prediction and treatment access for this population is needed. In recent years, short-term dynamic factors, which can be assessed using experience sampling methods (ESM), have presented promising results for predicting mental health problems.

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Identifying major depression in children and adolescents is more challenging than in adults. Questionnaires are often used for screening or guiding clinical assessment. Several instruments of different lengths are used as equivalent measures in diagnostic decisions.

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Background: Depression and anxiety are both prevalent among university students. They frequently co-occur and share risk factors. Yet few studies have focused on identifying students at highest risk of first-onset and persistence of either of these conditions.

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Online alcohol screening may be helpful in preventing alcohol use disorders. We assessed psychometric properties of an online version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) among Spanish university students. We used a longitudinal online survey (the UNIVERSAL project) of first-year students (18-24 years old) in five universities, including the AUDIT, as part of the WHO World Mental Health International College Student (WMH-ICS) initiative.

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Background: The university period carries risk for onset of common mental disorders. Epidemiological knowledge on mental disorders among Spanish university students is limited.

Aims: To estimate lifetime and 12-month prevalence, persistence and age-of-onset of mental disorders among Spanish first-year university students, as well as associated role impairment and mental health treatment use.

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Despite the consensus achieved in the homogenization of clinical criteria by categorical psychiatric classification systems (DEM and CIE), they are criticized for a lack of validity and inability to guide clinical treatment and research. In this review article we introduce the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework as an alternative framework for translational research in psychiatry. The RDOC framework systematizes both research targets and methodology for research in psychiatry.

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Purpose: Functioning is a necessary diagnostic criterion for depression, and thus routinely assessed in depressive patients. While it is highly informative of disorder severity, its change has not been tested for prognostic purposes. Our study aimed to analyze to what extent early functioning changes predict depression in the mid-term.

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Abnormal fear conditioning processes (including fear acquisition and conditioned fear-generalization) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. Previous research has shown that individuals with panic disorder present enhanced conditioned fear-generalization in comparison to healthy controls. Enhanced conditioned fear-generalization could also characterize generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), but research so far is inconclusive.

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