Background: Recent trends in Switzerland indicate a concerning rise in simultaneous polysubstance use among adolescents, a practice marked by the concurrent or sequential consumption of multiple psychoactive substances, notably alcohol and cannabis, alongside prescription medications (e.g. benzodiazepines) and illicit drugs, resulting in dozens of fatal outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe study the problem of recovering a planted hierarchy of partitions in a network. The detectability of a single planted partition has previously been analyzed in detail and a phase transition has been identified below which the partition cannot be detected. Here we show that, in the hierarchical setting, there exist additional phases in which the presence of multiple consistent partitions can either help or hinder detection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Research on cultural adaptation of psychological interventions indicates that a higher level of adaptation is associated with a higher effect size of the intervention. However, direct comparisons of different levels of adaptations are scarce.
Aims: This study used a smartphone-based self-help programme called Step-by-Step (Albanian: Hap-pas-Hapi) for the treatment of psychological distress among Albanian-speaking immigrants in Switzerland and Germany.
Population dynamics are driven by stochastic and density-dependent processes acting on demographic rates. Individuals differ demographically, and to capture these differences, models of population dynamics are usually structured by age and stage, rarely by sex. An effect of sex on population dynamics is expected if the dynamics of males and females differ, requiring an unequal sex ratio at birth and/or sex-specific survival probabilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDynamical systems on hypergraphs can display a rich set of behaviors not observable for systems with pairwise interactions. Given a distributed dynamical system with a putative hypergraph structure, an interesting question is thus how much of this hypergraph structure is actually necessary to faithfully replicate the observed dynamical behavior. To answer this question, we propose a method to determine the minimum order of a hypergraph necessary to approximate the corresponding dynamics accurately.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Gambling Craving Scale (GACS) is a multifaceted measure of gambling craving. Initial validation work by Young and Wohl (2009) in university student samples showed that the GACS had a three-factor structure capturing dimensions of Desire, Anticipation, and Relief. Despite its potential clinical utility as a measure of craving, the GACS has yet to be validated in people seeking treatment for gambling problems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Limited research exists on intervention efficacy for comorbid subclinical anxiety and depressive disorders, despite their common co-occurrence. Internet- and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) are promising to reach individuals facing subclinical symptoms.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a transdiagnostic and self-tailored IMI in reducing subclinical anxiety and depressive symptom severity with either individualized (IG-IMI) or automated (AG-IMI) guidance compared to a waitlist control group with care-as-usual access (WLC).
Background: Alcohol misuse is common and causes substantial harm. Internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) is effective in reducing alcohol misuse; however, the literature investigating how treatment outcomes are impacted by patients' preferences for therapist- versus self-guided ICBT for alcohol misuse is sparse.
Methods: In this preference trial, 74 eligible patients (who reported ≥ 14 drinks in the previous week and obtained scores suggesting hazardous or harmful drinking) chose between enrolling in either therapist- or self-guided ICBT for alcohol misuse.
The arrival-time hypothesis of partial seasonal migration proposes that over-winter residence is driven by reproductive benefits of early presence on the breeding grounds. Thus, it predicts increased occurrence of residence at reproductive age. In contrast, the body size hypothesis proposes age-independent benefits of residence for large individuals, who should exhibit greater winter tolerance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: OAT is a well developed and successful treatment strategy for opioid dependent patients in Europe. It has significantly contributed to the fight against the HIV and HCV pandemics, leading to an increased life expectancy in this population. Building on the OAT experiences in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland and their models of care, the objective of this study is to analyse experiences and changes in patient structures to identify necessary adaptations for the system of care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMast seeding is the episodic, massive production of plant seeds synchronized over large areas. The resulting superabundance of seeds represents a resource pulse that can profoundly affect animal populations across trophic levels. Following years of high seed production, the abundance of both seed consumers and their predators increase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The association between cannabis use and positive symptoms in schizophrenia spectrum disorders is well documented, especially via meta-analyses. Yet, findings are inconsistent regarding negative symptoms, while other dimensions such as disorganization, depression, and excitement, have not been investigated. In addition, meta-analyses use aggregated data discarding important confounding variables which is a source of bias.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Problem gambling constitutes a public health concern associated with psychopathological comorbidity, substance use, and financial difficulties. Most individuals with gambling problems avoid counseling services due to perceived stigma and their preference for self-reliance. Treatment accessibility could be improved through web-based interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Internet use disorder (IUD), characterized as the inability to control one's internet use, is associated with reduced quality of life and mental health comorbidities such as depression, substance abuse, or anxiety. Evidence-based treatment options are scarce due to the novelty of the diagnosis. Internet- and mobile-based interventions (IMI) may be an effective means to deliver psychological treatment to individuals with IUD as they address affected individuals in their online setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Digital interventions are an emerging and promising avenue for addiction prevention and mental health promotion, but their reach and use are often limited, and little is known about the factors associated with youth accessibility. is a life skills training program for addiction prevention where adolescents are proactively invited for program participation in secondary school classes. The mobile phone-based program provides individualized coaching for a period of 4 months and addresses self-management skills, social skills, and substance use resistance skills.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The pattern of substance use in Iran is characterized by a high prevalence of opioid use and opioid use disorder (OUD). Although opioid maintenance therapy (OMT) has been introduced in Iran, approximately 50% of people with opioid use disorder remain unreached. Moreover, psychosocial treatment of OUD and common mental health symptoms during OMT is limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Magellanic sub-Antarctic Forest is home to the world's southernmost avian community and is the only Southern Hemisphere analogue to Northern Hemisphere temperate forests at this latitude. This region is considered among the few remaining pristine areas of the world, and shifts in environmental conditions are predominantly driven by climate variability. Thus, understanding climate-driven demographic processes is critical for addressing conservation issues in this system under future climate change scenarios.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFModular and hierarchical community structures are pervasive in real-world complex systems. A great deal of effort has gone into trying to detect and study these structures. Important theoretical advances in the detection of modular have included identifying fundamental limits of detectability by formally defining community structure using probabilistic generative models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate change affects timing of reproduction in many bird species, but few studies have investigated its influence on annual reproductive output. Here, we assess changes in the annual production of young by female breeders in 201 populations of 104 bird species (N = 745,962 clutches) covering all continents between 1970 and 2019. Overall, average offspring production has declined in recent decades, but considerable differences were found among species and populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Problem gambling and tobacco use are highly comorbid among adults. However, there are few treatment frameworks that target both gambling and tobacco use simultaneously (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: At-risk alcohol use, particularly binge drinking, is widespread among adolescents and young adults in most Western countries. is a mobile app-based program for alcohol prevention that provides individualized coaching using a conversational agent. The current study tested the acceptance, use, and evaluation of this newly developed program and explored its potential effectiveness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn understanding of the drivers of individual fitness is a fundamental component of evolutionary ecology and life-history theory. Reproductive senescence, mate and mating tactic choice and latent heterogeneity in individual quality interact to affect individual fitness. We sought to disentangle the effects of these fitness drivers, where longitudinal data are required to understand their respective impacts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Migrant populations usually report higher smoking rates than locals. At the same time, people with a migration background have little or no access to regular smoking cessation treatment. In the last two decades, regular smoking cessation courses were adapted to reach out to Turkish- and Albanian-speaking migrants living in Switzerland.
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