Brief family involvement enhances veteran homework quality during trauma-focused psychotherapy.

Objective: Homework has been shown to improve outcomes in cognitive-behavioral therapy, though less is known about the importance of homework during trauma-focused psychotherapy. Similarly, prior research suggests family context plays a key role in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related distress and treatment engagement. One potential way that families can facilitate better treatment outcomes is by promoting homework engagement.

Transitioning to college: Testing cognitive bias modification for interpretations as an inoculation tool for social anxiety in college first-years.

Background And Objectives: Reducing social anxiety development among incoming college students may improve college adjustment and mental health outcomes. This study tested whether cognitive bias modification for interpretations (CBM-I) reduces social anxiety and increases adjustment during the transition to college, and whether changes in outcomes would be mediated by changes in interpretation biases.

Methods: Participants (N = 73) were randomly assigned to a 3-session weekly CBM-I condition or symptom tracking (ST) control condition.

Why am I craving? The role of elaboration on ambiguous desire states.

We examined how attributions of broad ambiguous desire symptoms (eg, irritability) and elaborations on specific substances (ie, caffeine/food) influence subsequent self-reported cravings for these substances. 346 undergraduates were randomized to attribute their ambiguous desire symptoms to a lack of caffeine, food, or a vacation (active control), and then elaborate on the assigned stimulus. There was also a no-elaboration control group.

Do you believe in magical thinking? Examining magical thinking as a mediator between obsessive-compulsive belief domains and symptoms.

Background: Despite substantial research attention on obsessive beliefs, more research is needed to understand how these beliefs serve as aetiological or maintaining factors for obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. Magical thinking may allow individuals to gain a sense of control when experiencing intrusive thoughts and corresponding obsessive beliefs, potentially accounting for why OC belief domains are often related to OC symptoms.

Aims: This study examines magical thinking as a mediating variable in the relationship between OC belief domains and symptoms.