Therapists' oxytocin response mediates the association between patients' negative emotions and psychotherapy outcomes.

Background: Existing literature suggests that patients' experiences of emotions, especially negative emotions, predict outcomes in psychotherapies for major depressive disorder. However, the specific mechanisms underlying this effect remain unclear. Based on studies pointing to the role of oxytocin (OT) in attachment relationships, we proposed and tested a mediation model where the therapists' hormonal responses, as represented by increases in their OT levels, mediates the association between negative emotions and symptomatic change.

Novelty-seeking trait predicts the effect of methylphenidate on creativity.

In recent years the use of psychostimulants for cognitive enhancement in healthy individuals with no psychiatric disorders has been on the rise. However, it is still unclear whether psychostimulants improve certain cognitive functions at the cost of others, and how these psychostimulants interact with individual personality differences. In the current study, we investigated whether the effect of one common stimulant, methylphenidate (MPH), on creativity is associated with novelty seeking.