Multiple sclerosis twin study reveals distinct genetic, disease-specific, and psychometric impact on coping with critical life events.

Background: Critical life events challenge our competence to develop coping strategies. In people with multiple sclerosis (MS), the impact of genetics, disease-specific, and psychometric factors on coping strategies have not been explored to date.

Methods: In a unique cohort of 56 monozygotic twins discordant for MS, we applied comprehensive psychometric and clinical testing to measure factors influencing the psychosocial impact (including stressors and coping strategies) of a critical life event, exemplified by the COVID-19 pandemic (measured by the COVID-19 Pandemic Mental Health Questionnaire, CoPaQ).

Nightmares and psychiatric symptoms: A systematic review of longitudinal, experimental, and clinical trial studies.

Nightmares occur across a wide range of psychiatric disorders, but outside of PTSD presentations are infrequently considered a treatment priority. We aimed to assess evidence for a contributory causal role of nightmares to the occurrence of psychiatric disorders, and vice versa. A systematic review was conducted of longitudinal, experimental, and clinical trial studies.

Association of loneliness and social network size in adulthood with childhood maltreatment: Analyses of a population-based and a clinical sample.

Background: Perceived loneliness and objective social network size are related but distinct factors, which negatively affect mental health and are prevalent in patients who have experienced childhood maltreatment (CM), for example, patients with persistent depressive disorder (PDD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD). This cross-diagnostic study investigated whether loneliness, social network size, or both are associated with self-reported CM.

Methods: Loneliness and social network size were assessed in a population-based sample at two time points (Study 1,  = 509), and a clinical group of patients with PDD or BPD (Study 2,  = 190) using the UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Social Network Index.

Loneliness is associated with maladaptive schema modes in patients with persistent depressive disorder.

Objectives: Though loneliness represents a public health concern, this complex unpleasant feeling is commonly neglected in psychiatric care and may constitute a new treatment target in clinical groups particularly prone to feeling lonely and socially isolated, e.g., persistent depressive disorder (PDD).

Identifying potential mechanisms between childhood trauma and the psychological response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: a longitudinal study.

Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been associated with adverse psychosocial outcomes during the pandemic, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. In a prospective online study using baseline and 10-week follow-up data of 391 German participants, we applied multiple mediation analyses to test to what extent COVID-19 perceived stressors mediate the association between CM and later adverse psychosocial outcomes compared to established mediators of rumination and insecure attachment. We also explored the relative importance of different COVID-19 related stressors in predicting adverse psychological trajectories using elastic net regression.

The COVID-19 Pandemic Mental Health Questionnaire (CoPaQ): psychometric evaluation and compliance with countermeasures in psychiatric inpatients and non-clinical individuals.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted people's lives across a broad spectrum of psychosocial domains. We report the development and psychometric evaluation of the self-report COVID-19 Pandemic Mental Health Questionnaire (CoPaQ), which assesses COVID-19 contamination anxiety, countermeasure necessity and compliance, mental health impact, stressor impact, social media usage, interpersonal conflicts, paranoid ideations, institutional & political trust, conspiracy beliefs, and social cohesion. Further, we illustrate the questionnaire's utility in an applied example investigating if higher SARS-Cov-2 infection rates in psychiatric patients could be explained by reduced compliance with preventive countermeasures.

The Psychosocial Burden on Liver Transplant Recipients during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Introduction: Due to the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic, multiple measures have been implemented including social distancing and curfews. Both the disease and measures might cause stress, particularly in persons at risk, such as liver transplant (LT) recipients. Here, we evaluated the impact on psychosocial well-being of LT recipients.

Differential psychological response to the COVID-19 pandemic in psychiatric inpatients compared to a non-clinical population from Germany.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an inherently stressful situation, which may lead to adverse psychosocial outcomes in various populations. Yet, individuals may not be affected equally by stressors posed by the pandemic and those with pre-existing mental disorders could be particularly vulnerable. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the psychological response to the pandemic in a case-control design.

Catastrophic cognitions about coronavirus: the Oxford psychological investigation of coronavirus questionnaire [TOPIC-Q].

Background: Cognitive therapies are developed on the principle that specific cognitive appraisals are key determinants in the development and maintenance of mental health disorders. It is likely that particular appraisals of the coronavirus pandemic will have explanatory power for subsequent mental health outcomes in the general public. To enable testing of this hypothesis we developed a questionnaire assessing coronavirus-related cognitions.

Loneliness, Social Isolation and Their Difference: A Cross-Diagnostic Study in Persistent Depressive Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder.

Interpersonal difficulties are a key feature of persistent depressive disorder (PDD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD). Caught in a vicious circle of dysfunctional interpersonal transaction, PDD and BPD patients are at great risk of experiencing prolonged loneliness. Loneliness, in turn, has been associated with the development of mental disorders and chronic illness trajectories.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Nightmares for Patients with Persecutory Delusions (Nites): An Assessor-Blind, Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Nightmares are relatively common in patients experiencing psychosis but rarely assessed or treated. Nightmares may maintain persecutory delusions by portraying fears in sensory-rich detail. We tested the potential benefits of imagery-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for nightmares on nightmare severity and persecutory delusions.

Stabilising sleep for patients admitted at acute crisis to a psychiatric hospital (OWLS): an assessor-blind pilot randomised controlled trial.

Background: When patients are admitted onto psychiatric wards, sleep problems are highly prevalent. We carried out the first trial testing a psychological sleep treatment at acute admission (Oxford Ward sLeep Solution, OWLS).

Methods: This assessor-blind parallel-group pilot trial randomised patients to receive sleep treatment at acute crisis [STAC, plus standard care (SC)], or SC alone (1 : 1).

Nightmares in the general population: identifying potential causal factors.

Background: Nightmares are inherently distressing, prevent restorative sleep, and are associated with a number of psychiatric problems, but have rarely been the subject of empirical study. Negative affect, linked to stressful events, is generally considered the key trigger of nightmares; hence nightmares have most often been considered in the context of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, many individuals with heightened negative affect do not have nightmares.