Perceiving immunity, predicting somatic symptoms: Validation of the 'Perceived Immunity' scale and its association with daily health.

Objective: While ample research links health beliefs to physical health in both healthy and clinical populations, the specific health beliefs that drive this effect remain underexplored. Addressing this gap is critical for mechanistic examinations and targeted intervention development. Building on previous work, this study aimed to assess subjective beliefs about immune system efficacy and develop a novel Perceived Immunity scale.

[Placebo effect in the treatment with antidepressants : Implications for the scientific evaluation and clinical use of pharmaceutical treatments of depression].

Background: Blinded placebo treatment arms in clinical trials often achieve up to 80% of the clinical improvements of the verum groups. Apparently, the majority of the effects found in the antidepressant groups in clinical trials are due to factors that are not specific to antidepressant treatment. This article reviews the factors that contribute to the high effectiveness of placebo interventions for antidepressants.

"It's safer to believe that others don't like me" - A qualitative study on the paradoxical value of negative core beliefs in depression.

Depression is related to difficulty revising established negative self-beliefs in response to novel positive experiences. This propensity is in some way paradoxical because negative beliefs usually have many obvious negative consequences for the individual (e.g.

Induced negative affect hinders self-referential belief updating in response to social feedback.

When people receive feedback from others, this is an opportunity for them to update their self-views. People with mental health problems (e.g.

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Hope in Medicine Scale.

Background: Hope is an integral, multi-dimensional part of seeking medical treatment. The aim of this study was to develop a self-report scale, the Hope in Medicine (HIM) scale, to measure different modes of hoping in relation to the course of symptoms, the effects of treatment, and supporting medical research.

Method: We examined the psychometric properties of the scale in a sample of 74 allergic rhinitis patients participating in a 2-week randomized-controlled trial comparing open-label placebos (OLP) with treatment as usual (TAU).