Understanding the Subjective Experience of Long-term Remote Measurement Technology Use for Symptom Tracking in People With Depression: Multisite Longitudinal Qualitative Analysis.

Background: Remote measurement technologies (RMTs) have the potential to revolutionize major depressive disorder (MDD) disease management by offering the ability to assess, monitor, and predict symptom changes. However, the promise of RMT data depends heavily on sustained user engagement over extended periods. In this paper, we report a longitudinal qualitative study of the subjective experience of people with MDD engaging with RMTs to provide insight into system usability and user experience and to provide the basis for future promotion of RMT use in research and clinical practice.

Mood disorders in higher education in Flanders during the 2 and 3 COVID-19 wave: Prevalence and help-seeking: Findings from the Flemish College Surveys (FLeCS).

To examine the prevalence of 12-month mood disorders and receipt of mental health treatment among a volunteer sample of higher education students during the 2nd and 3rd COVID-19 wave in the Flanders region. Web-based self-report surveys were obtained from 9101 students in higher education in the Flemish College Surveys (FLeCS) in Flanders, Belgium. As part of the World Health Organization's World Mental Health-International College Student Initiative, we screened for 12-month mood disorders (major depressive episode (MDE), mania/hypomania), and service use.

Coping and sleep quality in youth: An Experience Sampling study.

Introduction: Sleep quality is closely linked with mental health. Two factors that influence sleep are coping style and locus of control, yet these have not been investigated in daily life. In this study, we examined associations between coping styles and sleep quality in daily life and the potential mediating effect of daily locus of control in a sample of youth, a group particularly vulnerable to developing psychopathology.

Detecting anomalous experiences in the community: The Transpersonal Experiences Questionnaire (TEQ).

Objectives: There is growing recognition of the value of researching anomalous experiences in the general population to aid our understanding of the psychosis continuum. There are key differences in aims, foci and epistemologies of existing measures, with varying utility for specific research designs. This study addresses gaps in the literature by developing a measure of anomalous experiences with utility for longitudinal (time-sensitive) research, and with particular reliability for people towards the upper (high scoring) end of the continuum.

Is daily-life stress reactivity a measure of stress recovery? An investigation of laboratory and daily-life stress.

Typical measures of laboratory reactivity (i.e. difference between control and stress) and recovery (i.

Biopsychosocial Response to the COVID-19 Lockdown in People with Major Depressive Disorder and Multiple Sclerosis.

Background: Changes in lifestyle, finances and work status during COVID-19 lockdowns may have led to biopsychosocial changes in people with pre-existing vulnerabilities such as Major Depressive Disorders (MDDs) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

Methods: Data were collected as a part of the RADAR-CNS (Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-Central Nervous System) program. We analyzed the following data from long-term participants in a decentralized multinational study: symptoms of depression, heart rate (HR) during the day and night; social activity; sedentary state, steps and physical activity of varying intensity.

mHealth in psychiatry: A pathway to person-centered care.

Influenced by the field of epidemiology and the early ecological psychologists, my research focused on the role of person-environment interactions in the development and maintenance of psychopathology - a field I would name Contextual Psychiatry. To capture the interaction between the person and the environment, I was one of the early adopters of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) in mental health research. Using ESM, we demonstrated that there is an affective pathway to psychosis, characterized by increased stress-reactivity.

Positive Affective Recovery in Daily Life as a Momentary Mechanism Across Subclinical and Clinical Stages of Mental Disorder: Experience Sampling Study.

Background: Identifying momentary risk and protective mechanisms may enhance our understanding and treatment of mental disorders. Affective stress reactivity is one mechanism that has been reported to be altered in individuals with early and later stages of mental disorder. Additionally, initial evidence suggests individuals with early and enduring psychosis may have an extended recovery period of negative affect in response to daily stressors (ie, a longer duration until affect reaches baseline levels after stress), but evidence on positive affective recovery as a putative protective mechanism remains limited.

Effects of risperidone on psychotic symptoms and cognitive functions in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome: Results from a clinical trial.

Background: Carriers of the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) have an enhanced risk of developing psychotic disorders. Full-blown psychosis is typically diagnosed by late adolescence/adulthood.

Effect of stressful life events on subclinical psychotic symptoms in first-degree relatives and healthy controls.

Exposure to Stressful Life Events (SLEs) has been linked to psychosis. However, the combined effect of SLEs and familial risk on subclinical psychotic symptoms over time remains unknown. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of SLEs on the level of subclinical psychotic symptoms in individuals with and without familial vulnerability for psychosis.

Impact of smartphone overuse on 1-year severe depressive symptoms and momentary negative affect: Longitudinal and experience sampling findings from a representative epidemiological youth sample in Hong Kong.

Smartphone overuse can have detrimental impacts on youth mental health. How it may be longitudinally associated with depressive symptoms and functioning, and with daily momentary affect, remains to be investigated. A total of 3,033 young people were consecutively recruited from a large-scale epidemiological youth mental health study in Hong Kong.

Social context and loneliness in an epidemiological youth sample using the Experience Sampling Method.

Background: Previous research has shown the relationship between loneliness and affect, as well as the relationship between trait loneliness and state loneliness. However, none has investigated how social context affects the association between loneliness and affect. The current study aims to examine the association between trait loneliness, state loneliness and momentary affects in different social contexts.

Lifetime and Current Self-Harm Thoughts and Behaviors and Their Relationship to Parent and Peer Attachment.

Previous research suggests attachment is a vulnerability factor for self-harm thoughts and behaviors in adults. Yet, few studies have investigated this relationship during adolescence, although adolescence is a critical period for changes in attachment relationships and self-harm onset. Whether and how attachment relates to self-harm thoughts and behaviors as measured in daily life is also unknown.

Delayed affective recovery to daily-life stressors signals a risk for depression.

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the time to affective recovery from daily-life stressors between healthy controls (HC) and two groups with an increased risk for developing depression: individuals with subclinical symptoms of depression (SSD), and individuals remitted from a depressive episode with residual symptoms of depression (RRS).

Method: The experience sampling method (ESM) was used to measure affective recovery to daily-life stressors. Affective recovery was defined as the moment that negative affect (NA) returned to baseline level following the first stressful event of the day.

Associations Between Depression Symptom Severity and Daily-Life Gait Characteristics Derived From Long-Term Acceleration Signals in Real-World Settings: Retrospective Analysis.

Background: Gait is an essential manifestation of depression. However, the gait characteristics of daily walking and their relationships with depression have yet to be fully explored.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore associations between depression symptom severity and daily-life gait characteristics derived from acceleration signals in real-world settings.

Practitioner and researcher perspectives on the utility of ecological momentary assessment in mental health care: A survey study.

Background: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a scientific self-monitoring method to capture individuals' daily life experiences. Early on, EMA has been suggested to have the potential to improve mental health care. However, it remains unclear if and how EMA should be implemented.

Designing daily-life research combining experience sampling method with parallel data.

Background: Ambulatory monitoring is gaining popularity in mental and somatic health care to capture an individual's wellbeing or treatment course in daily-life. Experience sampling method collects subjective time-series data of patients' experiences, behavior, and context. At the same time, digital devices allow for less intrusive collection of more objective time-series data with higher sampling frequencies and for prolonged sampling periods.

The role of threat anticipation in the development of psychopathology in adolescence: findings from the SIGMA Study.

Childhood adversity is associated with psychopathology. First evidence in adults suggests that threat anticipation, i.e.

Altered developmental trajectories of verbal learning skills in 22q11.2DS: associations with hippocampal development and psychosis.

Background: The cognitive profile in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) is often characterized by a discrepancy between nonverbal verbal reasoning skills, in favor of the latter skills.

Exploring associations between diurnal cortisol, stress, coping and psychopathology in adolescents and young adults with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

Background: 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a neurogenetic condition associated to a high risk for psychiatric disorders, including psychosis. Individuals with 22q11DS are thought to experience increased levels of chronic stress, which could lead to alterations in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA)-axis functioning.