Advancing the personalized advantage index (PAI): a systematic review and application in two large multi-site samples in anxiety disorders.

Background: The Personalized Advantage Index (PAI) shows promise as a method for identifying the most effective treatment for individual patients. Previous studies have demonstrated its utility in retrospective evaluations across various settings. In this study, we explored the effect of different methodological choices in predictive modelling underlying the PAI.

Gaze behavior in response to affect during natural social interactions.

Attention in social interactions is directed by social cues such as the face or eye region of an interaction partner. Several factors that influence these attentional biases have been identified in the past. However, most findings are based on paradigms with static stimuli and no interaction potential.

Elevated accuracy in recognition of subliminal happy facial expressions in patients with panic disorder after psychotherapy.

Background: Individuals with anxiety disorders (ADs) often display hypervigilance to threat information, although this response may be less pronounced following psychotherapy. This study aims to investigate the unconscious recognition performance of facial expressions in patients with panic disorder (PD) post-treatment, shedding light on alterations in their emotional processing biases.

Methods: Patients with PD (n=34) after (exposure-based) cognitive behavior therapy and healthy controls (n=43) performed a subliminal affective recognition task.

Lack of evidence for predictive utility from resting state fMRI data for individual exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy outcomes: A machine learning study in two large multi-site samples in anxiety disorders.

Data-based predictions of individual Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) treatment response are a fundamental step towards precision medicine. Past studies demonstrated only moderate prediction accuracy (i.e.

Gonads under stress: A systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of acute psychosocial stress on gonadal steroids secretion in humans.

Animal research has shown that the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis is inhibited by (chronic and/or severe) stress, which can lead to impaired fertility and reproductive functioning, presumably caused by the inhibition of gonadal steroid secretion and in interactions with glucocorticoids. However, what has not been clarified is how acute psychosocial stress modulates gonadal steroid secretion in humans. Here we summarize the experimental research on the acute effects of stress on the secretion of gonadal steroids in humans.

Screen time and sleep among medical students in Germany.

Medical students are a vulnerable group for harmful health behaviours due to academic stress. Increased screen time is associated with adverse health behaviour, particularly delayed bedtime, shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality. This possible relationship has not yet been examined among medical students in Europe.

Enhancing precision in human neuroscience.

Human neuroscience has always been pushing the boundary of what is measurable. During the last decade, concerns about statistical power and replicability - in science in general, but also specifically in human neuroscience - have fueled an extensive debate. One important insight from this discourse is the need for larger samples, which naturally increases statistical power.

Therapeutic Reference Range for Olanzapine in Schizophrenia: Systematic Review on Blood Concentrations, Clinical Effects, and Dopamine Receptor Occupancy.

Aiming at revising the therapeutic reference range for olanzapine, the present study highlights the association between blood olanzapine levels, clinical effects, and dopamine D-receptor occupancy for oral and long-acting injectable (LAI) formulations. Databases were systematically searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and uncontrolled trials concerning blood olanzapine levels in relation to clinical outcomes or D-receptor occupancy using MEDLINE (PubMed), Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library (March 2021, updated in December 2021). We excluded articles not written in English or German and non-human data.

Optimal timing of oral metyrapone intake for the suppression of cold-pressor stress-induced cortisol release.

Background: Pharmacological manipulation of cortisol levels is instrumental in elucidating mechanisms underlying acute stress effects and for distinguishing the physiological and behavioral effects of cortisol from those of the adrenergic system. Administration (oral or IV) of hydrocortisone is a direct and efficient method to elevate cortisol, and thus, frequently used in psychobiological stress research. However, lowering of cortisol (i.

Beliefs about stress moderate the association between COVID-19-related work demands and burnout symptoms in physicians.

The present study set out to investigate the role of different stress beliefs (positive and negative beliefs about stress, as well as perceived control) on the association between central COVID-19-related work demands and burnout symptoms in physicians during the second lockdown of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. N = 154 practicing physicians (mean [SD] age = 37.21 [9.

The Forward Testing Effect Is Resistant to Acute Psychosocial Retrieval Stress.

The forward testing effect refers to the finding that testing of previously studied information improves memory for subsequently studied newer information. Recent research showed that the effect is immune to acute psychosocial encoding/retrieval stress, i.e.

Reduced eye gaze during facial emotion recognition in chronic depression: Effects of intranasal oxytocin.

Chronic depression disorders (CDD) are characterized by impaired social cognitive functioning. Visual attention during social perception is altered in clinical depression and is known to be sensitive to intranasal treatment with oxytocin (OT). The present study thus investigated potential alterations in gaze preferences during a standardized facial emotion recognition (FER) task using remote eye tracking in patients with CDD and the effect of a single dose of intranasal OT (compared to placebo).

No evidence that gaze anxiety predicts gaze avoidance behavior during face-to-face social interaction.

Eye contact is an indispensable social signal, yet for some individuals it is also a source of discomfort they fear and avoid. However, it is still unknown whether gaze anxiety actually produces avoidant gaze behavior in naturalistic, face-to-face interactions. Here, we relied on a novel dual eye-tracking setup that allows us to assess interactive gaze behavior.

Time-dependent effects of acute stress on working memory performance: A systematic review and hypothesis.

Laboratory procedures such as the Trier Social Stress Test or the (Socially Evaluated) Cold Pressor Test have been used to investigate working memory performance under stress. Researchers so far have reported a diverse spectrum of stress effects (including the lack thereof) on working memory tasks. We conducted a systematic review of the effect acute stress on working memory performance in standardized laboratory procedures.

Increased insula and amygdala activity during selective attention for negatively valenced body parts in binge eating disorder.

Previous studies indicate that participants with eating disorders show an attentional bias for the negatively valenced body parts of their own body. However, the neural basis underlying these processes has not been investigated. We conducted a preregistered combined functional MRI (fMRI)/eye tracking study and presented 35 women with binge eating disorder (BED) and 24 weight-matched control subjects (CG) with body part images of their own body and a weight-matched unknown body.

Is stress colorblind? Exploring endocrine stress responses in intergroup contexts using a virtual reality-based Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-VR).

Are social stress reactions dependent on the group identities of interaction partners? This study explored the role of ethnic context in modulating endocrine stress responses using a virtual reality (VR)-based adaptation of a standardized stress induction protocol, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-VR). Previous research found no clear link between endocrine stress response and ethnic context in the TSST, but conclusions remain limited due to the quasi-experimental nature of manipulating ethnic context in real-life face-to-face interactions. The VR adaptation of the TSST circumvents quasi-experimental limitations and thus provides a first, randomized-controlled investigation of the effects of ethnic context on endocrine stress responses.

Family Carers of People with Dementia in Japan, Spain, and the UK: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Relationships between Experiential Avoidance, Cognitive Fusion, and Carer Depression.

This study investigated whether the relationship between experiential avoidance and carer depression is mediated by cognitive fusion using path analysis and whether this model differs between family carers from Japan, Spain, and the UK using multi-group path analysis. The whole sample model ( = 745) showed a good fit to the data. The direct effect of experiential avoidance on carer depression ( = .

Concordance in salivary cortisol and subjective anxiety to the trier social stress test in social anxiety disorder.

Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterised by an excessive fear of negative social evaluation. There is a limited understanding of how individuals with SAD react physiologically and subjectively to social stress.

Method: The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), an acute social stress task, was completed by 40 SAD individuals (50% female) and 41 healthy controls (matched on age, sex, and education) to examine salivary cortisol and self-reported stress reactivity.

Guided reactivation of personal phobic memories prior to exposure exercises prevents the renewal of fear responses in subjects with claustrophobic fears.

Background And Objectives: Basic research suggest behavioral strategies for interferencing the reconsolidation of fear memories to be a promising approach in reducing clinical fears. However, first clinical studies revealed mixed results highlighting the need to identify boundary conditions. We experimentally tested the specific hypothesis that post-retrieval threat exposure prevents context renewal usually observed in protocols without fear memory reactivation.

Cross-cultural analysis of the role of ambivalent feelings for understanding caregivers' depressive symptoms.

Objectives: Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are considered to cause ambivalent feelings in caregivers that may contribute to understanding their depressive symptoms. Transnational research is needed in order to increase our knowledge about the cross-cultural equivalence of theoretical models to understand caregivers' mental health. The aim of this study was to cross-culturally analyze the association between BPSD, ambivalent feelings and depressive symptoms in two samples of family caregivers of people with dementia from Spain and the UK.