Life-review therapy with computer supplements for depression in the elderly: a randomized controlled trial.

Life-review therapy has been recognized as an effective therapeutic approach for depression in older adults. Additionally, the use of new media is becoming increasingly common in psychological interventions. The aim of this study was to investigate a life-review therapy in a face-to-face setting with additional computer use.

Diagnostic and clinical considerations in prolonged grief disorder.

This review focuses on the similarities and differences between prolonged grief disorder (PGD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It highlights how a PTSD-related understanding aids the investigation and clinical management of PGD. Grief has long been understood as a natural response to bereavement, as serious psychological and physiological stress has been regarded as a potential outcome of extreme or traumatic stress.

The working alliance in a randomized controlled trial comparing online with face-to-face cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression.

Background: Although numerous efficacy studies in recent years have found internet-based interventions for depression to be effective, there has been scant consideration of therapeutic process factors in the online setting. In face-to face therapy, the quality of the working alliance explains variance in treatment outcome. However, little is yet known about the impact of the working alliance in internet-based interventions, particularly as compared with face-to-face therapy.

Midlife motivational abilities predict apathy and depression in Alzheimer disease: the aging, demographics, and memory study.

Apathy and depression are the most common neuropsychiatric symptoms in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD). This study was the first to explore midlife motivational abilities as a predictor of the progression of apathy and depression in MCI and AD. It used a subsample of the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study (N = 137).

Revenge phenomena and posttraumatic stress disorder in former East German political prisoners.

To date, psychological revenge phenomena have not been investigated systematically as factors potentially contributing to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This follow-up study (1995: N = 146; 2008: N = 93) assessed the predictive power of revenge phenomena for current PTSD symptoms in a sample of former East German political prisoners some four decades after traumatization. As the results of multiple hierarchical regression analyses have revealed, revenge feelings and cognitions significantly contributed to the prediction of both self-reported and clinician-rated PTSD symptoms above and beyond standard predictor variables.

Post-traumatic stress symptoms in relatives in the first weeks after severe traumatic brain injury.

Introduction: Severe traumatic brain injury (STBI) can cause psychological stress in proxies in the long-term. This study assessed post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms in proxies of survivors of STBI in the short-term and investigated stress-associated factors.

Methods: Prospective cross-sectional study, conducted at three Swiss trauma centres over 1 year.

Psychological adaptation to life-threatening injury in dyads: the role of dysfunctional disclosure of trauma.

Background: CERTAIN MODES OF TRAUMA DISCLOSURE HAVE BEEN FOUND TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH MORE SEVERE SYMPTOMS OF POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS (PTS) IN DIFFERENT TRAUMA POPULATIONS: the reluctance to disclose trauma-related thoughts and feelings, a strong urge to talk about it, and physical as well as emotional reactions during disclosure. Although social-contextual influences gain more and more interest in trauma research, no study has yet investigated these "dysfunctional disclosure tendencies" and their association with PTS from an interpersonal perspective.

Objective: (1) To replicate previous findings on dysfunctional disclosure tendencies in patients with life-threatening injury and their significant others and (2) to study interpersonal associations between dysfunctional disclosure style and PTS at a dyadic level.

Social influences on mental health help-seeking after interpersonal traumatization: a qualitative analysis.

Background: Despite frequent and serious mental health problems after interpersonal traumatization, only a fraction of those affected by interpersonal violence seek formal help after the event. Reasons for this mismatch can be found in the individual help-seeking process but also in the individual's social environment. These social factors are explored based on a model describing the survivor's help-seeking process.

(Post-traumatic) embitterment disorder: critical evaluation of its stressor criterion and a proposed revised classification.

Background: In 2003, the German psychiatrist Michael Linden proposed the new mental disorder concept of "post-traumatic embitterment disorder (PTED)". PTED is defined as the mental reaction to a critical event that is normal, but not everyday, such as conflict at work. The patient sees this event as unjust and as a violation of basic beliefs.

Posttraumatic growth, social acknowledgment as survivors, and sense of coherence in former German child soldiers of World War II.

Objectives: To examine posttraumatic growth (PTG) and its predictors social acknowledgment as survivors, sense of coherence (SOC), trauma severity, and further factors in former child soldiers more than 60 years after deployment.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: University-based geropsychiatric center in Germany.

Adjustment disorders after severe life-events in four postconflict settings.

Background: The present study explores whether severe life-events are associated with adjustment disorders (AD) by reanalyzing the data of a multisite epidemiological survey (de Jong et al. in Lancet 361:2128-2130, 2003). AD were diagnosed according to the new stress-response-model of AD (Maercker et al.

Motivational reserve: lifetime motivational abilities contribute to cognitive and emotional health in old age.

The authors recently developed the concept of motivational reserve, which implies a set of motivational abilities that provide individuals with resilience to neuropathological damage. This study investigated how lifetime motivational abilities are associated with current cognitive status, mild cognitive impairment, and psychological well-being in old age. A community sample of 147 participants without dementia between 60 and 94 years of age, stratified for age group, sex, and education, completed motivation and well-being questionnaires and cognitive tests.

Adjustment disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, and depressive disorders in old age: findings from a community survey.

Based on a new psychopathological model of adjustment disorders (AJD), we propose that AJDs are particular forms of stress response syndromes, in which intrusions, avoidance of reminders, and failure to adapt are core symptoms. We aim to demonstrate that these AJD symptom groups constitute a disorder that is distinct from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complicated grief disorder, major depressive disorder, and subsyndromal depression, by estimating their prevalence and comorbidities. A representative sample of elderly persons from Zurich, aged 65 to 96 years, was assessed by standardized interviews or self-report questionnaires.

Comparison of two diagnostic systems for Complicated Grief.

Background: To date, there are mainly two diagnostic systems that have been proposed for the diagnosis of Complicated Grief [Horowitz, M.J., Siegel, B.

Dresden PTSD treatment study: randomized controlled trial of motor vehicle accident survivors.

Background: We translated, modified, and extended a cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) protocol by Blanchard and Hickling (2003) for the purpose of treating survivors of MVA with full or subsyndromal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) whose native language is German. The treatment manual included some additional elements, e. g.