Temporal relationships between happiness and psychiatric disorders and their symptom severity in a large cohort study: the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA).

Background: Notwithstanding the firmly established cross-sectional association of happiness with psychiatric disorders and their symptom severity, little is known about their temporal relationships. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether happiness is predictive of subsequent psychiatric disorders and symptom severity (and vice versa). Moreover, it was examined whether changes in happiness co-occur with changes in psychiatric disorder status and symptom severity.

Consistency of reporting sexual and physical abuse during psychological treatment of personality disorder: an explorative study.

The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of decreasing, consistent and increasing reports of sexual and physical abuse after 12 months of long-term psychological treatment of personality disorders, to investigate demographic and clinical characteristics predictive of inconsistency of reporting abuse, and to explore whether autobiographical memory may account for this inconsistency. In 229 clinical participants with an SCID II diagnosed personality disorder, 180 (78.6%) reported the same instances of invasive sexual and/or physical abuse on a trauma questionnaire (SPAQ) at baseline and follow-up, 25 (10.

Personality and changes in comorbidity patterns among anxiety and depressive disorders.

This prospective study examined the prognostic value of the Big Five personality model for changes in comorbidity patterns of emotional disorders both from a person- and trait-centered perspective. Moreover, it is investigated whether the predictive effect of personality can be attributed to symptom severity at baseline. We followed a cohort of 2566 persons (18-65 years) recruited in primary and specialized mental health care during two years.

The effects of neuroticism, extraversion, and positive and negative life events on a one-year course of depressive symptoms in euthymic previously depressed patients versus healthy controls.

We investigated a) the concurrent impact of positive and negative life events on the course of depressive symptoms in persons remitted from depression and healthy controls, b) whether the impact of life events on symptom course is moderated by the history of depression and the personality traits of neuroticism and extraversion, and c) whether life events mediate possible relationships of history of depression and personality traits with symptom course. Using data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, we examined 239 euthymic participants with a previous depressive disorder based on DSM-IV and 450 healthy controls who completed a) baseline assessments of personality dimensions (NEO Five-Factor Inventory) and depression severity (Inventory of Depressive Symptoms [IDS]) and b) 1-year follow-up assessments of depression severity and the occurrence of positive and negative life events during the follow-up period (List of Threatening Events Questionnaire). Remitted persons reported higher IDS scores at 1-year follow-up than did the controls.

Positive and negative life events and personality traits in predicting course of depression and anxiety.

Objective: To examine the prognostic value of personality dimensions and negative and positive life events for diagnostic and symptom course trajectories in depressive and anxiety disorder.

Method: A total of 1209 subjects (18-65 years) with depressive and/or anxiety disorder were recruited in primary and specialized mental health care. Personality dimensions at baseline were assessed with the NEO-FFI and incidence and date of life events retrospectively with a structured interview at 2-year follow-up.

Heart-focused anxiety as a mediating variable in the treatment of noncardiac chest pain by cognitive-behavioral therapy and paroxetine.

Objective: We compared the efficacy of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), paroxetine and placebo in the treatment of noncardiac chest pain (NCCP). We also investigated whether pre- to mid-treatment reduction of (heart-focused) anxiety mediated mid- to post-treatment pain reduction.

Methods: Sixty-nine adults with NCCP were randomly assigned to 16 weeks of outpatient treatment with CBT, paroxetine or placebo.

The specificity of childhood adversities and negative life events across the life span to anxiety and depressive disorders.

Background: Although several studies have shown that life adversities play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of both depressive and anxiety disorders, little is known about the relative specificity of several types of life adversities to different forms of depressive and anxiety disorder and the concurrent role of neuroticism. Few studies have investigated whether clustering of life adversities or comorbidity of psychiatric disorders critically influence these relationships.

Methods: Using data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), we analyzed the association of childhood adversities and negative life experiences across the lifespan with lifetime DSM-IV-based diagnoses of depression or anxiety among 2288 participants with at least one affective disorder.

The role of personality in comorbidity among anxiety and depressive disorders in primary care and specialty care: a cross-sectional analysis.

Objective: Almost no cross-sectional studies directly compared the rate and pattern of comorbidity of affective disorders in relation to personality traits of patients seen in primary care versus specialty mental health care.

Method: Using data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, we compared 1086 primary care patients with 790 consecutive specialized mental health care patients. All participants had at least one lifetime Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition-based diagnosis of depression or anxiety.

Reduced specificity of autobiographical memory in Cluster C personality disorders and the role of depression, worry, and experiential avoidance.

The study objective was to investigate whether, compared with nonclinical controls, participants with an avoidant, dependent, or obsessive-compulsive Cluster C personality disorder (PD) manifested reduced levels of memory specificity and whether the association of Cluster C PDs with memory specificity is mediated by repetitive negative thoughts and experiential avoidance. The Autobiographical Memory Test (R. J.

Can assessors and therapists predict the outcome of long-term psychotherapy in borderline personality disorder?

Surprisingly few studies have investigated the accuracy of prognostic assessments of therapy outcome by clinicians. The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between clinicians' prognostic assessments and patient characteristics and treatment outcome. Seventy-one patients with a borderline personality disorder randomly allocated to schema-focused therapy (SFT) or transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) were assessed every 3 months for 3 years.

The endorsement of dysfunctional attitudes is associated with an impaired retrieval of specific autobiographical memories in response to matching cues.

Two studies investigated a hypothesis of Dalgleish et al. (2003) that overgeneral memory may arise from matching between task cues and dysfunctional attitudes or schemas. In the first study, 111 euthymic patients with at least two previous major depressive episodes completed the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale: Form A (DAS-A) and the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT).

Inconsistencies in the self-report of traumatic experiences by unaccompanied refugee minors.

The authors investigated the consistency with which stressful life events are reported by unaccompanied refugee minors during a 12-month follow-up period and analyzed to what extent demographic and psychopathology variables affected memory consistency. From a population-based sample of 920 unaccompanied refugee minors aged 12 to 18 years old, 63% completed the follow-up measurements. Younger participants and those with lower levels of internalizing behavior and posttraumatic stress at follow-up were more prone to memory inconsistencies.

Predictors of fatigue in rescue workers and residents in the aftermath of an aviation disaster: a longitudinal study.

Objectives: Although medically unexplained physical symptoms such as fatigue are frequently observed after exposure to trauma, the vast majority of health outcomes studies in trauma and disaster research relates to the psychological and psychiatric problems met by victims. The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of (persistent) fatigue in the aftermath of a disaster and to analyze the predictive value of sociodemographic and various health-related variables for fatigue among both rescue workers and residents.

Methods: A total of 1951 rescue workers and 753 residents involved in the Bijlmermeer aviation disaster participated in this study.

Catastrophizing and internal pain control as mediators of outcome in the multidisciplinary treatment of chronic low back pain.

The aim of the present study was to examine (a) whether a cognitive-behavioral treatment (differentially) affects pain coping and cognition; and (b) whether changes in pain coping and cognition during treatment mediate treatment outcome. Participants in this randomized clinical trial were 148 patients with chronic low back pain attending a multidisciplinary treatment program consisting of operant-behavioral treatment plus cognitive coping skills training (N = 59) or group discussion (N = 58) or allocated to a waiting list control condition (N = 31). Patients improved with respect to level of depression, pain behavior and activity tolerance at posttreatment and 12-month follow-up.

Treatment outcome expectancies and hypnotic susceptibility as moderators of pain reduction in patients with chronic tension-type headache.

The aim of this study was to determine whether hypnotic susceptibility (a) predicts pain reduction posttreatment and at follow-up independent of generic expectations of treatment outcome and mode of treatment and (b) predicts persistence of pain reduction during the follow-up period. In 169 patients with chronic tension-type headaches randomly allocated to either self-hypnosis or autogenic training, pain reduction posttreatment and at follow-up was significantly associated with hypnotic susceptibility independent of generic expectations of treatment outcome and treatment condition. Moreover, it was found that early responders obtained significantly higher hypnotic susceptibility scores than nonresponders, although there were no significant differences in hypnotic susceptibility between late responders in comparison to early and nonresponders.

The complex association of pulmonary function with panic disorder: a rejoinder to Ley (1998).

In a commentary on our paper entitled "Pulmonary function in panic disorder: evidence against the dyspnea-fear theory", Ley (1998) provides a critical analysis of our study. He concludes that our failed attempt to replicate a relationship between pulmonary function and the severity of panic-related symptoms in panic disorder patients may have been a consequence of a lack of comparability between studies, a statistical anomaly, and experimenter-demand effects. After discussing his comments (with most of them we do not agree) in depth, we maintain our conclusion that: (a) pulmonary impairment is not directly associated with panic symptoms; and (b) that the existence of a distinct subgroup of panic disorder patients with signs of actual airways obstruction leading to uncontrollable dyspnea and fear of suffocation remains questionable.