Daily-life stress reactivity and recovery following virtual-reality-based cognitive behavioral therapy in patients with a psychotic disorder.

Introduction: Studies have consistently demonstrated increased stress sensitivity in individuals with psychosis. Since stress sensitivity may play a role in the onset and maintenance of psychosis, this could potentially be a promising target for treatment. The current study was the first to investigate whether reactivity to and recovery from daily-life stressors in psychosis change in response to treatment, namely virtual-reality-based cognitive behavioral therapy (VR-CBT).

Associations between childhood adversity, psychiatric symptoms, and self-esteem outcomes in adolescents and young adults: An experience sampling study.

Objectives: Self-esteem and self-esteem stability are important factors during adolescence and young adulthood that can be negatively impacted by childhood adversity and psychiatric symptoms. We examined whether childhood adversity and psychiatric symptoms are associated with decreased global self-esteem as well as increased self-esteem instability as measured with experience sampling method. In addition, we examined if childhood adversity moderates the association between psychiatric symptoms and self-esteem outcomes.

A clinical PREMISE for personalized models: Toward a formal integration of case formulations and statistical networks.

Over the past decade, the idiographic approach has received significant attention in clinical psychology, incentivizing the development of novel approaches to estimate statistical models, such as personalized networks. Although the notion of such networks aligns well with the way clinicians think and reason, there are currently several barriers to implementation that limit their clinical utility. To address these issues, we introduce the Prior Elicitation Module for Idiographic System Estimation (PREMISE), a novel approach that formally integrates case formulations with personalized network estimation via prior elicitation and Bayesian inference.

Evaluation of the cognitive behavioural theory of eating disorders: A network analysis investigation.

Objective: One of the prevailing theories of eating disorders (ED) is the transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural theory of eating disorders, which suggests that certain ED symptoms, such as over-valuation of eating, shape, and weight, may be more central than others. In the present study, network analyses were used to evaluate these assumptions in a patient sample.

Methods: Participants were 336 individuals receiving treatment at an expert center for ED in the Netherlands.

Reflections on psychological resilience: a comparison of three conceptually different operationalizations in predicting mental health.

Background: Psychological resilience refers to the ability to maintain mental health or recover quickly after stress. Despite the popularity of resilience research, there is no consensus understanding or operationalization of resilience.

Objective: We plan to compare three indicators of resilience that each involve a different operationalization of the construct: a) General resilience or one's self-reported general ability to overcome adversities; b) Daily resilience as momentarily experienced ability to overcome adversities; and c) Recovery speed evident in the pattern of negative affect recovery after small adversities in daily life.

Using clinical expertise and empirical data in constructing networks of trauma symptoms in refugee youth.

: In recent years, many adolescents have fled their home countries due to war and human rights violations, consequently experiencing various traumatic events and putting them at risk of developing mental health problems. The symptomatology of refugee youth was shown to be multifaceted and often falling outside of traditional diagnoses. : The present study aimed to investigate the symptomatology of this patient group by assessing the network structure of a wide range of symptoms.

Network dynamics of momentary affect states and future course of psychopathology in adolescents.

Background: Recent theories argue that an interplay between (i.e., network of) experiences, thoughts and affect in daily life may underlie the development of psychopathology.

Don't worry, be happy: Protective factors to buffer against distress associated with psychotic experiences.

Background: Around 6-7% of the general population report psychotic experiences (PEs). Positive PEs (e.g.

Bridging the gap between complexity science and clinical practice by formalizing idiographic theories: a computational model of functional analysis.

Background: The past decades of research have seen an increase in statistical tools to explore the complex dynamics of mental health from patient data, yet the application of these tools in clinical practice remains uncommon. This is surprising, given that clinical reasoning, e.g.

Expressive suppression in psychosis: The association with social context.

As emotion regulation deficits have been implicated in psychotic disorders, it is imperative to investigate not only the effect of regulation strategies but also how they are used. One such strategy is expressive suppression, the inhibition of emotion-expressive behavior, which may be influenced by social context. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether the use of expressive suppression was associated with social context and affect in daily life and if this differed between patients with psychosis and controls.

Measuring resilience prospectively as the speed of affect recovery in daily life: a complex systems perspective on mental health.

Introduction: There is growing evidence that mental disorders behave like complex dynamic systems. Complex dynamic systems theory states that a slower recovery from small perturbations indicates a loss of resilience of a system. This study is the first to test whether the speed of recovery of affect states from small daily life perturbations predicts changes in psychopathological symptoms over 1 year in a group of adolescents at increased risk for mental disorders.

Sensitivity to Peer Evaluation and Its Genetic and Environmental Determinants: Findings from a Population-Based Twin Study.

Adolescents and young adults are highly focused on peer evaluation, but little is known about sources of their differential sensitivity. We examined to what extent sensitivity to peer evaluation is influenced by interacting environmental and genetic factors. A sample of 354 healthy adolescent twin pairs (n = 708) took part in a structured, laboratory task in which they were exposed to peer evaluation.

The Cascade of Stress: A Network Approach to Explore Differential Dynamics in Populations Varying in Risk for Psychosis.

Stress plays a central role in the development and persistence of psychosis. Network analysis may help to reveal mechanisms at the level of the micro-dynamic effects between stress, other daily experiences and symptomatology. This is the first study to examine time-lagged networks of the relations between minor daily stress, momentary affect/thoughts, psychotic experiences, and other potentially relevant daily life contexts in individuals varying in risk for psychosis.

Modeling the Interplay Between Psychological Processes and Adverse, Stressful Contexts and Experiences in Pathways to Psychosis: An Experience Sampling Study.

Several integrated models of psychosis have implicated adverse, stressful contexts and experiences, and affective and cognitive processes in the onset of psychosis. In these models, the effects of stress are posited to contribute to the development of psychotic experiences via pathways through affective disturbance, cognitive biases, and anomalous experiences. However, attempts to systematically test comprehensive models of these pathways remain sparse.

Disturbances in Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis and Immunological Activity Differentiating between Unipolar and Bipolar Depressive Episodes.

Introduction: Differentiating bipolar depression (BD) from unipolar depression (UD) is difficult in clinical practice and, consequently, accurate recognition of BD can take as long as nine years. Research has therefore focused on the discriminatory capacities of biomarkers, such as markers of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis or immunological activity. However, no previous study included assessments of both systems, which is problematic as they may influence each other.

Predictors of the onset of manic symptoms and a (hypo)manic episode in patients with major depressive disorder.

Objective: One third of patients with a major depressive episode also experience manic symptoms or, even, a (hypo)manic episode. Retrospective studies on the temporal sequencing of symptomatology suggest that the majority of these patients report depressive symptoms before the onset of manic symptoms. However, prospective studies are scarce and this study will, therefore, prospectively examine the onset of either manic symptoms or a (hypo)manic episode in patients with a major depressive disorder.

The four-year course of major depressive disorder: the role of staging and risk factor determination.

Background: Much is still unclear about the mechanisms underlying the course of major depressive disorder (MDD). This study aimed to identify risk factors that predict a poor prognosis of MDD while taking into consideration its chronicity at baseline.

Methods: In patients with MDD (n = 767), we examined whether baseline clinical factors, sociodemographics, childhood trauma, personality and life events predicted the 4-year course (i.

The impact of lifestyle factors on the 2-year course of depressive and/or anxiety disorders.

Background: Although depressed and anxious patients often show an unhealthy lifestyle, much is still unclear about its impact on the natural course of disorders. This study will examine whether physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption predicted the 2-year course of depressive and/or anxiety disorders.

Methods: In a large sample of depressed and/or anxious patients (n=1275), we examined whether baseline physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption independently predicted the course of disorders at 2-year follow-up.

The association between immune activation and manic symptoms in patients with a depressive disorder.

Although recent studies have shown that immunological processes play an important role in the pathophysiology of mood disorders, immune activation may only be present in specific subgroups of patients. Our study aimed to examine whether immune activation was associated with (a) the presence of manic symptoms and (b) the onset of manic symptoms during 2 years of follow-up in depressed patients. Patients with a depressive disorder at baseline (N=957) and healthy controls (N=430) were selected from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety.

The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) for detecting (hypo)manic episodes: its validity and impact of recall bias.

Background: Bipolar disorders often remain unrecognized in clinical practice, which may be a consequence of imprecise recall of manic symptoms earlier in life. This study will therefore examine the validity of the widely-used Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) in detecting a (hypo)manic episode and explore the impact of recall bias.

Methods: As an indication of impairments in recalling manic symptoms, we examined the long-term reliability of the MDQ after two years of follow-up in a sample of 2087 persons.

Ultraslow microdialysis and microfiltration for in-line, on-line and off-line monitoring.

In medicine and biotechnology, close monitoring of molecular processes might assist to optimise therapeutic interventions and production of biochemicals, respectively. Here, we summarize the current status of two automatic and continuous sampling technologies, microdialysis and microfiltration, which facilitate both in vivo and in vitro monitoring of nearly any analyte, because they can be combined easily with many analytical techniques. Conventional microdialysis and microfiltration, which require collecting relatively large samples, are however often impractical and semi-quantitative; hence, we focus on ultraslow sampling to circumvent such limitations.