Gaining awareness of psychosis (i.e., insight) is linked to depression, particularly in the post-acute phase of psychosis. Informed by social rank theory, we examined whether the insight–depression relationship is explained by reduced social rank related to psychosis and whether self-compassion (including uncompassionate self-responding [UCS] and compassionate self-responding [CSR]) and mindfulness buffered the relationship between social rank and depression in individuals with first episode psychosis during the post-acute phase.
Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common perinatal complication with adverse maternal and infant outcomes. This study investigated the efficacy and safety of zuranolone, a positive allosteric modulator of synaptic and extrasynaptic GABAA receptors and neuroactive steroid, as an oral, once-daily, 14-day treatment course for patients with severe PPD. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The review showed that robust evidence for the effectiveness of iCBT as an add-on to TAU is still limited, with results not necessarily generalisable to people from different backgrounds based on age, gender, education, and mental healthcare settings. Clearly more research is needed, as remotely delivered, self-guided iCBT has the promise to increase accessibility and be more cost-effective.
The findings suggest the involvement of both innate and adaptive immune cells in the development of depression.
Identifying dysfunctional immune cell subsets could help select patients with depression who show signs of immune dysfunction for future immunotherapy trials. However, further studies are needed to understand causality and how immune cell dysfunction relates to cytokine and neurotransmitter dysregulation.
To manage ‘treatment-resistant depression’, research has demonstrated that a multidisciplinary approach should be utilised (i.e., administration of medication as well as psychological support). In the current study, psilocybin was administered during a single session of psychological support. More research needs to be conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using psilocybin alongside a course of psychological support (e.g., Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).
No previous studies have reported predictors and moderators of outcome of psychological therapies for depression experienced by adults with intellectual disabilities (IDs). We investigated baseline variables as outcome predictors and moderators based on a randomised controlled trial where behavioural activation was compared with guided self-help. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This study used structural equation modelling to test the prediction that intolerance of uncertainty and emotion regulation constitute more direct causes of anxiety in autism that mediate the influences of sensory processing difference and alexithymia as more sequential contributing factors. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) is a risk factor for the pathogenesis of depressive disorders. However, it is not clear whether CEM is more strongly related to specific symptoms of depression and whether specific traits or cognitive states may mediate the association between CEM and depressive symptoms. In our cross-sectional study, including 72 patients with a current depressive episode, we investigated if CEM is specifically related to cognitive symptoms of depression.
Overall, this research brings to light many ways in which access can be improved. However, as the authors mention, it is important to keep in mind that the process of improving access is not a “one size fits all” approach. Instead, programs that aim to improve access should carefully consider their target audience and combine a variety of complementary strategies. In conclusion, the authors talk about practice guidelines. They suggest that each category of healthcare providers would benefit from specific guidelines on improving access to CBT through their specific roles.
By investigating parents’ depression and how it can be associated with children’s emotional difficulties, this study showed that if untreated, mental ill-health can have significant long-lasting effects on the mother, father and children.
As this study points out, the activating and associating depressive symptoms between family members can be targeted for more rapid recovery, and may be key to identifying who might be more at risk of developing depression in young children, and later unintentionally influencing the transmission of depression.
Despite limitations, the findings from this study have important clinical and research implications for treating adolescent depression.
For clinicians, it may be beneficial at the beginning of a case of treatment for adolescent depression to develop a set of personalised outcome goals with the patient, with recognition that this is likely to vary greatly between individuals. Treatment could then be jointly chosen by the patient and clinician to ensure these priorities are addressed. This approach could also take into account what the patient thinks their key problem areas are, and what they consider to be valuable improvements. This would also provide a good framework when reviewing clinical decisions of whether to continue or change treatments.
The provision of cCBT through the NHS could help some young people who need support for anxiety and depression to access the treatment they need more easily. This could be of particular benefit to young people who would not otherwise be able to access traditional face-to-face therapies or who would prefer something remote. However, this review makes it clear that the evidence base for cCBT is currently weak and that high-quality future research is needed, so caution needs to be taken by practitioners before recommending cCBT programs.
Previously improving UK mortality trends stalled around 2012, with evidence implicating economic policy as the cause. This paper examines whether trends in psychological distress across three population surveys show similar trends. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This study aimed to investigate whether separation anxiety (SA) constitutes a dimension related to age at onset of panic disorder (PD), in homogeneous subgroups of outpatients with PD, based on their age of onset and symptom severity.
The 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic led to elevated levels of psychological distress on a global scale. Given that individuals with pre-existing physical conditions are at risk for worse COVID-19 outcomes, those dealing with the stress of physical health problems (including knowing someone with health problems) may experience more severe distress during the pandemic. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Personality traits underlying both anxiety disorders and depression are more malleable than previously presumed. This study examined associations between changes in personality traits (i.e. negative affectivity and detachment) and alleviation of anxiety and depression symptoms following cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT).
Intuitively, it makes sense for researchers to be investigating how effective digital mental health support is for a technology-savvy generation. Long waiting lists show that the need for more accessible interventions is there, but these findings indicate that current internet-delivered interventions may not be effective enough to meet this need.
The clinical effect of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been confirmed for a majority of patients with several psychiatric disorders. ECT is mostly used in patients with severe depression.
Choosing, persevering with and completing ECT depends on the patients' motivation for undergoing this therapy. However, the factors influencing patients' motivation for ECT have not yet been studied. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Major depressive disorder is the most prevalent of all mental illnesses.
10%–20% of patients with depression and 1% of the population overall have treatment-resistant depression (TRD).
DBS is an emerging investigational treatment for TRD with documented clinical efficacy and safety.
The framework of the recovery model includes both clinical and personal recovery. Personal recovery is a self-process in which hope, empowerment and optimism are embraced to overcome the impact of mental illness on one's sense of self.
Although clinical and functional outcomes of DBS for TRD have been well documented in the previous studies, personal recovery as an outcome has been explored only in a handful of studies.
Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide that negatively impacts quality of life. Talk therapy such as cognitive behavioural therapy is an effective treatment for depression. The Internet is an important tool for mental healthcare delivery. Internet-delivered or online talk therapy interventions are associated with lower costs and improved accessibility.
Current reviews do not address the effectiveness of Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) on quality of life (QoL). To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
To investigate the impact of persistent anxiety, depression, and comorbid anxiety and depression across childhood and adolescence on the development of multiple adverse outcomes in young adulthood. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Mother and father depression symptoms often co-occur, and together can have a substantial impact on child emotional well-being. Little is understood about symptom-level mechanisms underlying the co-occurrence of depression symptoms within families. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This review highlights the potential for community interventions to reach marginalised groups that may not access health services. Despite the lack of robust evidence, the included trials did show promising effects of community interventions on anxiety and depression
It is really encouraging that CBT performs better than control conditions for reducing depression symptoms up to 12 months later and across many different formats and populations. CBT has been well tested for depression, and whilst there is still much room for improvement (e.g., the effect sizes are much more modest for child and adolescent trials than for trials in adults), we can be reasonably confident, given these findings, that CBT is worth investing in as a treatment approach. That said, one size doesn’t fit all, and again, it is encouraging that self-help CBT, even without human support input, was at least moderately good at reducing depression symptoms.
These findings suggest that interventions designed to prevent or reduce depressive symptoms in people with autism spectrum disorder and mild intellectual disability should include among their goals emotional regulation. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
In the general population, low self-esteem has been linked with poorer mental and physical health. This systematic literature review aimed to summarise and evaluate the findings of studies that examined self-esteem in adults with intellectual disabilities and links with mental health outcomes. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The associations among psychotic experiences (i.e., hallucinations and delusions), trauma exposure, and posttraumatic stress symptoms are complex and multidirectional. Using network analysis to understand how psychotic experiences and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) relate to one another may identify new interventional targets to treat comorbidity and its underlying pathological processes. This study aimed to use network analysis to examine the associations among psychotic experiences; negative symptoms of psychosis; and symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by persistent worry and anxiety, often with a chronic course. We tested the role of two suggested underlying factors in GAD, interpersonal problems and negative metacognitive beliefs, as predictors of trait-worry and trait-anxiety. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Because the diagnostic criteria of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are not tied to specific worry domains (worry is ‘generalized’), research on the content of worry in GAD is lacking. To our knowledge, no study has addressed vulnerability for specific worry topics in GAD. The goal of the current study, a secondary analysis of data from a clinical trial, is to explore the relationship between pain catastrophizing and worry about health in a sample of 60 adults with primary GAD.
Meta-analytic research shows early response to psychotherapy to predict depression and anxiety outcomes at posttreatment. However, little is known about which variables explain differences in early response. Moreover, for patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), there is limited research on whether early response predict longer-term changes in symptoms. In this study, we used anxiety and controllability beliefs assessed in daily life at intake to predict early response to treatment (until session 5), and we further examined if early response predicts longer-term changes in symptoms (until posttreatment, when adjusting for intake symptom severity) in patients with GAD. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Depression has a large socioeconomic burden, affecting an estimated 280 million people worldwide. Up to 55% remain symptomatic following pharmacological and psychological treatment and may be classified as having treatment-resistant depression. This commentary assesses two treatment options for this group – electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and a novel approach, magnetic seizure therapy (MST) – with reference to a Cochrane Review comparing the two. The Cochrane analysis showed no clear benefit for MST, but the evidence is currently insufficient to draw firm conclusions. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Magnetic seizure therapy for treatment-resistant depression: a Cochrane Review - Volume 29 Issue 2 To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Family history is an established risk factor for mental illness. The authors sought to investigate whether polygenic scores (PGSs) can complement family history to improve identification of risk for major mood and psychotic disorders. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) protocols increasingly use subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) functional connectivity to individualize treatment targets. However, the efficacy of this approach is unclear, with conflicting findings and varying effect sizes across studies. Here, the authors investigated the effect of the stimulation site’s functional connectivity with the sgACC (sgACC-StimFC) on treatment outcome to rTMS in 295 patients with major depression. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of cariprazine, a dopamine D3-preferring D3/D2 and serotonin 5-HT1A receptor partial agonist, as adjunctive therapy for patients with major depressive disorder and nonresponse to at least one antidepressant monotherapy. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
One in three adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) do not experience clinically significant improvement after multiple sequential courses of antidepressants and have treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The presence of TRD contributes to the morbidity and excess mortality associated with MDD and has been linked to significantly increased health care expenses. In the absence of a consensus definition of TRD, this report takes a broad approach by considering inadequate response to one or more courses of antidepressants and focuses on atypical antipsychotics that are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of depression (aripiprazole, brexpiprazole, cariprazine, extended-release quetiapine, and olanzapine-fluoxetine combination). To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The present study aimed at investigating the relationships between autistic features and cognitive deficits, functionality and quality of life in first episode psychosis (FEP) patients. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Schizotypy reflects the vulnerability to schizophrenia in the general population. Different questionnaires have been developed to measure aspects of schizotypy. Higher schizotypy scores have also been linked with depression, anxiety, and stress sensitivity. Here we examine the associations of schizotypy with symptoms of depression and anxiety in a sample of university students, using two different measures (N = 271). To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
There have been limited prospective investigations of early clinical markers involved in mood regulation and diagnosis change in young patients. This study aimed to evaluate the changes in impulsivity and defence mechanisms in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD) with acute symptoms and remission compared to healthy controls (HC), and possible psychological predictors of diagnosis conversion. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Growing evidence suggests that community-based interventions may be effective for anxiety and depression. This study aimed to describe studies of community interventions delivered to adults and/or young people, either in person or online, evaluated in randomised controlled trials and provide an indication as to their effectiveness, acceptability, quality of data and where possible, mechanisms of action. We included interventions delivered at and/or by museums, art galleries, libraries, gardens, music groups/choirs and sports clubs.
Depression is a major source of symptoms and disability. In adults, maladaptive coping (usually characterized as personality dysfunction) has been shown to be associated with a depression diagnosis and poorer depression outcome. As adults with maladaptive coping difficulties are more prone to depression, we hypothesized that children with childhood disorders that involve poor coping would increase the risk of later developing depressive disorders. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The under-detection of depression in adolescents suggests that a better understanding of its presentation may be needed. Conceptualisations of adolescent depression are largely the same as adult depression, with minimal consideration of developmental stage. Exploration of first-hand accounts could help to identify any unique features of adolescent depression. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to understand the lived experience of adolescents with depression to inform clinical practice.
The authors sought to determine the shared and unique changes in brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between patients with major depressive disorder who achieved remission with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or with antidepressant medication. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with decreased risk for depression, but it remains unclear whether this is a causal relationship or a methodological artifact. To compare the effects of consistent abstinence and occasional, moderate, and above-guideline alcohol consumption throughout early to middle adulthood on depression at age 50, the authors conducted a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort and employed a marginal structural model (MSM) approach. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Despite substantial progress in identifying genomic variation associated with major depression, the mechanisms by which genomic and environmental factors jointly influence depression risk remain unclear. Genomically conferred sensitivity to the social environment may be one mechanism linking genomic variation and depressive symptoms. The authors assessed whether social support affects the likelihood of depression development differently across the spectrum of genomic risk in two samples that experienced substantial life stress. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Recognising that physical activity-based interventions are potentially effective in reducing anxiety symptoms in children and young people, especially for those suffering from mental health conditions, has important implications for children and their families or carers, and may inform and guide clinicians in their practice, as well as policy-makers, mental health services and advisory bodies.
The authors concluded that perceived workplace discrimination can significantly increase the risk of employees developing severe depressive symptomatology and lead to the onset of a depressive disorder. Additionally, the authors highlighted that this relationship can be affected and differentiated by other work-related variables, such as workload and relationships with colleagues.