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Usefulness of the ACT Model for Nurses in Psychiatric Inpatient Care: A Qualitative Content Analysis

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Alleviating the suffering of patients treated in psychiatric inpatient wards is a great challenge. Preliminary or multiple diagnoses, inherent complexities of the inpatient milieu and the lack of potentially effective psychological treatment form part of this challenge. The present study explored the usefulness of a transdiagnostic psychological treatment model (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, ACT) as … Read more

Less is more: Patient-Level metaanalysis reveals paradoxical effects

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The past decade of research has seen considerable interest in computer-based approaches designed to directly target cognitive mechanisms of anxiety, such as Attention Bias Modification (ABM). By pooling patient-level datasets from randomized controlled trials of ABM that utilized a dot-probe training procedure, we assessed the impact of training ‘dose’ on relevant outcomes among a pooled sample of 693 socially … Read more

Brief acceptance and commitment therapy for psychotic inpatients: A randomized controlled feasibility trial in Sweden

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Psychiatric inpatient care in Sweden is often described as lacking in content other than medication and mere containment. In an attempt to increase structured psychological content in the ward context, this study aims to investigate whether a brief form of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a feasible addition to standard care for psychotic inpatients. … Read more

Behavioral Activation vs. Physical Activity: A Randomized Controlled Trial

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In a new study that was accepted today we had randomized 286 participants with major depression into one of five conditions. 1) physical activity without a treatment rational, 2) physical activity with a treatment rational, 3) Lewinshon’s model of behavioral activation, 4) Martell’s model of behavioral activation, or 5) wait-list control. All groups (including the … Read more

Experiences of Playscan: Interviews with users of a responsible gambling tool

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Online gambling, encompassing a wide variety of activities and around-the-clock access, can be a potential risk factor for gamblers who tend to gamble excessively. Yet, the advent of online gambling has enabled responsible gambling features that may help individuals to limit their gambling behaviour. One of these is tools that track gamblers’ behaviour, performs risk … Read more

Creating state of the art, next-generation Virtual Reality exposure therapies for anxiety disorders using consumer hardware platforms: Design considerations and future directions

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Decades of research and more than 20 randomized controlled trials show that Virtual Reality exposure therapy (VRET) is effective in reducing fear and anxiety. Unfortunately, few providers or patients have had access to the costly and technical equipment previously required. Recent technological advances in the form of consumer VR systems (e.g. Oculus Rift and Samsung … Read more

Structural but not functional neuroplasticity one year after effective cognitive behaviour therapy for social anxiety disorder

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Effective psychiatric treatments ameliorate excessive anxiety and induce neuroplasticity immediately after the intervention, indicating that emotional components in the human brain are rapidly adapTable Still, the interplay between structural and functional neuroplasticity is poorly understood, and studies of treatment-induced long-term neuroplasticity are rare. Functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (using 3 T MRI) was performed … Read more

Internet-delivered acceptance-based behavior therapy for generalized anxiety disorder: A pilot study

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Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) has been developed and tested for treating persons with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). A new form of CBT focuses on acceptance (of internal experiences or difficult psychological content), mindfulness and valued actions. To date this form of CBT has not been delivered via the internet for persons with GAD. The … Read more

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with a smartphone

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can be effective in treating anxiety disorders, yet there has been no study on Internet-delivered ACT for social anxiety disorder (SAD) and panic disorder (PD), nor any study investigating whether therapist guidance is superior to unguided self-help when supplemented with a smartphone application. Until now. In a new trial, that … Read more

Effects of Added Involvement From Concerned Significant Others in Treatments for Problem Gambling

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Problem gambling is a public health concern affecting approximately 2.3 % of the Swedish population. Problem gambling also severely affects concerned significant others (CSOs). Several studies have investigated the effect of individual treatments based on cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), but less is known of the effect of involving concerned significant others in treatment. In a … Read more