An open trial of a brief transdiagnostic internet treatment for anxiety and depression

The present study evaluated the efficacy of a brief version of an internet-administered transdiagnostic CBT protocol, the Wellbeing Program (Titov et al., 2011), designed to treat three anxiety disorders and major depression within the same program. This brief version included the same core CBT skills as the original, but condensed the materials from 8 to 5 online lessons, reduced the duration of treatment from 10 to 8 weeks and did not include an online forum. Thirty-two individuals with a principal diagnosis of major depression, generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder or social phobia received CBT-based online educational lessons, homework assignments, weekly contact from a clinical psychologist and automated emails. Eighty-one percent of participants completed the lessons within the 8 week program. Post-treatment and 3-month follow-up data were collected from 28/32 and 31/32 participants respectively. Participants improved significantly on the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales – 21 Item, Patient Health Questionnaire – 9 Item, and Generalised Anxiety Disorder – 7 Item scales, with corresponding within-group effect sizes (Cohen’s d) at follow-up of 1.05, .73, and .95, respectively. Participants rated the procedure as highly acceptable with gains of a similar magnitude as those found for the original program, but less time was spent per participant by the clinician in the present trial (mean = 44.61 min, SD = 34.45) compared to the original program (mean = 84.76 min, SD = 50.37). These results provide additional support for the efficacy of transdiagnostic iCBT in the treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders and indicate that a brief version may be of benefit.     

An inexpensive integrated circuit intracranial stimulator

An intracranial stimulation unit which offers precise control of stimulus duration, frequency, and current is described. The unit generates a square wave stimulus output utilizing very inexpensive, easily constructed integrated circuitry.     

Associative and Normative Accounts of Negative Transfer

Subjects were given a prediction task in which they had to learn that one cue, P (positive), was followed by the outcome, and a compound of P and another cue, N (negative), was not followed by the outcome. Next, N was tested in compound with a transfer cue, T, which had signalled the outcome but had never been compounded with N. Experiment 1 confirmed an important assumption of the Rescorla-Wagner model (Wagner & Rescorla, 1972) that negation of T should depend on the specific P cue compound with N being positively contingent. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed the model's prediction that no decrement in negative transfer should be observed following postlearning devaluation of P. Unfortunately, the model did not anticipate that a large proportion of devaluation trials relative to learning trials would attenuate negative transfer (Experiment 4), nor did it predict that negative transfer would occur when P was neutral during the learning stage and was only later made positive (Experiment 3). The results can be accommodated by the Rescorla-Wagner model if one assumes that absent cues have their associative strengths altered.     

“Ethical considerations in providing psychological services to unaccompanied immigrant children”

Over 50,000 youth, mostly between the ages of 13 and 17 years, migrated to the United States (US) without familial accompaniment in the fiscal year 2018. The tripartite process of pre-flight, flight, and resettlement exposes these unaccompanied immigrant children (UIC) to multiple, and often ongoing, traumatic events that can significantly and adversely impact their mental health into adulthood. However, the ethical considerations for psychologists working with this growing population, with limited exceptions, remain largely unaddressed. As more and more UIC flee their home countries due to violence, abuse, and economic instability only to experience further stressors during the processes of detainment, custodial placement, and acculturative adjustment in the US, there is an increasing need for psychological services; thus, the importance of preparation of mental health providers is increasingly significant. Psychologists must have the requisite skills and knowledge of the complex experiences of UIC, and of how these intersect with salient cultural, developmental, and systemic factors, as a means of providing competent and ethical mental health treatment. The present article highlights several ethical issues that arise when providing psychological services to UIC, with particular consideration paid to the embeddedness of UIC in various organizational entities with which psychologists will likely need to interface when working with this population. Implications and recommendations for practicing psychologists and training programs are discussed.