Vulnerability schemas of individuals in couples relationships: a cognitive perspective

The professional literature has recently given attention to addressing individual schemas in couples relationships, with particular emphasis on the fact that individual vulnerability has a significant impact on couples relationships. This article addresses how this vulnerability can be restructured during the course of couples therapy. Case vignettes are used to illustrate how the model can be applied. Some of the implications of this model are considered in the discussion section.Authors note: Portions of this article were published in Norwegian by the first author and appear in Nordby, T.T. (2002): Kognitiv parterapi. En tilnærming som ivaretar betydningen av den individuelle sårbarheten i samspillet. Reprinted by permission of Fokus på familien 30, 46–60.     

Schizophrenia: An Update and Review

Schizophrenia is a common complex disorder characterized by psychosis, cognitive dysfunction and negative symptoms, whose etiology involves interactions between both genetic and environmental vulnerability factors. Recently, ongoing research attempting to elucidate the nature of these vulnerability factors has been generating exciting findings. The advances in understanding of environmental risk factors for mental illnesses and in genetic research into mental illnesses will be reviewed. Limitations of the findings and implications of these advances for genetic counseling practice will also be discussed.     

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: autobiographical memory predicts the course of depressive affect after nCPAP therapy

Although nCPAP therapy has proven to be efficient at removing symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), recovery from depression frequently remains unsatisfactory. Other studies have shown that recall of autobiographical memories (AM) is a psychological vulnerability marker for depression, and also have shown its predictive power for the course of depression. It is therefore hypothesized that AM also predict the course of depressive affect in OSAS patients. Fifty-four consecutively admitted OSAS patients received standard nCPAP therapy. Specificity of AM assessed at the beginning of treatment was used as a predictor in a regression analysis, and the extent of recovery from depression over a follow-up period of between six to nine weeks served as the criterion variable. The results supported the hypothesis that patients who were able to recall more specific AM in response to positively valenced cue words showed a more substantial recovery from depression. This has important treatment implications.     

Blunted reward responsiveness prospectively predicts emotional distress when exposed to a naturalistic stressor

Both stress and blunted reward responsiveness have been identified as core risk factors of depression. Whether blunted reward responsiveness increases psychological vulnerability to real-life stress from a dynamic perspective (from stress reactivity to recovery) has not been investigated. By utilizing a real-world stressful event (i.e. the final examination), this study aimed to explore the role of reward responsiveness in the stress-emotional distress relationship during stress reactivity and recovery phases. We followed 57 undergraduates with three assessments, from six weeks before examination weeks (T1, baseline), one day before the examinations (T2) to two weeks after the examinations (T3), therefore, covering stress reactivity (T1 to T2) and recovery (T2 to T3) phases. At baseline, reward responsiveness was measured as the Reward Positivity (RewP) in the doors task. Stress and emotional distress (anxiety and depression) were reported at T1, T2 and T3 to capture their dynamic changes. Results showed that self-report stress levels significantly increased from T1 to T2 (stress reactivity phase) and decreased from T2 to T3 (stress recovery phase). Furthermore, blunted reward responsiveness at baseline prospectively predicted emotional distress during the stress reactivity phase but not the recovery phase. Specifically, during the stress reactivity phase, higher perceived stress was associated with greater anxiety and depression only in participants with relatively smaller residual RewP amplitudes but not in participants with relatively larger residual RewP amplitudes. Our study demonstrated that a blunted reward responsiveness is a vulnerable factor of depression, especially when exposed to stress. Our findings provide insights into prevention and intervention for stress-related disturbance.     

Epidemiology,Risk Factors,and Prevention of Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviour in Prisons: A Literature Review

Suicide is a global public health concern that affects all echelons of society, albeit not equally so. Compared with adults in the general population, incarcerated offenders are at increased risk to consider, attempt, and die by suicide, which represents a substantial burden of morbidity and mortality in prisons worldwide. This review synthesises recent literature pertaining to the epidemiology, risk factors, and prevention of suicidal thoughts and behaviour among prisoners, and outlines a framework which emphasises the interplay between individuals (importation) and their surroundings (deprivation). The available evidence suggests that prison-specific stressors may exacerbate risk of suicide in an already vulnerable population characterised by complex health and social care needs. Emerging data point to differential mechanisms through which prisoners come to think about suicide and subsequently progress to suicidal behaviour. As risk of suicide is determined by a complex web of synergistically interacting factors, its management and prevention demands a cross-sectoral policy and service response that includes targeted interventions aimed at high-risk prisoners in combination with population strategies that promote the health and wellbeing of all people in prison.     

抑郁认知易感性应激模式的研究：起源、发展和整合

近年来,对抑郁易感性的研究,已经成为探寻抑郁心理病理的一个热点。文章介绍了抑郁易感性应激模型的相关定义、起源、及主要特点。介绍了在当代具有代表性的3个理论：（1）Abramson的抑郁无望理论;（2）Beck的认知易感理论;（3）双信息过程理论。尤其对抑郁认知易感性因素本身的起源、发展及影响因素进行了评述。最后,介绍了整合的抑郁认知易感性应激模型。在此基础上,提出了模型进一步完善和发展的方向     

The Life and Works of a Bottom-Up Thinker

A brief account is given of the author's life as a physicist and then a priest. The twin foundations of the author's theological endeavors have been a respect for traditional Christian thinking, though not exempting it from revision where this is needed, and a style of argument termed bottom-up thinking, which seeks to proceed from experience to understanding. The diversity of the world faith traditions is perceived as a major source of perplexity. A revised and modest natural theology and the issue of divine action have been at the top of a science and theology agenda. A defense is sketched in realist terms of the metaphysical strategy of using an ontological interpretation of the unpredictabilities of chaos theory to support a notion of top-down causality through active information. The success of Christian theology as a resource of total explanation depends on a credible account of eschatological hope. Reference is made to practical experience of ethics in the public square.     

Short-term predictive effects of the looming cognitive style on anxiety disorder symptoms under restrictive methodological conditions

The looming cognitive style (LCS), an overarching cognitive vulnerability for anxiety syndromes, pertains to a tendency to construct dynamic expectations (mental scenarios, images) of negative events as progressively increasing in danger and rapidly escalating in risk. This study tested the hypothesis that the LCS has functions as a cognitive antecedent and moderator for even short-term changes over a brief time interval in anxiety syndromes (worry, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms, social anxiety, general anxiety) under restrictive methodological conditions. These included: (a) a one-week interval during which very little changes in anxiety were observed, and (b) controlling for participants' depression and intolerance of uncertainty. As hypothesized by our model, the looming cognitive style predicted short-term changes in worry and OCD symptoms over the week interval, and tended to predict changes in social (audience) anxiety. This style also functioned as a moderator and predicted changes in OCD symptoms among participants already high on this anxiety outcome. Intolerance of uncertainty predicted changes in social (audience) anxiety but not changes in OCD symptoms or worry. These findings support the looming vulnerability theory of anxiety, and encourage further attention into the possible role of the LCS as a cognitive antecedent and moderator of changes in a spectrum of anxiety syndromes.