(Press-News.org) In spite of many clinical options, people with mental health problems including eating disorders often do not access professional help within the crucial first 12 months - in part because of lack of information in the community about accessing targeted services.
Anxiety and depression are normal reactions to situations such as pandemic lockdowns but arming yourself with some useful strategies can alleviate this, says Flinders University Distinguished Professor of Psychology Tracey
Wade.
For example, a randomised trial of 'unguided' low intensity cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) was found to decrease signs of anxiety and depression in the comparative study led by Curtin University and international experts, including Matthew Flinders Professor Wade.
The results of the study of 225 adults in Australia and the UK found that low intensity cognitive behaviour therapy has efficacy in reducing anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The majority of participants (96%) rated the intervention as useful, and most (83%) reported they spent 30 min or less reading the guide, with 83% agreeing the intervention was easy to read.
The evaluation of self-management of anxiety and depression - using an accessible online program of 'low intensity cognitive behaviour therapy' funded by the WA Government via Curtin University's Department of Psychology - confirmed its usefulness, particularly during the pressures created by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
"There is an urgent need to disseminate low intensity psychological therapies to improve mental health in this challenging time," conclude researchers led by Curtin University Associate Professor Sarah Egan in the new paper in Behaviour Research and Therapy.
Meanwhile, eating disorder expert Professor Wade has helped to launch a new consumer guide on the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC) website.
The consumer checklist - https://nedc.com.au/research-and-resources/show/consumer-checklist - aims to help people navigate the system, including people between 16-24 years who might delay or have trouble finding the 'right' kind of help.
"The checklist forms a basis for a useful consumer tool in their treatment journey," says Professor Wade, who says presentations for eating disorders have escalated over COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns.
"We also hope to monitor its uptake and impact on outcomes for consumers seeking treatment."
A study last year ran a survey about the checklist, sending it to people with lived experience and clinicians to seek endorsement and feedback on each checklist item's helpfulness.
Seventeen people with lived experience and 11 clinicians gave feedback, with both groups rating the checklist as likely to help locate effective treatment earlier.
INFORMATION:
The study's findings have been published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.
Unguided low intensity cognitive behaviour therapy for anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomised trial (2021) by SJ Egan, P McEvoy, TD Wade, S Ure, AR Johnson, C Gill, D Greene, L Wilker, R Anderson, TG Mazzucchelli, S Browna and R Shafran has been published in Behaviour Research and Therapy DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103902.
The http://www.covidcbt.org project was funded by the Western Australia State Government through Curtin University's School of Psychology.
Also, A co-designed consumer checklist to support people with eating disorders to locate evidence-based treatment (2021) by T Wade, S Calvert, E Thompson, C Wild, D Mitchison and P Hay, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders DOI: 10.1002/eat.23529.
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They published their results on June 30 in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.
"Excessive generation of reactive oxygen species in mitochondria damages ...
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The joint research team - composed of Professor Chulhong Kim and Dr. Byullee Park of POSTECH's Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Convergence IT Engineering and Department of Mechanical ...
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But how these changes are passed down through generations has not been understood, in part, because scientists have not had a simple way to study the phenomenon. A new study by researchers at the University of Maryland provides a potential tool for unraveling the mystery of how experiences can cause inheritable changes to an animal's biology. By mating nematode worms, they produced permanent epigenetic changes that lasted for more than 300 generations. The research ...
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A team of researchers in the University of Birmingham's School of Psychology developed and tested new interactive lineup software which enables witnesses to rotate and view lineup faces from different angles.
When the eyewitnesses were able to rotate the image to match the alignment of the face in their memory, they were more likely to accurately pick out the criminal from the lineup.
Lineups are used around the globe to help police identify criminals. Typically these involve ...
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"Our results from a large, randomised study show that modern methods for prostate cancer screening maintain the benefits of screening, while decreasing the harms substantially. This addresses the greatest barrier to the introduction of nationwide screening," ...
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The game, set in the American West in 1899, features simulations of about 200 real species of animals.
The new study, by the University of Exeter and Truro and Penwith College, challenged gamers to identify photographs of real animals.
On average, RDR2 players were able to identify 10 of 15 American animals in a multiple-choice quiz - three more than people who had not played the game.
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Oncotarget published "Transcriptome analyses of urine RNA reveal tumor markers for human bladder cancer: validated amplicons for RT-qPCR-based detection" which reported that in case of bladder cancer, urine RNA represents an early potentially useful diagnostic marker.
Here the authors describe a systematic deep transcriptome analysis of representative pools of urine RNA collected from healthy donors versus bladder cancer patients according to established SOPs.
This analysis revealed RNA marker candidates reflecting coding sequences, non-coding sequences, and circular RNAs.
Next, they designed and validated PCR amplicons for a set of novel marker candidates and tested them in human bladder cancer cell lines.
This ...
INDIANAPOLIS - A new study from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Regenstrief Institute, IUPUI and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers reports that primary care physicians recognize the need for better coordination and welcome health information exchange (HIE) event notifications as a means of improving the flow of information to enable provision of better patient care.
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Should we delay covid-19 vaccination in children?
The net benefit of vaccinating children is unclear, and vulnerable people worldwide should be prioritised instead, say experts in The BMJ today.
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Dominic Wilkinson, Ilora Finlay, and Andrew Pollard say for a health system to offer any vaccine to a child, two key ethical questions must be asked. First, do the benefits outweigh the risks? Second, if the vaccine is in short supply, does someone else need it more?
"Careful attention ...
*Note: this paper is being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) and is being published in The Lancet Rheumatology. Please credit both the congress and the journal in your stories*
A new study presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) and published in The Lancet Rheumatology, shows that the antibody - but not the T-cell - response to the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is weakened in patients taking the immunosuppressant methotrexate. In contrast, antibody and T cell responses are preserved in patients taking biological drugs such as tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors.
Around 3% to 7% of people in Europe and North America have ...
