Heartwarming
Whole-Body Hyperthermia for the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Clemens Janssen et al.
JAMA Psychiatry, forthcoming
Design, Setting, and Participants: A 6-week, randomized, double-blind study conducted between February 2013 and May 2015 at a university-based medical center comparing WBH with a sham condition. All research staff conducting screening and outcome procedures were blinded to randomization status. Of 338 individuals screened, 34 were randomized, 30 received a study intervention, and 29 provided at least 1 postintervention assessment and were included in a modified intent-to-treat efficacy analysis. Participants were medically healthy, aged 18 to 65 years, met criteria for major depressive disorder, were free of psychotropic medication use, and had a baseline 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score of 16 or greater.
Interventions: A single session of active WBH vs a sham condition matched for length of WBH that mimicked all aspects of WBH except intense heat.
Results: The mean (SD) age was 36.7 (15.2) years in the WBH group and 41.47 (12.54) years in the sham group. Immediately following the intervention, 10 participants (71.4%) randomized to sham treatment believed they had received WBH compared with 15 (93.8%) randomized to WBH. When compared with the sham group, the active WBH group showed significantly reduced Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores across the 6-week postintervention study period (WBH vs sham; week 1: −6.53, 95% CI, −9.90 to −3.16, P < .001; week 2: −6.35, 95% CI, −9.95 to −2.74, P = .001; week 4: −4.50, 95% CI, −8.17 to −0.84, P = .02; and week 6: −4.27, 95% CI, −7.94 to −0.61, P = .02). These outcomes remained significant after evaluating potential moderating effects of between-group differences in baseline expectancy scores. Adverse events in both groups were generally mild.
Conclusions and Relevance: Whole-body hyperthermia holds promise as a safe, rapid-acting, antidepressant modality with a prolonged therapeutic benefit.
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Antidepressants and Age: A New Form of Evidence for U-shaped Well-being Through Life
David Blanchflower & Andrew Oswald
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, July 2016, Pages 46–58
Abstract:
A growing literature argues that mental well-being follows an approximate U-shape through life. Yet in the eyes of some scholars this evidence remains controversial. The reason is that it relies on people’s answers to ‘happiness’ surveys. The present paper explores a different approach. It examines modern data on the use of antidepressant pills (as an implicit signal of mental distress) in 27 European nations. The regression-adjusted probability of using antidepressants reaches a peak in people’s late 40s. This pattern – one that does not rely on well-being survey answers – is thus consistent with the claim that human beings experience a midlife low.
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Walking Facilitates Positive Affect (Even When Expecting the Opposite)
Jeffrey Conrath Miller & Zlatan Krizan
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Across 3 experiments, we rely on theoretical advancements that connect movement, embodiment, and reward-seeking behavior to test the proposal that walking incidental to routine activity (heretofore referred to as “incidental ambulation”) — not specifically “exercise” — is a robust facilitator of positive affect. Experiment 1 reveals that ambulation facilitates positive affect even when participants are blind to the purpose of this activity. Experiment 2 further demonstrates the robustness of this effect of incidental ambulation by documenting its operation under conditions of low interest, as well as its power to override expectations of mood worsening. Experiment 3 replicates the main finding while eliminating the possibility that posture, ambient events, or experimenter bias account for the results. Taken together, the experiments demonstrate that incidental ambulation systematically promotes positive affect regardless of the focus on such movement, and that it can override the effects of other emotionally relevant events such as boredom and dread. The findings hold key implications for understanding the role of movement in shaping affect as well as for clarifying the embodied nature of emotion.
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Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation
Petra Persson & Maya Rossin-Slater
NBER Working Paper, May 2016
Abstract:
This paper studies how in utero exposure to maternal stress from family ruptures affects later mental health. We find that prenatal exposure to the death of a maternal relative increases take-up of ADHD medications during childhood and anti-anxiety and depression medications in adulthood. Further, family ruptures during pregnancy depress birth outcomes and raise the risk of perinatal complications necessitating hospitalization. Our results suggest large welfare gains from preventing fetal stress from family ruptures and possibly from economically induced stressors such as unemployment. They further suggest that greater stress exposure among the poor may partially explain the intergenerational persistence of poverty.
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Social Support and Mental Health Outcomes Among U.S. Army Special Operations Personnel
Dale Russell et al.
Military Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Mental health disorders continue to plague service members and veterans; thus, new approaches are required to help address such outcomes. The identification of risk and resilience factors for these disorders in specific populations can better inform both treatment and prevention strategies. This study focuses on a unique population of U.S. Army Special Operations personnel to assess how specific avenues of social support and personal morale are related to mental health outcomes. The results indicate that, whereas personal morale and friend support reduce the relationship between combat experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), strong unit support exacerbates the negative effects of combat experiences in relation to PTSD. The study thus shows that although informal social support can lessen postdeployment mental health concerns, military populations with strong internal bonds may be at greater risk of PTSD because the support that they receive from fellow service members may heighten the traumatic impact of combat experiences.
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Cortisol alters reward processing in the human brain
Valerie Kinner, Oliver Wolf & Christian Merz
Hormones and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Dysfunctional reward processing is known to play a central role for the development of psychiatric disorders. Glucocorticoids that are secreted in response to stress have been shown to attenuate reward sensitivity and thereby might promote the onset of psychopathology. However, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms mediating stress hormone effects on reward processing as well as potential sex differences remain elusive. In this neuroimaging study, we administered 30mg cortisol or a placebo to 30 men and 30 women and subsequently tested them in the Monetary Incentive Delay Task. Cortisol attenuated anticipatory neural responses to a verbal and a monetary reward in the left pallidum and the right anterior parahippocampal gyrus. Furthermore, in men, activation in the amygdala, the precuneus, the anterior cingulate, and in hippocampal regions was reduced under cortisol, whereas in cortisol-treated women a signal increase was observed in these regions. Behavioral performance also indicated that reward learning in men is impaired under high cortisol concentrations, while it is augmented in women. These findings illustrate that the stress hormone cortisol substantially diminishes reward anticipation and provide first evidence that cortisol effects on the neural reward system are sensitive to sex differences, which might translate into different vulnerabilities for psychiatric disorders.
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Specific and Individuated Death Reflection Fosters Identity Integration
Laura Blackie, Philip Cozzolino & Constantine Sedikides
PLoS ONE, May 2016
Abstract:
Identity integration is the process wherein a person assimilates multiple or conflicting identities (e.g., beliefs, values, needs) into a coherent, unified self-concept. Three experiments examined whether contemplating mortality in a specific and individuated manner (i.e., via the death reflection manipulation) facilitated outcomes indicative of identity integration. Participants in the death reflection condition (vs. control conditions) considered positive and negative life experiences as equally important in shaping their current identity (Experiment 1), regarded self-serving values and other-serving values as equally important life principles (Experiment 2), and were equally motivated to pursue growth-oriented and security-oriented needs (Experiment 3). Death reflection motivates individuals to integrate conflicting aspects of their identity into a coherent self-concept. Given that identity integration is associated with higher well-being, the findings have implications for understanding the psychological benefits of existential contemplation.
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Beauty in Mind: The Effects of Physical Attractiveness on Psychological Well-Being and Distress
Nabanita Datta Gupta, Nancy Etcoff & Mads Jaeger
Journal of Happiness Studies, June 2016, Pages 1313-1325
Abstract:
Attractive people enjoy many social and economic advantages. Most studies find effects of attractiveness on happiness or life satisfaction, but based on traditional cross-sectional approaches. We use a large longitudinal survey consisting of a sample of male and female high school graduates from Wisconsin followed from their late teens to their mid-1960s. The panel construction of the data and the fact that interviews of the siblings of the respondents are available allow us to analyze the effects of physical appearance on psychological well-being (human flourishing) and ill-being (distress and depression) conditioning on unobserved individual heterogeneity via random effects. We find a significant positive relationship between measures of physical attractiveness (greater facial attractiveness at high school, and lower BMI and greater height in middle age) and a measure of psychological well-being, and a significant negative relationship between measures of physical attractiveness and distress/depression. These effects are slightly smaller when we adjust for demographics and mental ability but, with the exception of height, remain significant. Our results suggest that attractiveness impacts psychological well-being and depression directly as well as through its effects on other life outcomes.
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Anat Shoshani, Keren Mifano & Johanna Czamanski-Cohen
Quality of Life Research, May 2016, Pages 1209-1218
Methods: The design was a wait-list-controlled trial with two parallel groups. Sixty-six children aged 5–12 with an initial diagnosis of life-threatening cancer were identified and randomly assigned to the Make a Wish intervention (n = 32) or a wait-list control group (n = 34). Children completed measures of psychiatric and health-related symptoms, positive and negative affect, hope, and optimism pre-intervention and post-intervention. After baseline data collection, children were interviewed and made an authentic wish that they wanted to come true. These wishes were made possible 5–6 months after baseline data collection, to fuel anticipation and excitement over the wish-fulfillment event. The post-intervention assessment point was 5 weeks after wish fulfillment (approximately 7 months after baseline data collection).
Results: Children in the intervention group exhibited a significant reduction in general distress (d = 0.54), depression (d = 0.70), and anxiety symptoms (d = 0.41), improved health-related quality of life (d = 0.59), hope (d = 0.71), and positive affect (d = 0.80) compared to decrease in positive affect and no significant changes in the other measures in the control group.
Conclusions: These findings emphasize the role of hope and positive emotions in fostering the well-being of children who suffer from serious illnesses.
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Heart Rate Variability and Suicidal Behavior
Scott Wilson et al.
Psychiatry Research, 30 June 2016, Pages 241–247
Abstract:
Identification of biological indicators of suicide risk is important given advantages of biomarker-based models. Decreased high frequency heart rate variability (HF HRV) may be a biomarker of suicide risk. The aim of this research was to determine whether HF HRV differs between suicide attempters and non-attempters. Using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), we compared HF HRV between females with and without a history of suicide attempt, all with a lifetime diagnosis of a mood disorder. To investigate a potential mechanism explaining association between HF HRV and suicide, we examined the association between self-reported anger and HF HRV. Results of an Area under the Curve (AUC) analysis showed attempters had a lower cumulative HF HRV during the TSST than non-attempters. In addition, while there was no difference in self-reported anger at baseline, the increase in anger was greater in attempters, and negatively associated with HF HRV. Results suggest that suicide attempters have a reduced capacity to regulate their response to stress, and that reduced capacity to regulate anger may be a mechanism through decreased HR HRV can lead to an increase in suicide risk. Our results have implications for the prevention of suicidal behavior in at-risk populations.
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Katherine Nelson et al.
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
When it comes to the pursuit of happiness, popular culture encourages a focus on oneself. By contrast, substantial evidence suggests that what consistently makes people happy is focusing prosocially on others. In the current study, we contrasted the mood- and well-being-boosting effects of prosocial behavior (i.e., doing acts of kindness for others or for the world) and self-oriented behavior (i.e., doing acts of kindness for oneself) in a 6-week longitudinal experiment. Across a diverse sample of participants (N = 473), we found that the 2 types of prosocial behavior led to greater increases in psychological flourishing than did self-focused and neutral behavior. In addition, we provide evidence for mechanisms explaining the relative improvements in flourishing among those prompted to do acts of kindness — namely, increases in positive emotions and decreases in negative emotions. Those assigned to engage in self-focused behavior did not report improved psychological flourishing, positive emotions, or negative emotions relative to controls. The results of this study contribute to a growing literature supporting the benefits of prosocial behavior and challenge the popular perception that focusing on oneself is an optimal strategy to boost one’s mood. People striving for happiness may be tempted to treat themselves. Our results, however, suggest that they may be more successful if they opt to treat someone else instead.