Neuropsychological Rehabilitation for Psychiatric Disorders
Barbara A. Wilson, Jill Winegardner, Caroline M. van Heugten, Tamara Ownsworth in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 2017
Modulatory interventions are designed to modify processes that lead to emotional distress and problematic behaviours. Cognitive reappraisal entails reframing the meaning of emotionally or motivationally salient stimuli to modify thoughts about its emotional impact (Gross, 1998) and regulate PV and NV for people affected by depression, anxiety and substance misuse (e.g. Goldin et al., 2013; Grasso et al., 2012; Troy et al., 2010). Cognitive reappraisal is a main component of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which has a strong evidence base for treatment of affective disorders and a growing evidence base for treatment of psychotic and substance misuse disorders (Hofmann et al., 2011). Cognitive bias modification (CBM) also tries to modulate implicit cognitive functions underlying psychiatric disorders through computerised programmes. Attention bias modification, memory bias modification and approach-avoidance bias modification are the most well-known interventions, in the field of CBM for disorders with affective and addictive features (Boffo et al., 2015; Hallion and Ruscio, 2011).
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Stephen M. Stahl, Bret A. Moore in Anxiety Disorders: A Guide for Integrating Psychopharmacology and Psychotherapy, 2013
Effective psychotherapeutic methods continue to be refined and improved. One modification that has received much recent attention is cognitive bias modification (CBM) (see reviews by Bar-Haim, 2010; Beard, 2011; Browning, Holmes, & Harmer, 2010; Hakamata et al., 2010). This approach is derived from research showing that anxious individuals are likely to attend preferentially to threat-relevant stimuli in their environment. The model has been tested experimentally by recording the reaction time for recognizing threatening words compared with neutral words. Anxious people have faster responses relative to non-anxious people, a phenomenon termed cognitive bias modification of attention (CBM-A), or sometimes attention bias modification (ABM). A similar paradigm has shown that anxious individuals are also more likely to respond faster when negative words rather than positive words are used to clarify ambiguous phrases. This phenomenon is termed interpretation bias—that is, cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I). These models propose that attention and interpretation biases serve as cognitive indices of anxious behavior, and that manipulations of these behaviors can be used to treat excessive anxiety. This approach differs from standard CBT therapy, which attempts to help anxious patients learn to explicitly divert their attention away from anxiety-provoking thoughts. In contrast, ABM is directed at shifting early, implicit, automatic, and presumably unconscious attentional biases away from threatening stimuli (Bar-Haim, 2010).
Treatment Efficacy
Melisa Robichaud, Naomi Koerner, Michel J. Dugas in Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, 2019
Before starting treatment, clients were presented with a series of vignettes describing ambiguous scenarios (for example, “My new partner called and left a message on my answering machine, saying that we need to talk about something important”). We then examined the extent to which responses to these vignettes were associated with subsequent response to CBT. First, greater pre-treatment interpretation biases predicted greater post-treatment GAD symptoms (Donegan & Dugas, 2011), meaning that those who were more inclined to interpret ambiguous information in a negative way at the outset of CBT did not benefit as much from treatment. Second, change in interpretation style mediated change in GAD symptoms from pre- to post-treatment (Donegan & Dugas, 2011), meaning that those clients who were able to shift their negative interpretation style during treatment were more responsive to CBT. Together, these findings suggested to us that targeting interpretation style more directly during CBT may boost treatment efficacy, especially for the subgroup of clients who show a particularly strong bias to interpret ambiguity in a catastrophic way. To test this idea, we have been conducting a randomized controlled trial in which we are comparing the treatment we tested in our previous trials to a version of it that includes one additional intervention at each session called computerized cognitive bias modification (CBM).
Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 Suicidal Cognition Concerns: A New Measure Examining Negative Reactions to Suicidal Ideation
Published in Archives of Suicide Research, 2022
Nicole S. Smith, Brian W. Bauer, Rachel L. Martin, Raymond P. Tucker, Daniel W. Capron
These results have important clinical implications. Sensitivity to thoughts of suicide and wanting to die is likely to lead to worry about the consequences of those thoughts. As prior research has found, worry about suicidal thoughts is positively related to SI and suicide risk and that distraction was negatively associated with SI and risk (Tucker et al., 2017). Therefore, efforts to instruct individuals who are highly sensitive to thoughts of suicide to distract themselves instead of worrying about the consequences of such thoughts may help to lessen distress and SI. At extreme levels, sensitivity to SI might manifest as suicidal obsessions in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and require more thorough intervention in the form of exposure and response prevention therapy (Al-Zaben, 2012; Rachamallu, Song, Liu, Giles, & McMahon, 2017; Wetterneck, Williams, Tellawi, & Bruce, 2016). The present study did not incorporate measures of OCD symptomatology, requiring future research to determine the relationship between sensitivity to SI and OCD. Altering cognitive bias modification (CBM) treatments (Capron, Norr, Allan, & Schmidt, 2017; Capron & Schmidt, 2016) to reduce sensitivity to thoughts of suicide and wanting to die represent a promising area for future research in reducing SI.
Examination of college student health behaviors and self-reported executive functions
Published in Journal of American College Health, 2023
Andrew B. McGrath, Jeremiah Weinstock, Renee Cloutier, Maxwell Christensen, Daniel J. Taylor, Craig E. Henderson
Interventions that target EF, or lead to changes in EF, have been linked to HB change.77 By their nature, these interventions seek to reduce the influence of bottom-up processes and/or to strengthen top-down processes.78 Bottom-up interventions, such as cognitive bias modification, seek to reduce attentional bias toward rewarding stimuli. Some mindfulness-based interventions have shown to reduce bottom-up while at the same strengthening top-down processing.78,79 Finally, cognitive remediation and inhibitory control training seek to ameliorate deficits and strength EF with the aim of improving self-regulation. Moderately Healthy and High Substance Use classes may benefit from these approaches and specifically ones that target the domains of inhibition, self-management to time (planning), and self-motivation, based upon the findings within this study. Those of the Moderately Healthy class may further benefit from intervention targeting emotional regulation.
Combining implementation intentions and monetary incentives to reduce alcohol use: a failed generalization to a public bar context
Published in Journal of Substance Use, 2023
Yang Liu, Wery P.M. van den Wildenberg, K. Richard Ridderinkhof, Reinout W. Wiers
Concerning the secondary hypotheses, we found that the relationship between impulsivity and typical alcohol use, as has often been reported (e.g., Stautz & Cooper, 2013) can be generalized to drinking on a specific occasion. Interestingly, in the model with compliers only, this relationship disappeared (Table S4). Moreover, non-compliers were more impulsive than compliers. Together, these findings suggest that people who scored higher on impulsivity may be less willing and less likely to change their behavior through this preventive effort. More effective interventions specifically targeting this population are required. There is some evidence that cognitive bias modification may have a stronger effect in impulsive individuals (Weckler et al., 2017), but this also requires motivation from participants (R. W. Wiers et al., 2018).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Anxiety
- Attention
- Cognition
- Cognitive Bias
- Memory
- Motivation
- Psychology
- Interpretive Bias
- Information Processing Theory
- Explanatory Style