Psychologists tend to report high levels of occupational stress, with serious implications for themselves, their clients, and the discipline as a whole. Recent research suggests that self-compassion ...is a promising construct for psychologists in terms of its ability to promote psychological wellbeing and resilience to stress; however, the potential benefits of self-compassion are yet to be thoroughly explored amongst this occupational group. Additionally, while a growing body of research supports self-compassion as a key predictor of psychopathology, understanding of the processes by which self-compassion exerts effects on mental health outcomes is limited. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test an emotion regulation model of self-compassion and stress among psychologists, including postgraduate trainees undertaking clinical work (n = 198). Self-compassion significantly negatively predicted emotion regulation difficulties and stress symptoms. Support was also found for our preliminary explanatory model of self-compassion, which demonstrates the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties in the self-compassion-stress relationship. The final self-compassion model accounted for 26.2% of variance in stress symptoms. Implications of the findings and limitations of the study are discussed.
Objective
The current study sought to conduct a preliminary investigation of the effectiveness and feasibility of a novel, self‐guided online self‐compassion training for reducing psychological ...distress and increasing self‐compassion and happiness among psychology trainees.
Method
A 6‐week online self‐compassion cultivation program was developed and delivered to Australian psychology trainees (n = 37), and a pre‐experimental repeated‐measures design was used to collect change data on self‐compassion, happiness, perceived stress, emotion regulation difficulties as well as symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.
Results
Participants reported significant increases in self‐compassion and happiness and significant decreases in depression, stress, and emotion regulation difficulties between pretest and posttest, with the majority of changes maintained at 3‐month follow up.
Conclusion
This study provides preliminary evidence supporting the effectiveness and acceptability of online self‐compassion training as a positive, integrated, and meaningful way of reducing distress and promoting self‐compassion and happiness among trainee psychologists.
Summary Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of long-term disability in children and young adults worldwide. However, accurate information about its incidence does not exist. ...We aimed to estimate the burden of TBI in rural and urban populations in New Zealand across all ages and TBI severities. Methods We did a population-based incidence study in an urban (Hamilton) and rural (Waikato District) population in New Zealand. We registered all cases of TBI (admitted to hospital or not, fatal or non-fatal) that occurred in the population between March 1, 2010, and Feb 28, 2011, using multiple overlapping sources of information. We calculated incidence per 100 000 person-years with 95% CIs using a Poisson distribution. We calculated rate ratios RRs to compare the age-standardised rates between sex, ethnicity, and residency (urban, rural) groups. We used direct standardisation to age-standardise the rates to the world population. Results The total incidence of TBI per 100 000 person-years was 790 cases (95% CI 749–832); incidence per 100 000 person-years of mild TBI was 749 cases (709–790) and of moderate to severe TBI was 41 cases (31–51). Children (aged 0–14 years) and adolescents and young adults (aged 15–34 years) constituted almost 70% of all TBI cases. TBI affected boys and men more than women and girls (RR 1·77, 95% CI 1·58–1·97). Most TBI cases were due to falls (38% 516 of 1369), mechanical forces (21% 288 of 1369), transport accidents (20% 277 of 1369), and assaults (17% 228 of 1369). Compared with people of European origin, Maori people had a greater risk of mild TBI (RR 1·23, 95% CI 1·08–1·39). Incidence of moderate to severe TBI in the rural population (73 per 100 000 person-years 95% CI 50–107) was almost 2·5 times greater than in the urban population (31 per 100 000 person-years 23–42). Interpretation Our findings suggest that the incidence of TBI, especially mild TBI, in New Zealand is far greater than would be estimated from the findings of previous studies done in other high-income countries. Our age-specific and residency-specific data for TBI incidence overall and by mechanism of injury should be considered when planning prevention and TBI care services. Funding Health Research Council of New Zealand.
Open-access drug discovery provides a substantial resource for diseases primarily affecting the poor and disadvantaged. The open-access Pathogen Box collection is comprised of compounds with ...demonstrated biological activity against specific pathogenic organisms. The supply of this resource by the Medicines for Malaria Venture has the potential to provide new chemical starting points for a number of tropical and neglected diseases, through repurposing of these compounds for use in drug discovery campaigns for these additional pathogens. We tested the Pathogen Box against kinetoplastid parasites and malaria life cycle stages
Consequently, chemical starting points for malaria, human African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis drug discovery efforts have been identified. Inclusive of this
biological evaluation, outcomes from extensive literature reviews and database searches are provided. This information encompasses commercial availability, literature reference citations, other aliases and ChEMBL number with associated biological activity, where available. The release of this new data for the Pathogen Box collection into the public domain will aid the open-source model of drug discovery. Importantly, this will provide novel chemical starting points for drug discovery and target identification in tropical disease research.
Background
There is growing interest in self‐compassion as a possible treatment target for individuals with depression and anxiety disorders. Understanding self‐compassion within an emotion ...regulation (ER) framework of mood and anxiety disorders has the potential to generate insights into the clinical relevance of self‐compassion in the treatment of depression and anxiety. The aim of the current review was to integrate evidence and theory from the self‐compassion, ER, and mood and anxiety disorders literatures to highlight directions for research and inform clinical applications.
Methods
A review of the cross‐sectional and experimental quantitative literature pertaining to self‐compassion, ER, and mood and anxiety disorders was undertaken, guided by established models of ER in mood and anxiety disorders. Evidence from clinical and non‐clinical studies was included.
Results
There is preliminary support for an ER framework of self‐compassion and mood and anxiety disorders: in particular, there is evidence that self‐compassion is linked to factors that represent key mechanisms in ER models of depression and anxiety, including affective experiences, ER capacities, and propensity to deploy specific ER strategies. However, research with clinical populations is limited.
Conclusions
An ER perspective may provide a useful framework for guiding research and clinical work on self‐compassion and mood and anxiety disorders. Further research is required to comprehensively test the relationship between self‐compassion and various aspects of the ER model, and to examine mediators and moderators of compassion‐based interventions with clinical samples.
Kinetoplastid parasites cause vector-borne parasitic diseases including leishmaniasis, human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) and Chagas disease. These Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) impact on some ...of the world's lowest socioeconomic communities. Current treatments for these diseases cause severe toxicity and have limited efficacy, highlighting the need to identify new treatments. In this study, the Davis open access natural product-based library was screened against kinetoplastids (
DD8,
and
) using phenotypic assays. The aim of this study was to identify hit compounds, with a focus on improved efficacy, selectivity and potential to target several kinetoplastid parasites. The IC
values of the natural products were obtained for
DD8,
and
in addition to cytotoxicity against the mammalian cell lines, HEK-293, 3T3 and THP-1 cell lines were determined to ascertain parasite selectivity. Thirty-one compounds were identified with IC
values of ≤ 10 µM against the kinetoplastid parasites tested. Lissoclinotoxin E (
) was the only compound identified with activity across all three investigated parasites, exhibiting IC
values < 5 µM. In this study, natural products with the potential to be new chemical starting points for drug discovery efforts for kinetoplastid diseases were identified.
Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) begin in the earliest months of life, but the clinical manifestations of many such disorders—including intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, ...attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder—are often not seen until much later. Theoretically, very early intervention provides the best chance for optimizing outcomes for children at risk. However, opportunities for early intervention may be thwarted by a dependence on assessing overt phenotypic or behavioral symptoms that often emerge later in childhood. In this article, we examine the utility of a transdiagnostic, dimensional approach to very early identification and intervention for infants at risk of NDDs. We consider how insights from epidemiology, systems biology, and developmental neuroscience may be integrated to aid identifying at‐risk infants and developing targeted, adaptive interventions. We also highlight directions for research.
Surgery is an effective treatment for drug-resistant focal epilepsy. Neuroimaging studies are considered essential in the diagnostic evaluation of individuals with medically refractory focal seizures ...being considered for surgical treatment.
To review the evidence for the use of neuroimaging studies in the selection of patients with drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy for focal cortical resection and discuss the prognostic importance of selected techniques.
Randomized clinical trials, meta-analyses, and clinical retrospective case studies (≥20 patients with ≥1 year of follow-up) were identified using Medical Subject Headings and indexed text terms in EMBASE (1988-November 29, 2014); MEDLINE (1946-December 2, 2014), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (1991-October 31, 2014), and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2005-October 31, 2014). Twenty-seven articles describing 3163 patients were included. Neuroimaging techniques analyzed included magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Subpopulations and prognostic factors were identified.
Of the 27 studies evaluated (3163 patients), 7 showed the outcome was more favorable in patients with MRI-identified hippocampal atrophy indicating mesial temporal sclerosis. Five additional studies indicated that the outcome was less favorable in patients with unremarkable MRI studies. There are conflicting findings regarding the prognostic importance of PET-identified focal hypometabolism; however, 2 investigations indicated that the presence of a PET imaging study demonstrating abnormalities in individuals with unremarkable MRI results showed an operative outcome similar to that in patients with mesial temporal sclerosis. The studies assessing SPECT use in temporal lobe epilepsy did not reveal a correlation with outcome.
There is strong evidence that preoperative MRI-identified hippocampal atrophy consistent with mesial temporal sclerosis concordant with the seizure origin in the temporal lobe is a significant factor associated with a favorable outcome. PET studies may be valuable in individuals with unremarkable MRI findings. The current evidence does not support the prognostic importance of SPECT in patients undergoing temporal lobe surgery.
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