Mediamusic (E-Journal)
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Psychological functioning and well-being before and after bariatric surgery; what is the benefit of being self-compassionate?
No full textObjective To investigate whether patients’ psychological well-being (depression, quality of life, body image satisfaction) and functioning (self-efficacy for eating and exercising behaviours and food cravings) improve 12 months after bariatric surgery and whether self-compassion is associated with better psychological outcomes and lower weight after bariatric surgery. Design Longitudinal, prospective observational study. Methods Bariatric patients (n = 126, 77.8% female, 46.4 ± 10.8 years) completed the Self-compassion Scale, Center for Epidemiology Studies Depression Scale, Impact of Weight on Quality-of-Life questionnaire, Body Image Scale, Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire, Spinal Cord Injury Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale, and G-Food Craving Questionnaire pre-operatively and 12 months post-operatively. A medical professional measured patients’ weight during each assessment. Data were analysed using repeated measures t-tests and multivariate regression analyses with Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple testing. Results Patients’ BMI, depression, and food cravings decreased significantly after surgery while quality of life, body image satisfaction, and self-efficacy to exercise improved. Higher self-compassion was associated with lower post-operative depression, greater quality of life, higher body image satisfaction, and better self-efficacy for eating behaviours (p-values <.05) but not with post-operative BMI, self-efficacy to exercise, or food cravings. Conclusions Even though pre-operative self-compassion was not directly associated with a lower 12-month post-operative BMI, it had a positive relationship with patients’ post-operative well-being and self-efficacy for controlling eating behaviour. In turn, this could help patients to manage their health long after bariatric surgery. Further work regarding the role of self-compassion on long-term health outcomes would be worthwhile
Scarcity and consumers’ credit choices
No full textWe study the effect of scarcity on decision making by low income Swedes. We exploit the random assignment of welfare payments to study their borrowing decisions within the pawn and mainstream credit market. We document that higher educated borrowers borrow less frequently and choose lower loan to value ratios when their budget constraints are exogenously tighter. In contrast, low-educated borrowers do not respond to temporary elevated levels of scarcity. This lack of response translates into a significantly higher probability to default and an 11.6% increase in borrowing cost. We show that a difference in access to liquidity and/or buffer stocks cannot explain our results. Instead a framework, where the awareness of self-control problems is positively correlated with education can explain that high-educated consumers choose a lower LTV as a commitment device to increase their likelihood to repay. Analogously, low-educated with less awareness of their future self-control problems, do not tie themselves to the mast and thus ignore the consequences of their credit decisions when focusing on solving acute liquidity problems. Our findings highlight that increased levels of scarcity risk reinforcing the conditions of poverty through overborrowing
Youth Psychopathology in Daily Life:Systematically Reviewed Characteristics and Potentials of Ecological Momentary Assessment Applications
No full textTraditionally, symptoms of youth psychopathology are assessed with questionnaires, clinical interviews, or laboratory observations. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) could be a particularly valuable additional methodology, since EMA enables examining the daily lives of youths near real-time, considering fluctuations and specific contexts of symptoms. This systematic review aimed to review the characteristics of current EMA applications and to provide a synthesis of their potential in studying youth psychopathology. Following a systematic search in PsycInfo and Medline, we identified 50 studies in clinical samples. Most studies used EMA to examine fluctuations in symptoms, affect, and behavior, and the relation with contextual factors. EMA was also used to investigate interactions between parents and their children over time, and to monitor and predict treatment response. EMA appeared feasible in youth and could provide valuable insights that contribute to understanding youth psychopathology. Benefits, gaps, and suggestions for future research and clinical practice are discussed
The acoustical and perceptual features of snore-related sounds in patients with obstructive sleep apnea sleeping with the dynamic mandibular advancement system MATRx plus®
No full textPurpose: The effect of snoring on the bed partner can be studied through the evaluation of in situ sound records by the bed partner or unspecialized raters as a proxy of real-life snoring perception. The aim was to characterize perceptual snore events through acoustical features in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with an advanced mandibular position. Methods: Thirty-minute sound samples of 29 patients with OSA were retrieved from overnight, in-home recordings of a study to validate the MATRx plus® dynamic mandibular advancement system. Three unspecialized raters identified sound events and classified them as noise, snore, or breathing. The raters provided ratings for classification certainty and annoyance. Data were analyzed with respect to respiratory phases, and annoyance. Results: When subdividing perceptual events based on respiratory phase, the logarithm-transformed Mean Power, Spectral Centroid, and Snore Factor differed significantly between event types, although not substantially for the spectral centroid. The variability within event type was high and distributions suggested the presence of subpopulations. The general linear model (GLM) showed a significant patient effect. Inspiration segments occurred in 65% of snore events, expiration segments in 54%. The annoyance correlated with the logarithm of mean power (r = 0.48) and the Snore Factor (0.46). Conclusion: Perceptual sound events identified by non-experts contain a non-negligible mixture of expiration and inspiration phases making the characterization through acoustical features complex. The present study reveals that subpopulations may exist, and patient-specific features need to be introduced.</p
Reflexivity through positionality meetings:religion, muslims and ‘non-religious’ researchers
No full textThis paper contributes to current debates on positionality by critically discussing and comparing three researchers’ experiences doing research involving Muslims. We introduce positionality meetings to enhance reflexivity in qualitative research projects. Based on empirical evidence from our independent projects and the positionality meetings, this paper illustrates how efforts to understanding each other’s perspectives and positions, which differ in identities and biographies, challenge our accounts of self-reflexivity. Due to their deliberative character, positionality meetings reveal new and sometimes uncomfortable insights into, for instance, insider and outsider relationships and our attitudes towards religion as a research subject in a particular political context. The paper highlights several stages of the meetings to demonstrate the deliberative practice’s value throughout the collective reflexive process. Serving to an interdisciplinary audience, we encourage qualitative researchers to engage in positionality meetings. Therefore, we conclude this paper by providing recommendations on how to organise such meetings
In vivo hippocampal subfield volumes in bipolar disorder-A mega-analysis from The Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis Bipolar Disorder Working Group
No full textThe hippocampus consists of anatomically and functionally distinct subfields that may be differentially involved in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD). Here we, the Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis Bipolar Disorder workinggroup, study hippocampal subfield volumetry in BD. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans from 4,698 individuals (BD = 1,472, healthy controls [HC] = 3,226) from 23 sites worldwide were processed with FreeSurfer. We used linear mixed-effects models and mega-analysis to investigate differences in hippocampal subfield volumes between BD and HC, followed by analyses of clinical characteristics and medication use. BD showed significantly smaller volumes of the whole hippocampus (Cohen's d = -0.20), cornu ammonis (CA)1 (d = -0.18), CA2/3 (d = -0.11), CA4 (d = -0.19), molecular layer (d = -0.21), granule cell layer of dentate gyrus (d = -0.21), hippocampal tail (d = -0.10), subiculum (d = -0.15), presubiculum (d = -0.18), and hippocampal amygdala transition area (d = -0.17) compared to HC. Lithium users did not show volume differences compared to HC, while non-users did. Antipsychotics or antiepileptic use was associated with smaller volumes. In this largest study of hippocampal subfields in BD to date, we show widespread reductions in nine of 12 subfields studied. The associations were modulated by medication use and specifically the lack of differences between lithium users and HC supports a possible protective role of lithium in BD.</p
Individual differences in the encoding of contextual details following acute stress:An explorative study
No full textInformation processing under stressful circumstances depends on many experimental conditions, like the information valence or the point in time at which brain function is probed. This also holds true for memorizing contextual details (or 'memory contextualization'). Moreover, large interindividual differences appear to exist in (context-dependent) memory formation after stress, but it is mostly unknown which individual characteristics are essential. Various characteristics were explored from a theory-driven and data-driven perspective, in 120 healthy men. In the theory-driven model, we postulated that life adversity and trait anxiety shape the stress response, which impacts memory contextualization following acute stress. This was indeed largely supported by linear regression analyses, showing significant interactions depending on valence and time point after stress. Thus, during the acute phase of the stress response, reduced neutral memory contextualization was related to salivary cortisol level; moreover, certain individual characteristics correlated with memory contextualization of negatively valenced material: (a) life adversity, (b) alpha-amylase reactivity in those with low life adversity and (c) cortisol reactivity in those with low trait anxiety. Better neutral memory contextualization during the recovery phase of the stress response was associated with (a) cortisol in individuals with low life adversity and (b) alpha-amylase in individuals with high life adversity. The data-driven Random Forest-based variable selection also pointed to (early) life adversity-during the acute phase-and (moderate) alpha-amylase reactivity-during the recovery phase-as individual characteristics related to better memory contextualization. Newly identified characteristics sparked novel hypotheses about non-anxious personality traits, age, mood and states during retrieval of context-related information.</p
Locoregional Residual Esophageal Cancer after Neo-adjuvant Chemoradiotherapy and Surgery Regarding Anatomic Site and Radiation Target Fields A Histopathologic Evaluation Study:A Histopathologic Evaluation Study
No full textOBJECTIVE: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery establishes a considerable pathologic complete response (pCR) in EC. The aim was to determine site of residual tumor and its prognostic impact.SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: High rates of residual tumor in the adventitial region even inside the radiation fields will influence current decision-making.METHODS: We evaluated resection specimens with marked target fields from 151 consecutive EC patients treated with carboplatin/paclitaxel and 41.4Gy between 2009 and 2018.RESULTS: In radically resected (R0) specimens 19.8% (27/136) had a pCR (ypT0N0) and 14% nearly no response (tumor regression grade: tumor regression grade 4-5). Residual tumor commonly extended in or restricted to the adventitia (43.1%; 47/109), whereas 7.3% was in the mucosa (ypT1a), 16.5% in the submucosa (ypT1b) and 6.4% only in lymph nodes (ypT0N+). Macroscopic residues in R0-specimens of partial responders (tumor regression grade 2-3: N = 90) were found in- and outside the gross tumor volume (GTV) in 33.3% and 8.9%, and only microscopic in- and outside the clinical target volume in 58.9% and 1.1%, respectively. Residual nodal disease was observed proximally and distally to the clinical target volume in 2 and 5 patients, respectively. Disease Free Survival decreased significantly if macroscopic tumor was outside the GTV and in ypT2-4aN+.CONCLUSIONS: After neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, pCR and ypT1aN0 were seen in a limited number of R0 resected specimens (19.8% and 7.3%, respectively), whereas 6.4% had only nodal disease (yT0N+). Disease Free Survival decreased significantly if macroscopic residue was outside the GTV and in responders with only nodal disease. Therefore, we should be cautious in applying wait and see strategies.</p