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RCUK Open Access Report 2014
Full text linkThis report analyses the Royal Holloway developments with regards to the implementation of the
RCUK Open Access Policy1 for the year 2013 – 2014
Factors predictive of emotional and behavioural difficulties in children with refractory focal epilepsy
Full text linkFocal epilepsy in childhood is associated with increased risk for developing behavioral, emotional, cognitive and social–adaptive impairments. The present thesis focused on mental health difficulties in paediatric refractory focal epilepsy. It undertook a detailed evaluation of the predictive power of several demographic (gender, age at assessment), clinical (age at onset and duration of epilepsy, seizure frequency), localization (lobe and lateralization of pathology) and cognitive variables (performance in intellectual, memory and academic attainment measures) for mood, conduct, inattention/hyperactivity and peer relationship difficulties, as assessed by parental report. Data from a population of 282 children and adolescents, previously collected for clinical purposes, were examined, using a series of univariate and multivariate analyses. Mental health difficulties were found to be highly prevalent, with peer relationships the most frequently reported area of difficulty, followed by inattention/hyperactivity and emotional difficulties. Different patterns of associations between the variables examined here and individual emotional/behavioural difficulties were revealed, partially confirming and extending previous findings in the literature. Longer duration of epilepsy was found to increase the risk for developing emotional difficulties; male gender and earlier age at onset the risk for conduct difficulties; male gender, earlier age at onset, longer duration and frontal lobe localization the risk for attention/hyperactivity difficulties; and finally longer duration, higher seizure frequency and right hemisphere lateralization the risk for peer difficulties. Lower cognitive functioning was found associated with overall increased mental health difficulties and a lower VIQ was predictive of all types of difficulties. Developing a firm understanding of the risk factors that contribute to mental health comorbidities in focal paediatric epilepsy can help identify and provide assessment and intervention to children who are at higher risk earlier, thus significantly improving quality of life
Exploring the tension between adherence and cultural fit when delivering Multsystemic Therapy in England
Full text linkMultisystemic Therapy (MST) provides intensive short-term interventions for young people with antisocial behaviour and the systems that surround them. A wealth of research over the past 30 years has demonstrated the efficacy of MST. Its success has led to it being transported to many countries and this prompted investigations into the need for cultural adaptation. Despite these investigations highlighting the importance of tailoring MST to new countries, when MST was transported to England in 2001, it did not undergo a formal process of cultural tailoring.
This study employed a qualitative approach using a Grounded Theory methodology to explore the assumption that all transported programmes require a level of adaptation and aimed to identify the processes and rationale behind informal ‘cultural tailoring’ undertaken by therapists. It aimed to explore areas in MST that might benefit from ‘cultural tailoring’ to improve the effectiveness of its implementation in England. Eight MST therapists from across three MST teams in England participated in semi-structured interviews.
Analysis of the data generated a theoretical model of adherence: the Post Implementation Model of Adherence (PIMA). The PIMA model seeks to explain how therapists in England experience and manage adhering to MST. It proposes that MST therapists strive to adhere to all aspects of the MST model whilst ensuring that it is acceptable and workable for the families and systems they work with. The PIMA model comprised four theoretical codes: Facilitators to therapists staying faithful to the MST model; barriers to therapists implementing MST, overcoming barriers to implementing MST; and the therapist holding the tension.
The findings highlight important cultural adjustments to improve MST’s ‘fit’ in England. Findings also extend Schoenwald’s (2008) recommendations for successful transportation of MST, by drawing attention to how a lack of cultural tailoring can be overcome or experienced as stressful by therapists
Insensitivity to the effectiveness of talking-therapy: the impact of the baseline-risk
Full text linkObjectives. People suffering from mental health conditions, often do not seek professional help. One of the reasons for this is that they do not consider talking-therapies sufficiently effective. It has been shown that among physical health conditions the rate at which people recover by themselves from a condition, as compared to those who do not (i.e. baseline-risk), unduly influences how effective people judge respective treatments. Treatments for conditions from which many people recover by themselves are considered as more effective than they actually are, as people credit the treatments for those that have recovered by themselves; the reverse is true for conditions from which many people do not recover by themselves. People may judge talking-therapy on the basis of the baseline-risk, to the detriment of the actual treatment effect of talking-therapy, conceptualised as the absolute or relative reduction of risk.
Design. A mixed factorial within-between subjects experiment.
Participants. A general population sample (N=202), in which 75.8% of participants had symptoms of depression and anxiety indicating a mental health condition.
Methods. Participants took part in a web-based experiment during which they were shown six vignettes about common mental health conditions and the effect of talking-therapy on these compared to no treatment. The six vignettes varied in the baseline-risk (high vs. low), the absolute risk reduction (high vs. low), and the relative risk reduction (high vs. low). The dependent variable was the perceived effectiveness of talking-therapy, measured on a visual analogue scale from 0 (ineffective) to 100 (extremely effective). Analysis of covariance was conducted to control for potential confounding variables, including numeracy and mood.
Results. Talking-therapies were judged on the basis of the baseline-risk of the condition. A higher baseline-risk was associated with a lower perceived effectiveness. This impact of the baseline-risk was not moderated by numeracy or mood. Talking-therapies were also judged on the basis of the absolute risk reduction but not by the relative risk reduction. There was some evidence that those with lower numeracy were less sensitive to differences in the treatment effect, that is, their judgments of effectiveness decreased less with a decreasing treatment effect.
Conclusion. The evidence suggests that the effectiveness of talking-therapy is influenced by the baseline-risk of common mental health conditions. To address people’s judgement that talking-therapy is insufficiently effective may require considering the negative impact of the high baseline-risk inherent to common mental health conditions. In turn, this may increase uptake of talking-therapy for common mental health conditions
The Well-being Value of Thinking About The Future in Adolescence
Full text linkResearch has only recently begun to examine how individuals can be mentally healthy as opposed to simply showing the absence of distress. One way of defining mental wellness, Psychological Well-Being (PWB; Ryff, 1989), encompasses six dimensions of positive functioning. Cognitions relating to the future are a key element of well-being and are particularly relevant in the late adolescent developmental stage. The study’s first aim was to examine how the positive and negative events adolescents anticipate in the future are seen as being implicated in various aspects of their well-being. The second aim was to examine the relationship between PWB self-report scores and levels of anxiety and depression. Sixth form students completed a task which elicited positive and negative events they were anticipating in the future and their thoughts about what was good or bad about those events. They also completed a measure of anxiety and depression and self-report scales of PWB. Open-ended responses about the consequences of the events (what was good or bad about them) were independently coded for the presence of the six PWB dimensions. Environmental Mastery was the most salient aspect of PWB present when participants discussed the consequences of both positive and negative events. The frequency of PWB dimensions present in adolescents’ responses was similar between those with high and low levels of anxiety and depression, except those with high levels expressed significantly more responses related to Positive Relations with Others. On the self-report measures Positive Relations and Self-Acceptance showed unique relationships to depression scores, and Environmental Mastery and Self-Acceptance showed unique relationships to anxiety scores. The findings have implications for developing prevention strategies focusing on strengthening these aspects of PWB in the hope of protecting vulnerable people from future distress
Nonclinical Paranoia and Values in the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game
Full text linkParanoia is increasingly considered to be a common phenomenon in the general population and is not just a symptom of diagnosable psychiatric disorders. Recently, Ellett, Allen-Crooks, Stevens, Wildschut & Chadwick (2013) argued that distrust-based competition in the Prisoners Dilemma Game (PDG) is a novel behavioural marker for nonclinical paranoia. The present study sought to replicate the finding of Ellett et al. (2013) and to extend their research by looking to the social psychology literature on human values as additional potential motivations for competition in the PDG. Additionally, the study sought to examine relationships between paranoia in the nonclinical population and human values, and offer support for a recently refined theory of human values (Schwartz et al., 2012).
Consistent with prediction, higher trait paranoia was associated with valuing face, that is, holding a commitment to security and power through maintaining one’s public image and avoiding humiliation, and lower trait paranoia was associated with valuing universalism-tolerance, that is, showing acceptance and understanding for others. Secondly, and consistent with prediction, the current findings replicated that of Ellett et al. (2013) to show that distrust-based PDG competition is a behavioural marker for nonclinical paranoia. Thirdly, the present research offered a secondary behavioural marker for nonclinical paranoia based on a commitment to valuing power. Lastly, the study offered support for the circular structure of values in Schwartz’s (2012) refined theory.
Collectively, the current findings provided further evidence for the role of the PDG in the measurement and investigation of nonclinical paranoia, and more specifically provided a foundation for further research into the role that values could play in furthering this understanding
Radon backgrounds in the DEAP-1 liquid argon based Dark Matter detector
No full textThe DEAP-1 \SI{7}{kg} single phase liquid argon scintillation detector was operated underground at SNOLAB in order to test the techniques and measure the backgrounds inherent to single phase detection, in support of the DEAP-3600 Dark Matter detector. Backgrounds in DEAP are controlled through material selection, construction techniques, pulse shape discrimination and event reconstruction. This report details the analysis of background events observed in three iterations of the DEAP-1 detector, and the measures taken to reduce them. The Rn decay rate in the liquid argon was measured to be between 16 and \SI{26}{\micro\becquerel\per\kilogram}. We found that the background spectrum near the region of interest for Dark Matter detection in the final DEAP-1 detector generation is well described considering events from three sources: radon daughters decaying on the surface of the active volume, the expected rate of electromagnetic events misidentified as nuclear recoils due to inefficiencies in the pulse shape discrimination arising from the prototype design, and leakage of events from outside the fiducial volume due to imperfect position reconstruction. These backgrounds statistically account for all observed events, and they will be strongly reduced in the DEAP-3600 detector due to its higher light yield and simpler geometry
Future-Directed Thinking In First Episode Psychosis
Full text linkPsychosis encompasses a constellation of symptoms that have far-reaching social, physical and functional consequences for sufferers. One of the key clinical concerns in the management of psychotic illnesses is the risk of suicide, which is greatest in the early stages of psychosis. Hopelessness is consistently associated with risk for suicide but as a concept it is not well defined and is not specific enough to be of use in prediction of suicide. Future-directed thinking, particularly regarding positive future events, constitutes an aspect of hopelessness that is closely associated with risk for suicide. This study employed the Future Thinking Task to investigate whether future-directed thinking in first episode psychosis is significantly different from that of matched controls in performance or content, and to clarify the nature of its association with suicide risk in this patient group. In addition, the association of future-directed thinking with the negative symptoms of psychosis was investigated.
The results showed that individuals with psychosis were impaired in future-directed thinking globally, particularly with respect to the coming year. Specific deficits were shown in the domains of relations with other people and personal development and understanding. Associations were shown between future-directed thinking and suicide, and reduced positive future-directed thinking was shown to be strongly associated with increased severity of negative symptoms. The results suggest avenues for novel interventions to improve hopelessness, suicide risk and the severity of negative symptoms in psychotic illness, and thereby improve functional outcomes
Research Data Management: Policies and Plans (And Best Practices)
No full textOVERVIEW
1. Definitions
a) Research Data (Management)
b) Types of RDM activities
2. Drivers, including funder policies
3. Focus on Data Management Planning
4. Best Practices for RDM
5. About the FOSTER projec
Data sources:
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