Brief internet-based cognitive behavior therapy program with a supplement drink improved anxiety and somatic symptoms in Japanese workers.

BACKGROUND: Self-help cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is a useful approach for the treatment of psychological problems. Recent research on the effectiveness of self-help internet-based CBT (ICBT) indicates that the paradigm moderately improves psychological problems. Furthermore, previous studies have shown that food and drinks containing supplements improve various health conditions. We investigated the effect of a brief self-help ICBT administered with a supplement drink on psychological well-being and somatic symptoms. METHODS: In total, 101 healthy workers were enrolled in the 4-week ICBT program, which consisted of psychoeducation on stress management, behavior activation, and cognitive restructuring. The supplement soft drink was taken every day during the program. The participants were instructed to watch on-demand video clips and read the self-help guidebook and supporting comic strip weekly on the Internet or smartphone. The Japanese version of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) was administered before and after completion of the program. Scores on the POMS tension-anxiety (POMS-TA), depression (POMS-D), and fatigue (POMS-F) subscales were used to assess the effect of the program. Somatic symptoms were assessed using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire. RESULTS: In total, 75 participants continued the program for 4 weeks; however, of those, 27 failed to complete all weekly tasks or meet the post-assessment deadlines. Therefore, the data of 48 participants were included in the analysis. Pre-post intervention comparisons using paired t-tests revealed significant improvement on the POMS-TA, but not the POMS-D or POMS-F subscales. Moreover, participants reported a significant reduction in the severity of low back pain. CONCLUSION: Our brief intervention moderately improved anxiety levels and the symptom of low back pain. These findings suggest that the brief ICBT program is effective in non-patient populations. Future directions for brief ICBT are discussed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered on February 10, 2016 at UMIN. The registration number is UMIN000020962.

The effect for Japanese workers of a self-help computerized cognitive behaviour therapy program with a supplement soft drink.

BACKGROUND: Computerized cognitive behaviour therapy (CCBT) programs can provide a useful self-help approach to the treatment of psychological problems. Previous studies have shown that CCBT has moderate effects on depression, insomnia, and anxiety. The present study investigated whether a supplement drink that includes L-carnosine enhances the effect of CCBT on psychological well-being. METHODS: Eighty-seven participants were randomly allocated to a control group, CCBT, or CCBT with supplement drink. The CCBT and CCBT with supplement drink groups received six weekly self-help CCBT program instalments, which consisted of psycho-education about stress management and coping, behaviour activation, and cognitive restructuring. The CCBT group consumed a bottle of the supplement soft drink every morning through the 6 weeks. This program was delivered by an e-learning system on demand and also included a self-help guidebook. Seventy-two participants completed the program or were assess at the end of the study. RESULTS: ANOVA revealed that there were significant interactions (times × groups) for POMS tension-anxiety and fatigue. The CCBT group showed significantly improved tension-anxiety scores, whereas the CCBT with drink group showed significant improvements on fatigue. CONCLUSION: The self-help CCBT program reduced the subjective experience of tension-anxiety in this group of workers. The addition of a supplement drink enhanced the effect of CCBT on fatigue, providing one possible approach to enhancement of such programs. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered on September 2, 2016 at UMIN. The registration number is UMIN000023903.

Differential reactivity of attention biases in patients with social anxiety disorder

Information-processing biases based on cognitive and cognitive behavioral models have been reported in social anxiety disorder (SAD). One such bias is the attention bias, or selectively attending to threat stimuli. This bias has been associated in anxiety with maintenance and worsening of SAD symptoms. The objective of the present study was to examine, compare, and clarify differences in attention biases to language stimuli between SAD patients and healthy people. Results indicated, no differences between the two groups, but differences were seen in the attention bias score among SAD patients. This suggests that there is an increased threat effect among SAD patients triggered by their attention bias toward social threat stimuli (AU)

No disponible