Examining an internet-delivered intervention for anxiety and depression when delivered as a part of routine care for university students: A phase IV trial.

BACKGROUND: There has been growing interest in the potential of emerging internet-delivered psychological treatments for supporting the mental health needs of university students. However, no large-scale prospective effectiveness trials examining their real-world potential have been reported. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current study was to evaluate the acceptability and effectiveness of a brief, 5-week, internet-delivered and therapist-guided intervention for anxiety and depression, when delivered as part of routine care by a university counselling service. DESIGN: A large, prospective, single-group Phase-IV clinical trial. Students (n = 1326) engaging with the university counselling service were provided the opportunity to receive the intervention based on their preferences and identified needs. Students completed standardised measures of anxiety and depression at pre-treatment, each week of the intervention, post-treatment and 3-month follow-up. RESULTS: Over a 4 year period, 1081 students (10% of those presenting to the counselling service) participated in the intervention. Large clinical reductions in symptoms of both anxiety (% reduction = 41%; Cohen's d = 0.94) and depression (% reduction = 36%; Cohen's d = 0.81) were observed alongside high levels of acceptability. The intervention required relatively little counsellor time (M = 36.28 mins; SD = 20.56) per student, and symptom deterioration was observed in less than 5% of students. CONCLUSION: The findings of the current study are supportive of internet-delivered interventions provided as routine care to university students. Further research is needed to carefully explore whether these interventions could be used with a larger proportion of students presenting to counselling services, paying close attention to acceptability, engagement and clinical outcomes.

Capturing SCL and HR changes to win and loss events during gambling on electronic machines.

The role of physiological arousal is central to theories about the onset and maintenance of gambling behaviours including problem gambling. The range of possibilities suggested include tonic underarousal and phasic abnormalities such as hypersensitivity to reward and/or reduced sensitivity to negative consequences associated with losses. Among the various types of gambling, electronic gambling machines (EGMs) are associated with the large majority of gambling related problems. The demonstration that physiological changes associated with rapidly occurring win and loss events during electronic gambling can be reliably captured is fundamental to further progress in the psychophysiology of gambling. The current study monitored electrodermal and cardiac activities of twenty-four healthy participants to event outcomes (losses, fake wins, small wins and big wins) during a task on a real EGM. The results demonstrated that it is possible to reliably capture the profile of physiological changes as they occurred in real time to the many different win and loss events during electronic gambling. Relative to baseline levels, win events produced significant increases in skin conductance levels, (but not in HR) whereas loss events produced no significant changes. The study has important applications for further experimental and clinical research.