Mood Lifters for Graduate Students and Young Adults: A Mixed-Methods Investigation into Mechanisms of Change in Online Group Therapy.

Mood Lifters (ML) is a dimensional, group-based, peer-led mental health program that has shown efficacy in mitigating psychopathology and promoting wellness within a variety of populations. There is not yet evidence for mechanism(s) driving these changes. Qualitative data exploring the lived experiences of participants may be a unique way to develop hypotheses about the potential mechanisms driving change. The current study used qualitative and quantitative data from the ML for Graduate Students (ML-GS) and Young Adults (ML-YA) studies to generate hypotheses regarding potential mechanisms of changes experienced in ML. Seventy-nine graduate students and fifty-nine non-student young adults provided quantitative and qualitative feedback after participating in a 12-week virtual ML program. Inductive qualitative analysis was conducted within a reflexive thematic framework. Descriptive statistics of quantitative measures were also calculated. Three themes suggest potential directions for future mechanism research on virtual ML programs. Most participants emphasized the social connections built in groups as the most potent and powerful aspects of ML, while others focused on the design or content of the program. Quantitative data presented contextualize the lived experiences of participants. Future ML research should explore the three themes identified within this study through continued qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. NCT05078450.

Treatment for graduate students: Blunting the emotional toll of postgraduate education.

OBJECTIVES: Graduate students are at greater risk of developing mental health concerns than other adults in their age group. Despite the need for care within this population, there is a lack of literature on accessible interventions designed specifically to meet the needs of graduate students. The present study examines the efficacy of a novel intervention: Mood Lifters for Graduate Students (ML-GS). METHOD: This study is a clinical trial with randomization. The sample size consisted of 131 participants. The average age was 25.95 years, and the sample was 88.5% women, 61.8% White, and 65.6% straight or heterosexual. Participants completed the same survey before and after participating in ML-GS, as well as 1-month after completing ML-GS. Three measures from those surveys were examined in this study: Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and Perceived Stress Scale. Two-way mixed-design analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and repeated measures ANOVAs were used to analyze these data. RESULTS: Results indicated that participants enrolled in ML-GS experienced significant, clinically meaningful reductions in depression, anxiety, and stress, when compared to their waitlist counterparts. The changes made during the ML-GS program were also maintained at the 1-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that ML-GS is effective in reducing depression, anxiety, and stress among graduate students. It may be a good solution for the large demand for mental health support in that population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

An investigation into the effectiveness of Mood Lifters in the context of trauma exposure.

A large proportion of adults experiencing mental health problems do not receive care due to structural and attitudinal barriers. Mood Lifters (ML) is an evidence-based mental wellness program designed to reduce depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. This study aims to extend the literature by examining whether ML reduces posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and if childhood trauma (CT) affects treatment outcomes. We hypothesized that ML will be effective for all symptoms. However, we predicted that those who endorse higher levels of CT would experience a diminished impact of ML on their symptoms. Graduate students and young professionals (N = 221), a demographic that is known to have greater mental health concerns, were randomly assigned to either the waitlist condition (n = 78) or the intervention condition (n = 143). Before and after ML participation, participants completed a series of questionnaires about their symptoms. ML reduced symptoms of PTSD for participants who received the intervention relative to the waitlist. Further, we also observed that while the overall regression models with CT predict posttreatment scores for all the clinical symptoms, the CT variable itself was predictive of only posttreatment anxiety. Unexpectedly, given that CT is often associated with less improvement, we found that those at all levels of CT experienced similar reductions in depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms. Taken together, ML is a viable option to help people reduce depression, anxiety, stress, and PTSD regardless of the level of CT exposure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Correction: Vu et al. Specific Changes in Arabidopsis thaliana Rosette Lipids during Freezing Can Be Associated with Freezing Tolerance. Metabolites 2022, 12, 385.

There was an error in the original publication [...].

Specific Changes in Arabidopsis thaliana Rosette Lipids during Freezing Can Be Associated with Freezing Tolerance.

While the roles of a few specific lipids in plant freezing tolerance are understood, the effect of many plant lipids remains to be determined. Acclimation of plants to non-freezing cold before exposure to freezing temperatures improves the outcome of plants, compared to plants exposed to freezing without acclimation. Arabidopsis thaliana plants were subjected to one of three treatments: (1) "control", i.e., growth at 21 °C, (2) "non-acclimated", i.e., 3 days at 21 °C, 2 h at -8 °C, and 24 h recovery at 21 °C, and (3) "acclimated", i.e., 3 days at 4 °C, 2 h at -8 °C, and 24 h recovery at 21 °C. Plants were harvested at seven time points during the treatments, and lipid levels were measured by direct-infusion electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Ion leakage was measured at the same time points. To examine the function of lipid species in relation to freezing tolerance, the lipid levels in plants immediately following the freezing treatment were correlated with the outcome, i.e., ion leakage 24-h post-freezing. Based on the correlations, hypotheses about the functions of specific lipids were generated. Additionally, analysis of the lipid levels in plants with mutations in genes encoding patatin-like phospholipases, lipoxygenases, and 12-oxophytodienoic acid reductase 3 (opr3), under the same treatments as the wild-type plants, identified only the opr3-2 mutant as having major lipid compositional differences compared to wild-type plants.