Publications by authors named "Naomi A Fineberg"

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common and disabling condition. A large proportion of patients fail to respond to first-line treatment with serotonin reuptake inhibitors either selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or clomipramine. Preliminary evidence suggests psilocybin, a serotonin receptor agonist, might be efficacious.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted daily life, and the transition to post-pandemic living presented additional psychological challenges. Previous research shows that individuals with obsessive-compulsive traits and pre-existing mental health histories were vulnerable to adjustment difficulties, which appear to be mediated by depression, anxiety, and stress.

Aims: This study examined the relationship between post-pandemic adjustment and mental health variables in a population-based cohort during the final lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, tracking outcomes over six months to assess causality.

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Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) holds promise as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Patients with OCD show impairment in specific domains of cognitive flexibility and response inhibition. We previously reported that tDCS produced a positive clinical effect on OCD symptoms.

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Purpose Of Review: Behavioural addictions involve loss of control over initially rewarding behaviours, which continue despite adverse consequences. Theoretical models suggest that these patterns of behaviour evolve over time, with compulsive and habitual behaviours held to reflect a loss of behavioural control. Compulsivity can be broadly described as a propensity for (or engagement in) repetitive behaviours that are not aligned with overall goals.

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Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a complex condition marked by persistent distressing thoughts and repetitive behaviours. Despite its prevalence, the mechanisms behind OCD remain elusive, and current treatments are limited. This protocol outlines an investigative study for individuals with OCD, exploring the potential of psilocybin to improve key components of cognition implicated in the disorder.

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Background: Cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD) have a high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities, that may impact clinically relevant outcomes (e.g., cognitive impairment and executive dysfunction).

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Article Synopsis
  • Gambling disorder is the only recognized behavioral addiction in DSM-5, while Internet gaming disorder is noted for further research; other potential disorders include compulsive sexual behavior, compulsive shopping, and social media issues.
  • These disorders are clinically relevant and often coexist with conditions like depression and anxiety, with validated diagnostic tools available but no approved medications for treatment.
  • Cognitive-behavioral therapy shows the most promise, highlighting the need for active screening and public health efforts, along with further research into treatment methods that combine various therapeutic approaches.
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Article Synopsis
  • Our increasing reliance on digital platforms can adversely affect mental health, raising concerns about online interactions.
  • There's ongoing discussion about the responsibilities of public health and psychiatry in addressing these issues.
  • Clinicians have a key role in evaluating internet use and taking action to mitigate harmful effects on mental well-being.
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The ability to flexibly adapt thoughts and behaviours represents a fundamental attribute for behavioural success. Impairments in aspects of cognitive flexibility are found as transdiagnostic latent phenotypes of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology and are present within a range of mental disorders and within the population at large. In this narrative review, we focus on the attentional set-shifting aspect of cognitive inflexibility, which has been largely investigated in the context of obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders and is thought to underpin perseverative symptomatology.

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This study investigates the goal/habit imbalance theory of compulsion in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which postulates enhanced habit formation, increased automaticity, and impaired goal/habit arbitration. It directly tests these hypotheses using newly developed behavioral tasks. First, OCD patients and healthy participants were trained daily for a month using a smartphone app to perform chunked action sequences.

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Background: This systematic review and meta-analysis explored the relationship between cognitive phenotypes of compulsivity and impulsivity and clinical variables in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Methods: We searched Pubmed, Scopus, Cochrane Library and PsychINFO databases until February 2023 for studies comparing patients with OCD and healthy controls on cognitive tests of compulsivity and impulsivity. The study followed PRISMA guidelines and was pre-registered on PROSPERO (CRD42021299017).

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Background: A significant proportion of people with clozapine-treated schizophrenia develop 'checking' compulsions, a phenomenon yet to be understood.

Aims: To use habit formation models developed in cognitive neuroscience to investigate the dynamic interplay between psychosis, clozapine dose and obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS).

Method: Using the anonymised electronic records of a cohort of clozapine-treated patients, including longitudinal assessments of OCS and psychosis, we performed longitudinal multi-level mediation and multi-level moderation analyses to explore associations of psychosis with obsessiveness and excessive checking.

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Patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) randomised to sertraline, manualised cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), or combination (sertraline + CBT), underwent cognitive assessment. Cognitive testing was conducted at baseline and at week 16. The stop signal reaction time task (SSRT) was used to evaluate motor impulsivity and attentional flexibility was evaluated using the intra/extra-dimensional set shifting task.

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Fatigue is a common debilitating symptom in individuals with anxiety and mood disorders, also known as common mental disorders (CMD). Aspects of fatigue are seen to be independently associated with the presence of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) in individuals with CMD. However, the relationship between different traits of OCPD and fatigue is still under-researched.

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Background: The nature of cognitive flexibility deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which historically have been tested with probabilistic reversal learning tasks, remains elusive. Here, a novel deterministic reversal task and inclusion of unmedicated patients in the study sample illuminated the role of fixed versus uncertain rules/contingencies and of serotonergic medication. Additionally, our understanding of probabilistic reversal was enhanced through theoretical computational modeling of cognitive flexibility in OCD.

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Anxiety disorders are very prevalent and often persistent mental disorders, with a considerable rate of treatment resistance which requires regulatory clinical trials of innovative therapeutic interventions. However, an explicit definition of treatment-resistant anxiety disorders (TR-AD) informing such trials is currently lacking. We used a Delphi method-based consensus approach to provide internationally agreed, consistent and clinically useful operational criteria for TR-AD in adults.

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Aims: This study sought to synthesize prevalence rates of problematic internet use (PIU) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the general adult (age over 18 years old) population and to investigate its possible moderators.

Methods: A preregistered systematic literature review using the PubMed/MEDLINE, EBSCOhost/PsycINFO, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, GSK Clinical Study Register, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases was conducted.

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Objectives: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic and debilitating psychiatric condition, with diagnosed patients typically experiencing moderate or severe symptoms. This study evaluated the cost-of-illness (CoI) of OCD in the UK, capturing the annual costs accrued to the National Health Service (NHS) and Personal Social Services (PSS), people with OCD, caregivers and society.

Methods: The UK OCD population was estimated and stratified by age group (children, adults, elderly), symptom severity (mild, moderate, severe) and treatment received (including no treatment).

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Article Synopsis
  • * This article reviews studies from the International College of Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders, utilizing a decade's worth of data from a Snapshot database that includes information from over 500 OCD patients worldwide.
  • * Findings highlight diverse demographic and clinical traits related to OCD, such as age, gender, smoking habits, onset age, illness duration, comorbidities, suicidal behaviors, and treatment methods, revealing notable variations across different countries.
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The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) are short self-report questionnaires used to screen and assess depression and anxiety severity in medical and community samples. However, little is known about their psychometric properties in individuals with anxiety and mood disorders (AMD) This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 in individuals with AMD. Individuals (n = 244, mean age 39.

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Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive form of neurostimulation with potential for development as a self-administered intervention. It has shown promise as a safe and effective treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in a small number of studies. The two most favourable stimulation targets appear to be the left orbitofrontal cortex (L-OFC) and the supplementary motor area (SMA).

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Article Synopsis
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of exercise in reducing OCD symptoms, involving a search of multiple databases until March 2022.
  • The analysis included 6 trials with a total of 92 participants, revealing a significant decrease in OCD symptoms, along with reductions in anxiety and depression associated with exercise.
  • Although the results indicate exercise may be beneficial for OCD treatment, the overall quality of the studies was low, highlighting the need for more rigorous and larger-scale randomized controlled trials to confirm these findings.
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