Publications by authors named "Rector N"

Article Synopsis
  • A study looked at how personality and thinking patterns relate to different obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) and similar issues.
  • Researchers compared 239 patients with OCD and related disorders to 100 healthy individuals.
  • They found that patients had higher levels of anxiety and lower levels of being outgoing and organized, with some unique differences between the types of disorders.
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  • The study investigated how treatment affects neurocognitive performance in individuals with OCD, focusing on symptom changes and the role of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism as a genetic factor.
  • Participants (N = 125) received various treatments, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and physical exercise, with assessments done before and after treatment to measure OCD symptoms and neurocognitive abilities.
  • Results showed that while OCD symptoms improved with treatment, neurocognitive performance also enhanced independently of the BDNF genotype, indicating a strong link between symptom relief and cognitive function improvement.
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Background: In this study, we re-examined data from a previous randomized controlled trial investigating 'technology supported mindfulness' (TSM)-an 8-week treatment intervention for individuals experiencing OCD. The current analysis involves an examination of the longitudinal relationships between rumination, worry and OCD symptom changes during mindfulness treatment, in comparison to a waitlist control.

Methods: Participants experiencing OCD (n = 71) were randomly assigned to 8 weeks of (1) TSM or (2) waitlist control.

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Background: Overfeeding and underfeeding are associated with negative outcomes during critical illness. The purpose of this retrospective study was to assess the association between nutrition intake and outcomes for patients receiving venovenous (VV) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

Methods: Adults who received VV ECMO August 2017 to June 2020 were screened.

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Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) including exposure and response prevention is the first-line psychological treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Given changes in the clinical landscape, there are increasing efforts to evaluate its effectiveness in online contexts. Mirroring the traditional in-person delivery, few studies have assessed the role of therapist-guided, manual-based CBT for OCD delivered in real-time via videoconferencing methods.

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Article Synopsis
  • The research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of aerobic exercise and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) on reducing OCD symptoms, particularly for those who don't respond well to CBT alone.
  • A total of 125 participants were divided into four groups: a waitlist control, an exercise group, a CBT group, and a group combining CBT with exercise, with OCD symptoms measured at different points during the study.
  • Results showed that both CBT and its combination with exercise led to more significant reductions in OCD symptoms compared to exercise alone, indicating that the frequency of exercise plays a crucial role in symptom improvement.
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Background: A critical facet of motivation is effort-based decision making, which refers to the mental processes involved in deciding whether a potential reward is worth the effort. To advance understanding of how individuals with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder utilize cost-benefit information to guide choice behavior, this study aimed to characterize individual differences in the computations associated with effort-based decision making.

Methods: One hundred forty-five participants (51 with schizophrenia, 43 with depression, and 51 healthy control participants) completed the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task, with mixed effects modeling conducted to estimate the predictors of decision making.

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Article Synopsis
  • Video feedback after video-taped exposure in group cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for social anxiety disorder shows improvements in self-perception and anxiety levels.
  • In a study with 67 participants, significant reductions in anxiety and enhanced performance were observed after both self-viewing the tape and receiving feedback from group members and therapists.
  • Results indicated that group feedback provided additional benefits beyond just viewing the video alone, leading to better evaluations of performance and social concerns among participants.
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  • Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is important in understanding generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), but research on how it relates to GAD symptoms over time during treatment is limited.
  • A study involving 90 individuals undergoing cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) found that IU and worry severity were linked concurrently but not predictively, suggesting that IU can influence worry at the same time rather than leading to future worry.
  • The results indicated that as treatment progressed, the association between IU (especially the inhibitory dimension) and worry severity strengthened, although it remains unclear whether IU causes increased worry or vice versa.
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  • * Conducted with 165 individuals diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, the research found that higher levels of intolerance of uncertainty are linked to more negative interpretations of positive social interactions.
  • * The results show that the specific subtype of intolerance related to inhibitory behaviors significantly mediates this relationship, and the findings were consistent across individuals with and without additional mood disorders.
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The current study examined the association of OCD symptoms and OCD belief domains, for individuals engaged in Technology Supported Mindfulness training (TSM) using an EEG-based biofeedback device (called "Muse") that permits individuals to engage in home based mindfulness meditation practices. In this randomized controlled study, treatment-seeking participants with a principal DSM-5 diagnosis of OCD (N = 71) were randomly assigned to eight weeks of: 1) a meditation program involving daily use of the "Muse" device, or 2) wait list control. At weeks 1, 4, and 8, participants completed self-report measures of OCD symptoms (YBOCS: Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale) and OCD beliefs (OBQ; OCCWG, 2005).

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Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have emerged as clinically effective interventions for anxiety and depression although there are significant barriers to their access in the general population. The present study examined the effectiveness of a 5-week abbreviated mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) intervention for a physician-referred, treatment-seeking, community sample ( = 54) with mood and/or anxiety symptom burden. Treatment effects demonstrated significant reductions in mood and anxiety symptom severity and significant increases in general well-being.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the top treatment for OCD, but mindfulness methods are also showing promise in reducing symptoms.
  • A study involving 71 participants diagnosed with OCD compared mindfulness meditation using a consumer EEG device called "Muse" for eight weeks against a waitlist control group.
  • Results indicated that those using Muse had enhanced mindfulness (specifically "Non-Reactivity") and reduced mind wandering, which correlated with a decrease in OCD symptoms.
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Unlabelled: Excessive reassurance seeking (ERS) has been hypothesized as an important maintenance factor in depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The present study examined the types of ERS in depression and OCD, the effects of CBT on ERS, predictors of ERS reduction, and the relation between ERS reduction and symptom change.

Method: Treatment-seeking participants diagnosed with a depressive disorder (N = 361) or OCD (N = 156) completed the Reassurance Seeking Scale (RSS) and symptom measures before and following CBT treatment.

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Objectives: A number of school-based interventions for preventing and attenuating symptoms of anxiety and depression in youth have been developed worldwide but evidence of their effectiveness is mixed. None of these curricula stem from existing children's literature, however, the Harry Potter (HP) series has been identified as potentially imparting Cognitive Behavioural Therapy concepts.

Methods: This study aimed to broadly capture, at an interim stage, the feasibility of a pilot HP curriculum aimed at imparting CBT skills to middle-schoolers in order to inform full development of the curriculum.

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: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a heterogeneous disorder, with multiple symptom presentations. Delineating the neuropsychological characteristics associated with previously identified symptom clusters may therefore be useful in assisting to better define symptom subtypes of OCD.: This review summarizes the existing literature on the assessment of neuropsychological performance in symptom-based dimensions of OCD.

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Objective: Understanding the effects of benzodiazepines (BZDs) on maternal/fetal health remains incomplete despite their frequent use. This article quantifies the effects of antenatal BZD exposure on delivery outcomes.

Data Sources: Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched till June 30, 2018.

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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a significant psychiatric illness that can impact an individual in terms of their quality of life, functional abilities, and interpersonal relationships. Until recently, services for individuals with severe symptoms of OCD were limited within Canada. The Frederick W.

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric illness that can result in debilitating symptoms and functional impairment. Until recently, individuals with severe OCD symptoms have not received appropriate services within the Canadian healthcare system. The Frederick W.

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Article Synopsis
  • Reassurance seeking is linked to maintaining anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders, which the study aimed to analyze in the context of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).
  • The research involved 738 participants with various anxiety disorders who completed a Reassurance Seeking Scale before and after undergoing CBT treatment.
  • The findings showed that reassurance seeking has three key factors and correlates with anxiety and depression; reducing reassurance seeking through CBT is connected to better clinical outcomes.
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Objective: To summarize the effects of antenatal benzodiazepine exposure as monotherapy and in combination with antidepressants on the risk of congenital malformations.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched from inception to June 30, 2018, using controlled vocabulary and keywords (eg, prenatal, benzodiazepines, malformation).

Study Selection: English-language cohort studies with prospectively collected data on the risk of malformations in benzodiazepine-exposed and -unexposed offspring were evaluated.

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Purpose: Post-event processing (PEP) is posited to be an important factor in the maintenance of social anxiety symptoms. Previous research has demonstrated that general PEP tendencies are sensitive to treatment. However, it remains unclear how momentary PEP following social interactions changes over the course of treatment for social anxiety disorder.

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Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder with significant morbidity whose pathophysiology is not fully understood. Neuroimaging studies have characterized OCD in terms of elevated striatal and prefrontal reactivity to emotion provocation. This neural model may be informed by investigation of functional connectivity in OCD, identifying alterations in how sensory information is integrated into frontostriatal regions.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study explores how obsessive thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions) change during cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) by analyzing different potential relationships between the two.
  • - Researchers tested four models: no coupling, goal directed (obsessions affect compulsions), habit driven (compulsions affect obsessions), and reciprocal, using data from 84 participants over 12 weeks of CBT.
  • - Findings suggest that obsessions influence changes in compulsions, supporting the goal directed CBT model, which enhances our understanding of how these symptoms interact during treatment.
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To systematically review and meta-analyze research investigating the association between maternal anxiety during pregnancy and outcomes for mother and baby following the immediate delivery period. MEDLINE, Medline In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL, and the Cochrane library were searched. English-language, prospective studies providing data on outcomes following delivery in women with and without antenatal anxiety (defined by clinical diagnosis or score on validated scale) were included.

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