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A complex systems approach to psychopathology proposes that general principles lie in the dynamic patterns of psychopathology, which are not restricted to specific psychological processes like symptoms or affect. Hence, it must be possible to find general change profiles in time series data of fully personalized questionnaires. In the current study, we examined general change profiles in personalized self-ratings and related these to four measures of treatment outcome (International Symptom Rating, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21, daily symptom severity and self-reflective capacity). We analyzed data of 404 patients with mood and/or anxiety disorders who completed daily self-ratings on personalized questionnaires during psychotherapy. For each patient, a principal component analysis was applied to the multivariate time series in order to retrieve an univariate person-specific time series. Then, using classification and regression methods, we examined these time series for the presence of general change profiles. The change profile classification yielded the following distribution of patients: no-shift (n = 55; 14%), gradual-change (n = 52; 13%), one-shift (n = 233; 58%), reversed-shift (n = 39; 10%) and multiple-shifts (n = 25; 6%). The multiple-shifts group had better treatment outcome than the no-shift group on all outcome measures. The one-shift and gradual-change group had better treatment outcome than the no-shift group on respectively two and three outcome measures. Overall, this study illustrates that person-specific (idiographic) and general (nomothetic) aspects of psychopathology can be integrated in a complex systems approach to psychopathology, which may combine ‘the best of both worlds’.

Case formulation is at the heart of personalized care in psychotherapy. Scientific research into case formulations can provide new insights in the heterogeneity of psychopathology which are relevant for advances in personalized psychopathology research and practice. This mixed-methods study examined the content of 483 fully personalised network-based case formulations in psychotherapy in terms of uniqueness (i.e., frequencies of concepts) and commonality (i.e., the presence of common themes over the different case formulations). In a real-world clinical care setting, patients co-created network-based case formulations with their therapist as part of their routine diagnostic process. These case formulations feature concepts that are highly relevant to individual patients and their current situation. We assessed how often concepts were used by different patients to quantify uniqueness. We applied a bottom-up thematic analysis to identify patient-relevant themes from the concepts. 483 patients diagnosed with mood and/or anxiety disorders created network models yielding a total of 4908 interpretable concepts of which 4272 (87%) were completely unique. Through thematic analysis, we identified seven overarching themes in the concepts: autonomy, connectedness, emotions, self-care, identity, self-efficacy, and bodily sensations. Case formulations were highly unique, thereby illustrating the importance of personalized diagnostics. The unique concepts could be grouped under seven overarching themes which seem to encompass basic human needs. Current advancements in personalized diagnostics and assessment should have a broader scope than symptoms alone, and could use the themes identified here as part of a topic list in the generation of (network-based) case formulations.

OBJECTIVE: We examined individual overall trajectories of change and the occurrence of sudden gains in daily self-rated problem severity and the relation of these patterns to treatment response. METHOD: Mood disorder patients (N = 329, mean age = 44, 55% women) completed daily self-ratings about the severity of their complaints as a standard part of treatment, using the Therapy Process Questionnaire (TPQ). Per individual, the best-fitting defined (linear, log-linear, 1-step) trajectory was tested for significance: for change over time, and for specificity of the best-fitting trajectory. Two-hundred and three cases had ICD-10 Symptom Rating (ISR) depression scores posttreatment: a score ≤1 identified 114 treatment responders. Relation to response was examined for sudden gains and type of change trajectory. RESULTS: 138 cases (42%) had a significant decrease in problem severity, of which 54 cases (16%) had a defined trajectory: 50 cases with one-step improvement, and 4 with a linear improvement in daily problem severity. Sudden gains occurred in 28% of the total sample, and within 58% of improvement patterns. Specifically, sudden gains occurred in 68% of significant 1-step trajectories and 25% of the linear cases. Sudden gains and nonspecific change trajectories were significantly more frequent for treatment responders. CONCLUSIONS: At the day-level, patterns of improvement are nonlinear for most patients. Sudden gains occur within various forms of overall change and are associated with treatment response. Clinically relevant improvements in depression occur both gradually and abruptly, and this finding allows for the possibility that the remission process functions according to dynamical systems principles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Contains fulltext : 214849.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Whereas sudden gains and losses (large shifts in symptom severity) in patients receiving psychotherapy appear abrupt and hence may seem unexpected, hypotheses from complex-systems theory suggest that sudden gains and losses are actually preceded by certain early-warning signals (EWSs). We tested whether EWSs in patients' daily self-ratings of the psychotherapeutic process predicted future sudden gains and losses. Data were collected from 328 patients receiving psychotherapy for mood disorders who completed daily self-ratings about their therapeutic process using the Therapy Process Questionnaire (TPQ). Sudden gains and losses were classified from the Problem Intensity scale of the TPQ. The other items of the TPQ were used to compute the EWSs. EWSs predicted an increased probability for sudden gains and losses in a 4-day predictive window. These results show that EWSs can be used for real-time prediction of sudden gains and losses in clinical practice. 11 p.

Contains fulltext : 217460.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Objective: While destabilization periods characterized by high variability and turbulence in a patient's psychological state might seem obstructive for psychotherapy, a complex systems approach to psychopathology predicts that these periods are actually beneficial as they indicate possibilities for reorganization within the patient. The present study tested the hypothesis that destabilization is related to better treatment outcome. Method: 328 patients who received psychotherapy for mood disorders completed daily self-ratings about their psychotherapeutic process. A continuous measure of destabilization was defined as the relative strength of the highest peak in dynamic complexity, a measure for variability and turbulence, in the self-ratings of individual patients. Results: Destabilization was found to be related to better treatment outcome. When improvers and non-improvers were analyzed separately, destabilization was found to be related to better treatment outcome in improvers but not in non-improvers. Conclusions: Destabilization in daily self-ratings of the psychotherapeutic process is associated with better treatment outcome. The identification of destabilization periods in process-monitoring data is clinically relevant. During destabilization, patients are believed to be increasingly sensitive to the effects of therapy. Clinicians could tailor their interventions to these sensitive periods. 12 p.

For patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), whose triggers are highly idiosyncratic, individual stimulus material has been used in several fMRI studies. This study aims at comparing individual to standardized picture sets and at investigating a possible overlap of the former with the self-referential neuronal network. During fMRI-scanning, 17 inpatients with OCD and 17 healthy controls were exposed to pictures of their personal triggers, photographed in their domestic environments, to standardized pictures designed to provoke OCD symptoms, and to neutral pictures. Whole-brain analyses were calculated and the pictures were rated by both patients and controls with respect to valence, arousal, and coping. Patients rated the individualized stimuli lower in valence and coping and higher in arousal compared to controls, and also compared to standardized OCD- and neutral stimuli. The individual stimuli elicited neuronal activity in the cingulate cortex, hippocampus, insula, middle frontal/precentral gyrus, superior/inferior parietal lobe, and precuneus, while no group difference was detected by the standardized OCD-stimuli. In conclusion, individual picture sets facilitate the detection of neuronal activity, but the results might be confounded due to the overlap with the network of self-referential processing and memory retrieval. The use of individual symptom-provoking and individual neutral stimuli would therefore be optimal.

Highlights • Psychiatric impairment is associated with decreased neural flexibility. • Psychotherapy was able to increase the neural flexibility of the patients. • Psychotherapy should increase adaptivity of cognitive-emotional-behavioral patterns., Flexibility is a key feature of psychological health, allowing the individual to dynamically adapt to changing environmental demands, which is impaired in many psychiatric disorders like obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Adequately responding to varying demands requires the brain to switch between different patterns of neural activity, which are represented by different brain network configurations (functional connectivity patterns). Here, we operationalize neural flexibility as the dissimilarity between consecutive connectivity matrices of brain regions (jump length). In total, 132 fMRI scans were obtained from 17 patients that were scanned four to five times during inpatient psychotherapy, and from 17 controls that were scanned at comparable time intervals. Significant negative correlations were found between the jump lengths and the symptom severity scores of OCD, depression, anxiety, and stress, suggesting that high symptom severity corresponds to inflexible brain functioning. Further analyses revealed that impaired reconfiguration (pattern stability) of the brain seems to be more related to general psychiatric impairment rather than to specific symptoms, e.g., of OCD or depression. Importantly, the group × time interaction of a repeated measures ANOVA was significant, as well as the post-hoc paired t-tests of the patients (first vs. last scan). The results suggest that psychotherapy is able to significantly increase the neural flexibility of patients. We conclude that psychiatric symptoms like anxiety, stress, depression, and OCD are associated with an impaired adaptivity of the brain. In general, our results add to the growing evidence that dynamic functional connectivity captures meaningful properties of brain functioning.

Background While considerable progress has been made in exploring the psychological, the neural, and the neurochemical dimensions of OCD separately, their interplay is still an open question, especially their changes during psychotherapy. Methods Seventeen patients were assessed at these three levels by psychological questionnaires, fMRI, and venipuncture before and after inpatient psychotherapy. Seventeen controls were scanned at comparable time intervals. First, pre/post treatment changes were investigated for all three levels separately: symptom severity, whole-brain and regional activity, and the concentrations of cortisol, serotonin, dopamine, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and immunological parameters (IL-6, IL-10, TNFα). Second, stepwise linear modeling was used to find relations between the variables of the levels. Results The obsessive-compulsive, depressive, and overall symptom severity was significantly reduced after psychotherapy. At the neural level, the activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), in frontal regions, in the precuneus, and in the putamen had significantly decreased. No significant changes were found on the neurochemical level. When connecting the levels, a highly significant model was found that explains the decrease in neural activity of the putamen by increases of the concentrations of cortisol, IL-6, and dopamine. Conclusion Multivariate approaches offer insight on the influences that the different levels of the psychiatric disorder OCD have on each other. More research and adapted models are needed.

OBJECTIVE: Home-based treatment of families with low socio-economic status and multiple psychosocial problems (multi-problem families, MPFs) is gaining importance in clinical social epidemiology and health services research. The sustainability of the treatment is of special importance in order to breach transgenerational effects. METHODS: We examined outcome, effect size, and clinical significance of home-based treatment for 84 multi-problem families in a naturalistic setting. 48 of the families were available for a follow-up after 3 years. The baseline characteristics of these family systems included low collaboration, an increased family adversity index, minors with high rates of child psychiatric disorders, a high prevalence of comorbidity, low relational family functioning, and adolescents who refused any form of treatment or had unilaterally terminated different forms of treatment before. The home-based family therapy consisted of one or two face-to-face counseling sessions per week over an average of 28.8 months (SD = 19.2). The symptoms and competence of the adolescents, the caregivers, and the family structure were assessed with 13 variables. RESULTS: All variables showed significant improvement rates (pre- vs. post- treatment) with medium to high effect sizes (mean of Cohen’s d = 1.04, range = .34 – 2.18). All variables showed a sustained or even further improvement at follow-up. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence of statistically (p), practically (d), and clinically (RCI) significant changes in symptom and competence-related variables among adolescents and caregivers in MPFs with sustainable long-term effects in the 3-year follow-up period.

Background Promoting well-being and preventing poor mental health in young people is a major global priority. Building emotional competence (EC) skills via a mobile app may be an effective, scalable and acceptable way to do this. However, few large-scale controlled trials have examined the efficacy of mobile apps in promoting mental health in young people; none have tailored the app to individual profiles. Method/design The Emotional Competence for Well-Being in Young Adults cohort multiple randomised controlled trial (cmRCT) involves a longitudinal prospective cohort to examine well-being, mental health and EC in 16–22 year olds across 12 months. Within the cohort, eligible participants are entered to either the PREVENT trial (if selected EC scores at baseline within worst-performing quartile) or to the PROMOTE trial (if selected EC scores not within worst-performing quartile). In both trials, participants are randomised (i) to continue with usual practice, repeated assessments and a self-monitoring app; (ii) to additionally receive generic cognitive-behavioural therapy self-help in app; (iii) to additionally receive personalised EC self-help in app. In total, 2142 participants aged 16 to 22 years, with no current or past history of major depression, bipolar disorder or psychosis will be recruited across UK, Germany, Spain, and Belgium. Assessments take place at baseline (pre-randomisation), 1, 3 and 12 months post-randomisation. Primary endpoint and outcome for PREVENT is level of depression symptoms on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 at 3 months; primary endpoint and outcome for PROMOTE is emotional well-being assessed on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale at 3 months. Depressive symptoms, anxiety, well-being, health-related quality of life, functioning and cost-effectiveness are secondary outcomes. Compliance, adverse events and potentially mediating variables will be carefully monitored. Conclusions The trial aims to provide a better understanding of the causal role of learning EC skills using interventions delivered via mobile phone apps with respect to promoting well-being and preventing poor mental health in young people. This knowledge will be used to develop and disseminate innovative evidence-based, feasible, and effective Mobile-health public health strategies for preventing poor mental health and promoting well-being. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.org). Number of identification: NCT04148508 November 2019.

Hintergrund: Anhand eines Fallbeispiels soll gezeigt werden, wie Real-Time-Monitoring die Therapie von PatientInnen mit komplexer posttraumatischer Belastungsstörung (PTBS) wirksamer gestalten hilft. Patient und Methoden: Die Fallkonzeption und Behandlung fußten auf einem störungsspezifischen stationären Behandlungsprogramm für komplex traumatisierte Erwachsene und orientierten sich an Empfehlungen bezüglich der traumafokussierten Behandlung von Patienten mit pathologischem Narzissmus. Der Veränderungsprozess des Patienten wurde mit einem webgestützten Tool für Real-Time-Monitoring (Synergetic Navigation System) erfasst und im Therapieverlauf wiederholt gemeinsam mit dem Patienten reflektiert. Ergebnisse: Der Patient remittierte hinsichtlich PTBS, Depression, somatoformer Beschwerden, interaktioneller Schwierigkeiten, Selbstwirksamkeit und Beeinträchtigungen des psychischen Wohlbefindens. Insbesondere konnten im Rahmen von Feedback-Gesprächen die persönlichkeitsspezifischen affektiven Dynamiken von Scham, Schuld und Wut des Patienten sowie deren kritische Instabilitäten und Phasenübergänge im Rahmen der Traumakonfrontation reflektiert werden. Der Patient entwickelte neue Selbstfürsorgemuster und lernte, eigene Gefühle wahrzunehmen, zu verantworten und zu regulieren. Schlussfolgerungen: Die auf Traumakonfrontation ausgerichtete multimodale Therapie erwies sich im vorliegenden Fall als geeignet, neben den Kernsymptomen der PTBS auch bedeutsame komorbide Symptome wirksam zu reduzieren. Das Real-Time-Monitoring unterstützt die Identifizierung und Bearbeitung zentraler affektiver Dynamiken eines Patienten und erlaubt so, die Therapie von Patienten mit komplexen Traumafolgestörungen und persönlichkeitsprägender Symptomatik effektiver zu gestalten.

Im vorliegenden Artikel wird ein detailliertes Konzept fur Psychodrama-Gruppen vorgestellt, das speziell fur die Klientel mit strukturellen Storungen im klinischen Setting erarbeitet wurde. Es wird erganzt durch empirische Befunde, basierend auf sechs Psychodrama Gruppen die anhand dieses Konzeptes durchgefuhrt wurden. Dabei zeigt sich, dass – gemessen mittels eines Interaktions-Fragebogens – TeilnehmerInnen im Mittel mehr Unterstutzung erhalten als sie meinen gegeben zu haben. Dieser Gruppen-Synergie Effekt hat fur beinah alle Sitzungen bestand, und wird erganzt durch signifikanten Symptom-Ruckgang der PatientInnen auf allgemeiner Problembelastung sowie in den speziellen Bereichen Depression, Angst, Stress, Zwang und somatoforme Symptomatik. Auserdem wurden signifikante Verbesserungen in Bezug auf therapeutische Fortschritte und Working Alliance gefunden. Psychodrama tragt somit zu einem positiven Therapieergebnis bei.

Das Fallbeispiel beschreibt die Vorgehensweise des synergetischen Prozessmanagements in einem tagesklinischen Setting. Dargestellt wird der therapeutische Prozess einer Patientin mit Borderline-Personlichkeitsstorung und komplexer dissoziativer Storung. Die Entwicklung der Patientin wurde begleitet und reflektiert mit einem Prozessmonitoring, welches auf einem taglich ausgefullten personlichen Fragebogen beruht. Am Beginn des Monitorings und des regelmasigen Prozessfeedbacks, das im Rahmen der therapeutischen Einzelgesprache stattfand, stand die Entwicklung eines idiographischen Systemmodells, welches in einer etwa dreistundigen Arbeit zusammen mit der Patientin entwickelt wurde. Fur die Patientin war es entscheidend zu erkennen, wie ihre verschiedenen Personlichkeits-States in den Komponenten des Modells reprasentiert waren und wie sich die Ubergange zwischen den States und deren jeweilige Trigger psychologisch nachvollziehen und erklaren liesen. Der mit dem »Synergetischen Navigationssystem« (SNS) mogliche Einblick in die Dynamik und die Verlaufsmuster ihrer Personlichkeitszustande (erfasst mithilfe taglicher Selbsteinschatzungen) lieferte die Grundlage fur einen veranderten Umgang mit diesen. Die Effekte im Bereich der selbstbezogenen Informationsverarbeitung und Identitatsentwicklung waren bemerkenswert. Die idiographische Systemmodellierung und das SNS in Kombination ermoglichten sowohl der Therapeutin als auch der Patientin ein umfassendes Verstandnis der personlichen Psychodynamik und der Prozessmuster der Therapie.

CONTEXT: Families with high rates of childhood adversities (CAs) (Multi-problem-families-MPF) have an increasing importance in public health-policy. OBJECTIVE: The present study addresses the relationship between risk- and protective factors and the severity and treatment-outcome of mental disorders. SETTING: Family-therapeutic home-based treatment for MPF. We examined a clinical sample (N = 1031) of children between the age of 4 to 17, and a non-clinical sample of 148 children. We hypothesized that of all children of the clinical group have a predominance of risk factors and a higher number of psychopathological symptoms. Furthermore, we hypothesized that children with a predominance of protective factors benefit stronger from psychotherapy. MAIN RESULTS: In the clinical sample, most children met the criteria of a psychopathological diagnosis (95.7%, as compared to 21.6% in the non-clinical sample) and showed significant higher rates of childhood adversities and significant less protective factors as compared to the non-clinical sample. The clinical group showed a significant reduction of psychopathological symptoms and benefitted equally well from treatment. The number of risk factors was a significant predictor for a child from the non-clinical sample to meet the criteria of a psychopathological diagnosis, while the number of protective factors significantly predicted the absence thereof. CONCLUSION: Children and adolescents with high scores of CAs show significant associations with child psychiatric symptoms (d = 0.35; including all ICD-diagnosis such as e.g. Asperger-Syndrome, ADHD etc. with a higher rate of genetic etiology). Early life stressors however do not trigger an irreversible fate, as psychotherapy with young people with high numbers of risk factors does help to reduce psychopathological symptoms significantly (range of 5 outcome parameters: d = 0.31 – 0.72).

Families with a low socioeconomic status play an increasingly significant role in health services, research and social policy. The present outcome research study is a pre/post naturalistic study of home-based therapeutic work with multi-problem families (MPF), as conducted by Therapeutisch Ambulante Familenbetreung, an integrative family therapy with a structure-related, mentalization-based, psychoanalytic orientation. With a mean treatment duration of 75.7 weeks, 379 families showed significant psychological improvement on 10 scales concerning patient-therapist collaboration, treatment expectancy and psycho-social outcome measures with a medium to large effect size for all parameters (range: .35-1.49). About two-thirds of the sample improved by two SD on individually set treatment goals, further supporting the clinical significance of the therapeutic effect of home-based family treatment. Improvements in goal-directed collaboration and treatment expectancy are shown to be related to clinical improvement. Structural family therapy interventions for families with multiple problems thus benefit from individually setting goals and improving their self-efficacy and problem-solving by means of improved treatment expectancy.

Psychotherapy is a dynamic process produced by a complex system of interacting variables. Even though there are qualitative models of such systems the link between structure and function, between network and network dynamics is still missing. The aim of this study is to realize these links. The proposed model is composed of five state variables (P: problem severity, S: success and therapeutic progress, M: motivation to change, E: emotions, I: insight and new perspectives) interconnected by 16 functions. The shape of each function is modified by four parameters (a: capability to form a trustful working alliance, c: mentalization and emotion regulation, r: behavioral resources and skills, m: self-efficacy and reward expectation). Psychologically, the parameters play the role of competencies or traits, which translate into the concept of control parameters in synergetics. The qualitative model was transferred into five coupled, deterministic, nonlinear difference equations generating the dynamics of each variable as a function of other variables. The mathematical model is able to reproduce important features of psychotherapy processes. Examples of parameter-dependent bifurcation diagrams are given. Beyond the illustrated similarities between simulated and empirical dynamics, the model has to be further developed, systematically tested by simulated experiments, and compared to empirical data.

To understand virtual realities and the effect on its users, empirical research into a variety of social and psychological domains has to be conducted in online virtual environments. It is argued that presence, the experience of being-in-the-virtual-world, plays a key role in most psychological processes connected with virtual worlds. A short overview of studies addressing personality, identity, emotions, and stereotypes in virtual reality is given, to subsequently offer improved approaches, by using a setup that compares participants on an individual level. Furthermore, potential cohort-differences are discussed; there is reason to believe that people who have grown up with computers, Internet, and virtual worlds experience and use virtual worlds differently than those who haven’t. Finally, it is hypothesized that virtual worlds influence real life in a reciprocal loop, by shaping cognitive, psychological, and social processes of the real world and – seemingly paradoxical – might even trigger experiencing the real as real.