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Despite the presence of individual differences in the depressive symptom change in adults during the COVID‐19 pandemic, most studies have investigated population‐level changes in depression during the first year of the pandemic. This longitudinal repeated‐measurement study obtained 39,259 observations from 4,361 adults assessed nine times over a 24‐month period in Norway (March 2020 to March 2022). Using a Latent Change Score Mixture Model to investigate differential change patterns in depressive symptoms, five profiles were identified. Most adults revealed a consistently resilient (42.52%) or predominantly resilient pattern differentiated by an initial shock in symptomatology (13.17%). Another group exhibited consistently high depressive adversities (8.5%). One group showed mild deterioration with small increases in depressive symptomatology compared to onset levels (29.04%), and a second strong deterioration group exhibited clinically severe levels of gained symptoms over time (6.77%). Both deteriorating depressive symptom change patterns predicted the presence of a psychiatric diagnosis and treatment seeking at the end of the study period. Together, the absence of a preexisting psychiatric diagnosis at the onset of the pandemic and severe symptom increases during, combined with reports of psychiatric treatment seeking and diagnosis at the end of the study period, indicated that the strongly deteriorating subgroup represents an additional and newly emerged group of adults struggling with depressive problems. Factors related to general adverse change (lower education levels, lone residence), initial shocks prior to recovery (frequent information seeking, financial and occupational concerns), and resilience and recovery (older age, being in a relationship, physical activity) were identified. Binge drinking and belonging to an ethnic minority were influential predictors of the strongly deteriorating group. All major change patterns in depressive symptoms occurred during the first 3 months of the pandemic, suggesting this period represents a window of sensitivity for the development of long‐lasting depressive states versus patterns of recovery and resilience. These findings call for increased vigilance of psychiatric symptoms during the initial phases of infectious disease outbreaks and highlight a specific target period for the implementation of preventive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: There has been an increasing interest in understanding what contributes to the development and what maintains posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The cognitive model emphasizes that it is a disturbance of the autobiographical memory for the trauma, cognitive beliefs and maladaptive behaviour that maintain trauma symptoms. Interventions are based on cognitive restructuring and behaviour experiments to modify these beliefs. In contrast, the metacognitive model emphasizes that it is the metacognitive beliefs that give rise to the cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS) that maintain trauma symptoms. The focus of treatment is reducing CAS and working on metacognitive beliefs. The aim of this study was to explore the contribution of cognitions and metacognitive beliefs to trauma symptoms and investigate what predicts symptom burden in traumatized patients. Method: Participants (N = 290) diagnosed with PTSD were included, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to explore if cognitions and metacognitive beliefs explained additional and independent variance in trauma symptoms while controlling for age and gender. Results: Both cognitions and metacognitive beliefs contributed independently and significantly to predicting trauma symptoms. Conclusion: The results provide further support for investigating what maintains trauma symptoms and what to target in treatment. This may have clinical implications for our theoretical and practical understanding of PTSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Most network analyses on central symptoms in eating disorders (EDs) have been cross‐sectional. Longitudinal within‐person analyses of therapy processes are scarce. Our aim was to investigate central change processes in therapy in a transdiagnostic sample, considering the influence of childhood maltreatment. Method: We employed dynamic time warping analyses to identify clusters of symptoms that tended to change similarly across therapy on a within‐person level. Symptoms were measured by a 28‐item Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE‐Q). Furthermore, we examined the temporal direction of symptom change to identify symptoms that tended to precede and predict other symptoms. Finally, we estimated two directed, temporal networks in patients with and without a history of childhood maltreatment. Results: Our analysis included 122 ED patients (mean age = 30.9, SD = 9.7; illness duration = 14.2 years, SD = 8.9; prior treatment = 5.6 years, SD = 5.1). The initial network revealed three robust clusters of symptoms over time: (1) ED behavior, (2) inhibition, and (3) cognitions and feelings about body and weight. Overvaluation of shape had the highest out‐strength preceding and predicting other symptoms. Dissatisfaction with weight preceded and predicted other symptoms in the maltreatment network. The non‐maltreatment network showed a similar structure to the transdiagnostic network. Conclusion: Targeting and monitoring feelings and cognitions related to shape may be crucial for achieving lasting symptom improvement in a transdiagnostic sample. Furthermore, our findings highlight the need for further investigation into the different processes driving EDs based on maltreatment status. Public significance: There is limited understanding of the processes that occur for patients with eating disorders between admission and discharge in therapy, especially for patients with a history of childhood maltreatment. Our analyses suggest that changes in cognitions regarding shape precede and predict changes in cognitions about weight. Different processes may be driving the eating disorder according to maltreatment status, which might further illuminate the riddle of dropout and relapse in therapy for patients with a history of childhood maltreatment. These findings suggest the need for further investigation into the specific dynamics occurring during therapy for individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing protocols aimed to slow the transmission having severe mental health consequences. Topics include emotion regulation difficulties and interpersonal problems likely to be systematically predictive of the course of mental health problems during the pandemic; and showing significant time effects for emotion regulation difficulties, interpersonal problems, anxiety, and depression.