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Introduction: Perceived responsiveness, or the extent to which one feels understood, validated and cared for by close others, plays a crucial role in people's well-being. Can this interpersonal process also protect people at risk? We assessed whether fluctuations in suicidal ideation were associated with fluctuations in the degree of perceived responsiveness that psychiatric patients (admitted in the context of suicide or indicating suicidal ideation) experienced in daily interactions immediately after discharge., Methods: Fifty-seven patients reported on suicidal ideation (5 times a day) and perceived responsiveness (daily) for four consecutive weeks. The effects of established risk factors-thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and hopelessness-were assessed as well., Results: The more patients felt that close others had been responsive to them, the less suicidal ideation they reported. At low levels of thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, or hopelessness, perceived responsiveness seemed to play a protective role, negatively co-occurring with suicidal ideation. When thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and hopelessness were high, perceived responsiveness did not have an effect., Conclusion: Perceived responsiveness could be a protective factor for suicidal ideation for people at risk only when they are experiencing low levels of negative perceptions. When experiencing highly negative perceptions, however, perceived responsiveness seems to matter less., (© 2024 The Author(s). Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Association of Suicidology.)

Purpose: In 15 patients with idiopathic uveitis associated with retinal vasculitis, HLA DRB1 gene testing was performed to detect a possible association. 11 patients tested positive and 4 negative for the HLA DRB1 × 15 allele. The presence of the HLA DRB1 × 15 haplotype might be associated with a higher susceptibility to develop Multiple Sclerosis (MS)., Methods: In this case series, we describe the ophthalmological and neurological findings in 10 HLA DR15-positive patients and 4 HLA DR15-negative patients that had neurological workup, including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the brain., Results: All patients had granulomatous ocular inflammation with either panuveitis or intermediate uveitis. MRI of the brain showed white matter lesions in 13 patients (9/10 and 4/4 respectively) of which 4 patients were eventually diagnosed with MS (3/10 and 1/4 respectively)., Conclusion: Although the majority of tested patients was carrying at least one HLA DRB1-15 allele, there was no difference in ophthalmological and neurological findings in both groups.

Background: Major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders are highly prevalent and comorbid during the perinatal period. Although research and clinicians agree that emotion regulation (ER) is an important transdiagnostic factor underlying both disorders in the general population, ER during the perinatal period has received less research attention. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the literature regarding the role of ten commonly studied ER strategies in the onset and maintenance of perinatal depression and anxiety in pregnant women and young mothers, using the Process Model of Gross (1998) as a theoretical framework., Methods: We searched four electronic databases with variations of the following key words: women; emotion regulation (i.e., behavioral approach, behavioral avoidance, problem solving, support seeking, distraction, rumination, reappraisal, acceptance, expressive suppression, and expressive engagement); perinatal period; and psychopathology. The aim was to identify peer-reviewed, and quantitative studies published between January 1999 and January 2023. Six articles were selected for analysis., Results: Similar ER strategies emerged as risk and protective factors in perinatal depression and anxiety. Overall, behavioral avoidance, distraction, rumination, and expressive engagement appeared as risk factors, while problem solving, emotional and instrumental support seeking, cognitive reappraisal, and acceptance, emerged as protective factors in the onset and maintenance of perinatal depression and anxiety. These findings align with previous research in perinatal community samples, as well as in non-perinatal clinical samples., Conclusions: Our results support the role of ER as a transdiagnostic factor underlying both perinatal depression and anxiety. Clinicians are encouraged to implement ER strategies into the screening, prevention, and treatment of perinatal depression and anxiety. Further research is needed to strengthen these findings and to examine the role of emotion regulation during antenatal depression and anxiety more closely., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Laypeople believe that sharing their emotional experiences with others will improve their understanding of those experiences, but no clear empirical evidence supports this belief. To address this gap, we used data from four daily life studies ( N = 659; student and community samples) to explore the association between social sharing and subsequent emotion differentiation, which involves labeling emotions with a high degree of complexity. Contrary to our expectations, we found that social sharing of emotional experiences was linked to greater subsequent emotion differentiation on occasions when people ruminated less than usual about these experiences. In contrast, on occasions when people ruminated more than usual about their experiences, social sharing of these experiences was linked to lower emotion differentiation. These effects held when we controlled for levels of negative emotion. Our findings suggest that putting feelings into words through sharing may only enable emotional precision when that sharing occurs without dwelling or perseverating.

The association between mood and sexual desire has been the object of significant scientific and public interest. How mood shapes and is shaped by sexual desire is typically studied within one and the same individual, yet sexual desire is often experienced in the context of a romantic relationship. To obtain a more complete picture of the relation between mood and sexual desire, we examined the temporal interplay between mood and sexual desire both within and between partners in a romantic relationship. Using data from an experience sampling study involving both partners of mixed-gender romantic couples ( N  = 188; M age  = 26.34, SD ag e  = 5.33), we investigated how each partner's mood (in terms of positive and negative affect) predicted their own sexual desire as well as that of their partner and vice versa. Results of both concurrent and temporal analyses confirmed bidirectional associations between mood and sexual desire both within and between partners, such that (1) both a person's own and their partner's positive mood predicted an increase in sexual desire, and a person's own and their partner's negative mood predicted a decrease in sexual desire. In addition, (2) both a person's own and their partner's sexual desire predicted an increase in positive mood, and a person's own and their partner's sexual desire predicted a decrease in negative mood. Only a few gender differences were found. The results underscore how sexual desire can predict and be predicted by both romantic partners' mood, highlighting the need for interactional models of sexual desire.

Western society generally highly values happiness. As a result, people sometimes experience pressure not to feel negative emotions. In this study, we comprehensively investigated this pressure, and how it manifests itself, in adult romantic relationships. Specifically, we first examined when, how often and how intensely people experience pressure not to feel bad from their romantic partners (94 different-sex couples). Additionally, we investigated (both between- and within-person) how this pressure is related to context (presence of, contact and or conflict with a partner), emotional processes (i.e. experienced sadness and anxiety, emotion suppression, and how their partner perceived their affect), and relationship well-being. Using experience sampling methodology data (6/14 reports per day over one week) we found that although participants generally did not experience strong pressure from their partner, they experienced some feelings of pressure about 50% of the time. Furthermore, within-person predictors associated with negative processes/emotions (i.e. negative emotions, conflict, emotion suppression) were related to the momentary frequency (odds) and/or intensity of perceived pressure not to feel bad. At the between-person level, individuals who experience more sadness, anxiety and reported suppressing their emotions more often tended to experience more and/or stronger pressure. Only weak associations with relationship well-being were found.

When in distress, people often seek help in regulating their emotions by sharing them with others. Paradoxically, although people perceive such social sharing as beneficial, it often fails to promote emotional recovery. This may be explained by people seeking-and eliciting-emotional support, which offers only momentary relief. We hypothesized that (1) the type of support sharers seek shapes corresponding support provided by listeners, (2) the intensity of sharers' emotions increases their desire for emotional support and decreases their desire for cognitive support, and (3) listeners' empathic accuracy promotes support provision that matches sharers' desires. In 8-min interactions, participants ( N = 208; data collected in 2016-2017) were randomly assigned to the role of sharer (asked to discuss an upsetting situation) or listener (instructed to respond naturally). Next, participants watched their video-recorded interaction in 20-s fragments. Sharers rated their emotional intensity and support desires, and listeners rated the sharer's emotional intensity and their own support provision. First, we found that the desire for support predicted corresponding support provision. Second, the intensity of sharers' emotions was associated with an increased desire for emotional and cognitive support. Third, the more accurately listeners judged sharers' emotional intensity, the more they fulfilled sharers' emotional (but not cognitive) support desire. These findings suggest that people have partial control over the success of their social sharing in bringing about effective interpersonal emotion regulation. People elicit the support they desire at that moment, explaining why they perceive sharing as beneficial even though it may not engender emotional recovery. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Traditionally, the cochlea has been considered as an immunological privileged site, as the blood-labyrinth barrier provides isolation from the systemic immune system. However, the presence of immune cells in the cochlea has been recently reported, suggesting that immune-mediated processes can play a crucial role within the auditory system. In this context, both protective and detrimental T-cell functions have been linked to normal hearing and hearing loss, respectively, thereby emphasizing the dual role of T cells in cochlear health. Current knowledge also suggests that a balanced presence and activity of T cells is crucial for tissue homeostasis in the cochlea, avoiding pathologies such as age-related hearing loss and autoimmune inner ear diseases. Although cochlea-resident T cells are scarce under physiological conditions, the number of T cells appear to rise in response to acoustic trauma revealing the active recruitment of peripheral immune cells through cochlear blood vessels. In order to evaluate the induction of a peripheral inflammatory response upon noise trauma, we exposed mice to excessive noise (115 dB) for two hours. Hearing levels were determined 72 h and 1 week after noise-exposure, which revealed a substantial increase in hearing thresholds in all mice. To evaluate if the auditory stimulation would trigger a peripheral immune response we isolated splenocytes and analyzed cytokine production in different immune subsets by high parametric flow cytometry. The analyses revealed increased activation of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, illustrated by significant increases in the expression of INF-γ, TNF and CD44. These data suggest a peripheral component in the elevated inflammatory response following acoustic trauma. Future research will be performed to explore the link between noise-induced hearing loss, peripheral inflammation and more specifically antigen-specificity of the observed increase in activated CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DFNA9 is a dominantly inherited form of adult-onset progressive hearing impairment caused by mutations in the COCH gene. COCH encodes cochlin, a crucial extracellular matrix protein. We established a genomically humanized mouse model for the Dutch/Belgian c.151C>T founder mutation in COCH. Considering upcoming sequence-specific genetic therapies, we exchanged the genomic murine Coch exons 3-6 for the corresponding human sequence. Introducing human-specific genetic information into mouse exons can be risky. To mitigate unforeseen consequences on cochlin function resulting from the introduction of the human COCH protein-coding sequence, we converted all human-specific amino acids to mouse equivalents. We furthermore optimized the recognition of the human COCH exons by the murine splicing machinery during pre-mRNA splicing. Subsequent observations in mouse embryonic stem cells revealed correct splicing of the hybrid Coch transcript. The inner ear of the established humanized Coch mice displays correctly-spliced wild-type and mutant humanized Coch alleles. For a comprehensive study of auditory function, mice were crossbred with C57BL/6 Cdh23 753A> G mice to remove the Cdh23 ahl allele from the genetic background of the mice. At 9 months, all humanized Coch genotypes showed hearing thresholds comparable to wild-type C57BL/6 Cdh23 753A> G mice. This indicates that both the introduction of human wildtype COCH, and correction of Cdh23 ahl in the humanized Coch lines was successful. Overall, our approach proved beneficial in eliminating potential adverse events of genomic humanization of mouse genes, and provides us with a model in which sequence-specific therapies directed against the human mutant COCH alle can be investigated. With the hearing and balance defects anticipated to occur late in the second year of life, a long-term follow-up study is ongoing to fully characterize the humanized Coch mouse model., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no competing interests, (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The spiral ligament in the cochlea has been suggested to play a significant role in the pathophysiology of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Positioned between the stria vascula-ris and the bony otic capsule, this structure contains spiral ligament fibrocytes (SLFs), categorized into five main types based on their structural characteristics, immunostaining patterns and location within the spiral ligament. Together with the stria vascularis, the SLFs maintain a positive endo-cochlear potential (EP) in the scala media via K+ recycling, which is an essential component in the transduction mechanism of the auditory pathway. It has also been suggested that the SLFs contribute to the cochlear immune response, gluta-mate homeostasis and cochlear blood flow regulation. Spiral ligament damage disrupts K+ recycling, reducing the EP and subsequently causing SNHL. Despite their pivotal roles, a lot remains unknown about the SLFs. Therefore, this systematic review about SLFs in cell culture could give an overview of the current state of the art, providing a basis for future studies trying to investigate those cells in vitro. A literature search was performed using PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus taking into account the PRISMA guidelines. Twenty-five studies were included in this review that report on SLFs in cell culture. The differences in species, sex, age, method of culturing and used antibodies for immunohis-tochemistry are discussed. The majority of these studies cultured spiral ligament fragments onto type I collagen-coated petri dishes; a protocol described by Gratton et al. in 1996, while some recent studies are focussing more on growing these cells in a 3D environment. A better understanding of the currently published methods will help us to optimize fibrocyte culture techniques, thereby allowing to investigate a variety of possibilities that can significantly increase our knowledge about SLFs. Among others, these possibilities include to discover their functional characteristics, such as growth patterns, protein expression profiles and ion channel physiology, to expose the cells to hy-poxia or other toxic conditions and to assess the resulting effects, to genetically modify SLFs, to explore drug repurposing possibilities, to evaluate potential therapies for SNHL and to investigate their capability as a source for transplantable cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The c.151C>T (p.P51S) mutation in COCH is highly prevalent in the Dutch/Belgian population and causes DFNA9 (hearing loss and vestibular dysfunction) in > 1500 individuals. The initial symptoms manifest between the 3rd and 5th decade of life, which leaves ample time for therapeutic intervention. The clear non-haploinsufficiency disease mechanism indicates that blocking or reducing the p.P51S mutant cochlin protein levels may alleviate or prevent the DFNA9 phenotypes. Considering the broad expression of COCH by the fibrocytes of the inner ear, we designed "gapmer" antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) to specifically induce RNase H1-mediated degradation of COCH transcripts containing the c.151C>T mutation. We established several model systems to investigate the molecular efficacy of ASOs targeting the c. 151C>T mutation or low-frequency mutant allele-specific SNPs. Using overexpression models, we identified several ASOs that efficiently induce the degradation of mutant COCH transcripts. By introducing chemical modification to the oligonucleotide bases, we can alter the affinity and selectivity for the mutation transcript. We identified several ASOs with a strong preference for the mutant transcript in overexpression models. To investigate allele-specificity under physiological expression levels, we exposed patient-derived otic progenitor cells (iPCS-OPCs) to different ASOs for 8 days. In parallel, we developed a genetically humanized mouse model for DFNA9 in which human sequence-specific therapeutic strategies can be evaluated. Phenotypic follow-up of mice of all genotypes indicate that the genetic humanization has no adverse effects, and removal of the Cdh23ahl allele is mandatory to observe the late-onset auditory phenotype: the first signs of high-frequency hearing loss emerged at 12 months of age. Studies in iPSC-OPCs indicated that the ASOs identified in overexpression studies also effectively reduce mutant COCH transcript levels in patient-derived cells with physiological expression levels. Unfortunately, variation between replicate wells of OPC differentiation is relatively high, making it difficult to draw conclusions on allele-specificity. We selected a candidate ASO, directed against a rare mutant allele-spe-cific intronic SNP, for subsequent studies in our humanized mouse model. First intracochlear injections will be conducted in May 2024, after which we can collect the first in vivo data on gapmer ASO uptake and efficacy in fibrocytes of the mammalian inner ear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to explore the role of partners' negative engaging and disengaging emotions in dealing with the frustration of autonomy and relatedness needs during conflict. In an observational study, partners from 141 heterosexual couples participated in a conflict interaction task followed by a video-mediated recall procedure during which they reported their level of relational need frustration and their emotions experienced at different moments during the interaction. Results showed that in partners, more autonomy frustration, experienced at the beginning of the conflict, was accompanied by more concurrent negative disengaging emotions (anger, irritation), whereas more relatedness frustration was accompanied by more negative engaging emotions (hurt, sadness, disappointment). Additionally, the concurrent association between partners' relatedness frustration and their experience of negative engaging emotions was negatively moderated by their own relatedness relationship beliefs (as assessed by background questionnaires), indicating that for individuals who considered relatedness to be less important, relatedness frustration and negative engaging emotions were more strongly linked than for people with high relatedness beliefs. Finally, negative engaging emotions - assessed at the beginning of the conflict - were associated with more relatedness frustration at a subsequent time point in the interaction in men, but not in women. This study contributes to our understanding of how partners' negative emotions and the frustration of important relational needs are intertwined., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Pirrone, Sels and Verhofstadt.)

Purpose: To report on an unexpected side effect of Rituximab (RTX), a B-cell targeting monoclonal agent, in a patient with severe sclerouveitis, leading to severe visual loss., Methods: Observational case report., Results: A 61-year-old female was treated with RTX for a severe sclerouveitis occurring with granulomatosis with polyangiitis. Initially it responded partly to high dose of oral corticosteroids, however, her sclerouveitis recurred after two months during tapering below 20mg daily. The days following the RTX infusions, aggravation of the intraocular inflammation was seen, endangering visual acuity. No evidence for an infection or other cause were found. High doses of oral corticosteroids were started within one week, where after the ocular inflammation resolved. For persisting hypotony and chorioretinal detachment a combined pars plana vitrectomy with phacoemulsification and silicone oil tamponade was performed. The retina remained attached under oil tamponade with partial improvement of the BCVA to finger counting., Conclusion: Ophthalmologist should be aware of the possibility of this paradoxical local reaction to RTX infusion, particularly in bilateral and/or severe cases, which carry a risk of a poor outcome., Competing Interests: Disclosure of interest: The authors report no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the Opthalmic Communications Society, Inc.)

Contemporary emotion theories predict that how partners' emotions are coupled together across an interaction can inform on how well the relationship functions. However, few studies have compared how individual (i.e., mean, variability) and dyadic aspects of emotions (i.e., coupling) during interactions predict future relationship separation. In this exploratory study, we utilized machine learning methods to evaluate whether emotions during a positive and a negative interaction from 101 couples (N = 202 participants) predict relationship stability two years later (17 breakups). Although the negative interaction was not predictive, the positive was: Intra-individual variability of emotions as well as the coupling between partners' emotions predicted relationship separation. The present findings demonstrate that utilizing machine learning methods enables us to improve our theoretical understanding of complex patterns., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Hilpert et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The aim of this study was to broadly investigate the role of relationship-, self-, and partner-serving motivation in empathic accuracy in couples' conflict interactions. To this end, a laboratory study was set up in which couples ( n  = 172) participated in a conflict interaction task, followed immediately by a video-review task during which they reported their own feelings and thoughts and inferred those of their partner to assess empathic accuracy. We used both trait and state measures of relationship-, self-, and partner-serving motivation, and we experimentally induced these three categories of motivation. Relationship-serving state motivation predicted greater empathic accuracy. In contrast, experimentally induced partner-serving motivation resulted in less empathic accuracy for men. Self-serving motivation was not found to be associated with empathic accuracy, nor were any of the trait measures. These findings underscore the complexity of the association between motivation and empathic accuracy in partners' conflict interactions., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11031-022-09982-x., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest/competing interestsThe authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

Over the years, many studies have demonstrated a relation between emotion dynamics and psychological well-being 1 . Because our emotional life is inherently time-dynamic 2-6 , affective scientists argue that, next to how positive or negative we feel on average, patterns of emotional change are informative for mental health 7-10 . This growing interest initiated a surge in new affect dynamic measures, each claiming to capture a unique dynamical aspect of our emotional life, crucial for understanding well-being. Although this accumulation suggests scientific progress, researchers have not always evaluated (a) how different affect dynamic measures empirically interrelate and (b) what their added value is in the prediction of psychological well-being. Here, we address these questions by analysing affective time series data from 15 studies (n = 1,777). We show that (a) considerable interdependencies between measures exist, suggesting that single dynamics often do not convey unique information, and (b) dynamic measures have little added value over mean levels of positive and negative affect (and variance in these affective states) when predicting individual differences in three indicators of well-being (life satisfaction, depressive symptoms and borderline symptoms). Our findings indicate that conventional emotion research is currently unable to demonstrate independent relations between affect dynamics and psychological well-being.

How did couples in Belgium cope during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic? In this study, grounded in relationship science, we investigated in a descriptive manner several factors that could affect how couples perceived individual and relational wellbeing during this time. Specifically, we examined the associations between gender, sexual orientation, parental status, and relationship duration on participants' self-reported individual and relational well-being after the first lockdown (more generally and more specific in response to COVID-19). Additionally, we investigated if relational well-being predicted perceived change in individual well-being from pre- to post-COVID-19 regulations. To test these hypotheses, self-report data was collected during the Summer of 2020 in both the Dutch and French speaking part of Belgium. Data from 679 participants suggested that individual and relational well-being only differed based on parental status (and not by gender nor sexual orientation). Importantly, parents reported lower relational well-being than participants without children, while participants without children reported higher perceived increases in depression. People that had been in a relationship for longer also reported lower relational well-being, but this relationship was explained by other confounding factors. Relational well-being buffered increases in individual distress that people perceived to have occurred pre-COVID-19 regulations to after COVID-19 regulations went into effect. These findings might inform practice and policy for individuals in a romantic relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic., Competing Interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s).)

Many couple therapies focus on enhancing the disclosure of thoughts and feelings, and on an accurate understanding of these. But does the expression of thoughts and feelings lead to better empathic accuracy, as is generally assumed? In this study, we explicitly tested a dynamic expression-leading-to-accuracy account of empathic accuracy in intimate relationships. Specifically, in the conflict interactions of 155 mixed-sex couples, we investigated (a) whether greater momentary expressions of the target (self-reported vs. observed) were associated with more empathic accuracy in the perceiver; (b) whether this outcome was similar for the expression of thoughts versus feelings; and (c) whether the expression-leading-to-accuracy link was moderated by the perceived threat level of these thoughts and feelings. The data revealed that greater (self-reported and observed) expression of the target's thoughts and feelings was associated with better empathic accuracy by the partner; that this association was similar for thoughts and feelings; and that this link was not moderated by the perceived threat level of these thoughts and feelings. These findings confirm a fundamental assumption of couples therapy and have important implications for therapeutic interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Each year, more than 800,000 persons die by suicide, making it a leading cause of death worldwide. Recent innovations in information and communication technology may offer new opportunities in suicide prevention in individuals, hereby potentially reducing this number. In our project, we design digital indices based on both self-reports and passive mobile sensing and test their ability to predict suicidal ideation, a major predictor for suicide, and psychiatric hospital readmission in high-risk individuals: psychiatric patients after discharge who were admitted in the context of suicidal ideation or a suicidal attempt, or expressed suicidal ideations during their intake. Specifically, two smartphone applications -one for self-reports (SIMON-SELF) and one for passive mobile sensing (SIMON-SENSE)- are installed on participants' smartphones. SIMON-SELF uses a text-based chatbot, called Simon, to guide participants along the study protocol and to ask participants questions about suicidal ideation and relevant other psychological variables five times a day. These self-report data are collected for four consecutive weeks after study participants are discharged from the hospital. SIMON-SENSE collects behavioral variables -such as physical activity, location, and social connectedness- parallel to the first application. We aim to include 100 patients over 12 months to test whether (1) implementation of the digital protocol in such a high-risk population is feasible, and (2) if suicidal ideation and psychiatric hospital readmission can be predicted using a combination of psychological indices and passive sensor information. To this end, a predictive algorithm for suicidal ideation and psychiatric hospital readmission using various learning algorithms (e.g., random forest and support vector machines) and multilevel models will be constructed. Data collected on the basis of psychological theory and digital phenotyping may, in the future and based on our results, help reach vulnerable individuals early and provide links to just-in-time and cost-effective interventions or establish prompt mental health service contact. The current effort may thus lead to saving lives and significantly reduce economic impact by decreasing inpatient treatment and days lost to inability., Competing Interests: The authors PS and TK are affiliated with the Center for Digital Health Interventions, a joint initiative of the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zurich and the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St. Gallen, which is funded in part by the Swiss health insurer CSS. TK is also co-founder of Pathmate Technologies, a university spin-off company that creates and delivers digital clinical pathways and has used the open source MobileCoach platform for that purpose, too. However, Pathmate Technologies is not involved in the intervention described in this paper. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Sels, Homan, Ries, Santhanam, Scheerer, Colla, Vetter, Seifritz, Galatzer-Levy, Kowatsch, Scholz and Kleim.)

Background: Multiple symptoms of suicide risk have been assessed based on visual and auditory information, including flattened affect, reduced movement, and slowed speech. Objective quantification of such symptomatology from novel data sources can increase the sensitivity, scalability, and timeliness of suicide risk assessment., Objective: We aimed to examine measurements extracted from video interviews using open-source deep learning algorithms to quantify facial, vocal, and movement behaviors in relation to suicide risk severity in recently admitted patients following a suicide attempt., Methods: We utilized video to quantify facial, vocal, and movement markers associated with mood, emotion, and motor functioning from a structured clinical conversation in 20 patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital following a suicide risk attempt. Measures were calculated using open-source deep learning algorithms for processing facial expressivity, head movement, and vocal characteristics. Derived digital measures of flattened affect, reduced movement, and slowed speech were compared to suicide risk with the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation controlling for age and sex, using multiple linear regression., Results: Suicide severity was associated with multiple visual and auditory markers, including speech prevalence (β=-0.68, P=.02, r 2 =0.40), overall expressivity (β=-0.46, P=.10, r 2 =0.27), and head movement measured as head pitch variability (β=-1.24, P=.006, r 2 =0.48) and head yaw variability (β=-0.54, P=.06, r 2 =0.32)., Conclusions: Digital measurements of facial affect, movement, and speech prevalence demonstrated strong effect sizes and linear associations with the severity of suicidal ideation., (©Isaac Galatzer-Levy, Anzar Abbas, Anja Ries, Stephanie Homan, Laura Sels, Vidya Koesmahargyo, Vijay Yadav, Michael Colla, Hanne Scheerer, Stefan Vetter, Erich Seifritz, Urte Scholz, Birgit Kleim. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 03.06.2021.)

Background : Pediatric cancer is a severe life-threatening disease that poses significant challenges to the life of the siblings. Based on the social ecology model, the current study is aimed at exploring the association between intrafamilial (family functioning, family support) and contextual (network support) resources, and the individual adjustment of siblings facing cancer in their brother/sister. Methods : Participants were 81 siblings of children with leukemia or non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The mean siblings' age was 10.32 years. Siblings completed the Family Environment Scale, the Social Support Questionnaire for Children, the Situation-Specific Emotional Reactions Questionnaire, and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory. Data were analyzed using a multi-level approach. Results : Family functioning, family support, and network support proved to be related to siblings' cancer-related emotional reactions post-diagnosis. In addition, the present study suggests taking into account the gender of the ill child and the age of the siblings. Discussion : Our findings led to the conclusion that resources at both the intrafamilial level and the contextual level are important for explaining sibling adjustment post-diagnosis. Interventions targeting the sibling, the family, and the external network are warranted to enhance sibling adjustment.

Purpose: To characterize the ocular features of a severe case of renal coloboma syndrome in a long-term follow-up., Methods: Observational case report over a period of 45 years. Examination under anesthesia at the age of 3 months, repeated ophthalmologic examination (age 7, 14, 25, 45 years), fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography, electroretinography, ocular ultrasound, optical coherence tomography, computed tomography scan orbits, and magnetic resonance imaging of the brain., Results: Presentation with severe bilateral posterior eye defects, optic nerve aplasia and a retrobulbar cyst in the left eye, renal abnormalities, and mental retardation. Over time, a progressive axial myopia in the right eye, band keratopathy in the left eye, and progressive bilateral posterior lens opacities were noted. There was only a minor decrease in visual acuity and visual field of the only functional right eye. The mother of this patient had a mild optic disk hypoplasia, progressive lens opacities, and late-onset renal disease. Both had a confirmed mutation in exon 2 of the PAX2 gene., Conclusion: This first published long-term follow-up of renal coloboma syndrome shows progressive posterior lens opacities, axial myopia, and band keratopathy with only a small decline in visual function over time.

Interdependence, including emotional interdependence, is widely considered to be a cornerstone of close relationships. Through frequent interactions, romantic partners are thought to continuously exchange, influence, and respond to one another's emotions, leading their feelings to become closely aligned over time. Although prior research has shown that such emotional interdependence can arise in couples, no research to date has comprehensively investigated its occurrence, degree, consistency and correlates. Across 3 different studies, we examined whether and to what extent couples indeed show interpersonal emotional connections (compared to pseudocouples). Additionally, we investigated its consistency and moderating factors, by examining emotional interdependence across different types of emotions (negative vs. positive vs. emotional extremity), timescales (second-to-second vs. daily life), and situational contexts (supportive vs. conflictual), and by inspecting associations with indicators of relationship closeness (relationship longevity, cohabitation status, commitment, and closeness in terms of including the other in the self). The findings show limited evidence for emotional interdependence. The overall mean level of interdependence was significantly larger than that of randomly composed couples, but only a minority of the couples demonstrated emotional interdependence to a greater extent than these pseudocouples. Moreover, the degree to which couples exhibited emotional interdependence showed little consistency across timescales and contexts, and was not clearly associated with relationship closeness. We discuss potential implications for the field of interpersonal emotion dynamics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A crucial component of successful counseling and psychotherapy is the dyadic emotion co-regulation process between patient and therapist that unfolds moment to moment during therapy sessions. The major reason for the disappointing progress in understanding this process is the lack of appropriate methods to assess subjectively experienced emotions continuously during therapy sessions without disturbing the natural flow of the interaction. The resulting inability has forced the field to focus on patients' overall emotion ratings at the end of each session with limited predictive value of the dyadic interplay between patient and therapist's emotional states within each session. The current tutorial demonstrates how couple research-confronted with a comparable problem-has overcome this issue by (i) developing a video-based retrospective self-report assessment method for individuals' continuous state emotions without undermining the dyadic interaction and (ii) using a validated statistical tool to analyze the dynamical process during a dyadic interaction. We show how to assess emotion data continuously, and how to unravel self-regulation and co-regulation processes using a Latent Differential Equation Modeling approach. Finally, we discuss how this approach can be applied in counseling psychology and psychotherapy to test basic theoretical assumptions about the co-creation of emotions despite the conceptual differences between couple dyads and therapist-patient dyads. The present method aims to inspire future research activities examining systematic real-time processes between patients and therapists. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Background and Objectives: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is highly prevalent in older adults and has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. To reduce this AF-related morbidity in older adults, antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) are regularly used for rhythm control, assuming that increasing time in sinus rhythm reduces AF-related morbidity. However, whether AADs can improve clinical outcomes in older adults remains unclear because of the increased risk for adverse drug events compared with rate control. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of rhythm control versus rate control on clinical outcomes in older adults with AF., Design and Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis targeting patients aged ≥65 years with AF and using drugs to control rate or rhythm. Articles that met the following criteria were included: enrolled older patients (sample mean ≥75 years) with AF, compared pharmacological rate versus rhythm control, and reported all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, or ischemic stroke., Results: Five observational studies were included. In total, 86,926 patients with AF with a mean age ranging from 75 to 92 years were studied. No differences were found between rhythm and rate control for all-cause mortality (odds ratio [OR] 1.11; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.78-1.59; I 2  = 79.6%; n = 28,526; four studies) and cardiovascular mortality (OR 1.09; 95% CI 0.81-1.47; I 2  = 0%; n = 2292; two studies). Rhythm control resulted in fewer strokes (OR 0.86; 95% CI 0.80-0.93; I 2  = 0%; n = 59,496), although this was mainly determined by one study., Conclusion: All collected data were observational, which precluded making strong recommendations. Furthermore, all CIs were wide, increasing the uncertainty of the observed effects. As such, evidence was insufficient to recommend rhythm or rate control as the first-line therapy for AF in older adults. As AF is particularly prevalent in older people, more randomized controlled trials are needed in this population.

Researchers increasingly study short-term dynamic processes that evolve within single individuals using N = 1 studies. The processes of interest are typically captured by fitting a VAR(1) model to the resulting data. A crucial question is how to perform sample-size planning and thus decide on the number of measurement occasions that are needed. The most popular approach is to perform a power analysis, which focuses on detecting the effects of interest. We argue that performing sample-size planning based on out-of-sample predictive accuracy yields additional important information regarding potential overfitting of the model. Predictive accuracy quantifies how well the estimated VAR(1) model will allow predicting unseen data from the same individual. We propose a new simulation-based sample-size planning method called predictive accuracy analysis (PAA), and an associated Shiny app. This approach makes use of a novel predictive accuracy metric that accounts for the multivariate nature of the prediction problem. We showcase how the values of the different VAR(1) model parameters impact power and predictive accuracy-based sample-size recommendations using simulated data sets and real data applications. The range of recommended sample sizes is smaller for predictive accuracy analysis than for power analysis., (© 2024. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)

Emotion differentiation, the ability to describe and label our own emotions in a differentiated and specific manner, has been repeatedly associated with well-being. However, it is unclear exactly what type of differentiation is most strongly related to well-being: the ability to make fine-grained distinctions between emotions that are relatively closely related (e.g. anger and irritation), the ability to make larger distinctions between very distinct emotions (e.g. anger and sadness), or the combination of both. To determine which type of differentiation is most predictive of well-being, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis across six datasets. We examined the correlations between these three types of differentiation and several indicators of well-being (depression, emotional clarity, and self-esteem). Results showed that individuals differentiated most between very distinct emotions and least between more related emotions, and that an index computed across emotions from both the same and different emotion categories was most strongly associated with well-being indicators.