Researchers from the Oregon Center for Applied Science in Eugene, OR, evaluated the efficacy of a psycho-educational internet self-help tool to educate and support recently (1-6 months) bereaved individuals. The goal of the website was to help users normalize their grief to enhance their adaptive adjustment.

A randomized controlled trial evaluated the gains in social cognitive theory constructs and state anxiety. Compared to the control group (N = 34), treatment participants (N = 33) reported significant multivariate gains (eta-square = .191).

Researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia conducted a systematic review of studies that compare the impact of various techniques on reducing pain and distress in children getting shots for immunization.

The investigators identified randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCTs that measured the impact of these interventions during the injection of vaccines in children 0 to 18 years of age. Both self-report and observer assessments were used as measures.

We thought, given the terrible situation in Haiti, it might be useful to post the results of this classic study of survivors of the great Turkish earthquake of 1999, which points to what makes survivors more vulnerable to PTSD.  Subsequent surveys from China, Japan, Italy, El Salvador and Iceland support these findings. , Additional factors appear to be dislocation, subsequent financial difficulties, disruption of social networks, injury, the intensity of fear and/or presence of dissociation at the time of the trauma. Loss of family and friends appear to be more associated with depression rather than posttraumatic stress.  Difficulties appear to be fairly longstanding, according to most of these surveys.

Researchers from King's College at the University of London in the UK examined the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in 586 earthquake survivors living in prefabricated housing, an average of 20 months after the 1999 Marmara earthquake in Turkey. 

Researchers from the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined the efficacy of a podcasting program to promote weight loss.

The study sample was made up of 78 overweight men and women in the Raleigh-Durham NC area. They were randomly assigned to receive 24 episodes of a currently available weight-loss podcast (control podcast) or a 12-week weight-loss podcast based on social cognitive theory (SCT), designed by the researchers (enhanced podcast).

Outcomes were measured by weight on a digital scale at baseline and follow-up. Both groups also completed questionnaires assessing demographic information, food intake, physical activity, and SCT constructs at the introductory and 12-week meetings. Additional questionnaires at the 12-week meeting assessed perceptions of the intervention.

Researchers at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston conducted a meta-analysis of studies examining whether EEG (electroencephalographic) biofeedback (AKA neurofeedback) is a viable treatment for epilepsy. About one third of epilepsy patients do not benefit from standard medical treatment.

Of 63 published studies, 10 provided enough outcome information to be included in the meta-analysis. All studies consisted of patients whose seizures were not controlled by medical therapies.  Nine of 10 studies reinforced sensorimotor rhythms (SMR) while 1 study trained slow cortical potentials (SCP).

In a really fascinating and important meta-analysis, researchers from Tufts University studied identical twins to see whether resting functional brain abnormalities found in combat-related PTSD are acquired characteristics or familial risk factors.

Recent neuroimaging research has shown functional abnormalities in the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus in people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

This study compares the PET scans (of resting regional cerebral metabolic rate for glucose) in fourteen combat-exposed veterans with PTSD and their fourteen identical co-twins, not exposed to combat, as well as nineteen combat-exposed veterans without PTSD (n = 19) and their nineteen identical co-twins, not exposed to combat.

A research team from New York University and the University of Texas at Austin demonstrated that timing is critical in extinguishing a fear response – and this has groundbreaking potential for the treatment of phobias, anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress.  Evidently, there’s a brief window of opportunity for rewriting painful emotional memories immediately after re-activating them, when the imprinted memory becomes labile and open to change.

Simple fear was created in 65 subjects by giving them a mild electrical shock on the wrist one third of the time when shown a colored square appear on a computer screen (Earlier research in conditioned learning shows that this is the frequency of ‘punishment’ that creates a lasting association).

Researchers from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley evaluated how two, 8-week, 90-min/wk training programs in meditation-based stress-management were able to affect stress, rumination, forgiveness, and hope in college undergraduates.

Subjects were randomly assigned to either (1) training in mindfulness-based stress reduction or MBSR (n = 15) or (2) Easwaran's Eight-Point Program or EPP (n = 14), or (3) a wait-list control condition (n = 15). Pretest, posttest, and 8-week follow-up data were collected on self-report outcome measures.

Researchers from the Center for Professional Excellence, Research and Evidence-Based Practice at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, tested Betty Mehling’s guided imagery audio intervention, Magic Island to see if it was effective in reducing post-operative pain, increasing relaxation, and stimulating imagery in children in the hospital setting.

This cross sectional study compared pain and relaxation scores before and after the use of the CD. Sixteen children (7 to 12 years of age) reported pain on a 0 to 10 scale and relaxation on a 1 to 5 scale, and answered questions about what they imagined.

Pain scores were significantly decreased, with no significant differences in relaxation scores. Findings support that school-age children are capable of using guided imagery, and relaxation may not be necessary to achieve pain reduction.

Citation:  Huth MM, Daraiseh NM, Henson MA, McLeod SM. Evaluation of the Magic Island: Relaxation for Kids, compact disc. Pediatric Nursing. 2009 Sep-Oct; 35 (5): pages 290-5.

Investigators from the Coimbra Nursing School in Coimbra, Portugal and the University of Akron’s College of Nursing reported on the efficacy of a guided imagery intervention for decreasing depression, anxiety, and stress and increasing comfort in psychiatric inpatients with depressive disorders.

A quasi-experimental design sampled 60 short-term hospitalized patients suffering from depression, selected consecutively. The experimental group listened to a guided imagery compact disk once a day for 10 days.