Yoga and meditation for menopausal symptoms in breast cancer survivors: a qualitative study exploring participants' experiences.

PURPOSE: Breast cancer survivors commonly experience menopausal symptoms, specifically when undergoing antihormonal therapy. Unfortunately, they often have a restricted range of treatment options available to alleviate menopausal symptoms. The objective of this qualitative study was to explore breast cancer survivors' experiences and effects of a yoga and meditation intervention supplementing previously reported RCT outcomes. METHODS: The qualitative data included in this study were part of a larger randomized controlled trial which evaluated the efficacy and safety of a 12-week yoga and meditation intervention on menopausal symptoms in breast cancer survivors. All participants who underwent the yoga intervention (n = 19) were invited to take part in semi-structured interviews after all quantitative data collection had been completed. Interviews (n = 9) were recorded, transcribed, and then coded into superordinate themes using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Nine female participants were interviewed, and the following themes emerged: (1) representations and expectations from the yoga intervention; (2) course structure and implementation; (3) perceptions and effects of the intervention (at emotional, physical, behavioral, and spiritual level); (4) differences between the study yoga intervention and other physical activities. CONCLUSIONS: In accordance with the accounts of participants, yoga might offer a promising intervention for breast cancer survivors. All those interviewed either currently attended a yoga class or expressed a desire to continue practicing yoga. Additionally, our findings inform future studies regarding aspects such as the importance of extending outcome measures beyond specific cancer-related complains, the advantages of addressing homogenous groups (i.e., breast cancer specific), or considering that different intervention components might need different assistance to encourage long-term use.

Gene-Environment Interactions in Irrational Beliefs: The Roles of Childhood Adversity and Multiple Candidate Genes.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is based on the view that maladaptive thinking is the causal mechanism of mental disorders. While this view is supported by extensive evidence, very limited work has addressed the factors that contribute to the development of maladaptive thinking. The present study aimed to uncover interactions between childhood maltreatment and multiple genetic differences in irrational beliefs. Childhood maltreatment and irrational beliefs were assessed using multiple self-report instruments in a sample of healthy volunteers (N = 452). Eighteen single-nucleotide polymorphisms were genotyped in six candidate genes related to neurotransmitter function (COMT; SLC6A4; OXTR), neurotrophic factors (BDNF), and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (NR3C1; CRHR1). Gene-environment interactions (G×E) were first explored in models that employed one measure of childhood maltreatment and one measure of irrational beliefs. These effects were then followed up in models in which either the childhood maltreatment measure, the irrational belief measure, or both were substituted by parallel measures. Consistent results across models indicated that childhood maltreatment was positively associated with irrational beliefs, and these relations were significantly influenced by COMT rs165774 and OXTR rs53576. These results remain preliminary until independent replication, but they represent the best available evidence to date on G×E in a fundamental mechanism of psychopathology.

Death Anxiety in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Testing REBT Models of Psychopathology and Psychological Health of Death Anxiety.

Objective: This paper aimed to examine the validity of the death anxiety psychopathological and psychological health models of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). We investigated whether irrational and rational beliefs were associated with death anxiety and if there are possible significant positive correlations between death anxiety and depression, anxiety, and stress. Method: A sample of 200 individuals completed online self-report measures and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was chosen to assess the validity of the REBT psychopathological model and the REBT psychological health model. Pearson's correlation analysis was utilized to confirm the relationships between death anxiety and depression, anxiety, and stress. Results: REBT's model of psychopathology provide acceptable fit of the data. Results suggest that LFT beliefs mediate the relationship between DEM and death anxiety, while no mediation effect was found for the psychological health model. Additionally, high correlations were obtained between death anxiety and depression, anxiety, and stress. Conclusions: Results provided empirical support for the REBT models of death anxiety and underline the critical importance of cognitive constructs in the prediction of death anxiety. Results are discussed within the framework of REBT theory, which can serve as a foundation for new research directions regarding death anxiety, both theoretical and clinical.

Serotonin and emotion regulation: the impact of tryptophan depletion on emotional experience, neural and autonomic activity.

The involvement of serotonin in emotion and psychopathology has been extensively examined. Studies using acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) have found limited effects on mood and aggression, and one of the explanations suggests that serotonin may be involved in higher-order functions, such as emotion regulation. However, there is very limited evidence for this hypothesis. The present study investigated the impact of ATD on emotion regulation in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design. A sample of psychiatrically healthy men (N = 28) completed a cognitive task assessing reappraisal ability (i.e., the success of using reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy, to modulate emotional responses), following ATD and placebo. EEG frontal activity and asymmetry, as well as heart-rate variability (HRV), also were assessed in the reappraisal task. Both frequentist and Bayesian methods were employed for statistical analysis. Results indicated that ATD reduced plasma tryptophan, and reappraisal was effective in modulating emotional experience in the emotion regulation task. However, ATD had no significant effect on reappraisal ability, frontal activity, and HRV. These results offer direct and compelling evidence that decreasing serotonin synthesis through ATD does not alter an emotion regulation ability that is considered crucial in mood and aggression and has been linked with transdiagnostic risk of psychopathology.

Childhood maltreatment and emotion regulation in everyday life: an experience sampling study.

Childhood maltreatment is a major risk factor for psychopathology, and increasing evidence suggests that emotion regulation is one of the underlying mechanisms. However, most of this evidence comes from single assessments of habitual emotion regulation, which may not overlap with spontaneous emotion regulation in daily life and which fail to account for within-individual variability in emotion regulation across multiple contexts. In the present study, we investigated the relation between history of childhood maltreatment, positive and negative affect, and multiple dimensions of spontaneous emotion regulation (strategy use, emotion regulation goals, emotion regulation success and effort) in everyday life, using experience sampling method (3 assessments/day, for 10 consecutive days), in a sample of healthy volunteers (N = 118). Multilevel modeling results indicated that childhood maltreatment was associated with lower positive affect and higher negative affect. Childhood maltreatment was also related to lower use of reappraisal and savoring (but not suppression, rumination and distraction), reduced emotion regulation success (but not effort), as well as lower levels of and higher within-individual variability of hedonic (but not instrumental) emotion regulation goals. These results provide ecological evidence for multiple differences in emotion regulation in individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment.

Non-invasive brain microcurrent stimulation therapy of long-COVID-19 reduces vascular dysregulation and improves visual and cognitive impairment.

BACKGROUND: An effective treatment is needed for long-COVID patients which suffer from symptoms of vision and/or cognition impairment such as impaired attention, memory, language comprehension, or fatigue. OBJECTIVE: Because COVID-19infection causes reduced blood flow which may cause neuronal inactivation, we explored if neuromodulation with non-invasive brain stimulation using microcurrent (NIBS), known to enhance blood flow and neuronal synchronization, can reduce these symptoms. METHODS: Two female long-COVID patients were treated for 10-13 days with alternating current stimulation of the eyes and brain. While one patient (age 40) was infected with the SARS CoV-2 virus, the other (age 72) developed symptoms following AstraZeneca vaccination. Before and after therapy, cognition was assessed subjectively by interview and visual fields quantified using perimetry. One patient was also tested with a cognitive test battery and with a retinal dynamic vascular analyser (DVA), a surrogate marker of vascular dysregulation in the brain. RESULTS: In both patients NIBS markedly improved cognition and partially reversed visual field loss within 3-4 days. Cognitive tests in one patient confirmed recovery of up to 40-60% in cognitive subfunctions with perimetry results showing stable and visual field recovery even during follow-up. DVA showed that NIBS reduced vascular dysregulation by normalizing vessel dynamics (dilation/constriction), with particularly noticeable changes in the peripheral veins and arteries. CONCLUSIONS: NIBS was effective in improving visual and cognitive deficits in two confirmed SARS-COV-2 patients. Because recovery of function was associated with restoration of vascular autoregulation, we propose that (i) hypometabolic, "silent" neurons are the likely biological cause of long-COVID associated visual and cognitive deficits, and (ii) reoxygenation of these "silent" neurons provides the basis for neural reactivation and neurological recovery. Controlled trials are now needed to confirm these observations.

Childhood trauma and emotion regulation: The moderator role of BDNF Val66Met.

Emotion regulation difficulties have been involved in multiple forms of psychopathology and may represent an important focus for current efforts to understand the biological mechanisms underlying transdiagnostic symptoms. The present study investigated a gene-environment interaction (G × E) in reappraisal, a form of emotion regulation that has been extensively linked to psychopathology. In light of recent meta-analytic evidence of its consistent role in depression and anxiety disorders, this study focused on the Val66Met (rs6265) single-nucleotide polymorphism in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene and examined its moderator role in the relation between childhood trauma and reappraisal. A sample of N = 266 participants were genotyped for BDNF Val66Met, filled in a self-report measure of childhood trauma, and underwent a cognitive task designed to assess reappraisal ability. The results indicated that, as expected, BDNF Val66Met was a significant moderator in the relation between childhood trauma and reappraisal. There was a negative relation between the number of childhood traumatic events and reappraisal ability in BDNF Met carriers, but not Val homozygotes. This finding suggests that BDNF Val66Met contributes to susceptibility to childhood stress, with long term impact on emotion regulation.