A feasibility and pilot additive randomised control trial of attachment security priming during behavioural activation.

BACKGROUND: There is some initial evidence that attachment security priming may be useful for promoting engagement in therapy and improving clinical outcomes. AIMS: This study sought to assess whether outcomes for behavioural activation delivered in routine care could be enhanced via the addition of attachment security priming. METHOD: This was a pragmatic two-arm feasibility and pilot additive randomised control trial. Participants were recruited with depression deemed suitable for a behavioural activation intervention at Step 2 of a Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression service. Ten psychological wellbeing practitioners were trained in implementing attachment security priming. Study participants were randomised to either behavioural activation (BA) or BA plus an attachment prime. The diagrammatic prime was integrated into the depression workbook. Feasibility outcomes were training satisfaction, recruitment, willingness to participate and study attrition rates. Pilot outcomes were comparisons of clinical outcomes, attendance, drop-out and stepping-up rates. RESULTS: All practitioners recruited to the study, and training satisfaction was high. Of the 39 patients that were assessed for eligibility, 24 were randomised (61.53%) and there were no study drop-outs. No significant differences were found between the arms with regards to drop-out, attendance, stepping-up or clinical outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Further controlled research regarding the utility of attachment security priming is warranted in larger studies that utilise manipulation checks and monitor intervention adherence.

Discovery of imidazole vinyl pyrimidines as a novel class of kinase inhibitors which inhibit Tie-2 and are orally bioavailable.

Tie-2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase which is involved in angiogenesis and thereby growth of human tumours. The discovery and SAR of a novel class of imidazole-vinyl-pyrimidine kinase inhibitors, which inhibit Tie-2 in vitro is reported. Their synthesis was carried out by condensation of imidazole aldehydes with methyl pyrimidines. These compounds are lead-like, with low molecular weight, good physical properties and oral bioavailability.

An effect of inhibitory load in children while keeping working memory load constant.

Children are slower and more error-prone when the correct response is counter to their initial inclination (incongruent trials) than when they just need to do what comes naturally (congruent trials). Children are almost always tested on a congruent-trial block and then on an incongruent-trial block. That order of testing makes it impossible to determine whether worse performance on incongruent trials is due to the need to inhibit a pre-potent response, the need to clear the rule for Block 1 from working memory, some other demand of task-switching, or some combination of these. However, if the congruent block and incongruent blocks each have only one rule (e.g., "press on the same side as the stimulus" for congruent trials and "press on the side opposite the stimulus" for incongruent trials, as on the hearts and flowers task) and children's performance when the incongruent block is presented first is fully comparable to their performance when it is presented second, the only possible explanation for their worse performance on incongruent versus congruent trials would seem to be the added inhibitory demand on incongruent trials. Certainly, worse performance on Block 1 would not be due to inefficient clearing of working memory or task-switching demands. We tested 96 children (49 girls) 6-10 years of age on the hearts and flowers test with order of congruent and incongruent blocks counterbalanced across children. Children were slower and made more errors on incongruent trials regardless of task order. We expected task-switching demands to account for some of the variance, but to our surprise, performance was fully comparable on the incongruent block whether it came first or second. These results indicate that increasing inhibitory demands alone is sufficient to impair children's performance in the face of no change in working memory demands, suggesting that inhibition is a separate mental function from working memory.