Bodily Experience in Depression: Using Focusing as a New Interview Technique.

INTRODUCTION: Research on body aspects in depression primarily focuses on somatic complaints, while phenomenologists emphasize the pre-reflective bodily experience of depression as relevant for the psychopathology of it. Despite this increasing acknowledgement of the subjective body's impact on depression, empirically, it remains rarely studied. METHODS: Relying on the psychotherapy method of Focusing (Gendlin, 1982), interviews were developed, which enable participants with depression to get in contact with pre-reflective bodily experiences through turning inward, attentively observing all bodily feelings that arise, and finding symbolizations for these feelings. RESULTS: In 501 codings of the conducted interviews, the theme of passivity emerged on a continuum ranging from inhibition of drive to lack of drive. It can be split into 5 components (heaviness, emptiness, paralysis, blockage, and alienation), which were felt in the head or the whole body. Moreover, participants reported active, pressuring feelings in the chest and stomach areas, which were associated with specific emotions in some participants. DISCUSSION: In conclusion, through focusing, participants were able to take note of their pre-reflective bodily feelings and described feelings of passivity, active, pressuring feelings, and an ambivalence between these two parts. Results support the notion that depression is associated with specific pre-reflective bodily experiences and lay a foundation for future research.

Reduced Jumping to Conclusion Bias after Experimentally Induced Enhancement of Subjective Body Boundaries in Psychosis.

INTRODUCTION: A disturbed sense of self is frequently discussed as an etiological factor for delusion symptoms in psychosis. Phenomenological approaches to psychopathology posit that lacking the sense that the self is localized within one's bodily boundaries (disembodiment) is one of the core features of the disturbed self in psychosis. The present study examines this idea by experimentally manipulating the sense of bodily boundaries. METHODS: Seventy-three patients with psychosis were randomly assigned to either a 10-min, guided self-massage in the experimental group (EG) to enhance the sense of bodily boundaries or a control group (CG), which massaged a fabric ring. Effects on an implicit measure (jumping to conclusion bias; JTC) and an explicit measure (Brief State Paranoia Checklist; BSPC) of delusion processes were assessed. The JTC measures the tendency to make a decision with little evidence available, and the BSPC explicitly measures the approval of paranoid beliefs. RESULTS: Patients in the EG showed a lower JTC (M = 4.11 draws before decision) than the CG (M = 2.43; Cohen's d = 0.64). No significant difference in the BSPC was observed. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that enhancing the sense of body boundaries through a self-massage can reduce an implicit bias associated with delusional ideation and correspondingly support the idea that disembodiment might be a relevant factor in the formation of psychotic symptoms.

Protocols for Measuring Tolerant and Heteroresistant Drug Responses of Pathogenic Yeasts.

The classic definition of antimicrobial susceptibility to antifungal drugs ignores the persistence of subpopulations that survive in the presence of a drug. Even in entirely clonal populations, small subpopulations of yeast can grow in the presence of a drug, sometimes up to extremely high drug concentrations, such that they may be clinically relevant. Identifying and quantifying the incidence with which these subpopulations arise is an essential step in understanding how pathogenic yeast, such as Candida species (i.e., C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. auris, C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis, and others) as well as Cryptococcus species, behave in response to antifungal therapeutics. Here we describe simple in vitro protocols for the quantification of drug responses with subpopulation resolution.

Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca sexta) caterpillars as a novel host model for the study of fungal virulence and drug efficacy.

The two leading yeast pathogens of humans, Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans, cause systemic infections in >1.4 million patients worldwide with mortality rates approaching 75%. It is thus imperative to study fungal virulence mechanisms, efficacy of antifungal drugs, and host response pathways. While this is commonly done in mammalian models, which are afflicted by ethical and practical concerns, invertebrate models, such as wax moth larvae and nematodes have been introduced over the last two decades. To complement existing invertebrate host models, we developed fifth instar caterpillars of the Tobacco Hornworm moth Manduca sexta as a novel host model. These caterpillars can be maintained at 37°C, are suitable for injections with defined amounts of yeast cells, and are susceptible to the most threatening yeast pathogens, including C. albicans, C. neoformans, C. auris, and C. glabrata. Importantly, fungal burden can be assessed daily throughout the course of infection in a single caterpillar's feces and hemolymph. Infected caterpillars can be rescued by treatment with antifungal drugs. Notably, these animals are large enough for weight to provide a reliable and reproducible measure of fungal disease and to facilitate host tissue-specific expression analyses. M. sexta caterpillars combine a suite of parameters that make them suitable for the study of fungal virulence.

Effort-Based Decision-Making Paradigms for Clinical Trials in Schizophrenia: Part 1­Psychometric Characteristics of 5 Paradigms.

Impairments in willingness to exert effort contribute to the motivational deficits characteristic of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of 5 new or adapted paradigms to determine their suitability for use in clinical trials of schizophrenia. This study included 94 clinically stable participants with schizophrenia and 40 healthy controls. The effort-based decision-making battery was administered twice to the schizophrenia group (baseline, 4-week retest) and once to the control group. The 5 paradigms included 1 that assesses cognitive effort, 1 perceptual effort, and 3 that assess physical effort. Each paradigm was evaluated on (1) patient vs healthy control group differences, (2) test-retest reliability, (3) utility as a repeated measure (ie, practice effects), and (4) tolerability. The 5 paradigms showed varying psychometric strengths and weaknesses. The Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task showed the best reliability and utility as a repeated measure, while the Grip Effort Task had significant patient-control group differences, and superior tolerability and administration duration. The other paradigms showed weaker psychometric characteristics in their current forms. These findings highlight challenges in adapting effort and motivation paradigms for use in clinical trials.