Exploring the association between self-compassion, mindfulness and mindful eating with eating behaviours amongst patients with obesity.

Background: People who have obesity often experience problematic eating behaviours, contributing towards their excessive weight gain. Aims: Understanding problematic eating behaviours and their association to self-compassion, mindfulness and mindful eating is important for the development of future interventions that improve weight-loss and weight-regulation. Methods: One hundred and one participants attending their first session of a 6-session dietetic programme within a Tier 3 medical weight management service in the West Midlands, UK were recruited to complete questionnaires on self-compassion, mindfulness, mindful eating and eating behaviours, such as, emotional, restrained, external, fat and sugar consumption and grazing. Results: The findings suggested all three constructs, self-compassion, mindfulness and mindful eating were significantly and negatively associated with grazing and emotional eating, but mindful eating was the only construct that also displayed a significant and negative association with other eating behaviours that are often barriers to successful weight regulation, such as external eating and fat consumption. Further investigation suggested mindful eating had an indirect effect on fat consumption and grazing via external eating. Conclusion: Whilst, self-compassion, mindfulness and mindful eating displayed a negative relationship with grazing and emotional eating, mindful eating also displayed a negative relationship with fat consumption and external eating. Possible explanations and directions for future work are discussed with an emphasis on the need for more empirical work.

'Surgery is my only hope': A qualitative study exploring perceptions of living with obesity and the prospect of having bariatric surgery.

The health benefits of bariatric surgery are well documented; however, the occurrence of weight-regain after surgery, along with the development of mental health difficulties poses a question of how contemporary psychology could assist to prepare people living with obesity prior to undergoing bariatric surgery. This research explored individuals' (in the immediate pre-operative and post-operative population) attitudes, beliefs and experiences towards obesity and their journey to bariatric surgery. Seventeen adult participants (males n = 4; age range: 26-64 years) were recruited and participated in a semi-structured interview. Twelve individuals participated prior to undergoing bariatric surgery. Five individuals participated in the early post-operative period (<3 months post-surgery). People living with obesity displayed high optimism for positive outcomes, with participants hoping that bariatric surgery would be different to previous attempts at weight regulation, with there being a clear shift in the locus of control for weight management from self to healthcare professionals. Whilst this is adaptive, there was the presence of seemingly unrealistic optimism, with many pre-surgery participants not relaying the realistic possibility of post-surgery weight-regain. Despite the optimism individuals feel about bariatric surgery, participants felt that the psychological factors influencing eating behaviours are not being addressed by healthcare. These findings suggest that mindfulness, mindful eating, and self-compassion approaches should be incorporated into clinical practice to support weight regulation and adaption to physiological changes after bariatric surgery.

The protective effect of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Scottish healthcare workers.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are believed to be at increased risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. It is not known to what extent the natural production of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 is protective against re-infection. METHODS: A prospective observational study of HCWs in Scotland (UK) from May to September 2020 was performed. The Siemens SARS-CoV-2 total antibody assay was used to establish seroprevalence in this cohort. Controls, matched for age and sex to the general local population, were studied for comparison. New infections (up to 2 December 2020) post antibody testing were recorded to determine whether the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies protects against re-infection. RESULTS: A total of 2063 health and social care workers were recruited for this study. At enrolment, 300 HCWs had a positive antibody test (14.5%). 11 out of 231 control sera tested positive (4.8%). HCWs therefore had an increased likelihood of a positive test (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.85-6.16; p<0.0001). Dentists were most likely to test positive. 97.3% of patients who had previously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR had positive antibodies. 18.7% had an asymptomatic infection. There were 38 new infections with SARS-CoV-2 in HCWs who were previously antibody negative, and one symptomatic RT-PCR-positive re-infection. The presence of antibodies was therefore associated with an 85% reduced risk of re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 (hazard ratio 0.15, 95% CI 0.06-0.35; p=0.026). CONCLUSION: HCWs were three times more likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 than the general population. Almost all infected individuals developed an antibody response, which was 85% effective in protecting against re-infection with SARS-CoV-2.

Experimental functional analysis of aggression in children with Angelman syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Kinship theory suggests that genomic imprinting could account for phenotypic behaviors that increase (in the case of Angelman syndrome) or decrease (for Prader-Willi syndrome) the drive to access social resources (adult contact) depending on the imprinting parent-of-origin. Difficult to manage behaviors, such as aggression that is common in Angelman syndrome, could serve the function of increasing social interaction. We hypothesise that the commonly reported aggressive behavior in children with Angelman syndrome will be attention maintained. METHODS: Experimental functional analysis was carried out with twelve children with Angelman syndrome caused by either a deletion (n=10) or uniparental disomy (n=2). The relative increase and decrease of aggressive behaviors was observed in response to experimentally manipulated levels of adult attention and demand. Laughing and smiling, crying and frowning, and physical initiation with an adult were also measured. RESULTS: Aggression was seen in ten of the twelve children. One child evidenced a pattern of aggression across conditions consistent with maintenance by attention, three children showed higher levels of aggression during social interaction and two children showed escape motivated aggression. DISCUSSION: With the exception of one child the results did not confirm the hypothesis. However, the pattern of increased aggression in the high social contact condition combined with evidence of positive affect during this condition suggests aggression may serve to both maintain and initiate social contact and this interpretation is consistent with previous research. The negative results may also have been influenced by the age of the children and the low levels of observed aggression.