Comparisons of Self-Report With Objective Measurements Suggest Faster Responding but Little Change in Response Quality Over Time in Ecological Momentary Assessment Studies.

Response times (RTs) to ecological momentary assessment (EMA) items often decrease after repeated EMA administration, but whether this is accompanied by lower response quality requires investigation. We examined the relationship between EMA item RTs and EMA response quality. In one data set, declining response quality was operationalized as decreasing correspondence over time between subjective and objective measures of blood glucose taken at the same time. In a second EMA study data set, declining response quality was operationalized as decreasing correspondence between subjective ratings of memory test performance and objective memory test scores. We assumed that measurement error in the objective measures did not increase across time, meaning that decreasing correspondence across days within a person could be attributed to lower response quality. RTs to EMA items decreased across study days, while no decrements in the mean response quality were observed. Decreasing EMA item RTs across study days did not appear problematic overall.

Efficacy of psychotropic medications on suicide and self-injury: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Using psychotropic medications to treat and prevent self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) has become increasingly popular, but conclusive evidence supporting the efficacy this approach remains elusive. To empirically examine whether psychotropic medications are efficacious treatments for SITBs, the present meta-analysis comprehensively summarizes all published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that have reported the causal effects of psychotropic medications on suicide and self-injury. A total of 251 papers from 718 unique RCTs were included. A frequentist pairwise approach was adopted for meta-analyses. Potential effect modifiers were examined via met regressions and potential biases were evaluated through sensitivity analyses. On average, medications yielded an 8% reduction in SITB frequency and a reduction of 0.2 standard deviations in symptoms and severity. Findings were largely consistent across potential effect modifiers, and significant evidence of publication bias was not detected. Only one medication class (i.e., antipsychotics) and two specific medications (i.e., citalopram, ketamine) produced larger-than-average treatment effects. Psychostimulants and typical antipsychotics may produce iatrogenic effects. Less than 4% of included studies required individuals to exhibit SITBs, and nearly half of analyzed effects were drawn from studies that excluded individuals on the basis of SITB risk. Taken together, findings suggest that psychotropic medications produce small treatment effects on SITBs; however, these findings should be considered in light of the methodological constraints of the existing literature, including the lack of studies intentionally including individuals with SITBs. It is critical for future RCTs to prioritize including individuals with existing SITBs to further clarify treatment effects in self-injurious and suicidal populations. Additional research is needed to better understand the treatment mechanisms of psychotropic medications and identify the causal processes underlying SITBs.

Efficacy of interventions for suicide and self-injury in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis.

Despite increased numbers of children and adolescents seeking and receiving mental health treatment, rates of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) in youth are rising. In the hopes of aiding ongoing efforts to alleviate the burden of SITBs in this vulnerable population, the present study summarizes current knowledge on the efficacy of SITB interventions in children and adolescents. We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing treatment effects on SITBs in child and adolescent populations. A total of 112 articles comprising 558 effect sizes were included in analyses. Nearly all interventions produced nonsignificant reductions in SITBs. For binary SITB outcomes, a nonsignificant treatment effect was detected, with an RR of 1.06 (95% CIs [0.99, 1.14]). For continuous SITB outcomes, analyses also yielded a nonsignificant treatment effect (g = - 0.04 [- 0.12, 0.05]). These patterns were largely consistent across SITB outcomes, regardless of intervention type, treatment components, sample and study characteristics, and publication year. Our findings highlight opportunities for improving SITB intervention development and implementation in child and adolescent populations. The most efficacious interventions are likely to directly target the causes of SITBs; therefore, future research is needed to identify the causal processes underlying the onset and maintenance of SITBs in youth.

Validity of remote administration of the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery for individuals with severe mental illness.

The MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) is a gold-standard tool for assessing cognitive functioning in individuals with severe mental illness. This study is an initial examination of the validity of remote administration of 4 MCCB tests measuring processing speed (Trail Making Test: Part A, Animal Fluency), working memory (Letter-Number Span), and verbal learning and memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised). We conducted analyses on individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SCZ), as well as healthy volunteers, who were assessed in-person (BD = 80, SCZ = 116, HV = 14) vs. remotely (BD = 93, SCZ = 43, HV = 30) to determine if there were significant differences in performance based on administration format. Additional analyses tested whether remote and in-person assessment performance was similarly correlated with symptom severity, cognitive and social cognitive performance, and functional outcomes. Individuals with BD performed significantly better than those with SCZ on all MCCB subtests across administration format. Animal Fluency did not differ by administration format, but remote participants performed significantly worse on Trail Making and HVLT-R. On the Letter-Number Span task, individuals with bipolar disorder performed significantly better when participating remotely. Finally, patterns of correlations with related constructs were largely similar between administration formats. Thus, results suggest that remote administration of some of the MCCB subtests may be a valid alternative to in-person testing, but more research is necessary to determine why some tasks were affected by administration format.

Longitudinal studies support the safety and ethics of virtual reality suicide as a research method.

Many have expressed concerns about the safety and ethics of conducting suicide research, especially intense suicide research methods that expose participants to graphic depictions of suicidality. We conducted two studies to evaluate the effects of one such method called virtual reality (VR) suicide. Study 1 tested the effects of VR suicide exposure over the course of one month in participants with (n = 56) and without a history of suicidality (n = 50). Study 2 exposed some participants to VR suicide scenarios (n = 79) and others to control scenarios (n = 80). Participants were invited to complete a follow-up assessment after an average of 2 years. For both studies, the presence of suicidality post exposure was the primary outcome, with closely related constructs (e.g., capability for suicide, agitation) as secondary outcomes. Study 1 found no pre-post increases in suicidality or related variables, but revealed several significant decreases associated with small to medium effect sizes in suicide-related constructs. In Study 2, VR suicide exposure did not cause any significant increases in suicidality or related variables. Together with prior research, these findings suggest that methods involving intense suicide stimuli appear safe and consistent with utilitarian ethics.

Interventions for suicide and self-injury: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials across nearly 50 years of research.

Self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) are major public health concerns impacting a wide range of individuals and communities. Despite major efforts to develop and refine treatments to reduce SITBs, the efficacy of SITB interventions remains unclear. To provide a comprehensive summary of SITB treatment efficacy, we conducted a meta-analysis of published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that have attempted to reduce SITBs. A total of 591 published articles from 1,125 unique RCTs with 3,458 effect sizes from the past 50 years were included. The random-effects meta-analysis yielded surprising findings: The overall intervention effects were small across all SITB outcomes; despite a near-exponential increase in the number of RCTs across five decades, intervention efficacy has not improved; all SITB interventions produced similarly small effects, and no intervention appeared significantly and consistently stronger than others; the overall small intervention effects were largely maintained at follow-up assessments; efficacy was similar across age groups, though effects were slightly weaker for child/adolescent populations and few studies focused on older adults; and major sample and study characteristics (e.g., control group type, treatment target, sample size, intervention length) did not consistently moderate treatment efficacy. This meta-analysis suggests that fundamental changes are needed to facilitate progress in SITB intervention efficacy. In particular, powerful interventions target the necessary causes of pathology, but little is known about SITB causes (vs. SITB correlates and risk factors). The field would accordingly benefit from the prioritization of research that aims to identify and target common necessary causes of SITBs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Anticipated consequences as the primary causes of suicidal behavior: Evidence from a laboratory study.

Due to the limitations of conducting experimental studies on suicide, little is known about its causes. Based on basic behavioral research, we hypothesized that the anticipated consequences of suicidal behavior (e.g., stress relief) are the primary causes of suicidal behavior, and experienced antecedents (e.g., stress) are secondary causes. We evaluated this general hypothesis by testing the causal effects of these two broad phenomena on virtual reality (VR) suicide in 497 participants across five groups. On their own, experienced antecedent manipulations (i.e., stress and rejection) did not significantly increase VR suicide rates relative to the control group. On its own, the anticipated consequence manipulation (i.e., instruction that engaging in VR suicide would allow one to avoid a future stressor) caused a large increase in the VR suicide rate. In the context of an experienced antecedent manipulation (i.e., stress), this anticipated consequence manipulation caused an even larger increase in the VR suicide rate. These findings suggest that the anticipated consequences of suicidal behavior (e.g., avoidance or escape from something unpleasant, attaining something pleasant) are the primary causes of suicidal behavior, and that experienced antecedents (e.g., stress) serve as secondary causes when they make an anticipated consequence of suicidal behavior seem more appealing.