The Role of the Gut Microbiome in Health and Disease in the Elderly.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Growing evidence supports the contribution of age in the composition and function of the gut microbiome, with specific findings associated with health in old age and longevity. RECENT FINDINGS: Current studies have associated certain microbiota, such as Butyricimonas, Akkermansia, and Odoribacter, with healthy aging and the ability to survive into extreme old age. Furthermore, emerging clinical and pre-clinical research have shown promising mechanisms for restoring a healthy microbiome in elderly populations through various interventions such as fecal microbiota transplant (FMT), dietary interventions, and exercise programs. Despite several conceptually exciting interventional studies, the field of microbiome research in the elderly remains limited. Specifically, large longitudinal studies are needed to better understand causative relationships between the microbiome and healthy aging. Additionally, individualized approaches to microbiome interventions based on patients' co-morbidities and the underlying functional capacity of their microbiomes are needed to achieve optimal results.

Why do patients go off track? Examining potential influencing factors for being at risk of psychotherapy treatment failure.

BACKGROUND: Routine outcome monitoring can support clinicians to detect patients who deteriorate [not-on-track (NOT)] early in psychotherapy. Implemented Clinical Support Tools can direct clinicians' attention towards potential obstacles to a positive treatment outcome and provide suggestions for suitable interventions. However, few studies have compared NOT patients to patients showing expected progress [on-track (OT)] regarding such obstacles. This study aimed to identify domains that have predictive value for NOT trajectories and to compare OT and NOT patients regarding these domains and the items of the underlying scales. METHODS: During treatment, 413 outpatients filled in the Hopkins-Symptom-Checklist-11 (depressive and anxious symptom distress) before every therapy session as a routine outcome measure. Further, the Assessment for Signal Clients, Affective Style Questionnaire, and Outcome Questionnaire-30 were applied every fifth session. These questionnaires measure the following domains, which were investigated as potential obstacles to treatment success: risk/suicidality, therapeutic alliance, motivation, social support and life events, as well as emotion regulation. Two groups (OT and NOT patients) were formed by defining a cut-off (failure boundary) as the 90% confidence interval (upper bound) of the respective patients' expected recovery curves. In order to differentiate group membership based on the respective problem areas, multilevel logistic regression analyses were performed. Further, OT and NOT patients were compared with regard to the domains' and items' cut-offs by performing Pearson chi-square tests and independent samples t-tests. RESULTS: The life events and motivation scale as well as the risk/suicidality scale proved to be significant predictors of being not-on-track. NOT patients also crossed the cut-off significantly more often on the domains risk/suicidality, social support, and life events. For both OT and NOT patients, the emotion regulation domain's cut-off was most commonly exceeded. CONCLUSION: Life events, motivation, and risk/suicidality seem to be directly linked to treatment failure and should be further investigated for the use in clinical support tools.

Within and between associations of nonverbal synchrony in relation to Grawe's general mechanisms of change.

The examination of nonverbal synchrony has become a promising line of psychotherapy research. Although several studies have found between-dyad associations between nonverbal synchrony and multidimensional outcomes, the findings remain heterogeneous, and within-dyad effects remain to be investigated. The present study examines within and between effects of nonverbal synchrony on mastery, resource activation, problem actuation, and motivational clarification (Grawe's general mechanisms of change). Four-hundred and twenty-three videotaped sessions of 175 patients were analysed using motion energy analysis (MEA), providing values to quantify nonverbal synchrony in the patient-therapist dyad. Grawe's general mechanisms of change in psychotherapy were rated using the Inventory of Therapeutic Interventions and Skills (ITIS). On average, patient-therapist nonverbal synchrony was greater than chance. Hierarchical linear modelling revealed that nonverbal synchrony was significantly associated with higher mastery and less resource activation on the within-dyad level. Nonverbal synchrony was not associated with problem actuation or motivational clarification, and in general, no associations were found on the between-dyad level. The results demonstrate the importance of disentangling within and between effects of nonverbal synchrony and provide initial evidence that nonverbal synchrony is tied to the specific therapeutic strategies observed in psychotherapy sessions.

Assessing treatment integrity in personalized CBT: the inventory of therapeutic interventions and skills.

The third wave of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has increased the heterogeneity of today's CBT practice, while developments in patient-focused research are paving the road to the empirical personalization of CBT. This paper presents the development and psychometric properties of a therapy video rating instrument, which was designed to adequately assess the treatment integrity (adherence and competence) of modern, personalized CBT. The Inventory of Therapeutic Interventions and Skills (ITIS) was developed based on two existing CBT adherence and competence scales and augmented with third wave content and overarching therapeutic strategies. The instrument was then applied by graduate students and post-graduate clinicians to rate N = 185 therapy videos from N = 70 patients treated at a university outpatient clinic. Descriptive results, inter-rater reliability, item structure, and associations with session outcome and alliance were examined. Average inter-rater reliability was excellent for Interventions items and good for Skills items. Intercorrelations were low between Interventions items, but higher and significant between Skills items, which loaded on a single factor. Several ITIS items were shown to be predictive of session outcome and alliance, even after controlling for the nested data structure. Implications of these results for future research and clinical training are discussed.

Patterns of early change in interpersonal problems and their relationship to nonverbal synchrony and multidimensional outcome.

Early change is an increasing area of investigation in psychotherapy research. In this study, we analyzed patterns of early change in interpersonal problems and their relationship to nonverbal synchrony and multiple outcome measures for the first time. We used growth mixture modeling to identify different latent classes of early change in interpersonal problems with 212 patients who underwent cognitive-behavioral treatment including interpersonal and emotion-focused elements. Furthermore, videotaped sessions were analyzed using motion energy analysis, providing values for the calculation of nonverbal synchrony to predict early change in interpersonal problems. The relationship between early change patterns and symptoms as well as overall change in interpersonal problems was also investigated. Three latent subgroups were identified: 1 class with slow improvement (n = 145), 1 class with fast improvement (n = 12), and 1 early deterioration class (n = 55). Lower levels of early nonverbal synchrony were significantly related to fast improvement in interpersonal change patterns. Furthermore, such patterns predicted treatment outcome in symptoms and interpersonal problems. The results suggest that nonverbal synchrony is associated with early change patterns in interpersonal problems, which are also predictive of treatment outcome. Limitations of the applied methods as well as possible applications in routine care are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

What sticks? Patients' perspectives on treatment three years after psychotherapy: A mixed-methods approach.

Objective: In the present study, a patient-focused, mixed-methods approach was applied to relate patients' personal experiences of change processes during therapy to their long-term psychometric treatment outcomes. Method: Comprehensive follow-up quantitative assessments and qualitative interviews were conducted with n = 30 patients who had completed an integrative CBT treatment three years prior. Qualitative content analysis by two independent coders was used to categorize patients' subjective explanations of therapeutic change. Correlations were applied to relate the frequency and diversity of change factors to clinically significant change of symptom distress at post-treatment and 36-month follow-up. Cluster analysis was performed to identify clusters of patients with similar patterns of change factors. Results: Qualitative content analysis with good interrater reliability revealed five main categories: (1) Therapeutic relationship (2) Activating resources (3) Motivational clarification and insight (4) Action-oriented coping strategies (5) Healing therapeutic setting. Higher levels of change factors were associated with greater relief of symptoms at post-treatment and 36-month follow-up. Cluster analysis revealed three different groups of patients. Conclusions: The analysis provides insight into therapeutic change factors from the patient's perspective. Some categories are consistent with theoretically driven models of common factors. Results may help tailor psychotherapy to patients' individual needs.

Working Towards the Development and Implementation of Precision Mental Healthcare: An Example.

Leonard Bickman's (2020) Festschrift paper in the special issue "The Future of Children's Mental Health Services" on improving mental health services is an impressive reflection of his career, highlighting his major insights and the development of mental health services research as a whole. Five major difficulties in this field's current research and practice are attentively delineated: poor diagnostics, measurement problems, disadvantages of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), lack of feedback and personalized treatments. Dr. Bickman recommends possible solutions based on his extensive experience and empirical findings. We agree with his thoughts and illustrate how we, challenged with the same problems, have attempted to develop clinically informed research and evidence-based clinical practice. A comprehensive feedback system that deals with the aforementioned problems is briefly described. It includes pre-treatment recommendations for treatment strategies and an empirically informed dropout prediction based on a variety of data sources. In addition to treatment recommendations, continuous feedback as well as individualized treatment adaptation tools are provided during ongoing therapy. New projects are being implemented to further improve the system by including new data assessment strategies and sources, e.g., ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and automated video analysis.

What happens when the therapist leaves? The impact of therapy transfer on the therapeutic alliance and symptoms.

BACKGROUND: The therapeutic alliance is an important factor in psychotherapy, affecting both therapy processes and outcome. Therapy transfers may impair the quality of the therapeutic alliance and increase symptom severity. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of patient transfers in cognitive behavioural therapy on alliance and symptoms in the sessions after the transfer. METHOD: Patient- and therapist-rated therapeutic alliance and patient-reported symptom severity were measured session-to-session. Differences in the levels of alliance and symptom severity before (i.e., with the original therapist) and after (i.e., with the new therapist) the transfer session were analysed. The development of alliance and symptom severity was explored using multilevel growth models. RESULTS: A significant drop in the alliance was found after the transfer, whereas no differences were found with regard to symptom severity. After an average of 2.93 sessions, the therapeutic alliance as rated by patients reached pretransfer levels, whereas it took an average of 5.05 sessions for therapist-rated alliance levels to be at a similar level as before the transfer. Inter-individual differences were found with regard to the development of the therapeutic alliance over time. CONCLUSIONS: Therapy transfers have no long lasting negative effects on either symptom impairment or the therapeutic alliance.