Clinical Psychology

Background: Formulation and working psychologically with teams is considered a fundamental part of the role of a clinical psychologist. Quantitative studies have found staff find team formulations a positive, useful experience. Aims: This review aims to utilize a Thematic Synthesis to combine qualitative studies on staff experiences of participating in team formulations and explore what benefits staff perceive from the process. The review also aims to provide a thorough quality appraisal of the included research. Method: A Thematic Synthesis was completed on qualitative studies which met the required inclusion criteria. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme qualitative checklist was used to appraise the included research. Results: The studies included in the review were of a mixed quality, and in some instances there was an insufficient amount of detail to complete an accurate assessment. Overall, seven themes were identified across the studies. Conclusions: The current review hig...

The brain and the gut are engaged in continual crosstalk along a number of pathways collectively termed the 'brain–gut axis'. Over recent years it has become increasingly clear that dysregulation of the axis at a number of levels can result in disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). With recent advances in neuroimaging technologies, insights into the neurobiology of IBS are beginning to emerge. However the cognitive neurobiology of IBS has remained relatively unexplored to date. In this review we summarise the available ...

Reduced social functioning is a key characteristic of the psychosis continuum. However, it is currently unclear how effective a range of psychological interventions are in improving social functioning in at risk mental states (ARMS) and first episode psychosis (FEP) populations. One treatment target that has received increased interest is social cognitive function. However, there has not yet been a comprehensive analysis of the literature investigating the relationship between social cognition, social functioning, and psychotic symptomatology. To this end we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the effectiveness of psychological interventions on social functioning, and to determine the nature of relationship between social cognition, social functioning and psychotic symptoms in ARMS and FEP. Our systematic review demonstrated that CBT, multicomponent and service level interventions have efficacy in FEP, whilst there is currently no evidence that CBT, and limi...

This paper proposes an enhanced authentication model, which is suitable for low-power mobile devices. It uses an Extended Password Key Exchange Protocols [2] and elliptic-curve-cryptosystem based trust delegation mechanism to generate a delegation pass code for mobile station authentication, and it can effectively defend all known attacks to mobile networks including the denial-of-service attack. Moreover, the mobile station only needs to receive one message and send one message to authenticate itself to a visitor's location register, and the model only requires a single elliptic-curve scalar point multiplication on a mobile device. Therefore, this model enjoys both computation efficiency and communication efficiency as compared to known mobile authentication models.

Rationale and objective Effects on the extinction of GABAergic drug, chlordiazepoxide (CDP), and glutamatergic drug, D-cycloserine (DCS), in C57BL/6 mice were compared. Materials and methods Following a palatability test (Experiment 1), Experiments 2-6 involved food-reinforced lever press training followed by extinction sessions at 1-or 4day intervals. The effects of drugs were examined. Experiment 7 involved a two-lever task. Results CDP did not affect food palatability (Experiment 1), but facilitated extinction when administered prior to extinction sessions via intracerebral (Experiment 2) or peripheral administration at 1-day (Experiments 3-7) or 4-day intervals (Experiment 6). Reducing the amount of training prior to extinction reduced the delay in the effect of CDP typically seen, and CDP had a larger effect in early sessions on mice that had received less training (Experiment 3). There was some evidence that CDP could be blocked by flumazenil (Experiment 4), and CDP withdrawal reversed extinction facilitation (Experiments 5 and 7). With 4-day intervals, DCS administered immediately following extinction sessions, or pre-session CDP, facilitated extinction with 48trial sessions (experiment 6B). With six-trial sessions, the co-administration of post-session DCS enhanced facilitation produced by pre-session CDP (experiment 6A). Finally, CDP facilitated extinction in a dose-related fashion following training on a two-lever food-reinforced task (Experiment 7). Conclusions The findings are consistent with the hypotheses that two neurotransmitter systems have different roles in operant extinction and that glutamatergic systems are involved in extinction learning and GABAergic systems involved in the expression of that learning. This parallels findings with extinction following Pavlovian conditioning, which has been more extensively investigated.

The biological significance of Archaea in the human gut microbiota is largely unclear. We recently reported genomic and biochemical analyses of the Methanomassiliicoccales, a novel order of methanogenic Archaea dwelling in soil and the animal digestive tract. We now show that these Methanomassiliicoccales are present in published microbiome data sets from eight countries. They are represented by five Operational Taxonomic Units present in at least four cohorts and phylogenetically distributed into two clades. Genes for utilizing trimethylamine (TMA), a bacterial precursor to an atherosclerogenic human metabolite, were present in four of the six novel Methanomassiliicoccales genomes assembled from ELDERMET metagenomes. In addition to increased microbiota TMA production capacity in long-term residential care subjects, abundance of TMA-utilizing Methanomassiliicoccales correlated positively with bacterial gene count for TMA production and negatively with fecal TMA concentrations. The two large Methanomassiliicoccales clades have opposite correlations with host health status in the ELDERMET cohort and putative distinct genomic signatures for gut adaptation.

Researchers interested in the neurobiology of the acute stress response in humans require a valid and reliable acute stressor that can be used under experimental conditions. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) provides such a testing platform. It induces stress by requiring participants to make an interview-style presentation, followed by a surprise mental arithmetic test, in front of an interview panel who do not provide feedback or encouragement. In this review, we outline the methodology of the TSST, and discuss key findings under conditions of health and stress-related disorder. The TSST has unveiled differences in males and females, as well as different age groups, in their neurobiological response to acute stress. The TSST has also deepened our understanding of how genotype may moderate the cognitive neurobiology of acute stress, and exciting new inroads have been made in understanding epigenetic contributions to the biological regulation of the acute stress response using the TSST. A number of innovative adaptations have been developed which allow for the TSST to be used in group settings, with children, in combination with brain imaging, and with virtual committees. Future applications may incorporate the emerging links between the gut microbiome and the stress response. Future research should also maximise use of behavioural data generated by the TSST. Alternative acute stress paradigms may have utility over the TSST in certain situations, such as those that require repeat testing. Nonetheless, we expect that the TSST remains the gold standard for examining the cognitive neurobiology of acute stress in humans.