Many people achieve positive outcomes from psychological therapies for anxiety and depression. However, not everyone benefits and some may require additional support. Previous studies have examined the demographic and clinical characteristics of people starting treatment and identified a patient profile that is associated with poor clinical outcomes.

To examine whether the addition of employment-related support alongside psychological therapy was associated with a greater chance of recovery for clients belonging to this patient profile.

We analysed 302 clients across three services, who were offered employment-related support alongside psychological therapy. The rate of clinical recovery (falling below clinical thresholds on measures of both anxiety and depression) was compared between individuals who accepted the offer and those who declined, while adjusting for potential confounders.

Logistic regression showed that receiving employment support was significantly associated with clinical recovery after controlling for baseline anxiety and depression scores, the number of psychological treatment sessions, and other clinical and demographic variables. The odds of recovery were 2.54 times greater if clients received employment support; 47% of clients who received employment support alongside psychological therapy were classified as recovered, compared with 27% of those receiving psychological therapy only.

Providing employment support alongside therapy may be particularly helpful for clients belonging to this patient profile, who represent approximately 10% of referrals to NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression services. Services could consider how to increase the provision and uptake of employment-focused support to enhance clients’ clinical outcomes.

Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is an effective treatment for chronic insomnia that also improves non-sleep symptoms, such as mood and anxiety. Identifying sleep-specific variables that predict anxiety change after CBT-I treatment may support alternative strategies when people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) do not improve from standard GAD treatment.

To investigate CBT-I on changes in anxiety and evaluate whether changes in sleep-specific variables predict anxiety outcomes.

Seventy-two participants presenting with insomnia and GAD (GAD-I) completed four sessions of CBT-I. Participants completed daily diaries and self-report measures at baseline and post-treatment.

CBT-I in a co‐morbid GAD-I sample was associated with medium reductions in anxiety, and large reductions in insomnia severity. Subjective insomnia severity and tendencies to ruminate in response to fatigue predicted post-treatment anxiety change, in addition to younger age and lower baseline anxiety.

The findings suggest that younger GAD-I participants with moderate anxiety symptoms may benefit most from the anxiety-relieving impact of CBT-I. Reducing perceived insomnia severity and the tendency to ruminate in response to fatigue may support reductions in anxiety in those with GAD-I.

Despite the importance of assessing the quality with which low-intensity (LI) group psychoeducational interventions are delivered, no measure of treatment integrity (TI) has been developed.

To develop a psychometrically robust TI measure for LI psychoeducational group interventions.

This study had two phases. Firstly, the group psychoeducation treatment integrity measure-expert rater (GPTIM-ER) and a detailed scoring manual were developed. This was piloted by n=5 expert raters rating the same LI group session; n=6 expert raters then assessed content validity. Secondly, 10 group psychoeducational sessions drawn from routine practice were then rated by n=8 expert raters using the GPTIM-ER; n=9 patients also rated the quality of the group sessions using a sister version (i.e. GPTIM-P) and clinical and service outcome data were drawn from the LI groups assessed.

The GPTIM-ER had excellent internal reliability, good test–retest reliability, but poor inter-rater reliability. The GPTIM-ER had excellent content validity, construct validity, formed a single factor scale and had reasonable predictive validity.

The GPTIM-ER has promising, but not complete, psychometric properties. The low inter-rater reliability scores between expert raters are the main ongoing concern and so further development and testing is required in future well-constructed studies.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms are hypothesized to be driven by two core motivations: harm avoidance and incompleteness. While cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for OCD, many posit that OCD presentations characterized by high incompleteness may be harder to treat. The relationship between the core motivations and treatment outcomes remains to be further explored.

To investigate if harm avoidance and incompleteness decrease across group CBT and to examine the relationship between treatment outcomes and both baseline and changes in harm avoidance and incompleteness throughout treatment.

A naturalistic sample of 65 adult out-patients with OCD completed self-report questionnaires measuring OCD symptom severity and the core motivations before, during, and after 12 weeks of group CBT for OCD.

Harm avoidance and incompleteness scores significantly decreased from pre- to post-treatment. Pre-treatment harm avoidance and incompleteness levels did not predict post-treatment symptom severity, but changes in the core motivations throughout treatment were significant predictors of treatment outcome. Specifically, reductions in harm avoidance across treatment and reductions in incompleteness early in treatment, were associated with better treatment outcomes.

Participants who completed group CBT for OCD experienced modest reductions in the core motivations thought to maintain OCD symptoms and these changes predicted better outcomes. However, pre-treatment levels of harm avoidance and incompleteness do not appear to moderate treatment outcome.

Little is known about the skills involved in clinical formulation. The individual case formulation (ICF) approach, based on functional analysis, employs clinical descriptions that are theory-free and depicts formulations constructed according to a set of basic conventions.

We report a test of whether this method could be taught and if the quality of the resulting diagrams could be reliably rated.

Participants (n=40) participated in a training course in formulation. A draft rating scale was refined in the course of rating formulation diagrams and basic inter-rater reliability established.

Results of the study support further development of the ICF approach.

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) and disgust sensitivity (DS) are transdiagnostic vulnerability factors for anxiety. Both correlate with blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia symptoms in several studies; however, there is ambiguity about their relative contributions, and studies investigating this have relied on unselected samples. Furthermore, although DS reliably predicts BII in studies that do not account for AS, this may be limited to domain-specific DS rather than DS more broadly.

The aims of this study were to examine AS and DS as separate and simultaneous predictors of BII fears in a sample with a wide range of BII symptoms, and with attention to the specificity of DS to BII-relevant domains.

Fifty-three participants who scored above a clinical threshold on a validated measure of dental anxiety, and who represented a wide range of BII severity, completed measures of AS, DS and BII symptoms.

AS and DS were moderately to strongly correlated with BII severity (r = .40 and .47, p = .004 and <.001), and both independently predicted BII severity when entered as simultaneous predictors (β = .32 and .35, p = .045 and .015). Furthermore, after omitting DS about injections and blood draws, domain-general DS was still moderately correlated with BII severity (r = .33, p = .017). However, domain-general DS did not significantly predict BII severity after accounting for AS (β = .20, p = .164).

AS and DS both predict BII symptoms, and prospective research is warranted to examine them as potential vulnerability factors.

Psychological interventions may assist in the management of bipolar disorder, but few studies have assessed the use of group therapy programs using telehealth.

The present study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a well-being group program for people living with bipolar disorder designed to be delivered via telehealth (Zoom platform) using a randomised controlled pilot design.

Participants were randomly assigned to either the 8-week well-being plan treatment condition or the wait-list control condition. They were administered a structured diagnostic instrument to confirm bipolar disorder diagnosis followed by a set of self-report questionnaires relating to mood, quality of life, personal recovery, and stigma.

A total of 32 participants (16 treatment; 16 control) were randomised with 12 participants completing the intervention, and 13 the control condition. The program appeared acceptable and feasible (75% retention rate) with a mean attendance being reported of 7.25 sessions attended out of a possible 8 sessions. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction overall with the intervention, with a mean score of 9.18 out of 10.

Preliminary evidence suggests that delivery of the group program online is feasible and acceptable for participants living with bipolar disorder. As the program was designed to prevent relapse over time, further research is needed to determine if the program may be helpful in improving symptom outcomes over a longer follow-up period.

Prevention programs that target resilience may help youth address mental health difficulties and promote well-being during public health crises.

To examine the preliminary efficacy of the Resilient Youth Program (RYP).

The RYP was delivered remotely from a US academic medical centre to youth in the community via a naturalistic pilot study. Data from 66 youth (ages 6–18, Mage = 11.65, SD = 3.02) and their parents were collected via quality assurance procedures (May 2020 to March 2021). Pre/post-intervention child/parent-reported psychological and stress symptoms as well as well-being measures were compared via Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Child/parent-reported skills use data were collected.

Among child-reported outcomes, there were significant decreases in physical stress (p = .03), anxiety (p = .004), depressive symptoms (p < .001) and anger (p = .002), as well as increased life satisfaction (p = .02). There were no significant differences in child-reported psychological stress (p = .06) or positive affect (p = .09). Among parent-reported child outcomes, there were significant decreases in psychological (p < .001) and physical stress (p = .03), anxiety (p < .001), depressive symptoms (p < .001), and anger (p < .002) as well as increased positive affect (p < .001) and life satisfaction (p < .001). Effect sizes ranged from small to medium; 77% of youth (73% of parents) reported using RYP skills. Age and gender were not associated with outcome change.

The RYP may help reduce psychological/stress symptoms and increase well-being among youth; further research is needed.

Intrapersonal aspects of emotion regulation have been at the forefront of research, while interpersonal aspects have received less attention. The Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (IERQ) was developed to address this issue. However, this scale was neither adapted nor validated for European Portuguese.

The present study aims to adapt the IERQ to European Portuguese and explore the preliminary psychometric properties of the IERQ in a community sample, through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Construct validity was further supported by examining convergent validity with ERQ subscales.

Using a cross-sectional design, individuals were recruited online. Self-report questionnaires were used, namely the IERQ and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ).

The four-factor structure was confirmed through CFA. IERQ subscales correlated positively with the dimensions of the ERQ of cognitive reappraisal and correlated negatively with experiential suppression.

This preliminary study showed that the IERQ has adequate psychometric properties in a Portuguese sample and supports that this instrument can be used to assess interpersonal emotion regulation strategies in non-clinical samples.