A recent study, funded by the MS Society, found that many people with MS have problems with depression and anxiety. Previous studies have suggested that depression in MS can lead to patients failing to take their medication and a reduced quality of life.
But there is hope as researchers found that MS sufferers who attended group sessions had fewer problems with anxiety and depression and the impact of the disease on their daily lives was reduced.
The researchers also found that costs were reduced by £470 per patient for those who attended the therapy sessions compared with usual care. It was shown to almost halve the cost of visits to the GP, falling from £11,340 at the start of the study to just £5,832 at the eight month follow up. The costs of outpatient hospital visits were also slashed from £32,592 at the beginning of the study to £21,534 at the eight-month follow-up.
If you're interested in increasing your staff's ability to run groups then attend (or commission in-house) our essential toolkit for running groups' course
Showing posts with label self assessment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self assessment. Show all posts
Monday, 4 July 2011
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Cognitive-Bias Modification
Cognitive-Bias Modification has been in the news recently - but what is it?
CBM is a relatively new style of psychological treatment that works by the client simply sitting in front of their PC. CBM is a form of therapy that works on Attentional Biases. If you take as an example, people suffering anxiety disorder: they may have an attentional bias towards threat. This means they are drawn towards stimuli that they perceive to be dangerous. This attentional bias then affects memory and the recall of an event. As the anxiety sufferer has a bias towards 'threat' stimuli, these are the elements that are remembered when trying to recall a memory. Likewise, drug users have demonstrated an attentional bias towards drug related cues.
The aim of CBM is to change these biases.
The most common method used to re-train attention is the 'dot-probe task.' Two stimuli are briefly presented on a screen: One is emotionally relevant (i.e. designed to draw the attention due to the attentional bias) and the other is neutral. The stimuli is displayed for half a second then one is replaced by a task that the client must respond to. The attentional bias is indicated by the difference in reaction time to the task after it replaces an emotionally relevant stimuli compared to neutral stimuli.
Gradually the task replaces the neutral stimuli increasingly until it replaces the neutral stimuli 100% of the time. The client learns an implicit 'if-then' rule, namely: If both stimuli are present, then attend to the neutral stimuli. Often, repeating the procedure a number of times over an extended time period will change the client's tendency to focus on the emotionally relevant stimuli. That change is then carried over into the world.
The effectiveness for this method is still to be decided, with conflicting evidence at the moment, although it still tends towards being effective.
One of the major advantages of this style of therapy style, assuming it works, is that the client need only sit in front of their pc and run the program. They will no longer need to attend therapy sessions anymore. But only if CBM really is the panacea it hopes to be.
CBM is a relatively new style of psychological treatment that works by the client simply sitting in front of their PC. CBM is a form of therapy that works on Attentional Biases. If you take as an example, people suffering anxiety disorder: they may have an attentional bias towards threat. This means they are drawn towards stimuli that they perceive to be dangerous. This attentional bias then affects memory and the recall of an event. As the anxiety sufferer has a bias towards 'threat' stimuli, these are the elements that are remembered when trying to recall a memory. Likewise, drug users have demonstrated an attentional bias towards drug related cues.
The aim of CBM is to change these biases.
The most common method used to re-train attention is the 'dot-probe task.' Two stimuli are briefly presented on a screen: One is emotionally relevant (i.e. designed to draw the attention due to the attentional bias) and the other is neutral. The stimuli is displayed for half a second then one is replaced by a task that the client must respond to. The attentional bias is indicated by the difference in reaction time to the task after it replaces an emotionally relevant stimuli compared to neutral stimuli.
Gradually the task replaces the neutral stimuli increasingly until it replaces the neutral stimuli 100% of the time. The client learns an implicit 'if-then' rule, namely: If both stimuli are present, then attend to the neutral stimuli. Often, repeating the procedure a number of times over an extended time period will change the client's tendency to focus on the emotionally relevant stimuli. That change is then carried over into the world.
The effectiveness for this method is still to be decided, with conflicting evidence at the moment, although it still tends towards being effective.
One of the major advantages of this style of therapy style, assuming it works, is that the client need only sit in front of their pc and run the program. They will no longer need to attend therapy sessions anymore. But only if CBM really is the panacea it hopes to be.
Friday, 2 July 2010
What to Expect When You're Diagnosed with Panic Disorder - by Mark Sichel, LCSW
The greatest fear people experience during a panic attack is that they are going crazy or even that they are having a serious medical problem that will kill them. You may feel as if you are going to lose your mind or that you're having a heart attack or stroke, but if you're in relatively good health and have a stable history of "keeping it together," the attack will end.
This series of articles will teach you how common panic attacks are, how rapidly they end, and what the initial steps are in eliminating these attacks from your life. You will be able to complete a self-assesment and find out whether or not you are, in fact, having a panic attack. Most importantly, you'll learn that you aren't to blame for your panic attacks, and that being kinder to yourself is a good first step in mastering this problem. You'll feel better because you will feel more understood, you'll see how universal a problem panic can be, and you'll stop beating yourself up for having the problem in the first place.
Untreated, a panic disorder certainly will diminish your quality of life and potentially be disabling. Those who have had panic attacks are vulnerable to phobias, for people who have had panic attacks sometimes become phobic and will avoid the stimuli that they associate with their original panic attack. Panic disorder, however, is highly treatable through psychotherapy and/or medication and does not have to interfere with your quality of life.
People who have panic attacks do not end up in mental hospitals. People who have panic attacks feel crazy but they are not. Panic attacks involve common symptoms that are often times scary, but it does not mean you are nuts.
How long does the typical panic attack last? According to the American Psychological Association, a panic attack will generally last ten minutes. However, please note that those ten minutes feel like forever during the course of the panic attack.
You are not having a heart attack, a stroke or a seizure, but you may feel that you are seriously ill. Your heart may be pounding and your palms sweating. You may be feeling like you can't catch your breath, or that you're so dizzy that you're going to pass out. People often go to hospitals during panic attacks because they believe that they are having a heart attack, when, in fact, they are experiencing normal and common symptoms of panic.
Between three and six million Americans will have a panic disorder at one point in their lives. This means that between 1.5 and 3 percent of the population will experience panic disorder in their lifetimes. However, as many as 25 million Americans are thought to have had intermittent and scattered panic attacks.
For more valuable information about panic disorders, continue with this series by reading How Do I Know if I'm Having a Panic Attack?
Link to Article
This series of articles will teach you how common panic attacks are, how rapidly they end, and what the initial steps are in eliminating these attacks from your life. You will be able to complete a self-assesment and find out whether or not you are, in fact, having a panic attack. Most importantly, you'll learn that you aren't to blame for your panic attacks, and that being kinder to yourself is a good first step in mastering this problem. You'll feel better because you will feel more understood, you'll see how universal a problem panic can be, and you'll stop beating yourself up for having the problem in the first place.
Untreated, a panic disorder certainly will diminish your quality of life and potentially be disabling. Those who have had panic attacks are vulnerable to phobias, for people who have had panic attacks sometimes become phobic and will avoid the stimuli that they associate with their original panic attack. Panic disorder, however, is highly treatable through psychotherapy and/or medication and does not have to interfere with your quality of life.
People who have panic attacks do not end up in mental hospitals. People who have panic attacks feel crazy but they are not. Panic attacks involve common symptoms that are often times scary, but it does not mean you are nuts.
How long does the typical panic attack last? According to the American Psychological Association, a panic attack will generally last ten minutes. However, please note that those ten minutes feel like forever during the course of the panic attack.
You are not having a heart attack, a stroke or a seizure, but you may feel that you are seriously ill. Your heart may be pounding and your palms sweating. You may be feeling like you can't catch your breath, or that you're so dizzy that you're going to pass out. People often go to hospitals during panic attacks because they believe that they are having a heart attack, when, in fact, they are experiencing normal and common symptoms of panic.
Between three and six million Americans will have a panic disorder at one point in their lives. This means that between 1.5 and 3 percent of the population will experience panic disorder in their lifetimes. However, as many as 25 million Americans are thought to have had intermittent and scattered panic attacks.
For more valuable information about panic disorders, continue with this series by reading How Do I Know if I'm Having a Panic Attack?
Link to Article
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
