No abstract

Significant cognitive deficits are already identifiable during a FED, with some functions showing persistent impairment upon remission. Clinicians must consider cognitive impairment alongside mood symptoms to ensure functional recovery from the FED. (PsycINFO Database Record

Leading cause of disability worldwide, depression is the most prevalent mental disorder with growing societal costs. As mental health services demand often outweighs provision, accessible treatment options are needed. Our systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the clinical efficacy and economic evidence for the use of online cognitive behavioral therapy (oCBT) as an accessible treatment solution for depression. Areas covered: Electronic databases were searched for controlled trials published between 2006 and 2016. Of the reviewed 3,324 studies, 29 met the criteria for inclusion in the efficacy meta-analysis. The systematic review identified five oCBT economic evaluations. Therapist-supported oCBT was equivalent to face-to-face CBT at improving depressive symptoms and superior to treatment-as-usual, waitlist control, and attention control. Depression severity, number of sessions, or support did not affect efficacy. From a healthcare provider perspective, oCBT tended to show greater costs with greater benefits in the short term, relative to comparator treatments. Expert commentary: Although efficacious, further economic evidence is required to support the provision of oCBT as a cost-effective treatment for depression. Economic evaluations that incorporate a societal perspective will better account for direct and indirect treatment costs. Nevertheless, oCBT shows promise of effectively improving depressive symptoms, considering limited mental healthcare resources.

In the 50 years following Beck’s cognitive theory, empirical research has consistently supported the role of dysfunctional, ‘hot’ cognition in the onset and maintenance of major depressive disorder. Compromised ‘cold’ cognition in attention, memory, and executive control abilities, independent of the affective state, has attracted much clinical interest for its role throughout the course of illness and into remission. We propose integrating cold cognition into Beck’s cognitive theory framework to account for the complementary roles of both hot and cold cognition in depression onset and maintenance. A critical review of cognitive research was conducted to inform an integrated hot-cold cognitive model of depression. Cold cognitive deficits likely act as a gateway to facilitate the activation and expression of the hot cognitive biases through a weakened ability to attend, retrieve, and critically assess information. Cold deficits become exacerbated by the negative mood state, essentially ‘becoming hot’, lending to maladaptive emotion regulation through ruminative processes. Depleted cognitive resources contribute to the manifestation of further deficit in problem-solving ability in everyday life, which in itself, may act as a stressor for the onset of recurrent episodes, perpetuating the depressive cycle. We discuss the interaction between hot and cold cognition within the cognitive theory framework and the potential of complementary hot-cold pathways to elucidate novel means of prevention and treatment for depression. Dysfunction in hot (emotion-dependent) and cold (emotion-independent) cognition has been demonstrated in depression, but psychological treatment has largely focused on hot cognition only. Hot and cold cognition are complementary processes throughout the activation and maintenance of depressive schemas and biases, necessitating the consideration of both hot and cold cognitive aspects to disrupt the depressive cycle. The proposed hot-cold cognitive model shows promise to stimulate new research avenues for the prevention and treatment of depression. Dysfunction in hot (emotion-dependent) and cold (emotion-independent) cognition has been demonstrated in depression, but psychological treatment has largely focused on hot cognition only. Hot and cold cognition are complementary processes throughout the activation and maintenance of depressive schemas and biases, necessitating the consideration of both hot and cold cognitive aspects to disrupt the depressive cycle. The proposed hot-cold cognitive model shows promise to stimulate new research avenues for the prevention and treatment of depression.

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-access global survey to understand and improve individuals’ experiences related to the crisis. A year later, we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of the pandemic. This survey was released with the goal of addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion by working with over 150 researchers across the globe who collected data in 48 languages and dialects across 137 countries. The resulting cleaned dataset described here includes 15,740 of over 20,000 responses. The dataset allows cross-cultural study of psychological wellbeing and behaviours a year into the pandemic. It includes measures of stress, resilience, vaccine attitudes, trust in government and scientists, compliance, and information acquisition and misperceptions regarding COVID-19. Open-access raw and cleaned datasets with computed scores are available. Just as our initial COVIDiSTRESS dataset has facilitated government policy decisions regarding health crises, this dataset can be used by researchers and policy makers to inform research, decisions, and policy.