Within-person networks of clinical features of social anxiety disorder during cognitive and interpersonal therapy

Internet-Based Versus Face-to-Face Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder: A Randomized Control Trial

During the COVID-19 epidemic, face-to-face mental health services faced obstacles. Using Internet-based interventions was a good solution and had the potential to overcome these treatment barriers. However, there is no strong research evidence about the effectiveness of these methods for social anxiety disorder in different cultures and developing countries. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness and application of Internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder in Iran. The current study was a pretest-posttest follow-up experimental design. Fifty-four adolescents with social anxiety disorder were selected from Lorestan province (Iran) by cluster sampling method and randomly assigned to three groups: face-to-face, internet-based, and wait-list control. At the beginning and end of the study and 3-month follow-up, three groups were interviewed and answered questionnaires related to the primary and secondary symptoms of social anxiety disorder. Two experimental groups were treated with the same therapeutic intervention during 10 weekly sessions. ANCOVA analysis showed that both forms of intervention effectively reduced social phobia, fear of negative evaluation and social interaction anxiety and increased emotion regulation. Also, a significant decrease in secondary outcomes, including physical symptoms, insomnia, social dysfunction, and depression symptoms, was observed in both groups. The treatment effects were stable during a 3-month follow-up. Our findings showed that although Internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for adolescents with social anxiety disorder can be effective, several clinical, cultural, and implementation weaknesses should be considered.

Auditing the research practices and statistical analyses of the group-level temporal network approach to psychological constructs: A systematic scoping review

Network analyses have become increasingly common within the field of psychology, and temporal network analyses in particular are quickly gaining traction, with many of the initial articles earning substantial interest. However, substantial heterogeneity exists within the study designs and methodology, rendering it difficult to form a comprehensive view of its application in psychology research. Since the field is quickly growing and since there have been many study-to-study variations in terms of choices made by researchers when collecting, processing, and analyzing data, we saw the need to audit this field and formulate a comprehensive view of current temporal network analyses. To systematically chart researchers' practices when conducting temporal network analyses, we reviewed articles conducting temporal network analyses on psychological variables (published until March 2021) in the framework of a scoping review. We identified 43 articles and present the detailed results of how researchers are currently conducting temporal network analyses. A commonality across results concerns the wide variety of data collection and analytical practices, along with a lack of consistency between articles about what is reported. We use these results, along with relevant literature from the fields of ecological momentary assessment and network analysis, to formulate recommendations on what type of data is suited for temporal network analyses as well as optimal methods to preprocess and analyze data. As the field is new, we also discuss key future steps to help usher the field's progress forward and offer a reporting checklist to help researchers navigate conducting and reporting temporal network analyses.

Executive Functioning Constructs in Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive, Post-Traumatic Stress, and Related Disorders

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

We synthesize theories proposing complex relations between cognitive functioning and anxiety-related concepts. We evaluate vulnerability theories suggesting that deficits in various cognitive functioning domains predict future anxiety-associated concepts. We examine scar theories asserting the opposite direction of effects (i.e., anxiety predicting cognitive dysfunction). Furthermore, we examine more novel frameworks on this topic.

RECENT FINDINGS

Reliable evidence exists for the scar and vulnerability theories. This includes mounting data on diverse anxiety symptoms predicting cognitive dysfunction (and conversely) unfolding at between- and within-person levels (dynamic mutualism theory). It also includes data on the stronger effects or central influence of anxiety (versus non-anxiety) symptoms on executive functioning (EF; i.e., higher-order cognitive control governing myriad thinking and action repertoires) versus non-EF domains and vice versa (network theory). In addition, it reviews emerging evidence that enhanced cognitive control can correlate with higher anxiety among children (overgeneralized control theory). The generally inverse relations between anxiety symptoms and cognitive dysfunction are bidirectional and complex within and between persons. Plausible mediators and moderators merit more attention, including immune, metabolism, and neural markers and the social determinants of health.