Adolescent depressed mood and difficulties with emotion regulation: Concurrent trajectories of change

A resurgence of research has begun to systematically examine the relationship between psychedelic use and mental health and well-being. Although preliminary findings examining the therapeutic value of these substances show promise, the mechanisms through which psychedelic use may predict reduced mental distress remain poorly understood. To this end, we surveyed a community sample of individuals ( n = 159) who endorsed lifetime psychedelic use to examine relationships among psychedelic use and self-reported spirituality, difficulties in emotion regulation, and symptoms of mental health issues. Results revealed a pathway through which classic psychedelic use predicted greater spirituality, which in turn predicted better emotion regulation, ultimately predicting lower levels of anxiety, depressed mood, and disordered eating. These results contribute to our understanding of potential mechanisms of change with respect to psychedelics and mental health. They also add to the growing body of literature pointing to the healing effects of the cultivation of spirituality and emotion regulation as separate and related constructs.

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Within- and across-day patterns of interplay between depressive symptoms and related psychopathological processes: a dynamic network approach during the COVID-19 pandemic

BMC Medicine ◽

10.1186/s12916-021-02179-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Omid V. Ebrahimi ◽

Julian Burger ◽

Asle Hoffart ◽

Sverre Urnes Johnson

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Depressed Mood ◽

Repeated Measures ◽

Large Scale ◽

Depressive Symptomatology ◽

Adult Population ◽

Dynamic Network ◽

Carry Over ◽

Depressive States

Abstract Background In order to understand the intricate patterns of interplay connected to the formation and maintenance of depressive symptomatology, repeated measures investigations focusing on within-person relationships between psychopathological mechanisms and depressive components are required. Methods This large-scale preregistered intensive longitudinal study conducted 68,240 observations of 1706 individuals in the general adult population across a 40-day period during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify the detrimental processes involved in depressive states. Daily responses were modeled using multi-level dynamic network analysis to investigate the temporal associations across days, in addition to contemporaneous relationships between depressive components within a daily window. Results Among the investigated psychopathological mechanisms, helplessness predicted the strongest across-day influence on depressive symptoms, while emotion regulation difficulties displayed more proximal interactions with symptomatology. Helplessness was further involved in the amplification of other theorized psychopathological mechanisms including rumination, the latter of which to a greater extent was susceptible toward being influenced rather than temporally influencing other components of depressive states. Distinctive symptoms of depression behaved differently, with depressed mood and anhedonia most prone to being impacted, while lethargy and worthlessness were more strongly associated with outgoing activity in the network. Conclusions The main mechanism predicting the amplifications of detrimental symptomatology was helplessness. Lethargy and worthlessness revealed greater within-person carry-over effects across days, providing preliminary indications that these symptoms may be more strongly associated with pushing individuals toward prolonged depressive state experiences. The psychopathological processes of rumination, helplessness, and emotion regulation only exhibited interactions with the depressed mood and worthlessness component of depression, being unrelated to lethargy and anhedonia. The findings have implications for the impediment of depressive symptomatology during and beyond the pandemic period. They further outline the gaps in the literature concerning the identification of psychopathological processes intertwined with lethargy and anhedonia on the within-person level.

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The Longitudinal Effects of Experiential Avoidance on Depression Symptoms in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.01.254 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (S1) ◽

pp. S80-S80

Author(s):

I.A. Trindade ◽

C. Ferreira ◽

J. Pinto-Gouveia

Keyword(s):

Inflammatory Bowel Disease ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Depressed Mood ◽

Bowel Disease ◽

Experiential Avoidance ◽

Depressive Symptomatology ◽

Self Report ◽

Depression Symptoms ◽

Longitudinal Effects ◽

Inflammatory Bowel

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been vastly associated with the development of depression and it is thus considered that the mechanisms that underlie this link should be explored. The present study aimed to examine the longitudinal effects of IBD symptoms and a maladaptive emotion regulation process, experiential avoidance (defined as the tendency to attempt to control internal experiences), on depression symptoms. The sample comprised 116 IBD patients of both sexes that completed validated self-report measures on an online platform in three different times (equally spaced 9 months apart) during an 18-month period. Results demonstrated that IBD symptomatology at baseline was linked to experiential avoidance and depressed mood 9 and 18 months later. The level of experiential avoidance at baseline was also correlated with the subsequent experience of depression symptoms, 9 and 18 months later. Results also revealed that, although IBD symptomatology at baseline predicted depressive symptomatology 18 months later (β = 0.24; P = 0.008), when experiential avoidance at baseline was added to this model, this process became the only predictor of the outcome (β = 0.60; P < 0.001; R2 = 0.41). These results corroborate previous literature by indicating that IBD symptomatology may lead to depression symptomatology. Nevertheless, the current study additionally revealed that the engagement in experiential avoidance – that is, in attempts at controlling the frequency, form or intensity of internal experiences – might have a greater role on the determination of patients’ depressed mood than the experience of adverse physical symptomatology. Maladaptive forms of emotion regulation in IBD patients should be targeted to prevent depression symptoms.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

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The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS)

Swiss Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1024/1421-0185/a000093 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 72 (1) ◽

pp. 5-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Elise S. Dan-Glauser ◽

Klaus R. Scherer

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Well Being ◽

French Translation ◽

French Version ◽

Inappropriate Behaviors ◽

Initial Validation ◽

Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽

Instrument Measuring ◽

Highly Correlated ◽

Psychopathological Disorders

Successful emotion regulation is a key aspect of efficient social functioning and personal well-being. Difficulties in emotion regulation lead to relationship impairments and are presumed to be involved in the onset and maintenance of some psychopathological disorders as well as inappropriate behaviors. Gratz and Roemer (2004 ) developed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), a comprehensive instrument measuring emotion regulation problems that encompasses several dimensions on which difficulties can occur. The aim of the present work was to develop a French translation of this scale and to provide an initial validation of this instrument. The French version was created using translation and backtranslation procedures and was tested on 455 healthy students. Congruence between the original and the translated scales was .98 (Tucker’s phi) and internal consistency of the translation reached .92 (Cronbach’s α). Moreover, test-retest scores were highly correlated. Altogether, the initial validation of the French version of the DERS (DERS-F) offers satisfactory results and permits the use of this instrument to map difficulties in emotion regulation in both clinical and research contexts.

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Kognitive Emotionsregulation und Psychopathologie: Erste teststatistische Untersuchung des deutschen Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) in einer klinischen Stichprobe

Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie Psychologie und Psychotherapie ◽

10.1024/1661-4747/a000248 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 63 (4) ◽

pp. 255-265 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Stefanie M. Görgen ◽

Noelle Loch ◽

Wolfgang Hiller ◽

Michael Witthöft

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Somatoforme Störungen ◽

Cognitive Emotion Regulation

Zusammenfassung. Ein besseres Verständnis der Rolle von Prozessen und Stilen der Emotionsregulation (ER) im Kontext psychischer Störungen erscheint essentiell, um psychische Störungsmodelle und Behandlungskonzepte zu optimieren. Diese Studie überprüfte den Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) in einer klinischen Stichprobe von ambulanten Psychotherapiepatienten (N = 156) hinsichtlich seiner teststatistischen Güte sowie im Hinblick auf Zusammenhänge mit Psychopathologie. Der CERQ wies eine gute Reliabilität (.70 ≤ α ≤ .84) sowie faktorielle Validität auf. Im Vergleich zu einer Bevölkerungsstichprobe berichtete die klinische Stichprobe höhere Ausprägungen in dysfunktionalen und niedrigere Ausprägungen in funktionalen ER-Strategien. Mittels eines Strukturgleichungsmodells zeigte sich, dass unter Berücksichtigung der Skaleninterkorrelationen drei kognitive ER-Strategien einen signifikanten und inkrementellen Beitrag zur Vorhersage der Gruppenzugehörigkeit zur klinischen Gruppe leisten (Rumination, Planung, Andere beschuldigen). Die klinischen Subgruppen (depressive, Angst- und somatoforme Störungen) unterschieden sich nicht signifikant hinsichtlich des Einsatzes einzelner ER-Strategien. Der Einsatz des CERQ kann auch in klinischen Stichproben empfohlen werden, um transdiagnostisch relevante Prozesse einer veränderten Emotionsregulation zu untersuchen.

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Video Games and Emotion Regulation

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000196 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 205-213 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kathryn L. Ossenfort ◽

Derek M. Isaacowitz

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Video Games ◽

Age Differences ◽

Interactive Media ◽

Age Groups ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Media Usage ◽

The Everyday ◽

Media Preferences

Abstract. Research on age differences in media usage has shown that older adults are more likely than younger adults to select positive emotional content. Research on emotional aging has examined whether older adults also seek out positivity in the everyday situations they choose, resulting so far in mixed results. We investigated the emotional choices of different age groups using video games as a more interactive type of affect-laden stimuli. Participants made multiple selections from a group of positive and negative games. Results showed that older adults selected the more positive games, but also reported feeling worse after playing them. Results supplement the literature on positivity in situation selection as well as on older adults’ interactive media preferences.

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