Light Therapy for QoL/Depression in AYA With Cancer: A Randomized Trial

Author(s):  
Kayla N LaRosa ◽  
Erin MacArthur ◽  
Fang Wang ◽  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Haitao Pan ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective Secondary outcomes from a published feasibility and acceptability trial were examined to explore the effect of bright white light (BWL) on quality of life (QoL) and depressive symptoms compared to dim red light (DRL) control in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) receiving cancer-directed therapy. Methods Fifty-one AYAs (12–22 years, 51% male) newly diagnosed with cancer were randomized to receive 8 weeks of BWL (n = 26) or DRL (n = 25). The CDI-2 (total score, negative mood/physical symptoms, interpersonal problems, ineffectiveness, and negative self-esteem) and parent- and self-report PedsQL (total score and subscales of physical, emotional, social, and school QoL) were completed at multiple timepoints. Results BWL produced improvements in self-reported total depression (d = −.64; 95% confidence interval [CI] = −1.26, −0.01), negative self-esteem (d = −.80; 95% CI = −1.43, −.14), negative mood/physical symptoms (d = −.73; 95% CI = −1.36, −0.08), ineffectiveness (d = −.43; 95% CI = −1.04, .19), total self-reported QoL (d = .41; 95% CI = −.16, .96), emotional (d = .78; 95% CI = .19, 1.37), school functioning (d = .48; 95% CI = −.09, 1.04), and parent-reported school functioning (d = .66; 95% CI = 0.02, 1.33). BWL reported a greater rate of improvement than DRL for total depression (β = .49, p < .05) and self-esteem (β = .44, p < .05), and parent-reported school functioning (β = −1.68, p < .05). Conclusions BWL improved QoL and depressive symptoms for AYAs with cancer. These findings will inform larger randomized controlled trials.

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jihyung Hong ◽  
Diego Novick ◽  
William Montgomery ◽  
Jaume Aguado ◽  
Héctor Dueñas ◽  
...  

Objective: To examine whether painful physical symptoms (PPS) can be considered within the spectrum of depressive symptoms. Methods: Data for this post-hoc analysis were taken from a 6-month observational study mostly conducted in East Asia, Mexico, and the Middle East of 1,549 depressed patients without sexual dysfunction at baseline. Both explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) were performed on the combined items of the 16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology Self-Report and the Somatic Symptom Inventory (seven pain-related items only). An additional second-order CFA was also conducted to examine an association between retained factors and the overall “depressive symptoms” factor. In addition, Spearman’s correlation was used to assess levels of correlation between retained factors and depression severity as well as quality of life. Results: Both EFA and CFA suggested and validated a four-factor solution, which included a pain factor. The other three factors identified were a mood/cognitive factor, a sleep disturbance factor, and an appetite/weight disturbance factor. All four factors were significantly associated with the overall factor of depression. They were also highly correlated to depression severity and quality of life (p<0.001 for all). The levels of correlations with the pain factor were generally greater than those with the appetite/weight factor and similar to those with the sleep factor. Conclusion: It may be reasonable to consider PPS within a broad spectrum of depressive symptoms. At least, they should be routinely assessed in patients with depression. Further research is warranted to validate these preliminary findings.


Healthcare ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian M. Kronish ◽  
Ying Kuen Cheung ◽  
Jacob Julian ◽  
Faith Parsons ◽  
Jenny Lee ◽  
...  

Purpose: Little is known about the effectiveness of bright white light therapy (BWL) for depressive symptoms in cancer survivors, many of whom prefer non-pharmacological treatments. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of BWL versus dim red light therapy (DRL) on depressive symptoms within individual cancer survivors using personalized (N-of-1) trials. Methods: Cancer survivors with at least mild depressive symptoms were randomized to one of two treatment sequences consisting of counterbalanced crossover comparisons of three-weeks of lightbox-delivered BWL (intervention) or DRL (sham) for 30 min each morning across 12 weeks. A smartphone application guided cancer survivors through the treatment sequence and facilitated data collection. Cancer survivors tracked end-of-day depressive symptoms (primary outcome) and fatigue using visual analog scales. Within-patient effects of BWL were assessed using an autoregressive model with adjustment for linear time trends. Results: Eight of nine cancer survivors completed the 12-week protocol. Two survivors reported significantly (i.e., p < 0.05) lower depressive symptoms (−1.3 ± 0.5 and −1.30 ± 0.9 points on a 10-point scale), five reported no difference in depressive symptoms, and one reported higher depressive symptoms (+1.7 ± 0.6 points) with BWL versus DRL. Eight of nine cancer survivors recommended personalized trials of BWL to others. Conclusions: There were heterogeneous effects of three-week BWL on self-reported depressive symptoms among cancer survivors, with some finding a benefit but others finding no benefit or even harm. Implications for Cancer Survivors: Personalized trials can help cancer survivors learn if BWL is helpful for improving their depressive symptoms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cut Maghfirah Faisal ◽  
Sherly Saragih Turnip

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare loneliness between the left-behind children of migrant workers and the non-left-behind ones, and identify the most significant predictors of loneliness among the left-behind children. Design/methodology/approach Incidental sampling was performed to select 629 participants aged 11–16 from 5 schools in the rural areas of Karawang and Lombok in Indonesia. They filled in paper-and-pencil self-report inventories. Findings Left-behind children were significantly lonelier than their counterparts were. Emotional loneliness was more affected by parental absence compared to social loneliness. Left-behind children would be more susceptible to experience loneliness if they had more access to entertainment gadgets, experienced less support and intimacy from friends, had been left by their migrant parents more than once, were female, had low self-esteem, experienced emotional difficulties and rarely communicated with their parents. Research limitations/implications Qualitative research was needed to provide more elaborative explanation about the findings. Practical implications Parents needed to consider the psychological cost and benefit of working abroad to their children. Governments could intervene by limiting the duration and frequency of work among the migrant workers. Social implications Some beneficial implications to prevent and reduce loneliness among left-behind children were provided, such as by maintaining the frequency and quality of communication with the children, motivating and guiding the children to interact with their peers and spend less time on entertainment gadgets, as well as encouraging the children to engage in several positive activities to enhance their self-esteem. Originality/value This study enriched the understanding about complex relationship between parental presence and adolescents’ mental health despite the fact that adolescents seemed to be more interested in relationships with peers.


Author(s):  
Guilherme Welter Wendt

ABSTRACT Objective To explore distinctive links between specific depressive symptoms (e.g., anhedonia, ineffectiveness, interpersonal problems, negative mood, and negative self-esteem) and cyberbullying victimization (CBV). Methods This cross-sectional study collected data from 268 adolescents between the ages of 13 to 15 years-old (50.7% female) who responded to the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) and to the Revised Cyberbullying Inventory (RCBI). Results CBV was positively associated with all CDI’s domains (anhedonia, ineffectiveness, interpersonal problems, negative mood, and negative self-esteem). Demographics – such as age and gender – were not significant in explaining CBV. However, ineffectiveness (B = .46, p = .04) and negative mood (B = .37, p < .05) significantly predicted CBV. Conclusion This study reports the first Brazilian examination of the links existing between CBV and specific types of depressive symptoms. Data reinforce the negative impact of cyberbullying experiences on youth’s mental health, highlighting stronger associations between negative mood and CBV, which could inform more tailored interventions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Levente Rónai ◽  
Bertalan Polner

Background: Temporal patterns of affective functioning such as emotional inertia and instability may indicate changes in emotion regulation that predict depression. However, affect dynamics’ incremental validity over affect intensity and exposure to stressors in predicting depression has been questioned.Methods: We collected longitudinal data regarding momentary affective states (measured multiple times a day), perceived stressors and depressive symptoms (measured every three days) from a general population sample during the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave in Hungary. The final dataset included 7165 affective states surveys from 125 participants, which were aggregated in 464 three-day measurement windows. Using multilevel models, we explored the unique effects of within-person changes in mean level, inertia, and instability of negative affective states (NA), and stressor-exposure on two domains of depression (anhedonia and negative mood and thoughts) within the three-day windows.Results: Within-person increases in NA inertia and NA instability showed significant positive associations with negative mood and thoughts. These effects did not remain significant after adjusting for mean levels of NA. Multilevel mediation analysis revealed that within individuals, NA inertia and instability indirectly predicted negative mood and thoughts through elevated NA mean.Limitations: The application of self-report questionnaires might bias the results, and the overrepresentation of female participants could limit the generalizability of the findings.Conclusions: Specific patterns of temporal affective functioning are indirect predictors of depressive symptoms at the within-individual level. Our findings may facilitate automated depression risk assessment on the basis of simple affective time series.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S160-S160
Author(s):  
Weiwen Ng ◽  
Yinfei Duan ◽  
Tetyana P Shippee

Abstract The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is a depressive symptom questionnaire administered to nursing facility (NF) residents in the Minimum Data Set (MDS). Does the PHQ-9 measure mood-related aspects of quality of life (QoL)? We assessed the PHQ-9’s convergent validity with negative and positive mood items from Minnesota’s QoL survey, which is administered annually to a random sample of residents. We also examined if scores on both instruments were associated with various psychiatric diagnoses on the MDS. Using item response theory (IRT) models, we estimated that depressive symptoms (PHQ-9) had a correlation of 0.546 with negative mood and -0.425 with positive mood. With explanatory IRT modeling, we estimated that diagnoses of anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder were respectively associated with 0.261, 0.339, and 0.301 (all p &lt; 0.001) standard deviation increases in (SD) depressive symptoms, and with 0.235, 0.261, and 0.306 SD increases in negative mood (all p &lt; 0.001), thus indicating convergent validity. For positive mood, depression and bipolar disorder had associations of similar magnitude as the other two constructs. However, anxiety disorders were not associated with lower positive mood (-0.014 SD, p = 0.636). Thus, the PHQ-9 can measure mood-related aspects of QoL. However, the PHQ-9 appears to be sensitive to relatively serious depression, whereas the Minnesota items are more sensitive to lower levels of negative mood. Also, the PHQ-9 does not measure positive mood directly. Thus, the PHQ-9 is a more limited measure of mood-related QoL than the Minnesota items.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 2037-2060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Gomez-Baya ◽  
Ramon Mendoza ◽  
Ines Camacho ◽  
Margarida Gaspar de Matos

This study aimed to examine longitudinal associations between the perceived quality of family relationships and self-reported depressive symptoms during middle adolescence. A 2-year follow-up study, with three assessments at 1-year intervals, was conducted. A total of 525 Spanish adolescents completed paper-based self-report assessments, which included the 10-item Child Depression Inventory and a brief Likert-type scale to measure the quality of the relationships with their father and their mother separately. The results indicated that a decline in the quality of both adolescent–father and adolescent–mother relationships were related to an increase in depressive symptoms during middle adolescence. Furthermore, adolescent–father relationships were found to be worse for girls than for boys and were observed to be associated with gender differences in depressive symptoms after the follow-up. The results provide longitudinal evidence on the importance of parent–adolescent relationships and gender differences in depressive symptoms during adolescence.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy E. Balliet ◽  
Shenelle Edwards-Hampton ◽  
Jeffery J. Borckardt ◽  
Katherine Morgan ◽  
David Adams ◽  
...  

Objective. The present study was conducted to determine if depressive symptoms were associated with variability in pain perception and quality of life among patients with nonalcohol-related chronic pancreatitis. Methods. The research design was cross-sectional, and self-report data was collected from 692 patients with nonalcohol-related, intractable pancreatitis. The mean age of the sample was 52.6 (); 41% of the sample were male. Participants completed the MOS SF12 Quality of Life Measure, the Center for Epidemiological Studies 10-item Depression Scale (CESD), and a numeric rating scale measure of “pain on average” from the Brief Pain Inventory. Results. Depressive symptoms were significantly related to participants’ reports of increased pain and decreased quality of life. The mean CESD score of the sample was 10.6 () and 52% of the sample scored above the clinical cutoff for the presence of significant depressive symptomology. Patients scoring above the clinical cutoff on the depression screening measure rated their pain as significantly higher than those below the cutoff () and had significantly lower physical quality of life () and lower mental quality of life (). Conclusion. Although causality cannot be determined based on cross-sectional, correlational data, findings suggest that among patients with nonalcoholic pancreatitis, the presence of depressive symptoms is common and may be a risk factor associated with increased pain and decreased quality of life. Thus, routine screening for depressive symptomology among patients with nonalcoholic pancreatitis may be warranted.


Assessment ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-309
Author(s):  
Ineke Demeyer ◽  
Nuria Romero ◽  
Rudi De Raedt

The interplay between actual and ideal self-esteem may be a key component in emotional disorders. Since automatic self-evaluations are not always consciously accessible, assessment through implicit measures is necessary. Given the lack of implicit self-esteem measures in late life, we aimed to identify a reliable measure and to clarify the role of actual and ideal self-esteem in mood and depressive symptoms in older adults. Forty-nine older adults completed two adapted Go/No go Association tasks measuring implicit actual and ideal self-esteem and measures of mood and depressive symptoms. The two Go/No go Association tasks showed satisfactory internal consistency. Moderation analyses revealed that lower actual self-esteem in older adults is related to higher levels of sad mood when ideal self-esteem is high. Moreover, lower actual self-esteem is related to more anxious mood. Given the role of self-esteem in emotional well-being, a reliable measure for older adults is crucial to improve age-appropriate diagnostics and treatment.


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