Therapist-Level Predictors of PTSD Symptom Change

Open MIND · 2026-01-01

Participants will be public mental health clinicians (psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, nurses, and others approved to provide psychotherapy by the HMOs) who will participate in one of four, two-day trainings provided by “The Center for Trauma Recovery:” CPT, WET, or PE. Thereafter, therapists will receive 20 sessions of supervision in the relevant treatment modality by an expert clinician. In the current study we will examine whether therapist factors such as confidence in structured treatments, belief items (e.g., "protocols are too rigid"), and prior experience with PTSD, or theoretical orientation are associated with patient improvement, and whether certain combinations of these factors (via EFA-derived constructs) predict greater change.

Development and validation of the Sensitivity to Intrusiveness Questionnaire

Frontiers in Psychiatry · 2026-02-04

Introduction: Intrusive thoughts are involuntary mental experiences associated with various psychopathologies and can be disruptive. Although most research on intrusive thoughts focuses on negative content, intrusive thoughts are not defined solely by what they contain. Recent findings suggest that the distress associated with intrusive thoughts is driven more by individual characteristics than by the content of the thoughts themselves. To capture such content-independent individual differences, the present research focuses on the development and validation of the Sensitivity to Intrusiveness Questionnaire (STIQ). Methods: = 615), the psychometric properties of the STIQ were examined. Analyses assessed factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and associations with personality traits and clinical groups. Results: Results supported a stable three-factor structure of the STIQ, reflecting negative experience of thoughts, awareness and monitoring of thoughts, and perceived lack of control over thoughts. The questionnaire demonstrated high internal consistency and test-retest reliability and showed meaningful variance across personality traits and clinical groups, independent of intrusive thought content. Discussion: The findings highlight the utility of the STIQ in capturing a transdiagnostic, content-independent sensitivity to intrusiveness. The STIQ provides a novel tool for examining individual differences and the mechanisms underlying distress associated with intrusive cognitions, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of intrusiveness in psychological phenomena.

The role of geographical proximity to the October 7th, 2023, attack on Israel: Mental health disorders and related risk factors

Journal of Traumatic Stress · 2026-04-24

The current study assessed how mental health outcomes and related risk factors varied by proximity to the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas among a community sample from Ofakim, a town in southern Israel. Established cutoff scores on self-report measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) were used to estimate disorder prevalence rates. Background and trauma exposure were examined as risk factors in areas that differed in geographical proximity to the attacks. Participants were randomly sampled from two areas in Ofakim during June-August 2024: Sample 1 (S1) included 388 individuals in the attacked neighborhood, and Sample 2 (S2) included 329 individuals located elsewhere in town. Probable PTSD rates were significantly higher in S1 (56.4%) than S2 (44.7%), p < .001. The prevalence of probable MDD was 38.6% in S1 versus 28.7% in S2, p < .001. The prevalence of probable GAD was 42.0% in S1 versus 29.0% in S2, p < .001. In generalized linear models, there were no significant differences in mental health outcomes across neighborhoods. However, interactions between neighborhood type and risk factors emerged such that low income increased the likelihood of probable PTSD and GAD within the attacked neighborhood. The findings highlight the substantial mental health impact of mass trauma on an entire town, worsening with event proximity. Low income was a specific risk factor for individuals in the attacked neighborhood, which raises questions about whether economic support could buffer the impact of mass trauma in low-income individuals.

Are fear learning, interpretation bias training and global-local processing related to social anxiety? An individual differences study

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy · 2026-03-03

This preregistered study (https://osf.io/pktw4/) aimed to integrate multiple research domains to uncover mechanisms of psychopathology. Relationships between cognitive processing biases-fear learning, interpretation bias (training), and global-local processing-and their prediction of social anxiety (SA) levels measured by the Social Phobia Inventory were examined. Using Bayesian modeling and meta-analytic techniques, task relationships and their association with SA symptoms were evaluated across two datasets (N1 = 209, N2 = 97). Results showed non-significant between-task relationships. Negative interpretation bias was consistently associated with higher SA symptoms, and fear generalization positively predicted SA symptoms in the larger sample. No significant relationship was found between SA symptoms and global-local processing. Crucially, while initial correlations suggested transdiagnostic effects, a post-hoc bifactor analysis revealed that fear generalization was associated with general psychopathology, whereas negative interpretation bias retained a unique, specific association with social anxiety that was not explained by general psychopathology. Limitations include analogue samples and online task administration. These findings emphasize the centrality of interpretation bias as a specific mechanism in social anxiety, distinct from the broader transdiagnostic role of fear generalization.

Schedule for the Assessment of Insight in Anxiety Disorders

PsycTESTS Dataset · 2025-01-01

Mechanisms of cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic interventions for anxiety sensitivity- A randomized, controlled single-session study

Psychotherapy Research · 2025-08-25

OBJECTIVE: This study utilized a single-session, randomized controlled analog design to investigate the mechanisms underlying cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic therapy in treating anxiety sensitivity (AS). We hypothesized that changes in catastrophic interpretations of bodily sensations would predict reductions in AS in CBT, whereas improvements in panic-specific reflective functioning (pRF) would predict changes in the psychodynamic intervention (PDTp). METHODS: = 110; Mage = 43, 91 women) were randomized to CBT, PDTp, or a control group. Pre-to-post changes in mechanisms were examined as predictors of changes in AS at post-treatment and one-month follow-up. RESULTS: Results partially supported the hypotheses. Catastrophic interpretations changed significantly in the CBT condition. However, pRF did not change in any group. The relationship between changes in mechanisms and AS was more complex than predicted. In CBT, reductions in AS were closely tied to changes in interpretations. Within-session, distress declined in CBT but did not consistently predict AS change. pRF change was related to AS reductions only in CBT. CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the clinical relevance of targeting catastrophic thinking in brief CBT for AS, and suggest that pRF may play a secondary role. Future work should test these mechanisms in clinical settings and longer treatments.

Does valence of autobiographical memories change during imagery rescripting for anxiety?

Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition · 2025-10-06 · 1 citations

Sine of the times: Can sinusoidal waves model changes in the therapeutic alliance over time?

Internet Interventions · 2025-06-23 · 1 citations

The present study examined the association between the therapeutic alliance and social anxiety symptoms during internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) for social anxiety disorder (SAD). We examined 162 individuals diagnosed with SAD who underwent therapist-assisted ICBT and completed measures of the therapeutic alliance weekly during a randomized controlled trial. We used a novel modeling strategy and modeled changes in the therapeutic alliance over time using sinusoidal models. We found that a model that incorporated both a linear component and a sinusoidal component ( r 2 = 0.72), explained significantly more variance than models using only linear ( r 2 = 0.42) or only sinusoidal ( r 2 = 0.41) components. We also found that higher average levels of the alliance as well as greater increases in the therapeutic alliance during treatment were associated with greater reductions in social anxiety during treatment. Finally, we found that greater fluctuations around the slope of alliance were associated with greater reductions in social anxiety during treatment (above and beyond average alliance and increases in alliance). Considering fluctuations around a linear slope may be a useful model for the ups and downs experienced in the therapeutic alliance over the course of therapy. Fluctuations in alliance may not be a sign of negative processes, but could potentially indicate a healthy ebb and flow of the alliance that is predictive of better outcomes. • We examined the therapeutic alliance during internet-delivered CBT for SAD • We used a novel sinusoidal modeling strategy to model changes in the alliance • A linear + sinusoidal model was the best fitting model for the alliance • Average levels as well as increases in the alliance were associated with outcomes • Greater fluctuations around the slope of alliance were associated with outcomes

The Relationship Between the Therapeutic Alliance and Social Anxiety Symptoms Along the Course of Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Treatment

Behavior Therapy · 2025-01-14

Exposure Therapy Consortium: Outcomes of the Proof-of-Principle Study

SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01