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This document introduces a special issue on technological applications in mental health and mental health services research. The advancements in computer technology have allowed for innovative applications in collecting and analyzing data related to mental health. The use of personal electronic devices and the internet provides a rich stream of data that can offer insights into individuals' mental health. The special issue includes papers on topics such as video therapy, measurements in daily life, and automated coding of psychotherapy sessions. These papers highlight the potential of technology in improving mental health outcomes and expanding the accessibility of mental health services. [Extracted from the article]

The principles of CBT emphasize the interactions among cognition, emotion, and behavior. CBT's origins lie in Stoicism philosophy and share similarities with the ideas of Confucianism, Taoism, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China. The idea of mind–body regulation in traditional Chinese culture has laid a cultural foundation for the promotion of CBT in China. This paper analyzes the applicability and challenges of CBT in China based on the current development of CBT in mainland China and the learning and practice of CBT therapists. It also explores the potential further development of CBT in China and the integration of CBT with the Chinese culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic caused concern regarding suicide risk mitigation while requiring many clinicians to transition to telehealth. We hypothesized that this transition would increase suicide intent, suicide desire, and depressive symptom ratings from pre-COVID-19 to peri-COVID-19. Patients at a southeastern US outpatient psychotherapy training clinic reported on suicide risk and depressive symptoms before and after the transition to telehealth treatment. Additionally, the effect of continuation of treatment on suicide risk was also analyzed. Suicide risk levels (n=39) and depressive symptoms (n=25) did not increase following the transition to telehealth. Self-reported suicide desire ratings significantly decreased from pre- to peri-pandemic assessments. Findings suggest that telehealth, among other sociocultural factors, became somewhat of a "port in a storm," such that it may have provided protections from exacerbations of mental health concerns and further vulnerabilities towards increased suicide risk. This paper concludes with relevant implications and suggestions for community health clinics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescence is a critical period for social emotional development. The need to focus on social emotional competencies is exacerbated by the COVID 19 pandemic. Objective: This systematic review paper provides a collective account of mindfulness interventions conducted exclusively with adolescent students in an educational setting (mean age 11 to 18) with the sole focus on social emotional and behavioral competencies primarily as outlined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (Safe and sound: an educational leader's guide to evidence-based social and emotional learning programs, Author, Chicago, IL, 2003, 2011). Method: Mindfulness literature in the past 15 years, i.e., Jan 2008–Feb 2023 was reviewed. Additionally, the type of intervention implemented, dosage, delivery, measures used, and targets of intervention were examined. All the articles were also assessed for their methodological quality using the EPHPP quality assessment tool for quantitative studies (Effective Public Health Practice Project in Quality assessment tool for quantitative studies, Effective Public Health Practice Project, Hamilton, ON, 1998. https://merst.ca/ephpp/). Results: With less than one third of the 30 included studies rated as strong, there appears to be moderate evidence for the effectiveness of MBIs on adolescent social emotional competencies. Overall, there appears to be mixed evidence for the effectiveness of MBIs on adolescents' self-awareness, social awareness, social skills, with relatively more consistent evidence that MBIs positively impact their self-management (e.g., emotional regulation). We classify broader characteristics of the MBIs that could help explain some of the differences in effectiveness into three categories: intervention implementation related (e.g., dosage), method related (e.g., psychometric properties), and participant related (e.g., age and gender). Conclusion: Future work on MBIs in schools needs to consider the quality of and factors known to impact effective implementation and resultant social emotional outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: In this paper we review the current literature on the clinical problem that some patients do not achieve response after adequately conducted psychotherapy. We explicate our understanding of nonresponse and treatment resistance including the operational definitions, summarize the theoretical explanations and empirical studies and put forward possible study designs and treatment options. Methods: Literature search using PubMed and Web of Science. Results: For the domain of psychotherapy, the term treatment resistance does not seem appropriate; instead, we use the more descriptive terms nonresponse and recurrent nonresponse. Generally, this topic is far less represented in psychotherapy than in pharmacotherapy. Controlled switching studies with a switch from pharmacotherapy to psychotherapy are rare and those switching from one psychotherapeutic approach to another are nearly nonexistent. Building on clinical considerations, we propose a flow-chart for clinical decision making after nonresponse in psychotherapy. Discussion: Learning from errors is highly beneficial. This principle should be more consistently followed up in psychotherapy research as well as in supervision and training. Guidelines should include consensual and evidence-based advice on how to deal with nonresponse and recurring nonresponse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aimed at understanding and improving psychological therapies as they are conducted in clinical routine, practice-oriented research (POR) is now a well-established approach to the scientific foundations of mental health care services. Resting on the accumulation of a wide range of practice-based evidence related to treatment outcome and process, as well as factors associated with the participants of psychotherapy and its context, POR is ripe for new developments – regarding what to investigate and how to investigate it. This paper is the introduction of a series devoted to recent advances and future directions of POR as their pertained to routine outcome monitoring, technologies and artificial intelligence, the integration of constructs and methods from program evaluation and implementation science, and the investigation of populations with limited financial resources across various regions of the world. The series also includes commentaries from two leaders of POR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopted children are often at a risk of experiencing several neurobiological and psychosocial difficulties. Adoptive parents must support these difficulties whilst managing their own idiosyncratic challenges. Family-based psychotherapeutic interventions which promote adoptive family functioning, environments and relationships can mediate these difficulties for adopted families. This review synthesises evidence exploring family-based psychological interventions for adoptive families, appraises the literature's strengths and weaknesses, and reports characteristics of promising interventions. Included studies recruited domestically adoptive families receiving psychotherapeutic interventions delivered to at least one adoptive parent and child. The authors searched seven electronic information databases, four grey literature databases, two journals and five relevant websites up to 12.12.2022. The quantitative Risk of Bias in Non-Randomised Studies of Interventions tool and the qualitative Critical Skills Appraisal Programme checklist assessed risk of bias. The narrative synthesis presents 20 papers detailing 18 studies involving at least 729 adopted children and 829 adoptive parents. Findings provide preliminary support for integrative interventions which include aspects of sensory activities, attachment-based play, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing with Therapeutic Input provided to adopted children and adoptive parents separately, alongside the adoptive family. However, risk of bias was high, limiting the conclusions. Future research should examine the feasibility, acceptability and efficacy of integrative therapeutic approaches for adoptive families to further direct clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS) affects nearly 10% of the global population, leading to substantial economic and quality-of-life burdens. While patient education has improved outcomes in other chronic conditions, its impact on CRS remains understudied. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured patient education program on the psychological well-being and symptom severity of individuals diagnosed with CRS. This was a prospective, randomized controlled trial conducted in a tertiary care centre from January 2021 to December 2022. We enrolled 200 adult patients diagnosed with CRS based on the European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps guidelines. Participants were randomized into two groups: the control group, receiving conventional CRS medical management, and the intervention group, receiving conventional treatment plus a structured patient education program. By the end of the study, 100 participants from each group completed the 2-year follow-up. The intervention group showed significant improvements in psychological well-being, with HADS scores decreasing from 10 ± 3.5 to 7 ± 3.0. CRS symptom severity, as measured by SNOT-22 scores, also significantly improved in the intervention group, dropping from 45 ± 10 to 35 ± 9. Additionally, the intervention group had fewer acute CRS flare-ups over two years compared to the control group. Adherence to nasal spray usage was higher in the intervention group, and feedback on the educational program was largely positive. A structured patient education program, when added to conventional CRS treatment, enhances psychological well-being, and reduces symptom severity. Given these promising results, there's need to integrate patient education into standard CRS management and explore its long-term benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparing the future mental health workforce requires clinicians to be able to adapt their clinical work to different mental and medical healthcare settings to meet the growing need for mental health services. Medical Family Therapists (MedFTs) are specifically trained to provide care for patients from a biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective in diverse clinical settings. Having a theoretical foundation is a necessity for MedFTs to be able to adapt their clinical work to different contexts. Solution-focused therapy provides such a foundation. This paper provides examples of how MedFTs can use solution-focused therapy in traditional psychotherapy, integrated primary care, and integrated psychiatric care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study to support the hypothesis that religiosity and spirituality (R/S), as mood balancing factors, could facilitate the recovery process for patients suffering from bipolar disorder (BD) once they have been stabilized and are receiving appropriate support (e.g., in a residential rehabilitative center). After a succinct review of BD and R/S, the patient's medical history and rehabilitation pathway are described, with a particular focus on the role played by R/S. The authors found that in this case, once the patient was stabilized, R/S helped to consolidate her feelings of well-being, increasing her positive perception of social support services and ultimately her self-confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between psychology and religion has been widely debated in the field of psychology from its foundation as an empirical science to the present day. One author who was interested in the relationship between psychology and religion, the place of the latter in human nature, and its role in psychotherapy was the Viennese neurologist, psychiatrist, and philosopher Viktor Emil Frankl (1905–1997), the founder of logotherapy. This paper presents Frankl's main ideas about religion, the religious nature of the human being, and the relationship between religiosity, psychotherapy, and logotherapy, as well as a review of the main criticisms he has received in this regard. Frankl always defended the differences and limits between religion and psychotherapy, between the priestly cure of souls and the medical cure of souls, and between the salvific objective of religion and the hygienic objective of psychotherapy. In our opinion, critical authors have failed to appreciate Frankl's efforts to expose this distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) has emerged as a potential treatment for a variety of mental health conditions, including substance use disorders and depression. Current models of PAP emphasize the importance of psychotherapeutic support before, during, and after ingestion of a psychedelic to maximize safety and clinical benefit. Despite this ubiquitous assumption, there has been surprisingly little empirical investigation of the “psychotherapy” in PAP, leaving critical questions about the necessary and sufficient components of PAP unanswered.As clinical trials for psychedelic compounds continue the transition from safety- and feasibility-testing to evaluating efficacy, the role of the accompanying psychotherapy must be better understood to enhance scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying therapeutic change, optimize clinical outcomes, and inform cost-effectiveness.The present paper first reviews the current status of psychotherapy in the PAP literature, starting with recent debates regarding “psychotherapy” versus “psychological support” and then overviewing published clinical trial psychotherapy models and putative models informed by theory. We then delineate lessons that PAP researchers can leverage from traditional psychotherapy research regarding standardizing treatments (e.g., publish treatment manuals, establish eligibility criteria for providers), identifying mechanisms of change (e.g., measure established mechanisms in psychotherapy), and optimizing clinical trial designs (e.g., consider dismantling studies, comparative efficacy trials, and cross-lagged panel designs). Throughout this review, the need for increased research into the psychotherapeutic components of treatment in PAP is underscored.PAP is a distinct, integrative, and transdisciplinary intervention. Future research designs should consider transdisciplinary research methodologies to identify best practices and inform federal guidelines for PAP administration.Objectives: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) has emerged as a potential treatment for a variety of mental health conditions, including substance use disorders and depression. Current models of PAP emphasize the importance of psychotherapeutic support before, during, and after ingestion of a psychedelic to maximize safety and clinical benefit. Despite this ubiquitous assumption, there has been surprisingly little empirical investigation of the “psychotherapy” in PAP, leaving critical questions about the necessary and sufficient components of PAP unanswered.As clinical trials for psychedelic compounds continue the transition from safety- and feasibility-testing to evaluating efficacy, the role of the accompanying psychotherapy must be better understood to enhance scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying therapeutic change, optimize clinical outcomes, and inform cost-effectiveness.The present paper first reviews the current status of psychotherapy in the PAP literature, starting with recent debates regarding “psychotherapy” versus “psychological support” and then overviewing published clinical trial psychotherapy models and putative models informed by theory. We then delineate lessons that PAP researchers can leverage from traditional psychotherapy research regarding standardizing treatments (e.g., publish treatment manuals, establish eligibility criteria for providers), identifying mechanisms of change (e.g., measure established mechanisms in psychotherapy), and optimizing clinical trial designs (e.g., consider dismantling studies, comparative efficacy trials, and cross-lagged panel designs). Throughout this review, the need for increased research into the psychotherapeutic components of treatment in PAP is underscored.PAP is a distinct, integrative, and transdisciplinary intervention. Future research designs should consider transdisciplinary research methodologies to identify best practices and inform federal guidelines for PAP administration.Results: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) has emerged as a potential treatment for a variety of mental health conditions, including substance use disorders and depression. Current models of PAP emphasize the importance of psychotherapeutic support before, during, and after ingestion of a psychedelic to maximize safety and clinical benefit. Despite this ubiquitous assumption, there has been surprisingly little empirical investigation of the “psychotherapy” in PAP, leaving critical questions about the necessary and sufficient components of PAP unanswered.As clinical trials for psychedelic compounds continue the transition from safety- and feasibility-testing to evaluating efficacy, the role of the accompanying psychotherapy must be better understood to enhance scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying therapeutic change, optimize clinical outcomes, and inform cost-effectiveness.The present paper first reviews the current status of psychotherapy in the PAP literature, starting with recent debates regarding “psychotherapy” versus “psychological support” and then overviewing published clinical trial psychotherapy models and putative models informed by theory. We then delineate lessons that PAP researchers can leverage from traditional psychotherapy research regarding standardizing treatments (e.g., publish treatment manuals, establish eligibility criteria for providers), identifying mechanisms of change (e.g., measure established mechanisms in psychotherapy), and optimizing clinical trial designs (e.g., consider dismantling studies, comparative efficacy trials, and cross-lagged panel designs). Throughout this review, the need for increased research into the psychotherapeutic components of treatment in PAP is underscored.PAP is a distinct, integrative, and transdisciplinary intervention. Future research designs should consider transdisciplinary research methodologies to identify best practices and inform federal guidelines for PAP administration.Conclusions: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) has emerged as a potential treatment for a variety of mental health conditions, including substance use disorders and depression. Current models of PAP emphasize the importance of psychotherapeutic support before, during, and after ingestion of a psychedelic to maximize safety and clinical benefit. Despite this ubiquitous assumption, there has been surprisingly little empirical investigation of the “psychotherapy” in PAP, leaving critical questions about the necessary and sufficient components of PAP unanswered.As clinical trials for psychedelic compounds continue the transition from safety- and feasibility-testing to evaluating efficacy, the role of the accompanying psychotherapy must be better understood to enhance scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying therapeutic change, optimize clinical outcomes, and inform cost-effectiveness.The present paper first reviews the current status of psychotherapy in the PAP literature, starting with recent debates regarding “psychotherapy” versus “psychological support” and then overviewing published clinical trial psychotherapy models and putative models informed by theory. We then delineate lessons that PAP researchers can leverage from traditional psychotherapy research regarding standardizing treatments (e.g., publish treatment manuals, establish eligibility criteria for providers), identifying mechanisms of change (e.g., measure established mechanisms in psychotherapy), and optimizing clinical trial designs (e.g., consider dismantling studies, comparative efficacy trials, and cross-lagged panel designs). Throughout this review, the need for increased research into the psychotherapeutic components of treatment in PAP is underscored.PAP is a distinct, integrative, and transdisciplinary intervention. Future research designs should consider transdisciplinary research methodologies to identify best practices and inform federal guidelines for PAP administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: There is a need within counselling and psychotherapy to ensure their ability to respond to endemic presences such as the COVID-19 pandemic, by utilising rapid technological advances without compromising effectiveness. To do so, existing research about online group therapy must be built upon to provide a comprehensive understanding of the efficacious delivery of this therapy modality. Thus, a systematic review was conducted to collate what is currently known in the published and grey literature on online group therapy, using the PRISMA framework. Thirty-three articles were identified as including information regarding facilitating group therapy online. After appraising each article using appropriate quality appraisal tools, a thematic analysis was conducted on the papers, arriving at seven main themes summarising the main findings regarding online versus in-person groups, group planning, counselling micro skills, group processes, ethics, technology, and unique online therapy issues. There is a growing but incomplete body of knowledge that informs the group therapist regarding the ethical delivery of groups online. A more comprehensive review can enable group therapists to feel confident they are across best practice guidelines. Limitations and research implications are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]