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Purpose: Many patients with epilepsy or psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) experience high levels of stress. Although psychological interventions have been developed for seizure disorders, few patients can currently access them. We aimed to assess the acceptability and feasibility of a self-help intervention targeting stress in patients with seizures, and to provide preliminary evidence for its effectiveness. Method: Patients were recruited from outpatient neurology clinics and randomized to an immediate intervention group (n = 39), who received the intervention at baseline, or a delayed intervention group (n = 43), who received the intervention one-month postbaseline. Participants completed self-report questionnaires measuring stress (Smith Stress Symptom Inventory [SSSI]), anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item Scale [GAD-7]), depression (Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy [NDDI-E]), quality of life (European Quality of Life - 5 Dimensions [EQ-5D]), and seizure severity and frequency (Liverpool Seizure Severity Scale [LSSS-3]) at baseline, and at one- and two-month follow-up. Participants also provided telephone feedback. The intervention consisted of a self-help stress management workbook based on an integrative stress model framework. Results: Although the rate of participants failing to return follow-up information at two months was approximately 50%, those who completed the trial found the intervention acceptable; with the majority rating it as helpful (63.6%) and that they would recommend it to others with seizures (88.1%). A significant reduction in self-reported stress (P = .01) with a medium effect size (dz = 0.51) was observed one-month postintervention. There were no significant changes in any other measures. Conclusion: The intervention was perceived to be acceptable, safe, and helpful by participants. It could be a useful complementary treatment option for reducing stress experienced by patients living with seizure disorders. Further evaluation in a larger trial is warranted.

© 2017 The British Psychological Society Objectives: Excessive alcohol consumption increases when students enter university. This study tests whether combining (1) messages that target key beliefs from the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) that underlie binge drinking, (2) a self-affirmation manipulation to reduce defensive processing, and (3) implementation intentions (if-then plans to avoid binge drinking) reduces alcohol consumption in the first 6 months at university. Design: A 2 (self-affirmation) × 2 (TPB messages) × 2 (implementation intention) between-participants randomized controlled trial with 6-month follow-up. Methods: Before starting university, students (N = 2,951) completed measures of alcohol consumption and were randomly assigned to condition in a full-factorial design. TPB cognitions about binge drinking were assessed immediately post-intervention (n = 2,682). Alcohol consumption was assessed after 1 week (n = 1,885), 1 month (n = 1,389), and 6 months (n = 892) at university. TPB cognitions were assessed again at 1 and 6 months. Results: Participants who received the TPB messages had significantly less favourable cognitions about binge drinking (except perceived control), consumed fewer units of alcohol, engaged in binge drinking less frequently, and had less harmful patterns of alcohol consumption during their first 6 months at university. The other main effects were non-significant. Conclusions: The findings support the use of TPB-based interventions to reduce students’ alcohol consumption, but question the use of self-affirmation and implementation intentions before starting university when the messages may not represent a threat to self-identity and when students may have limited knowledge and experience of the pressures to drink alcohol at university. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Alcohol consumption increases when young people enter university. Significant life transitions represent potential teachable moments to change behaviour. Interventions with a strong theoretical basis have been found to be more effective. What does this study add? A brief online intervention delivered to students before they start university can reduce alcohol consumption. The theory of planned behaviour can be used to inform the design of interventions to change health behaviour.

Visualizing behavior from a third-person (vs. first-person) perspective can produce stronger\ud motivation to enact the behavior. However, the effects of perspective on health behaviors\ud have been mixed. Hypothesizing that the difficulty of the visualized behavior might moderate\ud the effect of perspective, two experiments manipulated the difficulty of the visualized\ud behaviors (fruit/vegetable consumption; exercise) plus perspective and subsequently\ud measured motivation (Experiments 1 and 2) and behavior (Experiment 2). In both\ud experiments, the third-person perspective produced stronger motivation to perform the easier,\ud but not the more difficult, behavior. This effect extended to behavior in Experiment 2. Under\ud certain conditions, encouraging people to visualize behavior from a third-person perspective\ud could represent a useful and cost-effective means of promoting health behavior change

Background - This study applied the Common Sense Model of illness representations to understand the psychological reactions of Indian patients with cancer who report being aware or unaware of their cancer diagnosis.\ud \ud Methods - Adult Indian patients with cancer (N = 329) were asked about their understanding of their illness (to assess awareness of a cancer diagnosis), and then completed the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire and the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale.\ud \ud Results - Patients who reported being unaware of their cancer diagnosis (54.1%) experienced higher levels of anxiety and depression. After controlling for awareness, education, income, cancer symptoms, and cancer stage, illness perceptions accounted for significant amounts of variance in anxiety (∆R2 = 0.42) and depression (∆R2 = 0.33). Illness coherence mediated the relationship between awareness of a cancer diagnosis and anxiety. Moderated regression analyses indicated that several relationships between illness perceptions and anxiety/depression were stronger among patients who reported being unaware of their cancer diagnosis.\ud \ud Conclusions - The Common Sense Model provides a useful framework for explaining the psychological reactions of Indian patients with cancer to their illness, particularly for those who report being unaware of their cancer diagnosis.\ud

Objective. Alcohol consumption in adolescence is associated with problem drinking in later life and there is a need to develop evidence-based interventions to reduce adolescent alcohol consumption. The aims of the present study were to test the ability of a very brief intervention based on self-affirmation theory to reduce alcohol consumption in a sample of adolescents and to examine potential mediators of the effects. \ud Methods. 67 adolescents were randomly allocated either to form a self-affirming implementation intention or to complete a distracter task. All participants were exposed to a threatening message concerning the health risks of alcohol consumption. The main outcome measure was subsequent alcohol intake, but message processing (operationalized as perceived threat and message derogation), behavioral intention and self-efficacy were also measured as potential mediators. \ud Results. The intervention produced a significant decrease in alcohol consumption: Participants in the self-affirming implementation intention condition consumed 2.48 fewer grams of pure alcohol per day at the end of the study than adolescents who completed the distracter task. The effect was not mediated by perceived threat, message derogation, behavioral intention or self-efficacy. \ud Conclusions. The findings provide support for the efficacy of the self-affirming implementation intention for promoting health behavior change and extend previous research by testing an adolescent sample and observing longer-term effects. Further research is needed to find out what mediates the effects of self-affirming implementation intentions on health behavior change.