Measures Of Negative Mood Research Articles

Effect of Art Production on Negative Mood and Anxiety for Adults in Treatment for Substance Abuse

This study investigated whether art production or viewing and sorting art reproductions would be more effective in reducing negative mood and anxiety for 28 adults with substance use disorders. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups and completed pre- and posttest measures of negative mood and anxiety The hypothesis that art production would have a greater reduction in negative mood and anxiety was initially supported by the mean scores and t-test analyses; however, it was not supported by two of three ANOVAs, which indicated that time over treatment made a difference rather than the intervention.

Thought Acceleration Boosts Positive Mood Among Individuals with Minimal to Moderate Depressive Symptoms

Studies have found that accelerated thought speed induces positive mood. Positive mood and thought speed typically are abnormally low for individuals experiencing depression. Two experiments show that the positive mood of individuals with mild to moderate depressive symptoms is boosted by a manipulation accelerating thought speed. Participants read streaming text presented at a controlled rate in order to induce either fast-paced thinking or neutral-paced thinking. In both experiments, individuals with mild to moderate depressive symptoms (based on the Beck Depression Inventory-II) who were led to think fast reported more positive mood than those induced to think at a neutral pace. They also reported more positive mood at post-test relative to pre-test. Individuals with minimal or no depressive symptoms showed similar responses, whereas those with more severe depressive symptoms appeared unaffected. No effects emerged on measures of negative mood or general depressive symptoms. Future studies should investigate potential therapeutic effects of fast thinking in clinical samples and whether repeated inductions of fast thinking produce extended benefits.

The DeStress for Success Program: Effects of a stress education program on cortisol levels and depressive symptomatology in adolescents making the transition to high school

Various studies have shown that increased activity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis can predict the onset of adolescent depressive symptomatology. We have previously shown that adolescents making the transition to high school present a significant increase in cortisol levels, the main product of HPA axis activation. In the present study, we evaluated whether a school-based education program developed according to the current state of knowledge on stress in psychoneuroendocrinology decreases cortisol levels and/or depressive symptoms in adolescents making the transition to high school. Participants were 504 Year 7 high school students from two private schools in the Montreal area. Adolescents of one school were exposed to the DeStress for Success Program while adolescents from the other school served as controls. Salivary cortisol levels and depressive symptomatology were measured before, immediately after as well as 3months after exposure to the program. Measures of negative mood were obtained at baseline in order to determine whether adolescents starting high school with specific negative moods were differentially responsive to the program. The results show that only adolescents starting high school with high levels of anger responded to the intervention with a significant decrease in cortisol levels. Moreover, we found that adolescents who took part in the intervention and showed decreasing cortisol levels following the intervention (responders) were 2.45 times less at risk to suffer from clinical and subclinical depressive states three months post-intervention in comparison to adolescents who showed increasing cortisol levels following the intervention (nonresponders). This study provides the first evidence that a school-based program on stress is effective at decreasing cortisol levels and depressive symptomatology in adolescents making the transition to high school and it helps explain which adolescents are sensitive to the program and what are some of the characteristics of these individuals.

A prospective study of stress and alcohol craving in heavy drinkers

Recent work has examined the relationship between stress and relapse to alcohol use in clinical populations. Few prospective studies, however, have examined stress as a precipitant of alcohol problems. The present study is a longitudinal examination of the role of stress reactivity and alcohol craving in the etiology of alcohol problems in a sample of 41 (mean age=20.8), heavy-drinking, young adults. Participants completed a guided imagery exposure to stressful life events, followed by exposure to a neutral imagery control. Following the exposure, participants completed an alcohol cue exposure paradigm. Measures of negative mood (Profile of Mood States (POMS) depression/dejection scale), tension (POMS tension/anxiety scale) and alcohol craving (measured by the Alcohol Urge Questionnaire (AUQ)) were used as indicators of reactivity to stress and to alcohol cues. Polymorphisms of the corticotropin-releasing hormone binding protein (CRH-BP) gene and of the μ-opioid receptor (OPRM1) gene were examined as moderators of this relationship. Results revealed that stress-induced negative mood predicted negative consequences of drinking (scores on the Drinker's Inventory of Consequences (DrInC-2R)), whereas stress and cue-induced alcohol craving did not predict alcohol use or problems. Additionally, the CRH-BP genotype was found to moderate the relationship between stress-induced negative affect and the negative consequences of drinking. The current study supports and extends laboratory research describing phenotypes of stress-induced alcohol craving.

Content of Disclosure and Health: Autonomic Response to Talking About a Stressful Event

The study examined physiological and psychological changes associated with the content of disclosure of a stressful event. A total of 60 students were assigned to either an emotion and facts or a facts-only disclosure condition. Each participant talked about a highly stressful personal event for 5–10 min, while skin conductance was recorded. Measures of negative mood were assessed before and after disclosure. In the emotions and facts condition, skin conductance significantly decreased, whereas the facts-only condition showed no significant change. Sadness and guilt significantly increased frombefore to after disclosure in both conditions. Including emotional content in verbal disclosure of a highly stressful event may decrease physiological arousal, whereas sadness and guilt may increase whether emotional content is included or not. The findings have implications for applied areas of consultation-liaison services and early crisis intervention. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 7:176–183 (2007)]

Development and Validation of the Cancer Worries Inventory

The Cancer Worries Inventory (CWI), containing 60 Lik-ertlike items and 1 open-ended item, was completed by 185 cancer patients, who also completed one of four other measures: the Profile of Mood States -Short Form, the Stanford Inventory of Cancer Patient Adjustment, the Revised Impact of Event Scale, and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale -General. Factor analysis resulted in a shortened, 24-item CWI that contained five factors (death and dying, burden, spirituality, chemotherapy, and treatment) and demonstrated good internal consistencies. Construct validity was evidenced by significant inverse relationships with positive mood, self-efficacy for coping with cancer, quality of life, and intrusive thoughts and by a significant positive relationship with five measures of negative mood.

Further Development of the Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire

This article describes the second phase of testing the Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire (NSSQ), an instrument designed to measure multiple dimensions of social support. Three studies were conducted to provide a normative data base and to further test validity. In the first study, data from 136 employed adults were obtained. The amount and type of support available for a functioning group of male and female respondents and sources of support for this sample are described. In the second and third studies, the instrument was found to be very stable over a seven-month interval and sensitive to changes within the social support networks of a group of graduate students during their first year of study. Construct validity of the instrument was established by comparing convergent and discriminant constructs to the NSSQ. Concurrent validity with another social support questionnaire was demonstrated. Predictive validity was tested in a sample of 53 graduate students through assessing the buffering effect of social support on measures of negative mood following life stress. Two NSSQ subscales, aid and duration of relationships, had significant interaction effects with life stress on the outcome of negative mood. Duration of relationships also had a significant main effect. After subtracting the main effect for life stress from the overall R2 in the multiple regression analysis, the NSSQ functional support subscales and their interactions with life stress accounted for 19 percent of the variance on negative mood, and the NSSQ network property subscales and their interactions accounted for 20 percent of the variance.