To compare the relative long-term benefit of family-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (FCBT) and child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CCBT) for child anxiety disorders at a 1-year follow-up. METHOD: Thirty-five children (6-13 years old) randomly assigned to 12-16 sessions of family-focused CBT (FCBT) or child-focused CBT (CCBT) participated in a 1-year follow-up assessment. Independent evaluators, parents, and children rated anxiety and parental intrusiveness. All were blind to treatment condition and study hypotheses. RESULTS: Children assigned to FCBT had lower anxiety scores than children assigned to CCBT on follow-up diagnostician- and parent-report scores, but not child-report scores. Exploratory analyses suggested the advantage of FCBT over CCBT may have been evident more for early adolescents than for younger children and that reductions in parental intrusiveness may have mediated the treatment effect. CONCLUSION: FCBT may yield a stronger treatment effect than CCBT that lasts for at least 1 year, although the lack of consistency across informants necessitates a circumspect view of the findings. The potential moderating and mediating effects considered in this study offer interesting avenues for further study.

Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2009 Jun;40(2):301-16. Wood JJ, McLeod BD, Piacentini JC, Sigman M. UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA. jwood@gseis.ucla.edu

Dr. Margaret Rogers Van Coops is an ordained minister with a PhD in Medical and Clinical Hypnotherapy and Behavioral Sciences. She has successfully established private and public practices in Europe, Asia, India, Egypt and the United States. Her professional affiliations include the British Astrological and Psychic Society, IACT, IMDIIA, IHF, NGH, ABH and ACA. Her dynamic lectures and seminars in Japan and the U.S. have led to regular invitations to speak and participate in numerous international events.

Well-being therapy (WBT) aims to enhance psychological well-being based on Ryff's (1989) six dimensions: autonomy, personal growth, environmental mastery, purpose in life, positive relations, and self-acceptance. Previous studies have documented the efficacy of this psychotherapy in treating patients with mood and anxiety disorders and in preventing relapse in recurrent depression. We discuss and illustrate the use of WBT in generalized anxiety disorder. We present a case of a patient suffering from generalized anxiety disorder treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy followed by WBT. (c) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65: 1-10, 2009.

J Clin Psychol. 2009 Mar 17;65(5):510-519. Ruini C, Fava GA. Department of Psychology, University of Bologna.

by Jevon Dängeli

MAD is an acronym Money Anxiety Disorder. Something many of us are experiencing in varying degrees these days.

MADness is not a new epidemic in the world, although it has proliferated with the current economic climate which has many people hiding and protecting their resources.

I suggest that the core problem underpinning the economical crisis in the world is human MADness. However, there really is no problem at all, as MADness is merely a figment on the imagination, and can therefore be dealt with quite easily, as I will highlight in this article.

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This study describes the effect of hypnosis on pain relief during labor and childbirth. Using a qualitative approach, 6 pregnant women were trained to use self-hypnosis for labor. Outcomes were analyzed using Colaizzi's procedure. Women described their feelings about hypnosis during labor as: a sense of relief and consolation, self-confidence, satisfaction, lack of suffering labor pain, changing the feeling of pain into one of pressure, a decrease in fear of natural childbirth, lack of tiredness, and lack of anxiety. They expressed increased concentration on the uterus and cervical muscle, awareness of all the stages of labor, and having "positive thoughts." Births were perceived as being very satisfactory compared to their previous experiences.

Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2009 Apr;57(2):174-83. Abbasi M, Ghazi F, Barlow-Harrison A, Sheikhvatan M, Mohammadyari F. Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom. M.abbasi@mdx.ac.uk

A Review

It is hard to summarize the flood of self-help technologies of the past 20 years. Either you can view them as a literal smorgasbord of intriguing opportunities or a cacophony of methodologies just waiting for organization. Unleashing Your Brilliance: Tools & Techniques to Achieve Personal, Professional & Academic Success by Brian E. Walsh, PhD, is probably the layman's best summary for the wide range of effective tools available for transformation. In a brilliantly composed, easy-to-read volume Dr. Walsh provides a clear and comprehensive explanation of the multitude of ideas that were popularized in the 1990s and early years of this decade.

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James Braid's last manuscript on hypnotism, summarizing his mature views and lost since his death, existed only in French and German translations. The author discusses the history and importance of this document, "On Hypnotism" (1860), as well as his new English version, translated back from the French and German editions. Braid's manuscript constitutes an important, missing jigsaw piece in the early history of psychological therapy and helps to explain the origin of hypnotherapy and correct certain historical misconceptions that have developed concerning the meaning of the term hypnotism. The rediscovery of this text provides additional evidence that hypnotism originated as an explicitly empirical and "common sense" reaction against the pseudo-scientific excesses of mesmerism. Although drawing heavily on excerpts from his previous writings, some of Braid's observations and techniques may renew interest among contemporary researchers and clinicians.

Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2009 Apr;57(2):127-32. Comment on: Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2009 Apr;57(2):133-61. Robertson D. HypnoSynthesisUK@aol.com

We reviewed studies from 2000 to 2008 on using essential oils for patients with depression or depressive symptoms and examined their clinical effects. Methods: The review was conducted among five electronic databases to identify all peer-reviewed journal papers that tested the effects of aromatherapy in the form of therapeutic massage for patients with depressive symptoms. Results: The results were based on six studies examining the effects of aromatherapy on depressive symptoms in patients with depression and cancer. Some studies showed positive effects of this intervention among these three groups of patients. Conclusions: We recommend that aromatherapy could continue to be used as a complementary and alternative therapy for patients with depression and secondary depressive symptoms arising from various types of chronic medical conditions. More controlled studies with sound methodology should be conducted in the future to ascertain its clinical effects and the underlying psychobiologic mechanisms.

J Altern Complement Med. 2009 Feb 13. Yim VW, Ng AK, Tsang HW, Leung AY. Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.

Melissa Tiers is a hypnosis instructor and Master NLP practitioner with a private practice in New York City. She is the founder of The Center for Integrative Hypnosis and co-developer of In Depth NLP. Melissa teaches workshops that integrate classical and Ericksonian hypnosis, NLP, Neuro-Hypnotic Repatterning and Energy Psychology. She is a published author and lecturer and teaches her integrated programs to health care workers at Beth Israel School of Nursing.

For more information visit: www.melissatiers.com

Breast cancer radiotherapy can be an emotionally difficult experience. Despite this, few studies have examined the effectiveness of psychological interventions to reduce negative affect, and none to date have explicitly examined interventions to improve positive affect among breast cancer radiotherapy patients. The present study examined the effectiveness of a multimodal psychotherapeutic approach, combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis (CBTH), to reduce negative affect and increase positive affect in 40 women undergoing breast cancer radiotherapy. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either CBTH or standard care. Participants completed weekly self-report measures of positive and negative affect. Repeated and univariate analyses of variance revealed that the CBTH approach reduced levels of negative affect [F(1, 38)=13.49; p=.0007, omega(2)=.56], and increased levels of positive affect [F(1, 38)=9.67; p=.0035, omega(2)=.48], during the course of radiotherapy. Additionally, relative to the control group, the CBTH group demonstrated significantly more intense positive affect [F(1, 38)=7.09; p=.0113, d=.71] and significantly less intense negative affect [F(1, 38)=10.30; p=.0027, d=.90] during radiotherapy. The CBTH group also had a significantly higher frequency of days where positive affect was greater than negative affect (85% of days assessed for the CBTH group versus 43% of the Control group) [F(1, 38)=18.16; p=.0001, d=1.16]. Therefore, the CBTH intervention has the potential to improve the affective experience of women undergoing breast cancer radiotherapy.

J Clin Psychol. 2009 Apr;65(4):443-55. Schnur JB, David D, Kangas M, Green S, Bovbjerg DH, Montgomery GH. Department of Oncological Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029-6574, USA. julie.schnur@mssm.edu

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) has been demonstrated to be the leader in the field of talking therapies concerned with the treatment of severe depression. However, this form of therapy has its limitations in that it is ineffective if given during a severe depressive episode. This is usually because patients suffering from severe depression have difficulties in concentration which severely limits the ability to take in new information such as the practice of strategies that encourage more helpful ways of thinking which could aid recovery. The severely depressed patient who experiences diurnal variations typically experiences low mood in the morning but mood improves towards the evening. Conversely, there are cases where mood is better in the morning becoming worse in the evening. There can be cases of positive diurnal rhythms where adverse symptoms disappear all together and the patient regains something resembling their pre-morbid normality. With this lifting of mood, it could mean that the patient may be more receptive to absorbing new information. Consequently, the hypothesis is that when patients are experiencing positive diurnal rhythms, this could be the optimum time to deliver effective talking treatments such as CBT.

Med Hypotheses. 2009 Jun;72(6):677-8. Frais AT. University of Leeds, 9 Sandhill Oval, Leeds, United Kingdom.

There is great heterogeneity of clinical presentation and outcome in paediatric depression. AIMS: To identify which clinical and environmental risk factors at baseline and during treatment predicted major depression at 28-week follow-up in a sample of adolescents with depression. METHOD: One hundred and ninety-two British adolescents with unipolar major depression were enrolled in a randomised controlled trial (the Adolescent Depression Antidepressants and Psychotherapy Trial, ADAPT). Participants were treated for 28 weeks with routine psychosocial care and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), with half also receiving cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). Full clinical and demographic assessment was carried out at baseline and 28 weeks. RESULTS: Depression at 28 weeks was predicted by the additive effects of severity, obsessive-compulsive disorder and suicidal ideation at entry together with presence of at least one disappointing life event over the follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should assess for severity, suicidality and comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder at presentation and should monitor closely for subsequent life events during treatment.

Br J Psychiatry. 2009 Apr;194(4):334-41. Wilkinson P, Dubicka B, Kelvin R, Roberts C, Goodyer I. Developmental Psychiatry Section, University of Cambridge, Douglas House, 18b Trumpington Road, Cambridge CB2 8AH, UK. pow12@cam.ac.uk

Dr. Flavio Souza-Campos holds a BA in philosophy and a PhD in biomedical engineering. In 1996, Dr. Souza-Campos founded the Hypnotherapy and Counseling Center where over 15 thousand therapy sessions have been conducted by nine associated therapists of four different modalities. Dr. Souza-Campos, a frequent guest in Spanish radio and television, was the recipient of the IAcT 2000 Humanitarian Award, and is an instructor of basic through advanced hypnotherapy, philosophy, and metaphysics.

Venepuncture for blood sampling can be a distressing experience for a considerable number of children. A prospective controlled trial was conducted to compare the efficacy of a local anaesthetic (EMLA) with a combination of EMLA with self-hypnosis in the relief of venepuncture-induced pain and anxiety in 45 paediatric cancer outpatients (age 6-16years). A secondary aim of the trial was to test whether the intervention will have a beneficial effect on parents' anxiety levels during their child's procedure. Patients were randomized to one of three groups: local anaesthetic, local anaesthetic plus hypnosis, and local anaesthetic plus attention. Results confirmed that patients in the local anaesthetic plus hypnosis group reported less anticipatory anxiety, and less procedure-related pain and anxiety, and were rated as demonstrating less behavioural distress during the procedure than patients in the other two groups. Parents whose children were randomized to the local anaesthetic plus hypnosis condition experienced less anxiety during their child's procedure than parents whose children had been randomized to the other two conditions. The therapeutic benefit of the brief hypnotic intervention was maintained in the follow-up. The present findings are particularly important in that this study was a randomized, controlled trial conducted in a naturalistic medical setting. In this context, convergence of subjective and objective outcomes was reached with large effect sizes that were consistently supportive of the beneficial effects of self-hypnosis, an intervention that can be easily taught to children, is noninvasive and poses minimal risk to young patients and their parents.

Pain. 2009 Apr;142(3):255-63. Epub 2009 Feb 23. Liossi C, White P, Hatira P. School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton S017 1BJ, UK. cliossi@soton.ac.uk

The more important clinical manifestations and the opportunities of screening of Down syndrome are shortly summerized in this paper. The methods used for screening (biochemical markers, fetal ultrasound signs) and the most important screening tests (combined screening, integrated screening) are shown. Afterwards the author analyses the situation of screening in Hungary, and he underlines that the maternal age over 35 years, as well as the lower level of alfa-fetoprotein in the serum cannot be the only indication of amniocentesis. The first aim should be to increase the detection rate of disease diagnostics and to decrease the number of amniocenteses. Nowadays the most effective screening method is the combined test in the first trimester. The nationwide introduction of this method requires the improvement of personal and material environment of ultrasound diagnostics and the corresponding financial background.

Orv Hetil. 2009 Mar 15;150(11):497-502. Gardó S. Petz Aladár Megyei Oktató Kórház Szülészeti és Nogyógyászati Osztály Gyor Pf. 92. 9002.