Anxiety

Published Research & Citations

IndoPsyCare endeavours to continue conducting research into the latest evidence-based psychological treatments and remain up-to-date on psychological phenomena and breakthroughs.

We are proud to present the research conducted, or contributed to, by our advisors and IndoPsyCare psychologists. We seek to emphasize that whilst members of our team have contributed to these papers, we do not claim rights nor ownership of these publications.

• Stobbe, E., Sundermann, J., Ascone, L., & Kühn, S. (2022). Birdsongs alleviate anxiety and paranoia in healthy participants. Scientific Reports. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-1637809/v1

  Abstract:
  “Background: The present study investigated the effect of urban (traffic noise) vs. natural (birdsongs) soundscapes on mood, state paranoia, and cognitive performance, hypothesizing that birdsongs lead to significant improvements in these outcomes.
  
  Methods: In a randomized online experiment, 295 participants were exposed to one out of four sound conditions for six minutes (traffic noise low/high diversity, birdsongs low/high diversity). Questionnaires for anxiety, depression, and paranoia were administered pre- and post-exposure.
  
  Findings: Traffic noise was associated with a significant increase in depressiveness. In contrast, anxiety and paranoia significantly improved in both birdsong conditions with medium effect sizes.
  
  Conclusion: Listening to natural birdsongs improves anxiety and paranoia in healthy individuals, highlighting the therapeutic and preventative value of nature-based acoustic environments.”



• Sundag, J., Ascone, L., & Lincoln, T. (2017). The predictive value of early maladaptive schemas in paranoid responses to social stress. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 25(1), 65-75. doi: 10.1002/cpp.2128

  Abstract:
  “Background: Social stress and negatively valenced cognitive representations of the self (self-schemas) play an important role in the formation of persecutory delusions. This study investigated whether early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) explain paranoid responses to acute social stress.
  
  Methods: Patients with persecutory delusions (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 40) were assessed for EMSs and subsequently exposed to social exclusion using a Cyberball stress paradigm.
  
  Findings: Patients responded with a stronger increase in paranoia following social exclusion, which was accounted for by higher EMS total scores. Specifically, schemas of Defectiveness/Shame and Enmeshment were strongly associated with heightened paranoid reactivity.
  
  Conclusion: Maladaptive schemas directly predict stress-related paranoid exacerbations, supporting schema-focused cognitive interventions in clinical practice.”



• Wirtz, J., Ascone, L., Mellentin, A., Kugler, D., Bremer, T., & Schadow, F. et al. (2022). Transferring the Approach Avoidance Task into Virtual Reality: A Study in Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder vs. Healthy Controls. doi: 10.31234/osf.io/fkcxd

  Abstract:
  “Study Aims: To transfer the measurement of approach-avoidance behavioral tendencies into Virtual Reality (VR), comparing its clinical validity and discriminative ability against conventional PC and joystick tasks in clinical vs. control groups.
  
  Findings: Measuring approach-avoidance biases in an immersive VR environment discriminated clinical symptom severity and impulsivity significantly better than desktop setups.
  
  Conclusion: Virtual Reality approach-avoidance protocols provide superior ecological validity for assessing and retraining maladaptive avoidance and approach impulses.”