Here are half a dozen research papers that have recently interested me (all details & abstracts to these studies are given further down this blog posting).  The first by Fournier et al is about whether to choose antidepressants or psychotherapy to treat depression.  They found that marriage, unemployment and having experienced a greater number of recent life events all predicted a better response to cognitive therapy than to antidepressants.  In the second study Luby et al looked at depression in children aged between 3 and 6 years old.  Worryingly they found forms of depression even in kids this young.  They also found over two years of follow-up that "Preschool depression, similar to childhood depression, is not a developmentally transient syndrome but rather shows chronicity and/or recurrence."  Hopefully this kind of research will mean these troubled children have a bit more chance of being identified and helped.

The third study by Eisenberg et al offers answers to a question I'm asked every so often by a client who has never had a serious romantic relationship - "How usual or unusual is it to be a virgin when one is older?"  They surveyed about 7,500 U.S. adults aged 25 to 45 and found that 13.9% of the men and 8.9% of the women reported never having had sex.  So to be a virgin in one's 30's or 40's is relatively uncommon, but certainly not very uncommon.

In the fourth paper, Park and colleagues report on over 24,000 adults from 27 different nations who completed on-line surveys in English measuring orientations to the seeking of happiness (through pleasure, through engagement, and through meaning) and life satisfaction.  If you would like to see how you score on this yourself, complete the "Approaches to Happiness" questionnaire by clicking here.  The authors found that "Nations differed in their orientations and clustered into three interpretable groups ... One cluster was defined by relatively high endorsement of seeking pleasure and seeking engagement; the second cluster by relatively high endorsement of seeking engagement and seeking meaning; and the third cluster by relatively low endorsement of all three ways of seeking happiness. Across all nations, each of the three orientations predicted life satisfaction, although orientations to engagement and to meaning were more robustly associated with life satisfaction than was an orientation to pleasure, replicating and extending previous findings."

Fifthly, Weinstein et al " ... examined the effects of nature on valuing intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations. Intrinsic aspirations reflected prosocial and other-focused value orientations, and extrinsic aspirations predicted self-focused value orientations. Participants immersed in natural environments reported higher valuing of intrinsic aspirations and lower valuing of extrinsic aspirations, whereas those immersed in non-natural environments reported increased valuing of extrinsic aspirations and no change of intrinsic aspirations."  The researchers extended this research to show that being in a natural (v's a non-natural) environment also promoted autonomy and generous decision-making.  Maybe my walks in the hills are even better for me than I'd realized!  Finally, in the sixth study, Brown and colleagues challenge preconceptions by showing that caregiving for an unwell spouse may actually improve life expectation for the caregiver.  They found that " ... spending at least 14 hr per week providing care to a spouse predicted decreased mortality for the caregiver ... These findings suggest that it may be premature to conclude that health risks for caregivers are due to providing active help. Indeed, under some circumstances, caregivers may actually benefit from providing care."

Fournier, J. C., R. J. DeRubeis, et al. (2009). "Prediction of response to medication and cognitive therapy in the treatment of moderate to severe depression." J Consult Clin Psychol 77(4): 775-87.  [PubMed]
 A recent randomized controlled trial found nearly equivalent response rates for antidepressant medications and cognitive therapy in a sample of moderate to severely depressed outpatients. In this article, the authors seek to identify the variables that were associated with response across both treatments as well as variables that predicted superior response in one treatment over the other. The sample consisted of 180 depressed outpatients: 60 of whom were randomly assigned to cognitive therapy; 120 were assigned to antidepressant medications. Treatment was provided for 16 weeks. Chronic depression, older age, and lower intelligence each predicted relatively poor response across both treatments. Three prescriptive variables - marriage, unemployment, and having experienced a greater number of recent life events - were identified, and each predicted superior response to cognitive therapy relative to antidepressant medications. Thus, 6 markers of treatment outcome were identified, each of which might be expected to carry considerable clinical utility. The 3 prognostic variables identify subgroups that might benefit from alternative treatment strategies; the 3 prescriptive variables identify groups who appear to respond particularly well to cognitive therapy.

Luby, J. L., X. Si, et al. (2009). "Preschool Depression: Homotypic Continuity and Course Over 24 Months." Arch Gen Psychiatry 66(8): 897-905.  [Abstract/Full Text]
 Context Childhood depression is a serious and relapsing psychiatric disorder. However, to date studies have focused mostly on children aged 6 years and older. Validation for depression in preschool children has been provided by 2 independent study samples. While several studies have demonstrated stability and poor outcomes of internalizing symptoms in preschoolers, there has not yet been longitudinal data available to inform the course of preschool depression and whether it shows homotypic continuity into early childhood. Objective To examine the 24-month course of preschool depression and whether it showed homotypic vs heterotypic continuity or was a developmentally transient phenomenon. Design Blindly rated, prospective, 24-month, longitudinal follow-up study. Setting Community sites. Patients Three hundred six preschoolers aged 3 to 6 years recruited from community sites and oversampled for symptoms of depression. Main Outcome Measure Recurrence/stability of depression and predictors of course. Results Preschoolers with depression at baseline had the highest likelihood of subsequent depression 12 and/or 24 months later compared with preschoolers with no baseline disorder and with those who had other psychiatric disorders. Preschoolers with depression at baseline were more likely to have later depression rather than other psychiatric disorders. Findings from a logistic regression analysis indicated that when controlling for demographic variables, risk factors, and comorbid disorders, depression during the preschool period and family history of affective disorders were the most robust and significant predictors of later depression. Conclusions Preschool depression, similar to childhood depression, is not a developmentally transient syndrome but rather shows chronicity and/or recurrence. Homotypic continuity of preschool MDD during a 24-month period was found. These results underscore the clinical and public health importance of identification of depression as early as preschool. Further follow-up of preschoolers with depression is warranted to inform the longitudinal course throughout childhood.

Eisenberg, M., L. , A. Shindel, et al. (2009). "Who is the 40-Year-Old Virgin and Where Did He/She Come From? Data from the National Survey of Family Growth." Journal of Sexual Medicine 6(8): 2154-2161.  [Abstract/Full Text]   
Introduction. Little is known about young and middle aged adults who have never engaged in sexual intercourse. Individuals who have not engaged in sexual activity may theoretically have diminished overall quality of life, as recent evidence suggests that sexual activity may be related to overall health status in adults.  Aim.  We sought to identify factors related to sexual abstinence in young and middle-aged adults.Methods.  We analyzed data from the male and female sample of the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to examine sexual abstinence among unmarried participants aged 25-45 (men: N = 2,469; women: N = 5,120).  Main Outcome Measures.  Multivariable logistic regression modeling was used to test for independent associations between demographic, medical, and anthropometric variables and abstinence while adjusting for confounding and mediating variables.  Results.  A total of 122 (13.9%) men aged 25-45 reported never having had sex, representing approximately 1.1 million American men in this age cohort. Among female participants, a total of 104 (8.9%) women aged 25-45 reported never having sex, representing approximately 800,000 American women in this age cohort. Both men and women who reported that they attend religious services one or more times per week were more likely to be sexually abstinent, independent of their specific religious beliefs. Virgin status was also significantly associated with drinking alcohol within the past year. While a college degree in women predicted virginity, education was not associated with virginity in men. Men showed lower rates of sexual abstinence if they reported having spent time in prison or serving in the military.Conclusions.  Amongst young adults, sexual abstinence does not appear to be mediated by health status, anthropometric measures, or age. Attending religious services and avoidance of alcohol consumption are associated with virginity in adults. Other factors associated with abstinence differ between genders and merit further study.

Park, N., C. Peterson, et al. (2009). "Orientations to happiness and life satisfaction in twenty-seven nations." The Journal of Positive Psychology: Dedicated to furthering research and promoting good practice 4(4): 273 - 279.  [Abstract/Full Text] 
Adults from 27 different nations (total N = 24,836) completed on-line surveys in English measuring orientations to the seeking of happiness (through pleasure, through engagement, and through meaning) and life satisfaction. Nations differed in their orientations and clustered into three interpretable groups in terms of them. One cluster was defined by relatively high endorsement of seeking pleasure and seeking engagement; the second cluster by relatively high endorsement of seeking engagement and seeking meaning; and the third cluster by relatively low endorsement of all three ways of seeking happiness. Across all nations, each of the three orientations predicted life satisfaction, although orientations to engagement and to meaning were more robustly associated with life satisfaction than was an orientation to pleasure, replicating and extending previous findings. Limitations and implications of the research were discussed.

Weinstein, N., A. K. Przybylski, et al. (2009). "Can Nature Make Us More Caring? Effects of Immersion in Nature on Intrinsic Aspirations and Generosity." Pers Soc Psychol Bull.  [PubMed] 
Four studies examined the effects of nature on valuing intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations. Intrinsic aspirations reflected prosocial and other-focused value orientations, and extrinsic aspirations predicted self-focused value orientations. Participants immersed in natural environments reported higher valuing of intrinsic aspirations and lower valuing of extrinsic aspirations, whereas those immersed in non-natural environments reported increased valuing of extrinsic aspirations and no change of intrinsic aspirations. Three studies explored experiences of nature relatedness and autonomy as underlying mechanisms of these effects, showing that nature immersion elicited these processes whereas non-nature immersion thwarted them and that they in turn predicted higher intrinsic and lower extrinsic aspirations. Studies 3 and 4 also extended the paradigm by testing these effects on generous decision making indicative of valuing intrinsic versus extrinsic aspirations.

Brown, S. L., D. M. Smith, et al. (2009). "Caregiving behavior is associated with decreased mortality risk." Psychol Sci 20(4): 488-94.   [PubMed] 
Traditional investigations of caregiving link it to increased caregiver morbidity and mortality, but do not disentangle the effects of providing care from those of being continuously exposed to an ailing loved one with serious health problems. We explored this possible confound in a national, longitudinal survey of elderly married individuals (N= 3,376). Results showed that spending at least 14 hr per week providing care to a spouse predicted decreased mortality for the caregiver, independently of behavioral and cognitive limitations of the care recipient (spouse), and of other demographic and health variables. These findings suggest that it may be premature to conclude that health risks for caregivers are due to providing active help. Indeed, under some circumstances, caregivers may actually benefit from providing care.