The COVID-19 pandemic crippled many parts of society as it spread throughout the world beginning in early 2020. Overnight, whole societies were forced to change their way of life, because of social distancing and lockdowns. For therapists, the pandemic meant that in-person sessions were no longer possible and many switched to different forms of synchronous remote communication by telephone, online audio or video link. The aim of this study was to explore psychodynamic therapists’ experiences over time of forced transitions to telepsychotherapy. Five therapists were interviewed at the beginning of the pandemic and at a one-year follow-up. The data were analysed by applying thematic analysis with a phenomenological approach. Initially, the therapists struggled with technical and safety issues. The loss of the therapy room and of access to non-verbal nuances contributed to impaired contact with the patients and more superficial conversations. The therapists experienced that the very nature of psychodynamic psychotherapy was affected, even if telepsychotherapy could give some new opportunities. One year later many of the difficulties remained, but the therapists developed better coping strategies and were back to the therapy focus. One implication of this study is that telepsychotherapy needs to be integrated into psychotherapy training and supervision.

Purpose: Insomnia has adverse effects on people with epilepsy. We aimed to test a novel cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) app-based intervention on insomnia symptoms and social psychological factors in people with epilepsy and to examine the possible mechanisms among the factors.

Methods: Participants were recruited from neurology clinics in Iran and comprised individuals diagnosed with epilepsy and having moderate to severe insomnia. A two-arm randomized controlled trial design was used, consisting of a treatment group (CBT-I; n = 160) and control group (patient education; n = 160). Primary outcomes were self-reported sleep quality, insomnia severity, and sleep hygiene behavior and objective sleep characteristics measured by actigraphy. Secondary outcomes were attitude, perceived behavioral control, intention, action planning, coping planning, behavioral automaticity, self-monitoring, anxiety, depression, and quality of life (QoL). All outcomes were measured at baseline, and at one, three, and six months postintervention, except objective sleep, which was assessed at baseline, and one and six months postintervention. Data were analyzed using linear mixed models.

Results: Current findings showed that sleep quality, insomnia severity, sleep hygiene behavior, and sleep onset latency were significantly improved in the CBT-I group compared with the patient education group at all measurement points. Also, the CBT-I group had significantly improved anxiety, depression, and QoL compared with the patient education group. Mediation analyses showed that attitude, intention, coping planning, self-monitoring, and behavioral automaticity significantly mediated the effect of the intervention on sleep outcomes.

Conclusion: Results support the use of the CBT-I app to improve sleep outcomes among people with epilepsy.

Work-related stress is considered one of the biggest health and safety challenges among the member states of the European Union. A critical factor is recovery between periods of stress. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate whether a brief behaviorally oriented stress-recovery management intervention delivered in an individual setting could reduce stress symptoms among individuals with high levels of perceived stress. A single-subject experimental design with multiple baselines across three individuals was used. The results indicate, with at least moderate experimental control, a temporal relation between the start of the intervention and beneficial changes from baseline in continuous self-recordings of stress symptoms. The changes were maintained at 1-year and 5-year follow-up assessments. Also, self-reporting inventories measuring perceived stress, worry, anxiety, depression, burnout, type A behavior, unwinding and recuperation from work stress, and insomnia showed overall changes in beneficial directions at post-assessment, as well as the two follow-up assessments. The results indicate that a behaviorally oriented stress-recovery management intervention delivered in an individual setting can reduce stress symptoms in individuals with high levels of perceived stress. However, for firm conclusions to be drawn, further research is needed.

Continuous and prolonged exposure to stressors or unsuccessfully dealing with such exposure has been suggested as precursors for burnout. Current research indicates that such stress problems could be conceptualized as deficiencies in recovery between periods of stress. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a behaviorally oriented stress recovery management intervention for people experiencing high levels of stress. A total of 73 individuals with experiences of stress symptoms and high levels of perceived stress (>= 25 on the Perceived Stress Scale) were randomly allocated to either a 10-week intervention group or a waiting-list control group. Participants were assessed at preintervention, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up. The Perceived Stress Scale, questions about tension, and the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Questionnaire were used as primary outcome measures. and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used as a secondary outcome measure. Data were analyzed following the intention-to-treat principle. The analysis demonstrated statistically significant improvements for all measures at posttreatment and at follow-up. The between-groups effect sizes were high at posttreatment and moderate-to-high at follow-up. Intervention focused on stress recovery behavior seems to be an effective way of reducing perceived stress, tension, burnout symptoms, anxiety, and depression in people with stress symptoms and high levels of perceived stress in everyday life. The tested intervention warrants further research. Other stress recovery behavior interventions need to be tested to draw conclusions on the efficacy of stress recovery behavior interventions in general regarding stress and burnout.

The internet is no longer something new. It has existed now for a long time and has been part of many peoples' lives for at least 20 years. The internet increasingly informs many aspects of our lives, including the economy, health care, and delivery of psychological treatments. There are many areas in which the internet has had an impact on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This chapter describes challenges when delivering CBT via the internet, comments on assumptions behind treatment programs, and describes the main approaches, outcomes, and potential mechanisms of change. Further, the authors comment on the dissemination of internet-delivered CBT (ICBT), as well as applications for diverse target groups, and possible future developments. Although ICBT may appear as something new, it is almost as old as the internet itself, and the research field is very large, with more than 200 controlled trials.

The internet and modern information technology have influenced society and also the practice of clinical psychology. In this chapter, we describe how internet-delivered psychological assessment and treatment procedures work and provide an updated review of the evidence. Therapist-supported internet interventions, mainly derived from cognitive behavior therapy treatment protocols, have been developed and tested in a large number of controlled trials and also for a range of psychiatric and somatic problems and conditions. There are clear indications that internet interventions can be as effective as seeing a therapist face-to-face, that long-term effects can be obtained, and that it has been possible to transfer internet interventions to more regular service provision (e.g., effectiveness trials).

Background: Several studies and meta-analysis suggest that ICBT works for patients with mild to moderate depression/depressive symptoms. Given the quality of the data is is now possible to conduct IPMAs. Several IPMAs have been published with data from different countries. A problem with that approach is the some studies may be left out as data are not provided. The aim of this IPMA was to study the effects focusing on Swedish data only with less loss of data/studies.

Methods: We were able to include data from 16 studies with a total of 2952 participants. Missing data were imputed. The overall effect-size for nine studies compared to wait-list was d = 0.63 95 % CI [0.48, 0.78] and within-group effect-size for 15 studies d = 1.17 95 % CI [1.11, 1.22]. The results were surprisingly similar across different subgroups. Women had on average more symptoms before treatment and also reported a larger symptom decrease after treatment.

Conclusions: Results show a large effect of ICBT on depressive symptoms in a Swedish setting, including in routine care. This meta-analysis supports treatment of depressive symptoms with ICBT in Sweden.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health concern worldwide and defined as behavior performed by spouses or other intimate partners that causes physical, sexual, or psychological harm. Internet-delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy (ICBT) may be particularly useful for survivors of IPV for several reasons, including barriers pertaining to limited community recourses and treatment availability, safety concerns, and issues of stigma, guilt and shame, which may prevent members of this population from seeking help via face-to-face interactions. However, Internet interventions are lacking. The primary aim of the present randomized controlled pilot trial was to explore the feasibility of ICBT as guided self-help individually tailored to the predominant symptomatology of PTSD or depression in survivors of IPV. A second aim was to conduct a preliminary evaluation exploring the short- and long-term effects of the treatment in comparison to a waitlist control condition. Results showed that the treatment was feasible. Attrition rate was low (9.4%), and participants were satisfied with treatment. However, treatment adherence was moderate in terms of completed modules (62.5%). Results of the preliminary evaluation of treatment effects showed large and statistically significant between-group effect sizes (Cohen's d = 0.86–1.08) on some measures of PTSD and depression at post assessment, favoring the treatment condition. However, there were no effects on other measures. At follow-up assessment, when the control condition had received delayed treatment, there were large and statistically significant within-group effect sizes (d = 0.96–1.48) on measures of PTSD, depression and anxiety, and small effects (d = 0.48) on a measure of quality of life. The results of the present pilot study are promising and warrant further research on ICBT for this population.

Introduction: This randomized, controlled pilot trial evaluated the efficacy of a brief internet-based recovery training intervention targeting a clinical sample of distressed employees.

Method: A sample of 69 employees with elevated symptoms of stress were assigned randomly to a five-week guided recovery training intervention (iRTP, n = 35) or a wait-list control (WLC, n = 34). The study was conducted in Sweden and participants enrolled via an open recruitment strategy. Self-report data were collected pre- and post-intervention, then six and 12 months after the intervention. The primary outcome measure was the Recovery Experience Questionnaire (REQ. The secondary outcome measures gauged other relevant mental and work-related health outcomes. Participants in the wait-list control group received access to iRTP after the six-month follow-up.

Results: Compared with the controls, participants in the intervention group showed a significant and large overall improvement on the primary outcome REQ (d = 0.93), and small to moderate effects on the secondary outcomes including, perceived stress (d = 0.48), anxiety (d = 0.49), quality of life (d = 0.47), and work ability (d = 0.47) during post-assessment. No significant differences were found at any time point regarding burnout, exhaustion, depression, physical exercise, work experience, or sickness absences.

Conclusion: This pilot trial is one of the first to examine a brief recovery training program's efficacy, suggesting that employees across a wide range of professions could learn how to recover from elevated stress symptoms. This type of accessible and brief recovery intervention could potentially prevent and reduce the negative effects of stress, as well as improve recovery and quality of life. However, more research is needed with larger samples before further conclusions can be drawn.

Trial Registration: The study was registered at Clinical Trials (clinicaltrials.gov) number NCT05220592.

Background: Research has established a strong relationship between education and later life outcomes, where the connection between different school problems and delinquency have been widely acknowledged. These studies have often sampled male juvenile offenders exhibiting extensive and/or persistent delinquency. Less is known about the educational attainment of female juvenile offenders, especially those who display limited delinquency. In a previous study (Azad and Ginner Hau in Child Youth Serv Rev 95:384–396, 2018), the characteristics of this particular group of offenders were explored where the results showed limited self-reported delinquency but elevated school problems.

Objective: The present aim was to conduct a follow-up study of the same sample of female adolescents, in order to study their educational attainment during adolescence and the rate of recidivism within 24 months after being sentenced through registry data.

Method: The sample consisted of adolescent females (N = 144) who were convicted of a crime and sentenced to youth service between 2007 and 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Results: The results showed that the majority of the females did not reoffend within 2 years after being sentenced. They did, however, display high educational deficits. Their grade point average at the end of both compulsory education and upper secondary school was much lower than that of young females in general, and the majority had either dropped out, never begun or received zero in all subjects at the end of upper secondary school.

Conclusions: The low school results indicate a need to support young delinquent females’ educational attainment in order to improve their overall life chances.

Coordinators may play a key role during the return-to-work (RTW) process for people on sickness absence. There are still few studies on the newly implemented rehabilitation coordinators (RECO) within Swedish healthcare, and none focus on their competence. The aim of this study was to explore how persons with multimorbidity and psychosocial difficulties describe the professional competence of the RECO they encountered during their RTW process. The study takes a relational and practical approach in defining professional competence, including both what professionals do and what they possess. Interviews with 12 people with multimorbidity and psychosocial difficulties who had encountered a RECO during their RTW process were analysed using thematic analysis. Six different themes were found: communicative and coordinating skills; advisory and guidance skills; engagement and advocacy skills; being persistent and flexible; being empathic and therapeutic; being professional and trustworthy. Most of these are found in research on RTW coordinators, but being persistent, and having advisory, guidance, advocacy and therapeutic skills have not been recognised as important competences previously. This study adds patients' views on important professional competence that support the RTW process, which should be regarded in further developments of RECOs' functions and their competence descriptions.

IntroductionAdolescent delinquency has been suggested to evolve from a normative motivation to establish independence and identity. However, few studies have examined this in detail, especially in young women. The aim was, therefore, to investigate identity formation in adolescent females with limited delinquency by focusing on identity status and identity processes in narratives about committing crimes and being convicted.MethodsInterviews with 10 females, 15-18 years old, sentenced to youth service in three Swedish cities were conducted on Zoom.ResultsThe results showed an equal distribution of all identity statuses within the group. Thematic analysis of their stories about crime and conviction showed that delinquency was described in terms of exploration and commitment, although commitment appeared more clearly. Social relations, in particular peers, played an important role in both committing as well as desisting from delinquency. In terms of narrative processes, the stories contained elements of agency, although diminishing of one's own capability and/or responsibility was common, and meaning making, mostly lesson learning, usually pertained to behaviors, interactional rules, or norms.ConclusionThese findings point to the importance of viewing delinquency among young women in a social and developmental context, where delinquency may be a part of the process of identity formation. Interventions focusing on expressing needs of belonging as well as finding oneself in more adaptive ways are warranted, where supporting pro-social relations and contexts is a suggested focus.

We investigated how young people comprehend stories of trauma through their immediate expressions after listening to personal testimonies of Holocaust survivors. The material included 747 drawings and 182 texts by 10–16-year-old Swedish pupils from 14 schools. Qualitative analyses and cross-tabulations showed that the testimonies elicited complex patterns of emotions and cognitive processing. Personal testimonies can thus be a powerful way of teaching about historical trauma, although complex cognitive meaning making might often require additional time and adult-facilitated conversation. Also, as the testimonies aroused strong emotions, they should be used in a well-informed way.

Children born extremely preterm (e.g. before 28 gestational weeks, EPT) runs a greater risk of cognitive, motor and neurobehavioral impairment later in life, compared to children born at term. Moreover, being a parent of an EPT born child increases the probability of developing depression and posttraumatic stress disorder post-partum, as well as the premature birth may affect the parent-child interaction negatively. In an attempt to decrease the psychological and motoric negative impact of both the child and parents, our multi-professional team has developed an early intervention during the first year at home focusing om parent-child interaction of the EPT born children: Stockholm Preterm Interaction-Based Intervention, SPIBI (Baraldi et al., 2020a). The target of the RCT is 130 children and after 32 months 112 children has been included in the study, evenly distributed in the intervention group and control group. At children’s corrected age of one-year, parents from 14 of the first included families were interviewed about their experiences from the intervention program, resulting in a qualitative article. Three main themes of parental experiences of the first year at home emerged: child-related concerns (concerning child medical state, self-regulation and recovery), parental inner state (concerning loneliness, ambivalence and premature parental identity), and changed family dynamics (concerning the couple, siblings and intergenerational support). The parents from the  intervention group reported that the intervention had given them security, a sense that the interventionist has been knowledgeable and in some cases that the program was important but not necessary to them (Baraldi et al., 2020b). With 85% of the targeted subjects included it is clear that an extensive early home-visit intervention program is feasible in the Swedish context, even though the pandemic has slowed down the recruitment pace and has forced adjustments to be made such as the use of telemedicine, exclusion of toys in the follow-up process and intensified hygienic procedures.

Background

Parental responsiveness is of great importance for positive effects of behavioral and cognitive development in preterm infants and the Emotional availability scales (EAS) is a clinically relevant assessment measure, for early neurodevelopment. The EAS is an observational measure which reflects the quality of parent–child relationship and the child’s socio-emotional development. It has 4 adult domains (sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness, non-hostility) and 2 child domains (responsiveness, involvement) (Biringen 2014). In an ongoing RCT of an intervention for extremely preterm (EPT) born infants and their parents, the Stockholm Preterm Interaction-Based Intervention (SPIBI), the primary outcome measure is EAS used at 12 months corrected age (CA). The aim for this sub-study is to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of EAS in this cohort.

Method

During the first year after discharge, ten home visits were carried out from specially educated interventionists of our multidisciplinary team. 130 EPT infants were recruited and 115 have been filmed and assessed at 12 months CA. The parent was instructed to play with the infant for 10 minutes. Dyads were filmed, videos assessed and scored by a trained EAS-accredited team member. 20% of the videos (23/115) were assessed by an additional EAS-accreditor to evaluate inter-rater-reliability. Interclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were used. To obtain authenticity with real-life, the videos were filmed in a home setting with opportunity to choose study parent. Interaction were encouraged to proceed in an ordinary pattern.

Results

ICC values range 0,86 - 0,96 within all dimensions, all individual values, 95%CI (Table 1). This indicates high inter-rater reliability, although some of the subscales had lower ICC (0,73-0,98). 

Conclusion

The SPIBI study corresponds well with EAS scoring assessment method for reflection of parent-infant interaction at 12 months CA in EPT born infants.

Background: Improved neonatal care has resulted in increased survival rates among infants born after only 22 gestational weeks, but extremely preterm children still have an increased risk of neurodevelopmental delays, learning disabilities and reduced cognitive capacity, particularly executive function deficits. Parent-child interaction and parental mental health are associated with infant development, regardless of preterm birth. There is a need for further early interventions directed towards extremely preterm (EPT) children as well as their parents. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Stockholm Preterm Interaction-Based Intervention (SPIBI), the arrangements of the SPIBI trial and the chosen outcome measurements.

Methods: The SPIBI is a randomized clinical trial that includes EPT infants and their parents upon discharge from four neonatal units in Stockholm, Sweden. Inclusion criteria are EPT infants soon to be discharged from a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), with parents speaking Swedish or English. Both groups receive three initial visits at the neonatal unit before discharge during the recruitment process, with a strengths-based and development-supportive approach. The intervention group receives ten home visits and two telephone calls during the first year from a trained interventionist from a multi-professional team. The SPIBI intervention is a strengths-based early intervention programme focusing on parental sensitivity to infant cues, enhancing positive parent-child interaction, improving self-regulating skills and supporting the infant’s next small developmental step through a scaffolding process and parent-infant co-regulation. The control group receives standard follow-up and care plus extended assessment. The outcomes of interest are parent-child interaction, child development, parental mental health and preschool teacher evaluation of child participation, with assessments at 3, 12, 24 and 36 months corrected age (CA). The primary outcome is emotional availability at 12 months CA.

Discussion: If the SPIBI shows positive results, it could be considered for clinical implementation for child-support, ethical and health-economic purposes. Regardless of the outcome, the trial will provide valuable information about extremely preterm children and their parents during infancy and toddlerhood after regional hospital care in Sweden.

Trial registration: The study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov in October 2018 (NCT03714633).

In Sweden 400 children yearly are born extremely preterm (EPT; more than three months early). These children have an increased risk of later academic difficulties, neuropsychiatric disorder, cognitive and mental health issues. Since the first 1000 days of the brain development are so crucial for later development, the interdisciplinary Stockholm Preterm Interaction-Based Intervention (SPIBI) aims at strengthening the parent-child interaction, child development and parental mental health. 

The research is based on pedagogical, motor-developmental, medical and psychological science. The program is based on Vygotski’s theory of the zone of proximal development, as well theoretical frameworks of early intervention (Guralnick; Shonkoff). Additionally, Als’ synactive theory of understanding premature infant communication and needs, Bowlby’s attachment theory, and Emde’s emotional availability theory have been applied. 

SPIBI is an ongoing research project funded by Stockholm-County-Stockholm-University joint-collaboration grant 20160881. It is an RCT targeting 130 EPT infants and their parents in Stockholm with a 3-year inclusion period starting September 2018. The intervention consists of ten home-visits during the first year by trained interventionists, supporting the next developmental step of the child through a scaffolding process, strengthening parental sensitivity to infant cues, and promoting infant’s self-regulation. SPIBI has recruited and trained six multi-professional-NICU-experienced interventionists. Control group participants receive TAU plus an extended follow-up program.

The overall aim is to present the framework and theory of change of SPIBI, relating to research findings, welfare policies and recommendations for infant’s “chain of care”. So far, sixty eligible infants have been identified within four neonatal units; of which 48 approved participation. The primary outcome is emotional availability of the parent and child, where we hypothesize that the intervention will affect the parental sensitivity and structure of interaction with the child. Secondary outcomes concern child development, i.e. motor development, cognition and occurrence of neuropsychiatric symptoms, parental mental health, anxiety and self-efficacy, where we also hypothesize positive effects of the intervention. 

• Since Nordic countries have neonatal intensive care of high quality, the amount of EPT survivors is high compared to other countries; therefore, the educational systems must follow achievements reached by health care system and develop new evidence-based interventions in early childhood education, which are appropriated for EPT born children and their parents, following recent European Standards of Care for Newborn Health (2018).
• Insights from neuro-cognition, early intervention and educational research has shown the importance of interdisciplinary interventions, and this should be spread around the Nordic countries.
• Nordic countries offer a unique social environment, with governmental funded parental-leave, enabling early-interventions delivered by parents.
• The EPT children in Nordic countries are less affected by socioeconomic factors, as is often the case where maternity welfare and obstetrics is not publically financed. Hence, Nordic countries have a unique opportunity to perform research targeting EPT students and their parents specifically, with less confounding factors.
• Some Nordic countries have adopted policies concerning home-visiting support and infants’ rights, as recommended by the World Association of Mental health’s policy statement from 2016, and Nordic knowledge exchange and collaboration on these policies is warranted. 

SPIBI is a strength-based early intervention targeting parent-child interaction amongst extremely preterm born infants, currently tested in an RCT in Sweden. Of 130 infants, 72% have reached 12 months of age. Based on interviews with 17 parents’ and 6 intervention providers we identified SPIBI strengths and shortcomings. SPIBI seems feasible, is possible to integrate it into home-visiting practice and is appreciated by parents. Identified challenges are geographical distance; recruitment obstacles including Covid-19, leading to longer-term implementation; service-provider fatigue; and social adversities amongst some eligible participants requiring ethical considerations. Future improvements include: reconsidering inclusion criteria, increasing use of e-health, and exploring the possibility of a tiered approach.

With increasing survival rates of children born extremely preterm (EPT), before gestational week 28, the post-discharge life of these families has gained significant research interest. Quantitative studies of parental experiences post-discharge have previously reported elevated levels depressive symptoms, posttraumatic stress-disorder and anxiety among the parents. The current investigation aims to qualitatively explore the situation for parents of children born EPT in Sweden during the first year at home. Semi-structured interviews were performed with 17 parents of 14 children born EPT; eight parents were from an early intervention group and nine parents from a group that received treatment as usual, with extended follow-up procedures. Three main themes were identified using a thematic analytic approach: child-related concerns, the inner state of the parent, and changed family dynamics. Parents in the intervention group also expressed themes related to the intervention, as a sense of security and knowledgeable interventionists. The results are discussed in relation to different concepts of health, parent–child interaction and attachment, and models of the recovery processes. In conclusion, parents describe the first year at home as a time of prolonged parental worries for the child as well as concerns regarding the parent’s own emotional state.