Category: Improved Use of Research Evidence
Hayley Fitzgerald, M.A.
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts
Alexandra Gold, M.A.
Graduate Student
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
Michael Otto, Ph.D.
Professor
Boston University
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts
Hayley Fitzgerald, M.A.
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts
Alexandra Gold, M.A.
Graduate Student
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
Lu Dong, Ph.D.
Associate Behavioral and Social Scientist
RAND Corporation
Santa Monica, California
R. Kathryn McHugh, Ph.D.
McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Belmont, Massachusetts
A mechanism-driven approach is a cornerstone of the National Institutes of Health Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) Program, which promotes multidisciplinary research that is initially less focused on clinical outcomes (e.g., decreased symptoms) and more centered on identifying mechanisms that explain “how” and “why” interventions work. This approach has the potential to enhance the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral interventions to produce meaningful change in clinical outcomes by ensuring that treatments are doing what they are designed to do: engage specific targets underlying psychopathology. The goal of this symposium is to update the field on a number of psychological mechanisms that have been evaluated within the SOBC framework. Our first speaker will discuss a meta-analysis of brief interventions targeting anxiety sensitivity, with a focus on studies that have targeted at-risk populations and fit within a prevention framework. Our second speaker will discuss a mechanism, impairments in risk avoidance, evaluated via a neurocognitive study in a sample of individuals with bipolar disorder and comorbid substance use disorders. Our third speaker will discuss the effect of a Parent Behavior Change Intervention on a target mechanism, parent-adolescent interactions, and a clinical outcome (e.g., improved sleep). Our fourth speaker will discuss the effect of a brief behavioral intervention on decreases in a target mechanism, stress reactivity, and clinical outcome proxies (e.g., drug craving, behavioral distress tolerance) among individuals with substance use disorders. Our discussant will explore the implications that these mechanisms might have for the precision of preventive and treatment interventions grounded in cognitive behavioral science, ranging from standard length interventions to brief interventions.
Presenter: Hayley E. Fitzgerald, M.A. – Boston University
Co-author: Danielle Hoyt, M.A. – Rutgers
Co-author: M. Alexandra Kredlow, Ph.D. – Tufts University
Co-author: Jasper Smits, Ph.D. – The University of Texas at Austin
Co-author: Norman Schmidt, Ph.D. – Florida State University
Co-author: Donald Edmondson, M.P.H., Ph.D. – Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Co-author: Michael Otto, Ph.D. – Boston University
Presenter: Alexandra K. Gold, M.A. – Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Michael Otto, Ph.D. – Boston University
Presenter: Lu Dong, Ph.D. – RAND Corporation
Co-author: Allison G. Harvey, Ph.D. – University of California Berkeley
Presenter: R. Kathryn McHugh, Ph.D. – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Co-author: Megan McCarthy, BA – McLean Hospital