We recently reported on the radio-frequency attenuation length of cold polar ice at Summit Station, Greenland, based on bi-static radar measurements of radio-frequency bedrock echo strengths taken during the summer of 2021. Those data also allow studies of (a) the relative contributions of coherent (such as discrete internal conducting layers with sub-centimeter transverse scale) vs incoherent (e.g. bulk volumetric) scattering, (b) the magnitude of internal layer reflection coefficients, (c) limits on signal propagation velocity asymmetries (‘birefringence’) and (d) limits on signal dispersion in-ice over a bandwidth of ~100 MHz. We find that (1) attenuation lengths approach 1 km in our band, (2) after averaging 10 000 echo triggers, reflected signals observable over the thermal floor (to depths of ~1500 m) are consistent with being entirely coherent, (3) internal layer reflectivities are ≈–60$\to$–70 dB, (4) birefringent effects for vertically propagating signals are smaller by an order of magnitude relative to South Pole and (5) within our experimental limits, glacial ice is non-dispersive over the frequency band relevant for neutrino detection experiments.

Work ability is a prospective predictor of sick leave, disability pension and unemployment, and has been defined as the balance between human resources and the demands of work, taking into consideration that illness is not equivalent to work disability. In the present study we set out to explore predictors of work ability in a sample of individuals with common mental disorders. In particular, we were interested in exploring metacognitive beliefs as a potential predictor of work ability, as Wells’ (2009) metacognitive model of psychological disorder suggests that metacognitions may be an underlying factor in psychological vulnerability generally, and they have been associated with work status in previous studies. One hundred and seventy-seven individuals participated in an online survey and completed a battery of self-report questionnaires. Several factors correlated with reduced work ability: physical disorders, emotional distress symptoms and metacognitive beliefs. We found that confidence in memory predicted work ability even when controlling for gender/age, number of physical disorders, and levels of anxiety and depression symptoms. This finding suggest that metacognitions of poor memory performance are associated with low work ability among those with common mental disorders, and implies that these should be targeted in treatment with a view to increasing work ability and thus potentially facilitate return to work.

Background: Studies have reported that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Graded Exercise Therapy (GET) are effective treatments for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Method: One hundred and seventy-one patients undertook a course of either CBT (n = 116) or GET (n = 55) and were assessed on a variety of self-report measures at pre- and posttreatment and follow-up. Aims: In this paper we present analyses on treatment outcomes for CBT and GET in routine clinical practice and evaluate whether changes on subscales of the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30) predict fatigue severity independently of changes in other covariates, and across the two treatment modalities. Results: Both CBT and GET were equally effective at decreasing fatigue, anxiety, and depression, and at increasing physical functioning. Changes on the subscales of the MCQ-30 were also found to have a significant effect on fatigue severity independently of changes in other covariates and across treatment modalities. Conclusion: The findings from the current study suggest that CFS treatment protocols for CBT and GET, based on those from the PACE trial, achieve similar to poorer outcomes in routine clinical practice as in a RCT.

Background: More effective psychological treatments for psychosis are required. Case series data and pilot trials suggest metacognitive therapy (MCT) is a promising treatment for anxiety and depression. Other research has found negative metacognitive beliefs and thought-control strategies may be involved in the development and maintenance of hallucinations and delusions. The potential of MCT in treating psychosis has yet to be investigated. Aims: Our aim was to find out whether a short number of MCT sessions would be associated with clinically significant and sustained improvements in delusions, hallucinations, anxiety, depression and subjective recovery in patients with treatment-resistant long-standing psychosis. Method: Three consecutively referred patients, each with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and continuing symptoms, completed a series of multiple baseline assessments. Each then received between 11 and 13 sessions of MCT and completed regular assessments of progress, during therapy, post-therapy and at 3-month follow-up. Results: Two out of 3 participants achieved clinically significant reductions across a range of symptom-based outcomes at end-of-therapy. Improvement was sustained at 3-month follow-up for one participant. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the feasibility of using MCT with people with medication-resistant psychosis. MCT was acceptable to the participants and associated with meaningful change. Some modifications may be required for this population, after which a controlled trial may be warranted.

The theory and principles of Metacognitive therapy (MCT) are described and data supporting its effects are summarized. MCT does not advocate challenging of negative automatic thoughts or traditional schemas. It proposes the existence of a universal maladaptive thinking style that causes disorder and focuses on helping patients regulate their cognition more adaptively. It aims to reduce worry and rumination and alter problematic patterns of attention and coping. In doing so it targets underlying metacognition that controls thinking and helps patients develop new ways of consciously experiencing inner events. Data from treatment studies suggest that individual MCT techniques and full treatment are highly effective. Further randomized trials are clearly warranted.

The concept of safety (seeking) behaviours has been very important in cognitive behavioural models of anxiety disorders. Morrison (1998) considered how a similar process may be involved in the development and maintenance of auditory hallucinations; however there has been no research that specifically explores safety behaviours in people who hear voices. The S-REF model (Wells and Matthews, 1994) proposed that compensatory beliefs mediate the choice of coping mechanism. The aim of this study was to explore whether people who hear voices have interpretations about the experience of hearing voices and if this interpretation threatens their physiological or psychological wellbeing, do they engage in safety behaviours to prevent this feared outcome. The study also considered whether the choice of behaviour was cognitively mediated. Twelve participants who had heard voices in the previous 2 weeks completed the study; 11 participants reported catastrophic interpretations and 12 reported using safety behaviours. The theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

This study investigated whether reasoning biases are specific to people with delusions and the role of emotional material on “jumping to conclusions”. Associations between reasoning and cognitive factors as well as other top-down factors such as metacognition were also explored. A comparative design was used to investigate group differences between people with persecutory delusions, people with panic disorder and non-patient controls. A probabilistic reasoning task involving three types of material was utilized to investigate the effect of emotional content on reasoning. Participants also completed questionnaire measures to explore whether hasty decision making was associated with measures of mood or cognitive processes. The results of the reasoning task showed that there was no main effect of group. However, all participants requested significantly less information on the two types of emotional material. None of the questionnaire measures were associated with performance on the reasoning task. Aspects of metacognition were found to be associated with ratings of delusions. This study suggested that between group differences in reasoning were small but that emotional content increases haste of decision making across all groups.

Research has suggested that the high levels of depression and anxiety observed in Parkinson's disease are a primary consequence of its pathophysiology. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that a psychological factor, metacognitive style, is significantly associated with distress, independent of previously identified disease-related risk factors. Distress, metacognitive style and disease factors were assessed in 44 people with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. People with a specific metacognitive style had an increased vulnerability to distress over and above previously identified disease factors; this suggests future directions for the development of psychological interventions.

Background. Recent developments in research suggest that particular attempts to control thoughts may contribute to the problem of intrusion. An instrument capable of identifying strategies for dealing with unwanted intrusions in clinical populations may be used for differentiating between thought control strategies that may or may not be helpful.

Methods. The Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ) (Wells & Davies, 1994) developed and validated on a normal sample, was administered to a clinical sample in order to investigate the consistency of the original factor structure and its psychometric properties. The sensitivity of the scale to change associated with recovery was also examined. Relationships between individual differences in thought control strategies and psychiatric symptoms in patients with DSM-IV major depression, and PTSD with or without major depression were investigated.

Results. The Scree Test suggested a six-factor solution which was rotated. This solution split the original distraction subscale into separate behavioural and cognitive distraction, otherwise the subscales were almost identical to those obtained in non-clinical subjects. As this split has been shown to be unreliable, further analyses in this study were based on the five-factor version of the TCQ obtained by Wells & Davies (1994). Predictors of recovery and of symptoms in PTSD and depression were explored.

Conclusions. Correlations between the TCQ subscales and other measures suggest that particular thought control strategies may be associated with the symptoms of PTSD and depression. The TCQ scales appear to be sensitive to changes associated with recovery. Significant differences emerged in thought control strategies between depressed and PTSD patients. Hierarchical regression analysis showed distraction, punishment and reappraisal control strategies predicted depression scores in depressed patients while use of distraction predicted intrusions in PTSD.

Background. Empirical evidence indicates that manipulations of attention may facilitate changes in cognition and stress symptoms in emotional disorder.

Methods. The present study reports the effects of Attention Training (ATT) in a brief case series of three patients with primary hypochondriasis using an A–B–A design.

Results. ATT produced clinically significant improvements in self-reported measures of affect, and illness-related behaviour and cognition. Treatment gains were maintained at 6 months follow-up assessments. Measures of body-focused attention indicated that the ATT procedure acted on attentional processes as intended.

Conclusions. The present case series extends the effects of ATT to problems of hypochondriasis. A number of studies now suggest that ATT is associated with a reduction in anxiety and negative beliefs across disorders of panic, social phobia and hypochondriasis. Controlled clinical trials are now required to establish firmly the effects of ATT as a component of cognitive therapy.

The relationship between effectiveness of interpersonal problem-solving and specificity of autobiographical memory was examined for 35 patients admitted to an inner-city District General Hospital following a deliberate drug-overdose. The results replicated those of Evans, Williams, O'Loughlin and Howells (1992) in finding a significant correlation between ineffective problem-solving and the over-general retrieval of autobiographical memories, giving further support to the suggestion that an over-general memory database may underpin the problem-solving deficits characteristic of parasuicide patients. However, the correlation coefficient computed was notably lower than in the Evans et al. study and an attempt is made to explain this discrepancy on the basis of differences in the levels of psychopathology between the patients involved in each study.

A meta-cognitive classification and analysis of factors contributing to the development of problematic worry is presented. Dimensions of meta-beliefs, meta-worry, cognitive consciousness, and strategies can be distinguished. A cognitive model of Generalized Anxiety Disorder is advanced based on this framework in which GAD results from an interaction between the motivated use of worry as a coping strategy, negative appraisal of worry, and worry control attempts. These factors result from combinations of dysfunctional meta-beliefs and contribute to subjectively diminished cognitive control. The model presents new implications for a cognitive therapy of GAD, and these are illustrated with a single case treatment study.

Imagery appears to be associated with higher levels of anxiety than does worry. Borkovec has argued that worry could be a way of avoiding distressing imagery and the associated affect. Thus worry could suppress emotional activation, interfere with emotional processing, and contribute to the maintenance of anxiety. This hypothesis suggests that short and long-term effects of worrying after experiencing a distressing stimulus should differ from the effects of engaging in imagery. In the short term, imagery should maintain anxiety while worry should not do so, or should do so less. In the longer term, worry should be a less successful way of reducing anxiety associated with the stimulus than imagery, and should be followed by a greater number of intrusive cognitions (indicating the relative failure of emotional processing). These predictions were tested by asking subjects to worry, engage in imagery or “settle down” after watching a distressing video. The results were broadly consistent with the hypothesis. Other interpretations are also considered.