As of 1 October 2000, the editorial office for the journal moves to a different address, when I take up a new post in London. I will be sorry to move from Oxford, but welcome the opportunities and challenges of a new job. I will try to continue to edit the journal at least as well as before! Manuscripts for publication (and all other related material) should be directed to:

Professor Paul Salkovskis, Editor, Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF.

Intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, panic attacks and sudden physiological arousal are each experienced as involuntary, are difficult to control, and lead to considerable distress. Such observations have led to the suggestion that anxiety disorders are associated with the operation of automatic information-processing biases. Clinical and experimental evidence for this proposal is reviewed and three different classes of routes to the development and modification of these automatic processes are described: an innate route, repetition/habituation, and conscious appraisal. The review focuses in particular on the third route, proposing that automatic processing biases can be altered by accessing and modifying conscious appraisals of internal and external events. Indirect evidence is provided by selective attention paradigms in anxiety, treatment studies and clinical observations, although further research will be necessary for a direct test of the pathway. The implications for the theory and practice of psychological therapy for anxiety disorders are described.

Motivational intervention, a strategy to increase motivation for change, was tested as an addition to treatment at the start of an outpatient programme for alcohol dependence. Admissions to the programme were randomly allocated to either a motivational or educational procedure. The three motivational constructs of the SOCRATES-8A Readiness to Change questionnaire (Ambivalence about change, Recognition of problems, Taking Steps to change) were used as measures of motivation for change. At one week post-intervention, motivational participants reported significantly greater levels of problem recognition. The motivational group's post-intervention scores were significantly higher on the Taking Steps scale and significantly lower on the Ambivalence scale. There was no difference on measures of engagement in treatment or drop-out from the outpatient treatment programme. For the population as a whole, a relatively low pre-intervention score on the Ambivalence scale was predictive of drop-out. Results support the efficacy of motivational intervention for decreasing self-reported levels of ambivalence about change and for increasing problem recognition and taking steps towards change. More detailed research with a longer follow-up period is needed to determine whether this has any impact on other vectors of motivation for change, including participation in treatment, outcome expectancy and drinking behaviour.

The Problem Solving Scale (PSS) is a 15-item questionnaire measuring the problem solving component of self-control behaviours. It is derived from the 36-item Rosenbaum Self-Control Schedule. This paper presents some preliminary psychometric data on the PSS from a sample of 153 patients referred for cognitive therapy. The paper reports descriptive statistics, Cronbach's Alpha Correlations, correlations of the PSS with the Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory and results of a Principal Components Analysis. The PSS has good internal reliability and, like the Self-Control Schedule itself, seems to measure a dimension of coping that is independent of age, sex and diagnostic status. The PSS may prove a useful instrument both to measure change in problem solving in therapy and to predict outcome.

Large-scale cognitive-behavioural Stress Management workshops were run for members of the general public as part of a city-wide mental health promotion campaign. Four groups were compared: a workshop run over one day (Full-Day), one run over two half-days (Half-Day), a non-specific intervention control group, and a waiting list control group. Results indicate that the participants in the workshop groups improved more than those in either of the control groups, supporting the idea that the psychoeducational approach can be valuable and economical in a health promotion and public health context. The use of this format in clinical situations and in primary care settings is also discussed.

The psychometric properties of a new scale, the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (OCI; Foa, Kozak, Salkovskis, Coles, & Amir, 1998), were examined in a nonclinical student sample. The study was a partial replication of the original validation study by Foa et al. Test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and convergent validity were examined using a sample of 126 undergraduate psychology students. Statistical analyses (Pearson's r and Cronbach's alpha) indicated adequate test-retest reliability for the full scales and subscales (coefficients ranging from 0.69 to 0.88) and high internal consistency (all coefficients exceeding 0.7). Convergent validity with the Maudsley Obsessional Compulsive Inventory (MOCI; Hodgson & Rachman, 1977) was adequate for the full scales and for the Washing and Checking subscales (coefficients ranging from 0.61 to 0.75). The OCI is a useful supplement to existing self-report measures of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology.

This paper seeks to examine the feasibility of targeting cognitive therapy during early relapse, using a single case design. Gumley, White and Power (1999) offer a theoretical conceptualization of psychotic relapse based on Teasdale and Barnard's (1993) ICS model of depression. This conceptualization aims to provide a means for clinicians and patients to formulate the key psychological factors, which may be responsible for the initiation, acceleration and maintenance of relapse, thereby enabling these factors to be targeted should a relapse be indicated. The intervention received by a case illustrated in this paper is derived from the ICS conceptualization of relapse. The intervention has two stages: an initial engagement and formulation phase and, if required, a targeted cognitive therapy phase. All of the characteristics of traditional cognitive therapy are adhered to, including the use of structure, problem focus, agenda, a socratic style, and collaboration. The paper concludes that there is a need for further research to provide further evidence of the feasibility and efficacy of this approach.

The present study examines the effectiveness of an online standardized treatment of posttraumatic stress and pathological grief administered through the Internet. Twenty students who had experienced traumatic life events and showed the symptoms of posttraumatic stress participated in the study. They received credit course points for inclusion in the research. Treatment consisted of 10 writing sessions (45 minutes each) during a period of 5 weeks. Participants were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and after six weeks (follow-up). The participants improved strongly from pre- to post-treatment on posttraumatic stress and pathological grief symptoms and in psychological functioning. These improvements were sustained during the follow-up period. Moreover, 19 of the 20 participants were clinically recovered after treatment. The changes in posttraumatic stress symptomatology were compared post hoc to changes in control and experimental groups from trials on similarly protocolled but face-to-face treatment of posttraumatic stress.

“Most people would welcome the chance to make a tenth of the contribution in any one area”, began Steve Hollon at Neil Jacobson's memorial service in Seattle, Washington this past June. “If you stop and think of the number of different domains to which he has made such a contribution, it really just boggles the mind. And, at the same time to be so beloved by so many people...To do so much – with such grace, with such clarity, and with so much concern and caring for family, for students, for friends – he was absolutely a marvel.”