Readings

How do JITAIs differ from standard interventions ? (section)

Aims to use mobile technology tracking health to adjust the provision and type of support over time to deal with an individual changing contexts and statuses, with the goal of delivering the most appropriate support on the right occasion
Aim to intervene only when needed to alleviate problems linked to intervention fatigue and low engagement
Differs from standard intervention as it is crafted to offer intervention just before, during or after a state of opportunity or risk for an individual – can bridge the gap between traditional static interventions and rapid and complex realities of people’s daily lives.

How can JITAIs reduce health disparities?

Health disparities is a difference in which a disadvantaged social group or groups systematically experience worse health or greater health risks than most advantaged social groups.
Can help to reduce health disparities by targeting individual level factors
Can help to reduce opportunities by delivering timely, personalised health intervention directly to individuals daily environments
What are some ethical considerations when it comes to JITALs?

How do the effect sizes of expectations and anxiety compare as potential nocebo mechanisms?

Expectancy as a mechanism can be doubted, as although a negative expectancy is often assumed to be the mechanism by which individuals experience nocebo effect, it is often not proven in nocebo studies that a negative expectancy has been created
The proposed anxiety as a mechanism may be stronger link, as it nocebo manipulation has been found to elicit increased anxiety associated with the anticipation of a potential negative outcome
What are the contributions of state vs trait (dispositional) anxiety to nocebo effects?

What are the ways state anxiety is measured, and how might this measurement impact findings?

State anxiety was measured using a single item or with the STAI-S. If state anxiety was measured with a single item rather than the STAI-S, the effect of state anxiety was larger on the single item test. Researchers argue that single time measure more specifically the effect of the treatment at hand, and this may be why there is a seemingly higher effect of anxiety on nocebo effects.

What are the limitations of the current literature, and what should be improved or included in future studies?

Although very large study, need to note that most studies were on the nocebo effect on pain.
Most studies had healthy participants rather than other types of participants
They did not assess mediation of the nocebo effect.
Recommendations include
Future researchers should include measures of expectancy and anxiety when exploring the nocebo effect
Future studies should be a better validated single time measure of expectancy and/or use a better validated multi-item measure.
Futures studies should be measured used a single item measure linked to the manipulation
Correlations between anxiety and expectation should be assess

Why are PPSs so challenging to recognise and treat in medicine ?

Is a challenge as medical treatment traditionally focuses on modifying disease progression rather than on symptom management
Causal mechanisms of persistent physical symptoms are complex and multifactorial, varying between individuals with the same symptoms.
Biomedical nor psychological models of health are sufficient, both being overly simplistic and outdated.

What are the benefits of the proposed transdiagnostic approach to persistent physical symptoms (PPS)?

The transdiagnostic approach targets shared biopsychosocial mechanisms—such as attention, expectation, and mood—across different disorders. It
Overcomes the divide between “mental” and “physical” illness.
Enables more holistic, mechanism-based, and person-centred treatment.
Reduces fragmented care, stigma, and unnecessary medical interventions.
Increases efficiency and accessibility by applying common strategies across conditions.

How do mood, attention, and expectation fit in the model discussed in the review?

In the biopsychosocial and predictive coding models
Mood (e.g., depression, anxiety) increases symptom perception and distress.
Attention (symptom focusing) heightens awareness of bodily sensations, reinforcing symptoms
Expectation (strong priors or beliefs) shapes perception so symptoms persist even without ongoing physical cause
Together, these factors interact to maintain persistent physical symptoms.

How do mood, attention, and expectation relate to the potential targets for person-centred treatment described in the paper?

Each factor is a modifiable treatment target
Mood Treated through CBT, mindfulness, or antidepressants to improve emotional regulation.
Attention Addressed by reducing symptom focusing via mindfulness or body awareness training.
Expectation Modified by correcting dysfunctional beliefs, managing nocebo effects, and optimising realistic expectations.
These strategies form the basis of person-centred, biopsychosocial care.

How is sleep deprivation studied under experimental conditions?

in this study they measured the effect of poor sleep on false memory formation , therefore they used the Deese-Roediger-Mcdermott paradigm and the Misinformation paradigm to create a false memory.
DRM - participants were told to remember a set of words all related to an unseen theme word, with false memory being the incorrect retrieval of the ‘theme word’.
Misinformation paradigm - participants were exposed to a scenario and expected to recall event information as a ‘witness’ to a crime, misinformation is retroactively introduced. In this paradigm false memory is the appearance of the misinformation given after the event.

How did they induce sleep deprivation?

Asked the participants control and PSD groups to stay in bed for 8 and 5 hours respectively for the 7 days prior to the measurement. For the sleep deprivation individuals, the group followed their sleep schedule for 7 nights before in the morning, staying awake from 20

Which sleep theories discussed in the class does the memory and sleep reading relate to?

The restoration theory
Brain Plasticity Theory .

What are some possible implications of these findings?

It was found that partially sleep-deprived adolescents were more likely to incorporate misleading post-event information into their responses while retrieving memories of the original event. →
The propensity to form false memories does not appear to be related to higher levels of subjective sleepiness, neither does it appear to be associated with a decline in vigilance.