I
was recently shocked to discover that the world health organisation has
estimated that 50 million years of work, an annual global loss of £651bn, will
be lost to anxious and depressive disorders between now and 2030. Although I
was aware that emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression are on the
increase, I found this figure particularly alarming not only for the state of
the economy, but more importantly for the future psychological well-being of
individuals, their families, and the society we live in.
As
it stands, current pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments have been
shown to be only modestly effective in both the treatment and prevention of
emotional disorder. To me, it seems critical then that more research is carried
out in order to better understand the underlying mechanisms involved in these
conditions.
By
achieving this, there is hope that we can develop effective interventions to
not only treat emotional vulnerability, but further to build resilience against
its onset and recurrence.
So,
how do we become more resilient? How do we continue to cope with the ever
demanding stresses that society and life place upon us?
It
is these questions that motivated me to embark upon a PhD exploring how we can
develop appropriate interventions to build resilience in vulnerable
populations. Luckily, Professor Nazanin Derakshan at Birkbeck University of
London, Director of the Laboratory for the study of Risk and Resilience in
Mental Well-Being, and Director of the Centre for Building Psychological
Resilience in Breast Cancer, is of a similar mind-set, and agreed to supervise
me throughout this journey.
For
many years Derakshan has investigated the cognitive mechanisms that are
involved in emotional disorder. Derakshan is of the mind that our ability
to flexibly direct where we place our attention, is the key mechanism in
regulating our emotions and boosting our psychological resilience. In other
words, the better we are at paying attention to our current goal (e.g. Writing
this blog post), the less distracted we are at the expense of irrelevant
intrusions and worrisome and ruminative thoughts that can quickly lead to
cognitive and emotional fatigue (e.g. 'What if I fail my PhD?!'). We can refer
to this ability as 'attentional control'.
Backing
up this claim, research has shown that people with high anxiety and depression
are poor at exercising attentional control, they find it difficult to focus,
concentrate, and get easily distracted. Research shows that when there are
possible faulty brain connections between 'emotional' and 'cognitive' systems
they can lead to problems in regulating attentional control and using it more
effectively when we need it.
If
then attentional control is the key mechanism by which emotional vulnerability
can be moderated, how then can this process be targeted?
It
was many years ago that I first became aware of online 'cognitive training'
games in psychological science, at the time being investigated for its reversal
effects on cognitive degeneration through ageing. However, it is only recently
that I have discovered a line of research investigating the effects of these
games on emotional disorder, led by Derakshan. Can training our attentional
control through cognitive training games better our ability to stop intruding
and ruminative thoughts from occupying brain space? Further, is the training
applicable to other circumstances, such as improving anxious states that can
interrupt sports performance? Preliminary findings show great promise. As
yet, compared to control groups, a course of adaptive attentional control
training has shown to reduce anxiety, increase cognitive efficiency leading to
better performance and improve sports performance under high pressure.
I
am a firm believer in always considering the potential directions and clinical
relevance of new interventions for emotional disorder. So, what is the future
for cognitive training in psychological health? I think it is fair to say
that a number of current psychological therapies such as mindfulness and
cognitive behavioural therapy are of varied success. Yes, for many patients
they have wonderful effects, however many others fail to engage at all. This
may in part be due to the lack of attentional resources that severely depressed
and anxious individuals possess. If one's attention is poor, how can one easily
engage in a 10 week course of psychological therapy which requires focus and
concentration? It can often be problematic.
Therefore,
cognitive training may be beneficial as a complimentary treatment to current
therapies. If attentional control processes are improved through training,
individuals will be better enabled to pay attention and gain the most value
from their treatment.
So
improving our cognitive flexibility and ability to adaptively pay attention to
our current goals may, in effect, help to our build resilience and protect
against emotional vulnerability. This research is in its infancy and there is a
long journey ahead, but I am excited by our initial findings and am keen to
build developing cognitive interventions that may help alleviate and prevent
emotional distress.
Jessica
Swainston
PhD
candidate in the Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck University
of London
Laboratory
for Risk and Resilience in Psychopathology and Mental Well-Being
Centre
for Building Psychological Resilience in Breast Cancer
No comments:
Post a Comment