Martin Hautzinger

University of Tuebingen | EKU Tübingen · Department of Psychology

Introduction: In depression treatment, most patients do not reach response or remission with current psychotherapeutic approaches. Major reasons for individual non-response are interindividual heterogeneity of etiological mechanisms and pathological forms, and a high rate of comorbid disorders. Personalised treatments targeting comorbidities as wel...

Background Stressful event exposure, dysfunctional attitudes (DA), negative automatic thoughts (NAT), and declining positive automatic thoughts (PAT) have been associated with depressive relapse/recurrence. Few studies have investigated the course of these variables and their relevance for relapse/recurrence in remitted depression. Methods Followi...

A mindfulness intervention was conducted during the critical and formative phase of teacher training in Germany. This study aims to investigate whether early career teachers benefit from this by better coping with occupational stress and improving their practical teaching skills. In a quasi-experimental design, 42 participants’ stress, mindfulness,...

Background: COVID-19-related confinements pose a threat to mental health. We investigated prevalence rates of symptoms of depression, generalized anxiety and insomnia in German adults. Furthermore, we explored associations of exercise behavior with disorder-specific symptoms and assessed whether specific affect regulation skills enhance the effect...

A mindfulness intervention was conducted during the critical and formative phase of teacher training in Germany. This study aims to investigate whether early career teachers benefit from this by better coping with occupational stress and improving their practical teaching skills. In a quasi-experimental design, 42 participants' stress, mindfulness,...

Adolescent girls, independent of their migration background, and adolescent boys, specifically with a migration background, experience more depressive symptoms than boys without a migration background. Adolescent girls also benefit more from depression prevention programs than boys. However, no studies have examined the role of migration background...

Objectives: Impairments in social cognitive processes are discussed as a vulnerability factor for bipolar disorder (BD). Previous studies demonstrated aberrant neural activation in brain areas related to theory of mind (ToM) and impaired affective ToM (aToM) task performance in BD. However, it is yet unknown whether successful psychotherapy of BD i...

Background Bipolar disorder is one of the most severe mental disorders. Its chronic course is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality, a high risk of suicide and poor social and occupational outcomes. Despite the great advances over the last decades in understanding mental disorders, the mechanisms underlying bipolar disorder at the n...

Background Mental disorders are prevalent and cause considerable burden of disease. Exercise has been shown to be efficacious to treat major depressive disorders, insomnia, panic disorder with and without agoraphobia and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Methods This pragmatic, two arm, multi-site randomised controlled trial will evaluate the...

Introduction: In depression treatment, most patients do not reach response or remission with current psychotherapeutic approaches. Major reasons for individual non-response are interindividual heterogeneity of etiological mechanisms and pathological forms, and a high rate of comorbid disorders. Personalised treatments targeting comorbidities as wel...

The founder of CBASP, James McCullough assumed that the interpersonal problems, which chronically depressed patients often experience, and which can fuel into the severity of the depression, have their roots in childhood maltreatment. These interpersonal problems also impair the relationship between patient and therapist and thereby impede effectiv...

Successful emotion regulation plays a key role in psychological health and well-being. This study examines (1) whether cognitive control and corresponding neural connectivity are associated with emotion regulation and (2) to what extent external instructions can improve emotion regulation in individuals with low vs. high cognitive control capacity....

Background: Exercise efficaciously reduces disorder-specific symptoms of psychiatric disorders. The current study aimed to examine the efficacy of a group exercise intervention on global symptom severity and disorder-specific symptoms among a mixed outpatient sample. Methods: Groups of inactive outpatients, waiting for psychotherapy, with depres...

Mind-body exercises such as Yoga or Qi Gong have demonstrated a wide range of health benefits and hold great promise for employment in clinical practice. However, the psychophysiological mechanism underlying these effects remains unclear. Theoretical frameworks highlight regulation as a characteristic and specific mechanism of mind-body exercise fo...

Bipolar disorder is a heritable mental illness with complex etiology. We performed a genome-wide association study of 41,917 bipolar disorder cases and 371,549 controls of European ancestry, which identified 64 associated genomic loci. Bipolar disorder risk alleles were enriched in genes in synaptic signaling pathways and brain-expressed genes, par...

Background This systematic review and meta-analysis assesses the efficacy of regular, moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods RCTs including children and adolescents with clinically diagnosed ADHD, implementing regu...

Zusammenfassung: Das Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) ist einer der vielversprechendsten Ansätze als störungsspezifisches Psychotherapieverfahren für chronische Depression. Um die kurz-und langfristige Wirksamkeit von CBASP beurteilen zu können, liegen bislang jedoch nicht genügend Studienergebnisse mit ausreichend lang...

Background: Bipolar disorder is one of the most severe mental disorders. Its chronic course is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality, a high risk of suicide and poor social and occupational outcomes. Despite the great advances over the last decades in understanding mental disorders, the mechanisms underlying bipolar disorder at the...

Objective This study explored whether treatment outcomes in a trial on the Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) vs. Supportive Psychotherapy (SP) for patients with early-onset chronic depression differ between alliance patterns. Method Session-to-session ratings of the therapeutic alliance (Helping Alliance Questionnaire (...

Importance: In the treatment of persistent depressive disorder (PDD), disorder-specific Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) has been shown to be superior to Supportive Psychotherapy (SP) in outpatients. It remains to clear which subgroups of patients benefit equally and differentially from both psychotherapies. Objective:...

Background Bipolar disorders are serious illnesses with a chronic course and a high rate of relapse. Typically, bipolar disorders onset during adolescence or early adulthood, with patients experiencing significant personal and social costs as a consequence of their illness. Despite this, to date, there is limited (controlled) evidence regarding the...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a heritable mental illness with complex etiology. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 41,917 BD cases and 371,549 controls, which identified 64 associated genomic loci. BD risk alleles were enriched in genes in synaptic and calcium signaling pathways and brain-expressed genes, particularly those with high...

Background: fear of falling and reduced fall-related self-efficacy are frequent consequences of falls and associated with poorer rehabilitation outcomes. To address these psychological consequences, geriatric inpatient rehabilitation was augmented with a cognitive behavioural intervention ("Step by Step") and evaluated in a RCT. Methods: one hun...

Objective Physical exercise is associated with many health benefits. Especially for older adults it is challenging to achieve an appropriate adherence to exercise programs. The outcome expectations for exercise scale 2 (OEE-2) is a 13-item self-report questionnaire to assess negative and positive exercise outcome expectations in older adults. The a...

Introduction: Social distancing and quarantine measures applied during the COVID-19 pandemic might result in mental health problems. In this cross-sectional study we examined if perceived social support, exercise in minutes per week and change in exercise are protective factors regarding symptoms of depression, anxiety, and sleeping disorders. Meth...

Background: Looking back at more than 40 years of depression research including over 500 randomized trials, the efficacy of depression treatment is still unsatisfactory with less than half of the patients meeting criteria for response / remission (e.g. Cuijpers et al., 2014), and a high chronicity rate of up to 30% (e.g. Murphy & Byrne, 2012). In o...

Regelmäßige sportliche Aktivität wirkt sich nicht nur auf das körperliche Wohlbefinden aus, sondern hat auch positive Effekte auf die psychische Verfassung. Sport verringert bei Depressionen, Angststörungen, Schlafstörungen und ADHS die Symptomatik deutlich. Trotz dieser klinisch relevanten Effekte gibt es bisher vor allem im ambulanten Versorgungs...

Background: Childhood maltreatment (CM) predicted poorer outcomes in acute depression treatment with CBT, IPT and Supportive Psychotherapy (SP). The Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) fared well in patients with chronic depression and CM during acute treatment, yet there is a considerable lack of empirical evidence for lo...

Since the first publication of the guideline in 2012, which included critically reviewed evidence up to 2010, several hundred articles with new evidence were published and some topics of the clinical consensus needed to be reconsidered. Therefore, it was urgently necessary to revise the guideline to bring them up to date. In this article important...

Background: Late-life depression (LLD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders in old age. It is associated with various adverse outcomes and frequent use of health care services thereby remaining a serious public health concern. Compared with depression in early adulthood, most treatment options of LLD are less effective. Psychotherapy may...

Die Entgegnung auf den Beitrag von Kaiser et al. betrifft die erste kontrollierte Psychotherapiestudie, die psychoanalytische und kognitiv-verhaltenstherapeutische Langzeitpsychotherapien mit randomisierter und präferierter Zuweisung miteinander vergleicht. In 4 Behandlungszentren wurden 554 chronisch depressive Patienten interviewt, von denen 252...

Does the pre-treatment profile of individuals with persistent depressive disorder (PDD) moderate their benefit from disorder-specific Cognitive Behavioral System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) versus supportive psychotherapy (SP)? We investigated this question by analyzing data from a multi-center randomized clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of...

Objectives: A recent trial comparing Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) and supportive psychotherapy in chronic depression found CBASP to be more effective in treating depressive symptoms. We aimed to evaluate adverse events that occurred during this trial. Materials and method: A randomized trial of chronically depres...

Objectives: Reward sensitivity is suggested to be an influence on the onset and reoccurrence of bipolar disorder (BD) in observational longitudinal studies. The current study examined whether reward sensitivity predicted the recurrence of mood episodes in a treatment seeking sample. We also explored if reward sensitivity moderated treatment outcom...

Over the last decade, the concept of Subjective Vitality has gained popularity as one indicator of human well-being. However, today no valid instrument exists to measure Subjective Vitality in German speaking samples. To close this gap, we validated a German trait and state version of the Subjective Vitality Scale (Ryan and Frederick 1997). Study o...

Chronically depressed individuals have a high suicide risk. However, it is an open question whether previously observed risk factors for suicide attempts also apply to chronic depression or whether there are specific risk factors related to chronic-recurrent illness. We drew from a large group of chronically depressed individuals seeking psychother...

Background Depression often remains undiagnosed or treated inadequately. Web-based interventions for depression may improve accessibility of treatment and reduce disease-related costs. This study aimed to examine the potential of the web-based cognitive behavioral intervention “deprexis” in reducing disease-related costs. Methods Participants with...

Background: Evidence on the long-term efficacy of psychotherapeutic approaches for chronic depression is scarce. Objective: To evaluate the effects of the Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) compared to Supportive Psychotherapy (SP) 1 year and 2 years after treatment termination. Methods: In this study, we present 1-...

Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable psychiatric disorder. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 20,352 cases and 31,358 controls of European descent, with follow-up analysis of 822 variants with P < 1 × 10−4 in an additional 9,412 cases and 137,760 controls. Eight of the 19 variants that were genome-wide significant (P <...

High levels of expressed emotions (EE) reflect the amount of criticism and/or over-involvement in families and has been linked to relapse risk in various psychiatric disorders including bipolar disorder (BD). Less clear is which factors contribute to the development and/or maintenance of EE. Therefore, we tested whether patient characteristics, spe...

Zusammenfassung Nur etwa die Hälfte derjenigen, die an einer depressiven Störung leiden, sucht auch eine Behandlung auf. Selbstmanagement Interventionen sind eine Möglichkeit, diese Behandlungslücke zu reduzieren. Diese Interventionen basieren meist auf evidenzbasierten Techniken der Kognitiven Verhaltenstherapie, welche statt durch einen Therapeut...

We investigated whether (a) depression prevention was associated with depressive symptoms and medial‐frontal alpha asymmetry in adolescents; (b) alpha asymmetry mediated the association between participation in a prevention program and depressive symptoms; and (c) gender affects these associations. In our randomised control group study, we compared...

In rural areas, breast cancer-affected patients still do not receive sufficient psycho-oncological care that addresses their specific needs. As a partial solution, telemedicine and web-based applications (eHealth) can add value to their psycho-oncological care as part of self-management regardless of personnel resources, geographical distance from...

To date, only few studies have attempted to investigate non-ignorable dropout during Internet-based interventions by applying an NMAR model, which includes missing data indicators in its equations. Here, the Muthen-Roy model was used to investigate change and dropout patterns in a sample of patients with mild-to-moderate depression symptoms (N = 48...

Interparental conflict is detrimental to the development of children. Only few methods for quantifying the degree of interparental conflict exist and this produces controversies about what is detrimental to child well-being and what is not. This is particularly critical in cases where there is a form of child abuse or maltreatment that cannot be di...

The World Health Organization has defined health as “complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (World Health Organization, 1948). An increasing number of studies have therefore started to investigate “the good life.” However, the underlying variation in brain activity has rarely been examine...

Worldwide, the pressure on psychoanalysis to prove the results of its treatments according to the criteria of so-called evidence-based medicine has increased. While a large number of studies on the results of psychoanalytic short-term therapies are now available, such studies are still largely lacking on psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic long-term...

Clinical social work (CSW) may play an important role in the treatment of persons with depressive disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a resource-oriented CSW intervention on social functioning in a population of mothers diagnosed with depression. In a randomised controlled trial (RCT), 61 mothers were assigned to a cl...

Objective:: For chronic depression, the effectiveness of brief psychotherapy has been limited. This study is the first comparing the effectiveness of long-term cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and long-term psychoanalytic therapy (PAT) of chronically depressed patients and the effects of preferential or randomized allocation. Methods:: A tota...

This chapter explains phenomena, symptoms and treatment of fatigue and burnout syndrome from a clinical viewpoint. Information and suggestions for pastoral care professionals are provided.

The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) is a self-report instrument to assess relevant dimensions of bodily awareness. The aim of this study was to offer a Japanese version and adaptation of the MAIA (MAIA-J), as well as to analyse its psychometric properties in a Japanese population. The English MAIA was systematically fo...

1 Background Persistent depressive disorder (PDD) is associated with high rates of comorbid psychiatric disorders, mostly anxiety disorders (ADs). Comorbid AD was found to be associated with poorer treatment outcome in PDD patients. The effect of comorbid AD on disorder‐specific treatment for PDD (Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychothera...

Mindfulness-based interventions have proved effective in reducing various clinical symptoms and in improving general mental health and well-being. The investigation of the mechanisms of therapeutic change needs methods for assessment of mindfulness. Existing self-report measures have, however, been strongly criticized on various grounds, including...