Tore C. Stiles

Norwegian University of Science and Technology | NTNU · Department of Psychology

The Emotion Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ) assesses beliefs about the controllability and usefulness of positive and negative emotions. The aim of the present study was to establish the construct validity and reliability of the EBQ within the cultural and linguistic context of Norway. The Norwegian version of the EBQ (EBQ-N) was administered to a samp...

The Emotion Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ) assesses beliefs about the controllability and usefulness of positive and negative emotions. The aim of the present study was to establish the construct validity and reliability of the EBQ within the cultural and linguistic context of Norway. The Norwegian version of the EBQ (EBQ-N) was administered to a samp...

Introduction Treatment of chronic low back pain (CLBP) based on the fear-avoidance model (FAM) has received support in randomized controlled trials, but few studies have examined treatment processes associated with treatment outcome. This study examined changes in pain catastrophizing, fear-avoidance beliefs, and pain self-efficacy as mediators of...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01995.].

Purpose: Current interventions designed to facilitate return to work (RTW) after long-term sick leave show weak effects, indicating the need for new approaches to the RTW process. The importance of social relationships in the workplace is widely recognized in existing RTW literature, but very little is known about the role of the interpersonal prob...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.580924.].

Depression is associated with reduced executive functioning. Still, we lack a more detailed understanding of the factors explaining this association. Addressing several limitations in the previous literature, we examine whether poor executive functioning is associated with specific depression symptoms using a network approach. The sample consisted...

Using data from 1721 participants in a community-based randomized control trial of digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia compared with patient education, we employed linear mixed modelling analyses to examine whether chronotype moderated the benefits of digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia on self-reported levels of insom...

Background: Depression is associated with reduced executive functioning. Still, we lack a more detailed understanding of the causes, nature, and mechanisms explaining this association. Addressing limitations in the previous literature, for example the “task impurity”-problem and depression heterogeneity, we examine whether poor executive functionin...

Background: Little emphasis has been given to the fact that various psychological processes and behaviors in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) have neural correlates that affect—and are affected by—the immune system. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the literature on cross-sectional and longitudin...

Background Research indicates that therapist competence in assigning homework may play a prominent role for outcome in cognitive therapy (CT) with various psychiatric disorders, including Cluster C personality disorders. Potentially cofounding factors need to be addressed though, and the present study examined to what extent therapist competence in...

The purpose was to present a total description, distribution, and ranking of chronic pain conditions in the general population. This was based on structured clinical examinations of a random sample from a population-based survey (HUNT3) with a calculated oversampling of participants with chronic pain. Supplemented with access to hospital reports, t...

A recent meta-analysis has questioned the relevance of attention bias modification (ABM) for depression outcomes. However, there might be patient characteristics not yet accounted for, that are relevant to the outcome. In the context of personalized treatment, the lack of moderator studies have limited the potential for matching ABM-treatment to in...

Study Objectives Digital Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (dCBT-I) is an effective treatment for insomnia. However, less is known about mediators of its benefits. The aim of the present study was to test if intraindividual variability in sleep (IIV) was reduced with dCBT-I, and whether any identified reduction was a mediator of dCBT-I on...

Objective: To study whether standard cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and a shorter, interpersonal oriented cognitive behavioral therapy (I-CBT) can improve physical function and fatigue in patients diagnosed with mild to moderate chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in a multidisciplinary fatigue clinic. Design: Consecutively 236 participants 18–62 ye...

Existing studies on cognitive impairments in chronic pain do not investigate peripheral neuropathic pain (PNP) or compare pain conditions in a satisfactory manner. Here we aimed to compare executive dysfunctions in PNP patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and healthy controls (HC). Patients who self-reported cognitive impairments were assessed according...

Pain and depression are episodic conditions that might take a chronic course. They are clearly related, but information on how they influence each other in the process of chronification is limited. Pain catastrophizing is hypothesized to play a role in the development of depression and chronic pain, but few longitudinal studies have investigated th...

Impairments in executive functioning are prevalent in chronic pain conditions, with cognitive inflexibility being the most frequently reported. The current randomized, cross-over trial, piloted a computerized cognitive training (CCT) program based on Relational Frame Theory, targeting improvement in cognitive flexibility. At baseline, 73 chronic pa...

Background: Treatment based on the Fear-Avoidance (FA) model has been found to be effective with chronic low back pain (CLBP), and in-vivo exposure of fear evoking movements is proposed as a key change mechanism. Exposure tasks may be conducted in the session (in-session exposure; ISE), in other real life situations (between sessions exposure) as...

Background Although several large-scale randomised controlled trials have shown the efficacy of digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (dCBT-I), there is a need to validate widespread dissemination of dCBT-I using recommended key outcomes for insomnia. We investigated the effect of a fully automated dCBT-I programme on insomnia severity...

Background Metacognitions are associated with work status, but no research has examined to what extent metacognitions before treatment and change in metacognitions following treatment predict return to work (RTW) prospectively. The present study aims to address these two gaps in knowledge. Methods 212 patients on long-term sick leave (>8 weeks) wi...

The quality of the coach-athlete relationship has been linked to athlete burnout in previous studies. However, few studies have examined individual factors among athletes that may affect this association, and in particular among young athletes with high activity involvement. Hence, in the present study, we studied the potential mediating role of at...

Epidemiological studies have to a little extent addressed the potential fluctuations of chronic pain over time, and there is a lack of information about the long-term course of pain using repeated measurements. We wanted to identify different trajectories of pain during eight waves of follow-up over four years among individuals in the general popul...

Background and aims: Pain catastrophizing has consistently been related to a variety of negative outcomes within chronic pain conditions, but competing models exist explaining the role of catastrophizing. According to the fear-avoidance model (FAM), catastrophizing is primarily related to the appraisal of pain (i.e. “intrapersonal”), whereas the co...

Depression is a highly recurrent disorder with limited treatment alternatives for reducing risk of subsequent episodes. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and attention bias modification (ABM) separately have shown some promise in reducing depressive symptoms. This study investigates (a) if group-based ACT had a greater impact in reducing resi...

The current study investigated associations between cognitive components such as psychological resilience and perceived stress, and affective components such as positive and negative affect, and athlete burnout and perceived performance among 670 Norwegian junior athletes attending high schools specialized for sports. A hypothesized model of the re...

Metacognitive theory proposes that depression is caused by excessive rumination, which is in turn maintained by maladaptive positive and negative beliefs about rumination (“metacognitions”) and reduced executive control. Moreover, the metacognitive model asserts that metacognitions are maintained by prolonged depression symptoms. However, no studie...

Background Following treatment, many depressed patients have significant residual symptoms. However, large randomised controlled trials (RCT) in this population are lacking. When Attention bias modification training (ABM) leads to more positive emotional biases, associated changes in clinical symptoms have been reported. A broader and more transpar...

Using a computational network approach, we reanalyzed data from a randomized controlled-trial of attention bias modification task (ABM) on residual depression symptoms. The main aim was to characterize the symptom-to-symptom changes following ABM. ABM was associated with improvements in interest, which was, in turn, associated with improvements in...

The current study tests possible transfer effects from NT 3D MOT training among elite athletes from dynamic sports on executive brain functions, such as alerting, orienting, executive control, inhibition, shifting and updating. Sixty athletes from different sports, such as martial arts (boxing and wrestling), handball, soccer, orienteering, biathlo...

Background: The current treatments of choice for patients with chronic fatigue are moderately effective. One way to advance treatments is identifying process variables associated with good treatment outcomes. There is little knowledge regarding a possible association between insomnia and long-term outcomes in the treatment of chronic fatigue. Aims:...

Transfer from on-site rehabilitation to the participant’s daily environment is considered a weak link in the rehabilitation chain. Various follow-up regimes have been implemented after multidisciplinary rehabilitation, however, consensus is lacking on recommended content, duration and intensity.

Abstract Background Group-based transdiagnostic occupational rehabilitation programs including participants with mental and somatic disorders have emerged in clinical practice. Knowledge is sparse on subsequent participation in competitive work. This study aimed to investigate trajectories for (re)entry to work for predefined subgroups in a diagnos...

Introduction Insomnia is a major public health concern. While cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is acknowledged as the best available intervention, there are unanswered questions about its wider dissemination, socioeconomic benefits and its impact on health resource utilisation. The aim of this randomised controlled trial (RCT) is to...

Purpose Transfer from on-site rehabilitation to the participant’s daily environment is considered a weak link in the rehabilitation chain. The main objective of this study is to see if adding boosted telephone follow-up directly after completing an occupational rehabilitation program effects work participation. Methods A randomized controlled study...

Objective: Following treatment, many depressed patients have significant residual symptoms. However, large randomised controlled trials (RCT) in this population are lacking. Attention bias modification training (ABM) can modify biases in emotion processing and may lead to symptom relief. We hypothesized that two weeks of ABM training would reduce c...

Introduction Previous trials of an online CBT-I intervention, Sleep Healthy Using The internet (SHUTi), have yielded large treatment effects, comparable to that of face-to-face CBT-I. However, no studies have compared these two interventions in a randomized trial. Because of the advantages of online treatment in availability and cost, we designed t...

Background: This project studies the effect of group-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) following Attention Bias Modification (ABM) on residual symptoms in recurrent depression. ACT is a cognitive-behavioral intervention combining acceptance and mindfulness processes with commitment and behavior-change processes. ACT enjoys modest empir...

Perspective: When examining persons with pain in the general population, catastrophizing is associated with several aspects of function, and diagnosis serves as a moderator for these associations. The replication of these associations in the general population support their reliability and generalizability.

The developed concept applies Virtual Reality (VR) and biofeedback for mental training in organizations. The concept is implemented to an application and used to explore how wearable technology can increase self-awareness related to employees’ performance improvement. Using wearable VR technology, 16 employees and leaders in a finance organization...

This paper presents a concept for designing low-cost therapeutic training with biofeedback and virtual reality. We completed the first evaluation of a prototype - a mobile learning application for relaxation training, primarily for adolescents suffering from tension-type headaches. The system delivers visual experience on a head-mounted display. A...

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has never been tested for patients with chronic fatigue. We aimed to test if a 3.5-week ACT rehabilitation program for patients with chronic fatigue improved quality of life (QoL), fatigue, and psychological flexibility. Further, to test if improvements in QoL and fatigue were associated with improvement in p...

Objectives: To examine if elevated symptoms of insomnia affects neuropsychological functioning in patients with concurrent symptoms of pain, fatigue, and mood disorders. Methods and results: A total of seventy-six subjects participated in this (cross-sectional) study. Based on the cut-off score guidelines from The Insomnia Severity Index subject...

Dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs (“metacognitions”) and executive control are important factors in mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, but the relationship between these concepts has not been studied systematically. We examined whether there is an association between metacognitions and executive control and hypothesized that decreas...

Introduction: The current study examined if adaptive working memory training (Cogmed QM) has the potential to improve inhibitory control, working memory capacity, and perceptions of memory functioning in a group of patients currently on sick leave due to symptoms of pain, insomnia, fatigue, depression and anxiety. Participants who were referred to...

This chapter focuses on two syndromes that have proven to be challenging to today's medical world—chronic fatigue and chronic pain. Both are of unknown origin, with severely debilitating symptoms that cause long-term disability and no effective treatments to date. It is the goal of current research to understand the causality of the pathophysiology...

Background: The most efficacious treatments for social anxiety disorder (SAD) are the SSRIs and cognitive therapy (CT). Combined treatment is advocated for SAD but has not been evaluated in randomized trials using CT and SSRI. Our aim was to evaluate whether one treatment is more effective than the other and whether combined treatment is more effe...

This article looks at how harmonic and obsessive passion, perceived performance, positive and negative stress, and worry uniquely predict athlete burnout in sport. A sample of 318 junior elite athletes from different sports participated in the investigation. Our results from a multiple regression analysis show that all variables, except for obsessi...

Background: Subjective cognitive impairments are frequent, but poorly understood in patients with chronic fatigue. We hypothesized that maladaptive metacognitive beliefs at baseline were associated with baseline subjective cognitive impairments, that they predict subjective cognitive impairments at treatment termination, and that a reduction in mal...

Background: In this effectiveness trial we compared the long-term effects on hospitalizations of group psychoeducation (GP) versus individual psychoeducation (IP) for a heterogeneous sample of patients with BD recruited from general clinical settings. Methods: Eighty-five patients with BD were randomized to receive 10 weekly sessions of GP follo...

Depression is a common illness which tends to have a relapsing progression. Revealing vulnerability factors is an important step towards improved treatment and prevention. Previous studies of individuals in remission indicate that inhibitory control is more strongly impaired than other cognitive functions. Studies have mostly used Stroop tasks; it...

Objective: There are reasons to suggest that the therapist effect lies at the intersection between psychotherapists' professional and personal functioning. The current study investigated if and how the interplay between therapists' (n = 70) professional self-reports (e.g., of their difficulties in practice in the form of 'professional self-doubt'...

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify symptoms associated with subjective memory complaints (SMCs) among subjects who are currently on sick leave due to symptoms of chronic pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, subjects (n = 167) who were currently on sick leave were asked to complet...

Background: Psychoeducation is recommended adjunct treatment for patients with bipolar disorder, but it is still unclear what format of psychoeducation works best and for which populations it works best. Aims: To test if 18 sessions of group based psychoeducation is more effective than three sessions of individual psychoeducation in reducing the lo...

The definition of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) overlaps with definitions of insomnia, but there is limited knowledge about the role of insomnia in the treatment of chronic fatigue. To test if improvement of insomnia during treatment of chronic fatigue was associated with improved outcomes on 1) fatigue and 2) cortisol recovery span during a stand...

Objective: This study aimed to describe the somatic, social, psychological, and work-related factors that characterize participants with a duration of sick leave over and under one year. Methods: During 2012, 181 patients on long-term sick leave were consecutively recruited and asked to answer an extensive survey. Several outcomes were reported,...

Serotoninergic transmission is reliably implicated in inhibitory control processes. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis if serotonin transporter polymorphisms mediate inhibitory control in healthy people. 141 healthy subjects, carefully screened for previous and current psychopathology, were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR and rs25531 polym...

The present study examined the relationship between self-image and outcome in psychotherapy. Patients (n = 170) received treatment-as-usual at a university clinic, and met diagnostic criteria for mostly anxiety and depression related disorders. Self-image was measured with the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB-I) introject pre and post-t...

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal effect of work-related stress, sleep deficiency, and physical activity on 10-year cardiometabolic risk among an all-female worker population.Methods Data on patient care workers (n = 99) was collected 2 years apart. Baseline measures included: job stress, physical activity, night...

This study examined whether work-family conflict was associated with sleep deficiencies, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. In this two-phase study, a workplace health survey was completed by a cohort of patient care workers (n = 1,572). Additional data were collected 2 years later from a subsample of the original respondents (n = 102). Sel...

This article investigates whether patients' sense of self and therapists' interventions aimed at orienting patients toward affect produce an affective activation in the patient. Both the independent contribution of sense of self and therapist intervention, as well as sense of self's moderating effect on therapist interventions, were investigated. F...

This study examined whether work-family conflict was associated with sleep deficiencies, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. In this two-phase study, a workplace health survey was completed by a cohort of patient care workers (n = 1,572). Additional data were collected 2 years later from a subsample of the original respondents (n = 102). Sel...

The present study examined whether levels of activating affects (AA) and inhibitory affects (IA) were related to change toward more compassionate and realistic levels of sense of self (SoS) and sense of others (SoO). The sample included 47 patients diagnosed with cluster C personality disorders, who received 40 sessions of either cognitive therapy...

This study aimed to (1) See whether increased or decreased variation relate to subjective reports of common somatic and psychological symptoms for a population on long-term sick leave; and (2) See if this pattern in variation is correlated with autonomic activation and psychological appraisal. Our participants (n = 87) were referred to a 3.5-week r...

This study examined the factor structure of the Achievement of Therapeutic Objectives Scale (ATOS; McCullough, Larsen, et al., 2003) in short-term dynamic psychotherapy (STDP) and cognitive therapy (CT). The ATOS is a process scale that has shown promise as a measure of patients' achievements of treatment objectives in STDP and CT and is conceptual...