Understanding the underlying mechanisms of recovery from insomnia is an important goal for improving existing treatments. In a randomised controlled trial, 57 participants with insomnia disorder were given either cognitive therapy (CT) or mindfulness-based therapy (MBT) following 4 sessions of CBT. Each participant was assessed on process measures related to CT and MBT. MBT resulted in improvement on mindfulness process measures and the size of the improvement was significantly greater than achieved in the CT condition. Interestingly, CT and MBT both resulted in significant improvement on the cognitive process measures. Treatment outcome on the primary outcome measure (Insomnia Severity Index) was not predicted by type of treatment but was predicted by posttreatment scores on the cognitive process measures. The results suggest that changes in cognitive processes are especially important in treating insomnia, and that there are different therapeutic modalities through which this can be achieved.

Childhood obesity treatment programs only result in moderate outcomes in the short term and do not reduce risk for future weight gain. Therefore, in the current study, Approach Avoidance Training (AAT) with motivational game elements will be added to an inpatient childhood obesity program with the aim of improving outcomes. Forty-one children (10–15 years) in the final months of an inpatient treatment program were randomised to either the AAT plus care-as-usual condition group or to a care-as-usual-only control group. During the 10 sessions, the children were trained to approach healthy food stimuli and to avoid unhealthy food stimuli. Treatment outcomes were child performances on tasks of AAT, implicit attitudes and attentional bias, self-report ratings on craving symptoms, and weight loss maintenance after leaving the clinic (12-week follow-up). Changes over time were not significantly different between conditions for the measures of automatic processes, craving, and weight loss maintenance. Possible accounts for the null findings, including sample size, influence of game elements, point of time in therapeutic process, limitations of the setting, and the control group are discussed. More research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn about the clinical usefulness of CBM for weight control in childhood obesity.

The depressive-realism effect refers to a phenomenon in which depressed individuals are more realistic at assessing the relationship between two events than non-depressed individuals. Recent evidence suggests that the depressive realism hypothesis is weaker than first thought. Thus, we sought evidence for depressive-realism under conditions that we hypothesised would maximise the effect. We tested a clinically depressed sample of participants who were administered a rumination induction. Twenty-eight clinically depressed and 39 non-depressed participants were randomly allocated to either a rumination condition (focused on the causes, consequences, and meaning of their mood) or a distraction condition (focused on external objects/events such as a classroom). Participants then completed a contingency task in which there was no relationship between their responses and an outcome, and they were asked to make a judgment of how much control they had over an outcome. Both groups and conditions did not differ in their judgments of control; participants in all conditions showed a non-normative judgment of control. The depressive-realism effect was not observed in this study, even when depressed participants were encouraged to ruminate. Rather, the present study clearly demonstrates the robustness of the illusion of control.

Cognitive theories of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) posit that cognitive and behavioural factors maintain the disorder. This study examined whether avoidance and safety behaviours mediated the relationship between cognitive factors and GAD symptoms. We also examined the reverse mediation model; that is, whether cognitive factors mediated the relationship between maladaptive behaviours and GAD symptoms. Undergraduate psychology students (N = 125 and N = 292) completed the Worry Behaviours Inventory (a recently developed measure of maladaptive behaviours associated with GAD), in addition to measures of intolerance of uncertainty, cognitive avoidance, metacognitive beliefs, and symptoms of GAD and depression. Analyses supported the reliability and validity of the WBI. We consistently found that engagement in maladaptive behaviours significantly mediated the relationship between cognitive factors and symptoms of GAD. The reverse mediation model was also supported. Our results are consistent with the contention that cognitive and behavioural factors contribute to GAD symptom severity.