Rhonda M Merwin

Journal Article Diabet Med · March 13, 2025 AIMS: Eating disorders (EDs) are associated with severe health complications and early death in individuals with type 1 diabetes, making the accurate detection of EDs crucial so that treatment can be initiated. The Diabetes Eating Problems Survey-Revised ( ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acceptability and feasibility of acceptance and commitment therapy for improving outcomes in hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2025 INTRODUCTION: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) has the potential to cure patients with hematologic malignancies, but treatment-related morbidity and mortality is high. Transplant outcomes are optimized by patients maintaining physical ac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Profiles of disordered eating behaviour in type 1 diabetes using the DEPS-R and behaviour and glycaemic outcomes in a real-life setting.

Journal Article Diabet Med · June 2024 AIMS: The Diabetes Eating Problems Survey - Revised (DEPS-R) is commonly used to assess disordered eating behaviour (DEB) in individuals with type 1 diabetes and has advantages compared to other measures not specifically tailored to diabetes. A score ≥20 o ... Full text Link to item Cite

Predictors of changing patterns of adherence to containment measures during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic: an international longitudinal study.

Journal Article Global Health · April 17, 2023 BACKGROUND: Identifying common factors that affect public adherence to COVID-19 containment measures can directly inform the development of official public health communication strategies. The present international longitudinal study aimed to examine wheth ... Full text Link to item Cite

Change in body image flexibility and correspondence with outcomes in a digital early intervention for eating disorders based on acceptance and commitment therapy.

Journal Article Body Image · March 2023 Body image flexibility (BIF) has been suggested as a transdiagnostic process of change in eating disorder (ED) interventions, but data remain sparse. The current study examined the relationship between BIF and treatment effects in a randomized controlled t ... Full text Link to item Cite

The impact of government actions and risk perception on the promotion of self-protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2023 INTRODUCTION: We aim to understand the factors that drive citizens of different countries to adhere to recommended self-protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Survey data was obtained through the COVID-19 Impact project. We selected co ... Full text Link to item Cite

Engineering Virtuous health habits using Emotion and Neurocognition: Flexibility for Lifestyle Optimization and Weight management (EVEN FLOW).

Journal Article Frontiers in aging neuroscience · January 2023 Interventions to preserve functional independence in older adults are critically needed to optimize 'successful aging' among the large and increasing population of older adults in the United States. For most aging adults, the management of chronic diseases ... Full text Open Access Cite

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for eating disorders: A systematic review of intervention studies and call to action

Journal Article Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science · October 1, 2022 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is increasingly used to treat eating disorders (EDs); however, the evidence for ACT with EDs has not been the subject of a systematic review. The current study reviews the evidence of ACT for EDs through January of 2 ... Full text Cite

Editors Introduction to the Special Issue on Advances in Cognitive and Behaviour Therapies and Applications in Health Practices.

Journal Article J Clin Med · September 7, 2022 The last thirty years have seen significant advances in cognitive and behavioural psychotherapies and their application in health care/clinical practices [...]. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acceptability and feasibility of a gamified digital eating disorder early-intervention program (AcceptME) based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Journal Article Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science · July 1, 2022 Background: Digital early-intervention programs for a variety of psychological conditions, including eating disorders (EDs) are increasing. Yet, none to date have leveraged gamification and vicarious learning components grounded in empirically-supported th ... Full text Cite

Randomized Clinical Trial Evaluating AcceptME-A Digital Gamified Acceptance and Commitment Early Intervention Program for Individuals at High Risk for Eating Disorders.

Journal Article Journal of clinical medicine · March 2022 Eating disorders (ED) constitute a serious public health issue affecting predominantly women and appearing typically in adolescence or early adulthood. EDs are extremely difficult to treat, as these disorders are ego-syntonic, and many patients do not seek ... Full text Cite

Mental Health and Adherence to COVID-19 Protective Behaviors among Cancer Patients during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International, Multinational Cross-Sectional Study.

Journal Article Cancers (Basel) · December 15, 2021 A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted during the first COVID-19 wave, to examine the impact of COVID-19 on mental health using an anonymous online survey, enrolling 9565 individuals in 78 countries. The current sub-study examined the impac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acceptance

Chapter · November 10, 2021 Acceptance refers to the active and aware embrace of unwanted private events. It is the cornerstone of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) interventions and is evoked whenever experiential avoidance interferes with valued living. This chapter provides ... Cite

Mental Health Status of Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Outbreak: An International Study

Journal Article European Journal of Psychology Open · September 1, 2021 Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a massive health crisis that has exerted enormous physical and psychological pressure. Mental healthcare for healthcare workers (HCWs) should receive serious consideration. This study served to determine the mental-heal ... Full text Cite

Patterns of Psychological Responses among the Public during the Early Phase of COVID-19: A Cross-Regional Analysis.

Journal Article Int J Environ Res Public Health · April 14, 2021 This study aimed to compare the mediation of psychological flexibility, prosociality and coping in the impacts of illness perceptions toward COVID-19 on mental health among seven regions. Convenience sampled online survey was conducted between April and Ju ... Full text Link to item Cite

Report of the ACBS Task Force on the strategies and tactics of contextual behavioral science research

Journal Article Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science · April 1, 2021 Throughout its history the strategy and tactics of contextual behavioral science (CBS) research have had distinctive features as compared to traditional behavioral science approaches. Continued progress in CBS research can be facilitated by greater clarity ... Full text Cite

The Role of Exercise in Management of Mental Health Disorders: An Integrative Review.

Journal Article Annu Rev Med · January 27, 2021 A large and growing body of evidence suggests that physical activity (PA) may hold therapeutic promise in the management of mental health disorders. Most evidence linking PA to mental health outcomes has focused on the effects of aerobic exercise training ... Full text Link to item Cite

An open trial of app-assisted acceptance and commitment therapy (iACT) for eating disorders in type 1 diabetes.

Journal Article J Eat Disord · January 6, 2021 BACKGROUND: Eating disorders (EDs) among individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D) increase the risk of early and severe diabetes-related medical complications and premature death. Conventional eating disorder (ED) treatments have been largely ineffective for ... Full text Link to item Cite

"Let's Talk About Your Note": Using Open Notes as an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Based Intervention in Mental Health Care.

Journal Article Front Psychiatry · 2021 Full text Link to item Cite

To Help or Not to Help? Prosocial Behavior, Its Association With Well-Being, and Predictors of Prosocial Behavior During the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic.

Journal Article Front Psychol · 2021 The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic fundamentally disrupted humans' social life and behavior. Public health measures may have inadvertently impacted how people care for each other. This study investigated prosocial behavior, its association well-be ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health: An international study.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2020 BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered vast governmental lockdowns. The impact of these lockdowns on mental health is inadequately understood. On the one hand such drastic changes in daily routines could be detrimental to mental health. On the other h ... Full text Link to item Cite

Personality disorders

Chapter · January 1, 2020 Personality disorders (PDs) are enduring patterns of inner experience and behavior that deviate from cultural norms, occur across contexts and are associated with impairment or distress. This chapter describes the 10 identified PDs, organized in 3 clusters ... Full text Cite

An investigation of the affective experience of females at high risk for eating disorders in general and pathology-specific contexts.

Journal Article Appetite · October 1, 2019 OBJECTIVE: Difficulties with emotional experiences have long been implicated in the development or maintenance of eating disorders (EDs). However, the vast majority of this work is theoretical or self-report, with few studies examining the somatic-affectiv ... Full text Link to item Cite

Third-wave cognitive behavioral therapies for the treatment of anxiety among children and adolescents

Chapter · March 28, 2019 This is the first reference to examine anxiety diagnoses in accordance with the latest edition of the DSM-5, including childhood onset disorders, such as Separation Anxiety Disorder, Selective Mutism, Specific Phobia, Social Anxiety ... ... Cite

Real-time predictors and consequences of binge eating among adults with type 1 diabetes.

Journal Article J Eat Disord · 2019 BACKGROUND: Objective binge eating (OBE) is common among individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and may have negative consequences for glycemic control. Recent studies have suggested that diabetes distress (i.e., emotional distress specific to diabetes and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Time of Day When Type 1 Diabetes Patients With Eating Disorder Symptoms Most Commonly Restrict Insulin.

Journal Article Psychosom Med · 2018 OBJECTIVE: Restricting insulin to lose weight is a significant problem in the clinical management of type 1 diabetes (T1D). Little is known about this behavior or how to effectively intervene. Identifying when insulin restriction occurs could allow clinici ... Full text Link to item Cite

A problem-solving intervention for cardiovascular disease risk reduction in veterans: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Contemp Clin Trials · September 2017 BACKGROUND: Health behaviors related to diet, tobacco usage, physical activity, medication adherence, and alcohol use are highly determinative of risk for developing cardiovascular disease. This paper describes a study protocol to evaluate a problem-solvin ... Full text Link to item Cite

Change in expressed emotion and treatment outcome in adolescent anorexia nervosa.

Journal Article Eat Disord · 2017 Expressed emotion (EE) has been associated with poor outcomes in anorexia nervosa (AN); however, whether changes in EE predict superior treatment outcomes is unknown. The current study examined whether decreases in EE during an open trial of a novel family ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Clinical Significance of Posterior Insular Volume in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa.

Journal Article Psychosom Med · 2017 OBJECTIVE: The diagnostic criterion disturbance in the experience of the body remains a poorly understood and persistent feature of anorexia nervosa (AN). Increased sophistication in understanding the structure of the insular cortex-a neural structure that ... Full text Link to item Cite

PROFILES OF DISORDERED EATING BEHAVIORS IN TYPE 1 DIABETES

Conference PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE · April 1, 2016 Link to item Cite

Momentary Predictors of Insulin Restriction Among Adults With Type 1 Diabetes and Eating Disorder Symptomatology.

Journal Article Diabetes Care · November 2015 OBJECTIVE: Individuals with type 1 diabetes who restrict insulin to control weight are at high risk for diabetes-related complications and premature death. However, little is known about this behavior or how to effectively intervene. The aim of the current ... Full text Link to item Cite

The functional significance of shyness in anorexia nervosa.

Journal Article Eur Eat Disord Rev · July 2015 The defining features of anorexia nervosa (AN) include disordered eating and disturbance in the experience of their bodies; however, many women with AN also demonstrate higher harm avoidance (HA), lower novelty seeking, and challenges with interpersonal fu ... Full text Link to item Cite

An open trial of Acceptance-based Separated Family Treatment (ASFT) for adolescents with anorexia nervosa.

Journal Article Behav Res Ther · June 2015 Family based-treatments have the most empirical support in the treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa; yet, a significant percentage of adolescents and their families do not respond to manualized family based treatment (FBT). The aim of this open trial w ... Full text Link to item Cite

Self-focused attention in anorexia nervosa.

Journal Article Int J Eat Disord · January 2015 OBJECTIVE: The clinical presentation of anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by preoccupation with body experience, intrusive concerns regarding shape, and pathological fears of weight gain. These symptoms are suggestive of unrelenting self-focused atten ... Full text Link to item Cite

Disinhibited eating and weight-related insulin mismanagement among individuals with type 1 diabetes.

Journal Article Appetite · October 2014 OBJECTIVE: Withholding insulin for weight control is a dangerous practice among individuals with type 1 diabetes; yet little is known about the factors associated with this behavior. Studies of nondiabetic individuals with weight concerns suggest that eati ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Pilot Study of an Acceptance-Based Separated Family Treatment for Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa.

Journal Article Cogn Behav Pract · November 2013 The treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) has improved significantly with the increased emphasis on family-based intervention. Yet despite advances, a substantial number of adolescents do not respond optimally to existing treatment models and thus ... Full text Link to item Cite

Subjective experience of sensation in anorexia nervosa.

Journal Article Behav Res Ther · June 2013 The nature of disturbance in body experience in anorexia nervosa (AN) remains poorly operationalized despite its prognostic significance. We examined the relationship of subjective reports of sensitivity to and behavioral avoidance of sensory experience (e ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Assessment of body image flexibility: The Body Image-Acceptance and Action Questionnaire

Journal Article Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science · April 15, 2013 Acceptance and mindfulness components are increasingly incorporated into treatment for eating disorders with promising results. The development of measures of proposed change processes would facilitate ongoing scientific progress. The current series of stu ... Full text Cite

Perception of affect in biological motion cues in anorexia nervosa.

Journal Article Int J Eat Disord · January 2013 OBJECTIVE: Nonverbal motion cues (a clenched fist) convey essential information about the intentions of the actor. Individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) have demonstrated impairment in deciphering intention from facial affective cues, but it is unknown wh ... Full text Link to item Cite

Emotion regulation difficulties in anorexia nervosa: Relationship to self-perceived sensory sensitivity.

Journal Article Cogn Emot · 2013 Changes in sensation (e.g., prickly skin) are crucial constituents of emotional experience, and the intensity of perceived changes has been linked to emotional intensity and dysregulation. The current study examined the relationship between sensory sensiti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Anorexia Nervosa as a Disorder of Emotion Regulation: Theory, Evidence, and Treatment Implications

Journal Article Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice · September 1, 2011 This is a commentary on Haynos and Fruzzetti (2011). The commentary begins with a discussion of how emotion has been included in the conceptualization of anorexia nervosa (AN) for some time, although this has not culminated into an experimental science on ... Full text Cite

Incorporating dispositional traits into the treatment of anorexia nervosa.

Journal Article Curr Top Behav Neurosci · 2011 We provide a general framework to guide the development of interventions that aim to address persistent features in eating disorders that may preclude effective treatment. Using perfectionism as an exemplar, we draw from research in cognitive neuroscience ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Psychological inflexibility and symptom expression in anorexia nervosa.

Journal Article Eat Disord · 2011 The purpose of this article is to outline a model of anorexia nervosa (AN) as a disorder of psychological inflexibility, motivated by an insatiable desire for prediction and control with related intolerance for uncertainty. We describe preliminary data tha ... Full text Link to item Cite

Interoceptive awareness in eating disorders: Distinguishing lack of clarity from non-acceptance of internal experience

Journal Article Cognition and Emotion · July 14, 2010 Poor interoceptive awareness is often cited as a key feature of eating disorders, yet the precise nature of the deficits and their relationship to eating pathology remains unclear. Interoceptive awareness includes both acceptance of affective experience an ... Full text Cite

The problem is not learning: Facilitated acquisition of stimulus equivalence classes among low-achieving college students

Journal Article Psychological Record · January 1, 2010 The present study examines whether facilitated acquisition occurs in contexts when 1 stimulus in a class is emotionally evocative and the other stimuli are arbitrary or neutral. Undergraduates with high and low grade-point averages (GPA) completed a matchi ... Full text Cite

Assessment of eating disorder symptoms in children and adolescents

Journal Article · December 1, 2009 The most recent diagnostic classification system delineated by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) is not sensitive to the expression of disordered eating in children and adolescents (Cooper, Watkins, Bryan ... Full text Cite

Experiential avoidance mediates the relationship between sexual victimization and psychological symptoms: Replicating findings with an ethnically diverse sample

Journal Article Cognitive Therapy and Research · October 1, 2009 Studies have found experiential avoidance mediates the relationship between sexual victimization and psychological symptoms; however, this work has been conducted primarily with Caucasian samples. The purpose of this study was to examine whether this model ... Full text Cite

Hostility and minimal model of glucose kinetics in African American women.

Journal Article Psychosom Med · July 2009 OBJECTIVE: To explore the underlying physiology of hostility (HOST) and to test the hypothesis that HOST has a greater impact on fasting glucose in African American (AA) women than it does on AA men or white men or women, using an intravenous glucose toler ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hostility and fasting glucose in African American women.

Journal Article Psychosom Med · July 2009 OBJECTIVE: To examine whether the relationship of hostility (HOST) to fasting glucose indices is moderated by sex and race. HOST has been associated with abnormalities in glucose metabolism. Prior studies suggested that this association may be more prevale ... Full text Link to item Cite

Personality disorders

Journal Article · December 1, 2007 This chapter focuses on specific personality disorders. Many theorists assert that personality dimensions such as extraversion sit at the top of a hierarchy composed of behaviors, constructs, and traits, and that each dimension is a continuum, with problem ... Full text Cite

Revisiting written disclosure: The effects of warm versus cold experimenters

Journal Article Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology · May 1, 2007 Early writing paradigm studies suggested that people who write about emotional or traumatic events accrue psychological and physiological benefits. However, recent studies suggest that a number of variables may play a role in determining when, and for whom ... Full text Cite

Preliminary findings on the effects of self-referring and evaluative stimuli on stimulus equivalence class formation

Journal Article Psychological Record · January 1, 2005 Thirty-two subjects completed 2 stimulus equivalence tasks using a matching-to-sample paradigm. One task involved direct reinforcement of conditional discriminations designed to produce derived relations between self-referring stimuli (e.g., me, myself, I) ... Full text Cite

Children's reasons for living, self-esteem, and violence

Journal Article Archives of Suicide Research · December 1, 2004 Attitudes toward violence and reasons for living in young adolescents with high, moderate, and low self-esteem were examined. The authors devised an Attitudes Toward Violence questionnaire; the Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale (RSE) and the Brief Reasons for ... Full text Cite