Predicting Treatment Success Based on Physiological and Psychological Markers at Baseline

Funded by JCUS-JCUA Cross-Campus Collaboration Grant Scheme 2022, $19,978 over one year

Our Team

• Dr Liza van Eijk (Team leader, Psychology, JCUA)
• Dr Ai Ni Teoh (CI, Psychology, JCUS)
• A/Prof Wendy Li (CI, Psychology, JCUA)
• A/Prof Calogero Longhitano (CI, Psychiatry, JCUA)
• Dr Shou-Han Zhou (CI, Psychology, JCUA)

The Project

Approximately two in three university students experience high levels of psychological stress. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, levels of stress and stress-related depression and anxiety among students have escalated. Stress negatively affects students’ physical and mental health, and academic performance. To minimise the impact of stress and to prevent long-term and secondary outcomes related to stress, early intervention strategies are needed. Psychological interventions such as cognitive-behavioural therapy and coping strategies have been shown to reduce stress levels, but the individual response is variable. When evaluating efficacy, limited research has focused on whether individual differences in stress-sensitive physiological and psychological markers at baseline (i.e., right before the intervention) can assist with identifying who may benefit most from a particular intervention.

Aim: To address this gap, this study will examine whether physiological and psychological markers at baseline can predict treatment success of a stress intervention in 50 university students, 25 each from JCUA and JCUS.

Baseline (W0):

• Using non-invasive electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment (OpenBCI and Compumedics 32-channels-cap, Fig.1), brain activity is measured while inducing acute stress with a mathematically-challenging task, the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST). EEG measures during MIST have recently been used to derive a quantitative stress measure.
• An individual’s brain activity and performance are measured on a cognitive flexibility task. High cognitive flexibility allows individuals to adapt to changes in the environment and can be seen as a protective factor to stressors.
• Other measures to be collected include blood pressure, heart rate variability, and stress hormones dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and cortisol (representing chronic stress, derived from a hair sample).
• A survey will obtain information about perceived stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms (DASS), sleep (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), physical health (physical health questionnaire), social support (Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support), resilience (Resilience Evaluation Scale), and stress mindset (stress mindset measure).

Intervention: The online stress intervention called Thedesk (https://www.thedesk.org.au/about) consists of four modules (one per week) focused on developing skills to manage everyday stress for university students.

Post-intervention (Week 4+8): Completion of online survey at W4. At W8, participants come back for a similar session as baseline.