Motivational interviewing is a patient-centred communication approach designed to facilitate behavioural change by enhancing intrinsic motivation. Despite its widespread global utility, research on the training and applications of motivational interviewing among resident physicians in Oman remains untapped.

To examine the awareness, training experiences and clinical implementation of motivational interviewing among psychiatry and family medicine residents enrolled with the Oman Medical Specialty Board (OMSB).

A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with 22 resident physicians from psychiatry and family medicine programmes. Data were analysed using thematic analysis to identify key themes regarding motivational interviewing training and its application in clinical settings.

Three primary themes emerged: (a) residents’ understanding and application of motivational interviewing principles, (b) barriers to the integration of motivational interviewing into clinical practice, such as time constraints and insufficient training, and (c) the need for culturally adapted approaches to motivational interviewing tailored to Omani patients. Although participants appreciated the utility of motivational interviewing to improve patient engagement, they reported inconsistent training and limited opportunities to practise the technique in clinical settings.

The study highlights significant gaps in motivational interviewing training and practice within Oman’s residency programmes. It underscores the necessity for comprehensive, structured motivational interviewing curricula that are sensitive to the local context. Enhancing practical training opportunities may improve the integration of motivational interviewing into patient care, particularly in managing chronic diseases and addiction.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) has demonstrated significant effects in diverse areas of practice, with over 2,000 controlled clinical trials published. Some criticisms of MI have emerged along the way.

We examine theoretical and methodological critiques of MI.

We discuss three significant theoretical and methodological criticisms of MI: (1) that MI lacks conceptual stability; (2) that MI lacks a theoretical foundation; and (3) that MI is just common factors in psychotherapy.

It is true that definitions and descriptions of MI have evolved over the years. Mastery of MI clearly varies across providers, and when the quality of an intervention is unmeasured, it is unclear what has been trained or delivered. Reliable and valid tools to assess MI fidelity are available but often unused in outcome studies. It remains unclear what levels of proficiency are necessary to improve client outcomes. Some attempts to minimize variability in the delivery of MI appear to have reduced its effectiveness. In respect of the second critique is that MI lacks a theoretical foundation. It is unclear whether and how this is a disadvantage in research and practice. Various theories have been proposed and specific causal chain predictions have been tested. A third critique is that MI is merely common factors found among psychotherapists. The contribution of such relational skills is testable. There are specific aspects of MI related to client language that influence client outcomes above and beyond its relational components.

The critiques reflect important factors to consider when delivering, training, and evaluating MI research.

Problematic drinking frequently co-occurs with depression among young adults, but often remains unaddressed in depression treatment. Evidence is insufficient on whether digital alcohol interventions can be effective in this young comorbid population. In a randomized controlled trial, we examined the effectiveness of Beating the Booze (BtB), an add-on digital alcohol intervention to complement depression treatment for young adults.

Participants were randomized to BtB + depression treatment as usual (BTB + TAU, n = 81) or TAU (n = 82). The primary outcome was treatment response, a combined measure for alcohol and depression after 6-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes were number of weekly drinks (Timeline Follow-back) and depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale). Treatment response was analyzed using generalized linear modeling and secondary outcomes using robust linear mixed modeling.

Low treatment response was found due to lower than expected depression remission rates. No statistically significant between-group effect was found for treatment response after 6-month follow-up (odds ratio 2.86, p = 0.089, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.85–9.63). For our secondary outcomes, statistically significant larger reductions in weekly drinks were found in the intervention group after 3-month (B = −4.00, p = 0.009, 95% CI −6.97 to −1.02, d = 0.27) and 6-month follow-up (B = −3.20, p = 0.032, 95% CI −6.13 to −0.27, d = 0.23). We found no statistically significant between-group differences on depressive symptoms after 3-month (B = −0.57, p = 0.732, 95% CI −3.83 to 2.69) nor after 6-month follow-up (B = −0.44, p = 0.793, 95% CI −3.69 to 2.82).

The add-on digital alcohol intervention was effective in reducing alcohol use, but not in reducing depressive symptoms and treatment response among young adults with co-occurring depressive disorders and problematic alcohol use.

Pre-registered on October 29, 2019 in the Overview of Medical Research in the Netherlands (OMON), formerly the Dutch Trial Register(https://onderzoekmetmensen.nl/en/trial/49219).

Addressing aggressive behavior in adolescence is a key step toward preventing violence and associated social and economic costs in adulthood. This study examined the secondary effects of the personality-targeted substance use preventive program Preventure on aggressive behavior from ages 13 to 20.

In total, 339 young people from nine independent schools (M age = 13.03 years, s.d. = 0.47, range = 12–15) who rated highly on one of the four personality traits associated with increased substance use and other emotional/behavioral symptoms (i.e. impulsivity, anxiety sensitivity, sensation seeking, and negative thinking) were included in the analyses (n = 145 in Preventure, n = 194 in control). Self-report assessments were administered at baseline and follow-up (6 months, 1, 2, 3, 5.5, and 7 years). Overall aggression and subtypes of aggressive behaviors (proactive, reactive) were examined using multilevel mixed-effects analysis accounting for school-level clustering.

Across the 7-year follow-up period, the average yearly reduction in the frequency of aggressive behaviors (b = −0.42; 95% confidence interval [CI] −0.64 to −0.20; p < 0.001), reactive aggression (b = −0.22; 95% CI 0.35 to −0.10; p = 0.001), and proactive aggression (b = −0.14; 95% CI −0.23 to −0.05; p = 0.002) was greater for the Preventure group compared to the control group.

The study suggests a brief personality-targeted intervention may have long-term impacts on aggression among young people; however, this interpretation is limited by imbalance of sex ratios between study groups.

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are frequently encountered in hospice palliative care (HPC) and pose substantial quality-of-life issues for patients. However, most HPC physicians do not directly treat their patients’ SUDs due to several institutional and personal barriers. This review will expand upon arguments for the integration of SUD treatment into HPC, will elucidate challenges for HPC providers, and will provide recommendations that address these challenges.

A thorough review of the literature was conducted. Arguments for the treatment of SUDs and recommendations for physicians have been synthesized and expanded upon.

Treating SUD in HPC has the potential to improve adherence to care, access to social support, and outcomes for pain, mental health, and physical health. Barriers to SUD treatment in HPC include difficulties with accurate assessment, insufficient training, attitudes and stigma, and compromised pain management regimens. Recommendations for physicians and training environments to address these challenges include developing familiarity with standardized SUD assessment tools and pain management practice guidelines, creating and disseminating visual campaigns to combat stigma, including SUD assessment and intervention as fellowship competencies, and obtaining additional training in psychosocial interventions.

By following these recommendations, HPC physicians can improve their competence and confidence in working with individuals with SUDs, which will help meet the pressing needs of this population.

Screen use at mealtimes is associated with poor dietary and psychosocial outcomes in children and is disproportionately prevalent among families of low socio-economic position (SEP). This study aimed to explore experiences of reducing mealtime screen use in mothers of low SEP with young children.

Motivational interviews, conducted via Zoom or telephone, addressed barriers and facilitators to reducing mealtime screen use. Following motivational interviews, participants co-designed mealtime screen use reduction strategies and trialled these for 3–4 weeks. Follow-up semi-structured interviews then explored maternal experiences of implementing strategies, including successes and difficulties. Transcripts were analysed thematically.

Australia.

Fourteen mothers who had no university education and a child between six months and six years old.

A range of strategies aimed to reduce mealtime screen use were co-designed. The most widely used strategies included changing mealtime location and parental modelling of expected behaviours. Experiences were influenced by mothers’ levels of parenting self-efficacy and mealtime consistency, included changes to mealtime foods and an increased value of mealtimes. Experiences were reportedly easier, more beneficial and offered more opportunities for family communication, than anticipated. Change required considerable effort. However, effort decreased with consistency.

The diverse strategies co-designed by mothers highlight the importance of understanding why families engage in mealtime screen use and providing tailored advice for reduction. Although promising themes were identified, in this motivated sample, changing established mealtime screen use habits still required substantial effort. Embedding screen-free mealtime messaging into nutrition promotion from the inception of eating will be important.

A substantial proportion of patients receiving cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) do not achieve remission, and drop-out is considerable. Motivational interviewing (MI) may influence non-response and drop-out. Previous research shows that MI as a pre-treatment to CBT produces moderate effects compared with CBT alone. Studies integrating MI with CBT (MI-CBT) are scarce.

To test the feasibility of MI-CBT in terms of therapist competence in MI and various participant measures, including recruitment and retention. In addition, separate preliminary evaluations were conducted, exploring the effects of CBT alone for anxiety disorders and depression, and of MI-CBT for anxiety disorders, depression and unhealthy lifestyle behaviours.

Using a randomised controlled parallel trial design, participants were recruited in routine psychiatric care and allocated to CBT alone or MI-CBT. Means in feasibility measures and within-condition Hedges’ g effect sizes in treatment outcome measures were calculated. Authors were not blind to treatment allocation, while independent raters were blind.

Seventy-three patients were assessed for eligibility, and 49 were included. Participant perceptions of treatment credibility, expectancy for improvement, and working alliance were similar for both conditions. Overall, effect sizes were large across outcome measures for both conditions, including anxiety and depressive symptoms and functional impairment. However, therapists did not acquire sufficient competence in MI and the drop-out rate was high.

MI-CBT proved feasible in some respects, but the present study did not support the progression to a randomised controlled trial designed to assess the effectiveness of MI-CBT. Additional pilot studies are needed.

Available evidence demonstrates that it is feasible to integrate Motivational Interviewing (MI) techniques with Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for the treatment of obesity and that this combined intervention has the potential to improve health-related outcomes of patients and to maintain behavioural changes over time. In addition, the use of Virtual Reality (VR) using embodiment techniques in the treatment of behavioural disorders has proved its preliminary effectiveness.

1) to adapt the embodiment tool for treating obesity in a clinical setting, and 2) to compare its preliminary effectiveness to usual care.

A randomized control trial (SOCRATES project, funded by the European Union’s H2020 program under grant agreement No 951930) will be carried out with 66 participants with a Body Mass Index (BMI) >30, who will be split into two groups (control and intervention). The participants will be recruited from the external consultations of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital. Readiness to change, BMI, dietetic habits and physical activity, self-perception of the body size, satisfaction with self-image and quality of life in relation to body image will be assessed before and after the intervention and at 4-week follow-up. Finally, variables related to the adoption of the VR tool in terms of perceived usability, user’s satisfaction and technology acceptance will be also evaluated.

Not yet available

The study will provide an important advance in the treatment of obesity, first, by improving the effectiveness of available psychological treatments integrating embodiment, MI and CBT techniques, and second, reducing treatment duration and costs compared to conventional therapies.

No significant relationships.