Individuals undergoing genetic testing for hereditary colorectal cancer (HCRC) are prone to develop psychological problems. This study investigated the short-term efficacy of a hope-based intervention program in increasing hope levels and decreasing psychopathology among HCRC genetic testing recipients. A longitudinal study was carried out on HCRC genetic testing recipients recruited by the Hereditary Gastrointestinal Cancer Registry. Participants joined a hope-based intervention program consisting of six sessions of weekly closed group therapy. Psychological questionnaires were administered immediately before the first and after the last sessions of the program measuring hope, anxiety and depression levels of the participants. There were 22 participants (7 men and 15 women) at a mean age of 49.4 ± 9.6 years. Women tended to have higher level of anxiety than men at pre-intervention. Paired sample t tests were conducted. Hope levels increased significantly from pre- to post-intervention (pre-total hope score = 5.56; post-total hope score = 6.07; t(1) = −0.281, p < 0.05). Anxiety level also decreased significantly from pre- to post-intervention (pre-anxiety score = 7.38; post-anxiety score = 5.90; t (1) = 2.35, p < 0.05). Our findings imply that hope-based intervention program would be effective in enhancing hope in HCRC genetic testing recipients. The program may also be more effective in alleviating anxiety than depression in these individuals.

Self-reported measurements of attentional bias are possibly influenced by social desirability, conscious awareness, or introspection. This study developed a visual dot-probe task to study the relationship between attentional bias and posttraumatic stress disorder among women with breast cancer. Fifty six women with breast cancer were presented with a series of face pairs, which were equally divided into positive-neutral and negative-neutral pairs. One face pair was shown for each trial, which consisted of the neutral and emotional versions of the same face displaying side-toside. Participants' goal was to detect a small dot displayed on the screen after disappearance of the faces as quickly as possible in 80 trials. Negative/positive attentional bias was the mean latency to detect probes appearing on the side of neutral faces minus that of negative/positive faces. We investigated the relationships between the dot-probe task and the Chinese Impact of Event Scale (CIES-R) and demographic variables. Negative attentional bias as measured by the dot-probe task was positively correlated with the CIES-R total score (r = 0.30, p< 0.05), the hyperarousal subscale (r = 0.32, p< 0.05), and the intrusions subscale (r = 0.30, p< 0.05) but not the avoidance subscale (r = 0.32, p = 0.14). This study has demonstrated that measuring attentional bias with a dot-probe task is possible. The dot-probe task may provide an alternative measurement to self-reported measurements and important information for psychotherapies. Future studies may examine the predictive values of the dot-probe task on treatment outcomes and the risk for developing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Background Previous research with non‐offenders has linked a higher dispositional cognition of hope to lower levels of psychological symptoms and demonstrated mediating effects of attentional biases on the relationship between hope and psychological symptoms, but this has not been explored among offenders. Aims Our aim was to investigate associations between a dispositional cognition of hope and habitual attentional processing styles and distress among women in prison. We hypothesised that higher levels of hope would be associated with more attention to positive information and less to negative information in the surroundings and, in turn, lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in women in prison. Method In a cross‐sectional study, we recruited consenting women serving a prison sentence who had been referred to psychological services. Participants completed a set of self‐rating inventories individually, which scaled their levels of hope, attention to positive and negative information and symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression. Results Two hundred and three women participated. Their average age was 35.68 years (range 21–67 years). Over half were recidivists (170, 58%). Overall, the higher the level of hope they had, the lower were the ratings of their psychological symptoms. Positive attentional bias was associated with higher hope and lower psychological distress. In contrast, negative attentional bias was related to lower hope and higher psychological distress ratings. In statistical models, both attentional biases appeared to be partial mediators of the relationship between hope and psychological distress. Conclusions Our findings among women in prison were consistent with those in non‐forensic populations and not previously studied among prisoners. They suggest that it would be worth evaluating interventions to modify attentional styles as they may have value in increasing hope and reducing psychological symptoms and perhaps also harmful behaviours in this vulnerable population.

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