Geänderte Inhalte

Thole Hoppen ist seit Oktober 2025 Leiter (Lehrstuhlvertretung) der Abteilung Klinische Psychologie und Psychopathologie. Zudem ist er approbierter Psychologischer Psychotherapeut (Fachkunde: Verhaltenstherapie für Erwachsene).

The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-5) is a structured diagnostic interview developed for diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To ensure compliance with PTSD inclusion criteria, an initial study investigated the psychometric properties and factorial structure of the German version of CAPS-5 using data collected previously. The present study’s objective was to validate the robustness of the psychometric properties of the German CAPS-5 by assessing its validity within a routine clinical context.

Cognitive biases play a critical role in the maintenance of specific phobias, yet reliable assessment tools remain scarce. This study examined the psychometric properties of three novel measures designed to evaluate interpretational processing biases in acrophobia: the Scrambled Sentences Task (SST), the Encoding Recognition Test (ERT), and the German version of the Heights Interpretation Questionnaire (HIQ). Using an online cross-sectional design, the convergent and divergent validity as well as the reliability of these tasks were assessed. The sample included N = 286 participants with mild to severe acrophobia. Overall, all measures demonstrated good convergent validity, and their weak associations with non-acrophobia-related questionnaires support divergent validity. The measures also showed high internal consistency and moderate to high parallel forms of reliability, indicating strong reliability overall. Consistent intercorrelations among the tasks further support their coherence in assessing interpretation bias. Finally, regression analyses revealed that the SST and HIQ were the strongest predictors of acrophobic symptoms, suggesting that each task may tap into distinct facets of interpretation bias despite their overlap. These findings offer empirically grounded insights that can inform future research, especially within intervention contexts. For example, embedding these bias measures in randomized controlled trials could illuminate their role in identifying and precisely tracking cognitive markers during therapy, enabling more targeted interventions in acrophobia treatment.

Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), a variant of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), is an established treatment for adults with major depressive disorder (MDD). Due to its favorable safety profile, iTBS is also a promising early intervention in the transition phase from adolescence to early adulthood, but this has not been systematically investigated to date. Thus, the EARLY-BURST trial investigates the efficacy and safety of iTBS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) in treatment-seeking young patients (age 16–26 years) with depressive disorders (i.e. major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, bipolar depression), allowing for relevant co-morbidities. Participants have not received antidepressant or antipsychotic medication during the last 12 months except for short-term (\textless 2 weeks) on-demand medication. The trial will employ a novel sequential Bayesian, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, sham-controlled design. Up to 90 patients at two clinical sites (Munich, Augsburg) will be randomized 1:1 to the treatment groups, with sequential analyses starting after 26 patients in each group completed the treatment. The primary outcome will be the difference in depression severity at week 6 (post-treatment visit) between active iTBS and sham iTBS, assessed with the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). The trial is planned to be expanded towards a three-arm leapfrog design, contingent on securing additional funding. Thus, in addition to potentially providing evidence of iTBS’s efficacy in adolescents and young adults with depressive disorders, the EARLY-BURST trial aims at setting the stage for subsequent platform trials in this dynamic research field, where novel adaptive study designs are required to meet the need for rapidly testing promising new vs established rTMS protocols.