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Using data for 25,780 species categorized on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, we present an assessment of the status of the world’s vertebrates. One-fifth of species are classified as Threatened, and we show that this figure is increasing: On average, 52 species of mammals, birds, and amphibians move one category closer to extinction each year. However, this overall pattern conceals the impact of conservation successes, and we show that the rate of deterioration would have been at least one-fifth again as much in the absence of these. Nonetheless, current conservation efforts remain insufficient to offset the main drivers of biodiversity loss in these groups: agricultural expansion, logging, overexploitation, and invasive alien species.Though the threat of extinction is increasing, overall declines would have been worse in the absence of conservation.
Though the threat of extinction is increasing, overall declines would have been worse in the absence of conservation.
Treatment of substance use/misuse (SUM) continues to pose a difficult challenge. This exploratory pilot study evaluated whether a novel mind–body intervention program called “Mind–Body Bridging” (MBB) could be an effective short-term adjuvant intervention for managing SUM and coexisting symptoms in women undergoing residential and outpatient substance use treatment in a community setting. Thirty-eight women attending a local substance abuse (SA) facility were recruited and randomly assigned to either (a) treatment as usual (TAU) or (b) MBB and TAU. The MBB program consisted of 20 sessions and lasted for 10 weeks. Participants were asked to complete a set of self-report questionnaires designed to assess drug/alcohol cravings, impact of past trauma, depression, sleep disturbance, mindfulness, self-compassion, and well-being. They completed the questionnaires at three time points: preintervention, midintervention (after the fifth week), and postintervention. MBB + TAU significantly reduced drug/alcohol cravings, trauma-related thinking, and disturbed sleep in comparison with TAU. Furthermore, MBB + TAU significantly increased mindfulness, self-compassion, and well-being in comparison with TAU. MBB for SUM appears promising as a complementary adjuvant intervention, warranting future larger scale randomized controlled trials of MBB for SUM populations. SUM is a difficult condition to treat and manage clinically, especially given the multiple comorbid conditions that frequently affect those with SUM. In the search to develop effective adjuvant interventions for SUM, the present pilot study suggested that adding MBB to standard SUM treatment in community-based settings could enhance therapeutic efficacy and quality of care.
The current study investigated the effects of an 8-week mindfulness-based meditation training (MMT) intervention on attentional bias, engagement and disengagement of pain-related threat in fibromyalgia patients as compared to an age-matched control group. A well validated dot-probe task was used to explore early versus later stages of attentional processing through the use of two stimulus exposure durations (100, 500 ms) of pain-related threat words. The enduring effects of MMT were assessed 6-months after completion of MMT. Preliminary results suggest that MMT reduces avoidance of pain-related threat at early levels of processing, and facilitates disengagement from threat at later stages of processing. Furthermore, it appears that effects of MMT on early attentional threat processing do not remain stable after long-term follow-up.
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