Seed Funding: UK

Dr Sara Simblett

Project title: COPE-EMBRACE: Coping with Stress After Encephalitis Using Real-Time Assessment

Project Lead: Dr Sara Simblett

Department and institution: Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London

Awarded in 2023

Encephalitis can result in a type of acquired brain injury (ABI) due to brain inflammation. It can cause problems with cognition, as well as fatigue. Mental health problems such as depression are common following encephalitis and can severely affect daily functioning and quality of life. We know that daily hassles (e.g., losing items, memory lapses, feeling under pressure, having arguments) cause stress. The way people cope with stress has been found to influence their level of depression. For example, task avoidance can be particularly problematic. However, there are gaps in our knowledge:

1. Greater understanding is needed in the context of encephalitis, where the literature on emotional adjustment is sparce
2. How people report reactions to stress in the past does not always equate to what they do in the moment, which may be particularly important in this context of cognitive difficulties (of recall and awareness). We currently have insufficient knowledge of the mechanisms of real-time, or even daily, coping among people with encephalitis and how this relates to their mood.

We propose a study that measures real-time and daily coping with stress across six months using a method called ecological momentary assessment (EMA). EMA has already been found to be feasible to capture the experience of people with ABI across two months. However, longer assessment periods are required to measure effects of daily behaviour on symptoms of depression, which are slower to change. Our research protocol will assess feasibility of measuring cognition, mood, stress, and coping style at the end of each day, and in response to daily stressors over four months. We will analyse the type of stressors and use statistical models to test whether coping and factors known to affect coping (including cognitive functioning) are related to depression.