L-carnosine as an enhancer to computerized cognitive behaviour therapy in Japanese workers, an unjustified claim
Abstract This letter comments on the conclusion drawn by Shirotsuki et al. (2017) in their article entitled “The effect for Japanese workers of a self-help computerized cognitive behaviour therapy program with a supplement soft drink”, recently published in BioPsychoSocial Medicine. The authors conc...
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doaj-61350960ff3d46c6ba433c7eb41382202020-11-25T00:25:02ZengBMCBioPsychoSocial Medicine1751-07592018-09-011211510.1186/s13030-018-0130-3L-carnosine as an enhancer to computerized cognitive behaviour therapy in Japanese workers, an unjustified claimGeneviève Sauvé0Marie-France Bastien1Casandra Roy-Gelencser2Ghassan El-Baalbaki3Département de psychologie, Université du Québec à MontréalDépartement de psychologie, Université du Québec à MontréalDépartement de psychologie, Université du Québec à MontréalDépartement de psychologie, Université du Québec à MontréalAbstract This letter comments on the conclusion drawn by Shirotsuki et al. (2017) in their article entitled “The effect for Japanese workers of a self-help computerized cognitive behaviour therapy program with a supplement soft drink”, recently published in BioPsychoSocial Medicine. The authors concluded that their drink, containing L-carnosine, enhances the effects of a computerized cognitive-behavioural therapy (CCBT) on the psychological well-being of healthy Japanese workers. Yet, we argue that their conclusion is unfounded given their results and the methodological shortcomings of their study. Briefly, while the authors reported improvement on the tension-anxiety subscale of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) in the CCBT only group, they also observed a lack of improvement on this subscale in the CCBT+L-carnosine group suggesting that the drink washes out this beneficial effect of CCBT. Methodological issues include the uncontrolled levels of L-carnosine metabolized by participants jeopardize the study’s internal validity. Also, the clinical meaningfulness of the findings seems dubious as post-treatment scores remained within the range of the general Japanese population. Consequently, we argue that Shirotsuki et al.’s study should be re-conducted before drawing any valid conclusion.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13030-018-0130-3Psychological well-beingFatigueAnxietySupplementL-carnosineComputer-based cognitive-behavioural therapy (CCBT) |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Geneviève Sauvé Marie-France Bastien Casandra Roy-Gelencser Ghassan El-Baalbaki |
spellingShingle |
Geneviève Sauvé Marie-France Bastien Casandra Roy-Gelencser Ghassan El-Baalbaki L-carnosine as an enhancer to computerized cognitive behaviour therapy in Japanese workers, an unjustified claim BioPsychoSocial Medicine Psychological well-being Fatigue Anxiety Supplement L-carnosine Computer-based cognitive-behavioural therapy (CCBT) |
author_facet |
Geneviève Sauvé Marie-France Bastien Casandra Roy-Gelencser Ghassan El-Baalbaki |
author_sort |
Geneviève Sauvé |
title |
L-carnosine as an enhancer to computerized cognitive behaviour therapy in Japanese workers, an unjustified claim |
title_short |
L-carnosine as an enhancer to computerized cognitive behaviour therapy in Japanese workers, an unjustified claim |
title_full |
L-carnosine as an enhancer to computerized cognitive behaviour therapy in Japanese workers, an unjustified claim |
title_fullStr |
L-carnosine as an enhancer to computerized cognitive behaviour therapy in Japanese workers, an unjustified claim |
title_full_unstemmed |
L-carnosine as an enhancer to computerized cognitive behaviour therapy in Japanese workers, an unjustified claim |
title_sort |
l-carnosine as an enhancer to computerized cognitive behaviour therapy in japanese workers, an unjustified claim |
publisher |
BMC |
series |
BioPsychoSocial Medicine |
issn |
1751-0759 |
publishDate |
2018-09-01 |
description |
Abstract This letter comments on the conclusion drawn by Shirotsuki et al. (2017) in their article entitled “The effect for Japanese workers of a self-help computerized cognitive behaviour therapy program with a supplement soft drink”, recently published in BioPsychoSocial Medicine. The authors concluded that their drink, containing L-carnosine, enhances the effects of a computerized cognitive-behavioural therapy (CCBT) on the psychological well-being of healthy Japanese workers. Yet, we argue that their conclusion is unfounded given their results and the methodological shortcomings of their study. Briefly, while the authors reported improvement on the tension-anxiety subscale of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) in the CCBT only group, they also observed a lack of improvement on this subscale in the CCBT+L-carnosine group suggesting that the drink washes out this beneficial effect of CCBT. Methodological issues include the uncontrolled levels of L-carnosine metabolized by participants jeopardize the study’s internal validity. Also, the clinical meaningfulness of the findings seems dubious as post-treatment scores remained within the range of the general Japanese population. Consequently, we argue that Shirotsuki et al.’s study should be re-conducted before drawing any valid conclusion. |
topic |
Psychological well-being Fatigue Anxiety Supplement L-carnosine Computer-based cognitive-behavioural therapy (CCBT) |
url |
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13030-018-0130-3 |
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