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S176

24th European Congress of Psychiatry / European Psychiatry 33S (2016) S116–S348

EW177

Government employees and

depressive and anxiety disorders:

A systematic review

M.A. Dos Santos

Porto, Portugal

Introduction

Depressive and anxiety disorders are common

among working adults and costly to employers and individuals

and their prevalence is high. Public sector employees are also vul-

nerable to poor mental health, mainly where have been occurring

organisational changes similar to private sector concepts.

Objective

To highlight the unmet mental needs for new vulnera-

ble working population, government employees.

Methods

The searchwas conducted using PubMed, Medline,Web

of Science, Scopus, B-on, Science Direct with the terms “gov-

ernment employees”, “federal employees”, “depressive disorders”,

“anxiety disorders”. Using the PRISMA methodology, 1374 articles

were considered with the search terms and if were published in

the last 10 years; after a review of the title and summary, 5 eligible

studies in english were included.

Discussion

Mental disorders are growing public health problem,

and creating an enormous toll of suffering, disability and economic

loss. There are few studies about depressive and anxiety disorders

in public sector and those confirm that it would be to examine to

what extent national characteristics can explainwhy individual and

organizational characteristics are more related to them in some

countries than in others, especially not including military or police

officers who usually are submitted to high psychological distress.

Conclusions

Workplace healthpromotion in addressing job stress

is crucial to fight against to a range of mental health outcomes.

Mental health screening in the public sector may contribute for

changes to the traditional roles of government and its manage-

ment structures andmust be encouraged to find out the underlying

mechanisms of developing depressive and anxiety disorders.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his/her decla-

ration of competing interest.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.295

EW178

Decentering and avoidance:

Mechanisms between external shame

and depression symptomatology

C. Ferreira

, A.L. Mendes , J. Marta-Simões , I.A. Trindade

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences - University of

Coimbra, CINEICC - Cognitive Behavioural Centre for Research and

Intervention, Coimbra, Portugal

Corresponding author.

It is widely accepted that shame plays a significant role in the

development and maintenance psychopathology, namely depres-

sive symptoms. In fact, the experience of shame is highly associated

with the adoption of maladaptive strategies to cope with nega-

tive feelings, such as experiential avoidance (i.e., the unavailability

to accept one’s private experiences), and the inability of decen-

ter oneself from unwanted internal events. The present study

aims to explore a mediation model that examines whether exter-

nal shame’s effect on depressive symptomatology is mediated

through the mechanisms of decentering and experimental avoid-

ance, while controlling for age. Participants were 358 adults of

both genders from the general population that completed a bat-

tery of self-report scales measuring external shame, decentering,

experimental avoidance and depression. The final model explained

33% of depression and revealed excellent model fit indices. Results

showed that external shame has a direct effect on depressive

symptomatology and simultaneously an indirect effect mediated

by the mechanisms of decentering and experiential avoidance.

These data seem to support the association between shame and

depressive symptomatology. Nevertheless, these findings add to

literature by suggesting that when the individual presents higher

levels of shame he or she may present lower decentering abilities

and tends to engage in experiential avoidance, which amplify the

impact of external shame and depression. Furthermore, our find-

ings seem to have important clinical implications, stressing the

importance of developing intervention programs in the community

that target shame and experimental avoidance and that promote

adaptive emotion regulation strategies (e.g., decentering) to deal

with adverse experiences.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their decla-

ration of competing interest.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.296

EW179

Chronic illness-related shame and

experiential avoidance mediate the

impact of IBD symptomatology on

depression

I.A. Trindade , C. Ferreira

, J. Pinto-Gouveia

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences - University of

Coimbra, CINEICC - Cognitive Behavioural Centre for Research and

Intervention, Coimbra, Portugal

Corresponding author.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is group of chronic diseases that

cause symptoms such as abdominal pain, urgent diarrhoea and

fatigue, as well as associated complications (e.g., arthritis). Liter-

ature has pointed that IBD may cause depressive symptomatology,

which seems to aggravate physical symptoms in a cycle of depres-

sion and inflammation. This study’s aims to examine the mediator

roles of chronic illness-related shame and experiential avoidance

in the relationship between IBD symptomatology and depression,

while controlling for associated medical complications. The sam-

ple comprised 161 adult IBD patients (52 males and 109 females),

with a mean age of 36.73 (SD = 10.93), that completed validated

measures. The hypothesised model was tested through path analy-

ses. Results (see

Fig. 1 )

showed that although IBD symptomatology

presented a direct effect of .13 on depression, the majority of its

impact was mediated through chronic illness-related shame and

experiential avoidance with an indirect effect of 0.22. Indeed, IBD

symptomatology seemed to lead to higher chronic illness-related

shame, which presented a direct effect on depression of .15 and

an indirect effect mediated by experiential avoidance of 0.37. This

model presented excellent goodness-of-fit indices. These findings

suggest that targeting shame and experiential avoidance in IBD

patients would have beneficial outcomes for patients’ well-being.

It thus seems that compassion and acceptance-based psychother-

apies should be included in treatment programs for IBD.

Fig. 1

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their decla-

ration of competing interest.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.297