OBJECTIVE: Individuals with schizophrenia and their relatives tend to have either higher or lower than expected prevalences of autoimmune disorders, especially rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, ...autoimmune thyroid diseases, and type 1 diabetes. The purpose of the study was to estimate the association of schizophrenia with these disorders as well as a range of other autoimmune diseases in a single large epidemiologic study. METHOD: The Danish Psychiatric Register, the National Patient Register, and a register with socioeconomic information were linked to form a data file that included all 7,704 persons in Denmark diagnosed with schizophrenia from 1981 to 1998 and their parents along with a sample of matched comparison subjects and their parents. The data linkage required that the autoimmune disease occur before the diagnosis of schizophrenia. RESULTS: A history of any autoimmune disease was associated with a 45% increase in risk for schizophrenia. Nine autoimmune disorders had higher prevalence rates among patients with schizophrenia than among comparison subjects (crude incidence rate ratios ranging from 1.9 to 12.5), and 12 autoimmune diseases had higher prevalence rates among parents of schizophrenia patients than among parents of comparison subjects (adjusted incidence rate ratios ranging from 1.3 to 3.8). Thyrotoxicosis, celiac disease, acquired hemolytic anemia, interstitial cystitis, and Sjögren's syndrome had higher prevalence rates among patients with schizophrenia than among comparison subjects and also among family members of schizophrenia patients than among family members of comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Schizophrenia is associated with a larger range of autoimmune diseases than heretofore suspected. Future research on comorbidity has the potential to advance understanding of pathogenesis of both psychiatric and autoimmune disorders.
Psychological distress and suicidal behavior are important mental health problems among university students and warrant research to inform strategies for effective prevention in this young ...population. The present study aimed to assess psychological distress and suicidal behavior and to unravel their associations among university students.
A total of 5972 undergraduate students, randomly selected from six universities in central China, comprised the sample. The Chinese version of the Symptom Checklist-90-revised (SCL-90-R) was used to assess various psychological symptoms. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between psychological distress and risk for suicidal behavior.
40.7% of the university students reported positive in a least one of the 9 psychological symptom dimensions assessed by the SCL-90-R. 7.6% of the students reported suicidal behavior in the previous twelve months. The risk of suicidal behavior was significantly associated with psychological symptoms of all types, but there were notable differences by sex. For male students, depression and phobic anxiety increased the risk of suicidal behavior. Meanwhile, depression and obsessive-compulsiveness were positively associated with suicidal behavior in female students. Furthermore, increasing risk of suicidal behavior was associated with increasing positive symptom total (PST) score and a statistically significant trend was observed.
Data collected from a cross-sectional survey does not allow any examination of causal inference.
Psychological distress and suicidal behavior were both common among university students; and psychological distress was highly associated with suicidal behavior. The findings underscore the importance of mental health care for university students.
•A large sample of 5972 undergraduates randomly selected from six universities.•40.7% of the students is positive for a least one symptom of psychological distress.•7.6% of them reported suicidal behavior within the past one year period.•Suicidal behavior is highly associated with depression and phobic anxiety in males, and depression and obsessive-compulsiveness in females.•The risk increases progressively with the score of positive psychological symptom total.
Childhood 'unusual experiences' (such as hearing voices that others cannot, or suspicions of being followed) are common, but can become more distressing during adolescence, especially for young ...people in contact with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Unusual experiences that are distressing or have adverse life impact (UEDs) are associated with a range of current and future emotional, behavioural and mental health difficulties. Recommendations for psychological intervention are based on evidence from adult studies, with some support from small, pilot, child-specific evaluations. Research is needed to ensure that the recommendations suit children as well as adults. The CUES+ study (Coping with Unusual ExperienceS for 12-18 year olds) aims to find out whether cognitive behaviour therapy for UEDs (CBT-UED) is a helpful and cost-effective addition to usual community care for 12-18 year olds presenting to United Kingdom National Health Service Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in four London boroughs.
The CUES+ study is a randomised controlled trial comparing CBT-UED plus routine care to routine care alone. CBT-UED comprises up to 16 sessions, including up to 12 individual and up to four family support meetings, each lasting around 45-60 min, delivered weekly. The primary outcome is emotional distress. Secondary outcomes are change in UEDs, risk events (self-harm, attendance at emergency services, other adverse events) and health economic outcomes. Participants will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio after baseline assessment. Randomisation will be stratified by borough and by severity of mental health presentation: 'severe' (an identified psychotic or bipolar disorder) or any 'other' condition. Outcomes will be assessed by a trained assessor blind to treatment condition at 0, 16 and 24 weeks. Recruitment began in February, 2015 and is ongoing until the end of March, 2017.
The CUES+ study will contribute to the currently limited child-specific evidence base for psychological interventions for UEDs occurring in the context of psychosis or any other mental health presentation.
International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials, ID: ISRCTN21802136 . Prospectively registered on 12 January 2015. Protocol V3 31 August 2015 with screening amended.
Mental health problems have been found to be more prevalent in prison populations, and higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been found in sentenced populations compared to the ...general population. Evidence-based treatment in the general population however has not been transferred and empirically supported into the prison system.
The aim of this manuscript is to illustrate how trauma focused work can be applied in a prison setting.
This report describes a two-phased approach to treating PTSD, starting with stabilization, followed by an integration of culturally appropriate ideas from narrative exposure therapy (NET), given that the traumas were during war and conflict, and trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT).
PTSD and scores on paranoia scales improved between start and end of treatment; these improvements were maintained at a 6-month follow-up.
This case report 1 illustrates successful treatment of multiple incident PTSD in a prison setting using adaptations to TF-CBT during a window of opportunity when individuals are more likely to be free from substances and live in relative stability. Current service provision and evidence-based practice for PTSD is urgently required in UK prisons to allow individuals to engage in opportunities to reduce re-offending, free from mental health symptoms.
Objective: There is a consensus that genetic factors are important in the causation of bipolar disorder (BPD); however, little is known about other risk factors in the aetiology of BPD. Our aim was ...to review the literature on such risk factors – risk factors other than family history of affective disorders – as predictors for the initial onset of BPD.
Methods: We conducted a literature search using the MEDLINE, PsycINFO and EMBASE databases. We selected factors of interest including demographic factors, factors related to birth, personal, social and family backgrounds, and history of medical conditions. The relevant studies were extracted systematically according to a search protocol.
Results: We identified approximately 100 studies that addressed the associations between antecedent environmental factors and a later risk for BPD. Suggestive findings have been provided regarding pregnancy and obstetric complications, winter–spring birth, stressful life events, traumatic brain injuries and multiple sclerosis. However, evidence is still inconclusive. Childbirth is likely to be a risk factor. The inconsistency across studies and methodological issues inherent in the study designs are also discussed.
Conclusion: Owing to a paucity of studies and methodological issues, risk factors of BPD other than family history of affective disorders have generally been neither confirmed nor excluded. We call for further research.
Objective:
The at-risk mental state (ARMS) is associated with a very high risk of psychosis, but it is difficult to predict which individuals will later develop psychosis on the basis of their ...presenting symptoms. We investigated psychopathological dimensions in subjects with an ARMS and examined whether particular symptom dimensions predicted subsequent transition to psychosis.
Method:
The sample comprised 122 subjects (aged 16-35 years) meeting Personal Assessment and Crisis Evaluation clinic criteria for the ARMS recruited through Outreach and Support in South London, a clinical service for people with an ARMS. A principal axis factor analysis was performed on symptom scores, obtained at presentation from the Comprehensive Assessment of the At-Risk Mental State, using Varimax rotation. The relationship between dimension scores and transition to psychosis during the following 24 months was then examined employing Cox regression analysis.
Results:
Factor analysis gave rise to a 5-factor solution of negative, anxiety, disorganization/cognitive, self-harm, and manic symptom dimensions, accounting for 37% of the total variance. Scores on the negative and on the disorganization/cognitive dimensions were associated with transition to psychosis during the follow-up period (P = 0.044 and P = 0.005, respectively).
Conclusion:
The symptoms of the ARMS have a dimensional structure similar to that evident in patients with schizophrenia except for the positive symptom dimension. The association between scores on the disorganization/cognitive and negative dimensions and later transition is consistent with independent evidence that formal thought disorder, subjective cognitive impairments, and negative symptoms are linked to the subsequent onset of psychosis.
For adults with psychosis, international guidelines recommend individual and family based cognitive behavioural therapy interventions. Recommendations are extended to children and adolescents, based ...on adult research. It is also recommended that psychological interventions are offered for childhood presentations of psychotic-like or Unusual Experiences (UE), in the absence of a formal diagnosis, when these are Distressing (UEDs). Cognitive models underpinning these interventions require testing in adolescent populations, to further refine therapies. We address this need, by testing for the first time, the application of the adult cognitive model of psychosis to adolescent UEDs.
We used baseline data from the Coping with Unusual ExperienceS (CUES+) randomised controlled trial for 122 clinically referred adolescents (12–18 years) with self-reported UEDs. Known psychological mechanisms of adult cognitive models of psychosis; negative life events, affect (anxiety and depression), reasoning (jumping to conclusions bias), and schemas were investigated using multiple linear regression models, alongside variables particularly associated with the development and severity of adolescent UEDs and UE type (dissociation, externalising/behavioural problems, managing emotions).
The psychological mechanisms of adult cognitive models of psychosis explained 89% of the total variance of adolescent UED severity, F (10, 106) = 99.34, p < .0005, r2 = 0.89, with schemas as the principal significant contributor. Variance explained 40 - 72% across each of the UE types (paranoia, hallucinations, delusions, paranormal thinking and grandiosity).
Findings suggest that the psychological components of adult cognitive models of psychosis, particularly schemas, are also implicated in adolescent UEDs.
Implementation of evidence-based cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) remains low in routine services. The United Kingdom Improving Access to Psychological Therapies for people with ...Severe Mental Illness (IAPT-SMI) initiative aimed to address this issue. The project evaluated whether existing services could improve access to CBTp and demonstrate effectiveness using a systematic approach to therapy provision and outcome monitoring (in a similar way to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) model for people with anxiety and depression).
We report the clinical outcomes and key learning points from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust IAPT-SMI demonstration site for psychosis.
Additional funding enabled increased therapist capacity within existing secondary care community mental health services. Self-reported wellbeing and psychotic symptom outcomes were assessed, alongside service use and social/occupational functioning.
Accepted referrals/year increased by 89% (2011/12: n = 106/year; 2012–2015: n = 200/year); 90% engaged (attended ≥5 sessions) irrespective of ethnicity, age and gender. The assessment protocol proved feasible, and pre-post outcomes (n = 280) showed clinical improvements and reduced service use, with medium effects.
We conclude that, with appropriate service structure, investment allocated specifically for competent therapy provision leads to increased and effective delivery of CBTp. Our framework is replicable in other settings and can inform the wider implementation of psychological therapies for psychosis.
•Individual CBTp delivered in routine services achieves good clinical outcomes.•Only a small investment in therapy provision is needed for increased delivery.•Strong clinical leadership is a key facilitator for implementation of CBTp at scale.•Routine and sessional outcome measurement is acceptable to clients with psychosis.•No demographic inequity in therapy engagement or primary outcome.
It is unknown whether prodromal services improve outcomes in those who go on to develop psychosis, and whether these patients are demographically different from the overall first-episode population.
...To compare sociodemographic features, duration of untreated psychosis, hospital admission and frequency of compulsory treatment in the first year after the onset of psychosis in patients who present to prodromal services with patients who did not present to services until the first episode of psychosis.
We compared two groups of patients with first-episode psychosis: one who made transition after presenting in the prodromal phase and the other who had presented with a first episode.
The patients who had presented before the first episode were more likely to be employed and less likely to belong to an ethnic minority group. They had a shorter duration of untreated psychosis, and were less likely to have been admitted to hospital and to have required compulsory treatment.
Patients who develop psychosis after being engaged in the prodromal phase have a better short-term clinical outcome than patients who do not present until the first episode. Patients who present during first episodes may be more likely to have sociodemographic features associated with relatively poor outcomes.
Abstract A range of complications of pregnancy, abnormal fetal growth and development, and complications of delivery have been associated with increased risk of schizophrenia. Few studies have been ...able to adjust for a broad range of potential confounding factors. A national population nested case-control study based on Danish longitudinal registers was conducted to investigate the risk of schizophrenia associated with exposure to a range of obstetric events. The sample included 1039 first admissions to, or contacts with Danish psychiatric services with an ICD-8 or ICD-10 diagnosis of schizophrenia and 24, 826 individually matched controls. Adjusting for the other obstetric factors, family psychiatric history, and socio-economic and demographic factors, risk of schizophrenia was associated with maternal non-attendance at antenatal appointments (Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) 2.08, 95% CI: 1.0, 4.4), gestational age of 37 weeks or below (IRR 1.51, 95% CI: 1.0, 2.2), maternal influenza (IRR 8.2, 95% CI: 1.4, 48.8), preeclampsia (IRR 2.72, 95% CI: 1.0, 7.3), threatened premature delivery (IRR 2.39, 95% CI: 1.4, 4.1), haemorrhage during delivery (IRR 2.43, 95% CI: 1.1, 5.6), manual extraction of the baby (IRR 2.15, 95% CI: 1.1, 4.4), and maternal sepsis of childbirth and the puerperium (IRR 2.91, 95% CI: 1.1, 7.9). There was no significant interaction between the obstetric factors and either sex or family psychiatric history. The data suggest a modest association between prematurity, indicators of hypoxia, maternal infections, and maternal behaviours and risk of the later development of schizophrenia after adjusting for a number of possible confounding factors.
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