Schomerus G, Schwahn C, Holzinger A, Corrigan PW, Grabe HJ, Carta MG, Angermeyer MC. Evolution of public attitudes about mental illness: a systematic review and meta‐analysis.
Objective: To explore ...whether the increase in knowledge about the biological correlates of mental disorders over the last decades has translated into improved public understanding of mental illness, increased readiness to seek mental health care and more tolerant attitudes towards mentally ill persons.
Method: A systematic review of all studies on mental illness‐related beliefs and attitudes in the general population published before 31 March 2011, examining the time trends of attitudes with a follow‐up interval of at least 2 years and using national representative population samples. A subsample of methodologically homogeneous studies was further included in a meta‐regression analysis of time trends.
Results: Thirty‐three reports on 16 studies on national time trends met our inclusion criteria, six of which were eligible for a meta‐regression analysis. Two major trends emerged: there was a coherent trend to greater mental health literacy, in particular towards a biological model of mental illness, and greater acceptance of professional help for mental health problems. In contrast, however, no changes or even changes to the worse were observed regarding the attitudes towards people with mental illness.
Conclusion: Increasing public understanding of the biological correlates of mental illness seems not to result in better social acceptance of persons with mental illness.
Biological or genetic models of mental illness are commonly expected to increase tolerance towards people with mental illness, by reducing notions of responsibility and blame.
To investigate whether ...biogenetic causal attributions of mental illness among the general public are associated with more tolerant attitudes, whether such attributions are related to lower perceptions of guilt and responsibility, to what extent notions of responsibility are associated with rejection of people who are mentally ill, and how prevalent notions of responsibility are among the general public with regard to different mental disorders.
A systematic review was conducted of representative population studies examining attitudes towards people with mental illness and beliefs about such disorders.
We identified 33 studies relevant to this review. Generally, biogenetic causal attributions were not associated with more tolerant attitudes; they were related to stronger rejection in most studies examining schizophrenia. No published study reported on associations of biogenetic causal attributions and perceived responsibility. The stereotype of self-responsibility was unrelated to rejection in most studies. Public images of mental disorder are generally dominated by the stereotypes of unpredictability and dangerousness, whereas responsibility is less relevant.
Biogenetic causal models are an inappropriate means of reducing rejection of people with mental illness.
We propose a new type of platonic crystal, which includes spiral resonators with low-frequency resonant vibrations. The special dynamic effects of the resonators are highlighted by a comparative ...analysis of dispersion properties of homogeneous and perforated plates. Analytical and numerical estimates of classes of standing waves are given and the analysis of a macrocell shows the possibility to obtain localization, wave trapping and edge waves. Applications include transmission amplification within two plates separated by a small ligament and a novel design to suppress low-frequency flexural vibrations in an elongated plate implementing a bypass system that re-routes waves within the mechanical system. Finally, we show the possibility to obtain Konenkov-Bloch edge waves for general boundary conditions.
Exergames represent a way to perform physical activity through active video games, serving as potentially useful tool in the field of neurorehabilitation. However, little is known regarding the ...possible role of exergames in improving cognitive functions in persons suffering from neurological disabilities.
A search for relevant articles was carried out on PubMed/Medline, Scopus, PEDro, and Google Scholar. Only randomized controlled studies and non-randomized but controlled studies were retained. The following additional inclusion criteria were applied: studies focused on physical activity interventions carried out by means of exergames; populations targeted were affected by neurological disabilities; and reported results were related to cognitive outcomes. We calculated standardized mean differences (SMD) and pooled results using a random effects meta-analysis.
Of 520 abstracts screened, thirteen studies met the criteria to be included yielding a total of 465 participants, 233 randomized to exergames, and 232 allocated to the alternative or no intervention. The included studies varied in terms of studied populations (e.g., multiple sclerosis, post-stroke hemiparesis, Parkinson's disease, dementia, dyslexia, Down syndrome), type and duration of interventions, and cognitive outcome measures. Exergames significantly improved executive functions (SMD=0.53, P=0.005; 8 studies, N.=380) and visuo-spatial perception (SMD=0.65, P<0.0001; 5 studies, N.=209) when compared to the alternative or no intervention. There were no significant differences for attention (SMD=0.57, P=0.07; 7 studies, N.=250) and global cognition (SMD=0.05, P=0.80; 6 studies, N.=161).
Exergames are a highly-flexible tool for rehabilitation of both cognitive and motor functions in adult populations suffering from various neurological disabilities and developmental neurological disorders. Additional high-quality clinical trials with larger samples and more specific cognitive outcomes are needed to corroborate these preliminary findings.
Exergames could be considered either as a supplemental treatment to conventional rehabilitation, or as strategy to extend benefits of conventional programs at home.
► A continuous model for reinforced concrete beams under blast loads is proposed. ► An alternative approach through an equivalent SDOF system is also formulated. ► Strain rate effects are taken into ...account for both models. ► The continuous beam model well predicts the nonlinear behavior of the beam. ► The SDOF model is simpler, but less reliable than the continuous beam model.
This paper presents two alternative approaches for the study of reinforced concrete beams under blast loads. In the first approach, the beam is modeled by means of Euler–Bernoulli’s theory and its elastic–plastic behavior is expressed through a new nonlinear relationship between bending moment and curvature. In the second approach, instead, the beam is idealized as a single degree of freedom system. The effects of strain rate, which are of paramount relevance in blast problems, are taken into consideration by introducing time-variable coefficients into the equations of motion derived from the two models. The latter are employed to assess the time-history of the maximum deflection of a simply supported beam subjected to a uniformly distributed blast load. By comparing the theoretical results with some experimental findings available in literature and with the solution obtained from a commercial finite element software, it is found that the first approach is capable of accurately evaluating the maximum deflection of the beam at failure; on the other hand, the second approach provides a less precise prediction, however it is simpler to implement in practice because it requires less computational effort.
Stigma is likely to aggravate the severe medical and social consequences of alcohol dependence. We aim to explore the characteristics of the alcohol dependence stigma by comparing it with the stigma ...of other conditions.
On the basis of a systematic literature search, we identified 17 representative population studies published before July 2010 that examine aspects of the stigma of alcoholism and simultaneously of other mental, medical or social conditions. Seven surveys were located in Europe, five in North America, three in New Zealand and one each in Brazil and Ethiopia, respectively.
Compared with people suffering from other, substance-unrelated mental disorders, alcohol-dependent persons are less frequently regarded as mentally ill, are held much more responsible for their condition, provoke more social rejection and more negative emotions, and they are at particular risk for structural discrimination. Only with regard to being a danger, they are perceived to be at a similarly negative level to that of people suffering from schizophrenia.
Alcoholism is a particularly severely stigmatized mental disorder. Cultural differences are likely, but under-researched. We discuss possible reasons for the differences between the stigma of alcoholism and of other mental diseases and the consequences for targeted anti-stigma initiatives.
Abstract Introduction Bipolar disorder (BD) is a public health issue; it is one of the leading causes of disability and its late diagnosis heightens the impact of the condition. Screening tools for ...early detection could be extremely useful. Methods Narrative review on screening of BD. Results Screening questionnaires have high sensitivity but relatively low specificity if DSM diagnoses are taken as the “gold standard”. Critics maintain that an excess of false positives makes such tools unnecessary for identifying cases and of little use in screening studies consisting of two phases. However, “positive” screening was frequently homogeneous with BD in terms of gender, age, level of distress, low social functioning and employment rate, comorbidity with alcohol and substance abuse, heavy recourse to health care, use of mood stabilizers and antidepressants, risk of suicide attempts, and high recurrence of depressive episodes. While none of these components is pathognomonic of BD, their co-occurrence could identify subthreshold “cases”. The studies reviewed found positivity at screening to be associated with impaired quality of life, even without BD and independently of comorbidity. Patients with a neurological disease and positive at screening show homogenous brain lesions, different from those of patients screening negative. Conclusions The results are coherent with the hypothesis that positivity identifies a bipolar spectrum of clinical and public health interest, including sub-threshold bipolar cases, which do not fulfil the diagnostic criteria for BD.
•Flexural failure of reinforced concrete beams under blast and impact loads is studied.•Two single degree of freedom models are formulated to predict the beam response.•Strain rate effects are taken ...into account for both models.•The theoretical response obtained from each model is compared with experimental data.•The two models give a good estimation of the maximum deflection at collapse.
In this paper, reinforced concrete beams subjected to blast and impact loads are examined. Two single degree of freedom models are proposed to predict the response of the beam. The first model (denoted as “energy model”) is developed from the law of energy balance and assumes that the deformed shape of the beam is represented by its first vibration mode. In the second model (named “dynamic model”), the dynamic behavior of the beam is simulated by a spring-mass oscillator. In both formulations, the strain rate dependencies of the constitutive properties of the beams are considered by varying the parameters of the models at each time step of the computation according to the values of the strain rates of the materials (i.e. concrete and reinforcing steels). The efficiency of each model is evaluated by comparing the theoretical results with experimental data found in literature. The comparison shows that the energy model gives a good estimation of the maximum deflection of the beam at collapse, defined as the attainment of the ultimate strain in concrete. On the other hand, the dynamic model generally provides a smaller value of the maximum displacement. However, both approaches yield reliable results, even though they are based on some approximations. Being also very simple to implement, they may serve as an useful tool in practical applications.
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