European Journal of Psychiatry最新文献

Background and objectives

Individuals with schizophrenia display language impairments involving pragmatics, semantics and syntax. Language impairments may show diagnostic specificity and could relate to the ability of engaging in psychotherapy. This pilot study sought to: (1) identify linguistic features that might differentiate individuals with schizophrenia from distressed controls without psychotic symptoms; and (2) examine the association between linguistic abilities and clinical changes during psychotherapy.

Methods

We recruited patients with schizophrenia and a comparison group of individuals with demoralization and distress due to cancer. Participants underwent Dignity Therapy (DT), an existentially-oriented brief psychotherapy focused on legacy and subjective dignity. Verbatim transcripts of the DT sessions were analysed using Natural Language Processing (NLP). In addition, we measured changes in levels of demoralization and dignity-related distress before and after DT, exploring the association with linguistic variables with network analysis.

Results

Patients with schizophrenia could be differentiated from those with cancer-related distress using only three out of 141 linguistic variables: total number of words, number of prepositional chains and conversational elements. Across groups, better levels of discourse coherence and higher number of arguments controlled by a predicate (verb “arity”) were associated with larger improvements in demoralization and, indirectly, dignity-related distress.

Conclusions

Reproducible linguistic markers may be able to differentiate individuals with schizophrenia from those with less severe psychopathology, and to predict better uptake of psychotherapy independent from diagnosis. Future studies should explore whether linguistic features derived from NLP may be exploited as accessible diagnostic or prognostic markers to tailor psychotherapy and other interventions in schizophrenia.

Background and Objectives

The study's main aim was to determine which formal aspects of psychotherapy (therapist's work experience, number of sessions held, frequency of meetings, length of sessions) contributed to the quality of the therapeutic (working) alliance. The alliance was also analyzed for demographic variables.

Methods

The sample consisted of 428 participants, and the working alliance was evaluated in 262 psychotherapist–patient dyads. To assess its quality, the author used the full version of the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI).

Results

The analyzes led to several conclusions. Their results indicate that the quality of working alliance increases if psychotherapy is conducted by an experienced specialist, if the frequency of sessions is high, and if the sessions are longer. They do not, however, pinpoint the demographic markers of therapeutic alliance quality.

Conclusion

The formal aspects of the psychotherapeutic process influence the quality of the working alliance. Alliance develops to an equal degree in people of different ages and with diverse levels of education, regardless of the presence or absence of close interpersonal relationships in their lives.

Recently, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, high-profile retractions of some papers published in prestigious medical journals have highlighted the necessity for structural reform to the current model of medical publishing. We discuss what ails the current system and what can be done to remedy it.

Background and objectives

Recent literature reported a higher risk of suicide attempts among sexual minority youth. Discovering the risk and protective factors of suicide attempts among this vulnerable population can play a key role in reducing the suicide rate. Our research aims to systematically search for the risk and protective factors for suicide attempts among sexual minority youth.

Methods

We have conducted a systematic review of published studies of associated factors for suicide attempts in sexual minority youth. Four databases up to 2020 were searched to find relevant studies.

Results

Twelve articles were included. For sexual minority youth, the identified risk factors associated with suicide attempts are early coming out, being unacceptable by families, dissatisfaction with sexual minority friendships, too few friends, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and bullying. The identified protective factors for suicide attempts are feeling safe at school, teacher support, anti-bullying policy, and other adult support.

Conclusion

Both risk and protective factors for suicide attempts stem directly from the environments in which youth grew up: family, school, and the internet. Effective preventive measures among sexual minority youth need to be developed and implemented. Societal-level anti-stigma interventions are needed to reduce the risk of victimization and awareness should be raised among family and friends.

Background and objectives

Neutrophil, lymphocyte counts, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), D-dimer, fibrinogen, and comorbid illness are associated with the course and prognosis of COVID-19. However, the course of acute severe psychiatric disorders overlapping with COVID-19 infection was not investigated and remained as an unclarified research area. This study aimed to demonstrate inflammatory markers and the course of patients suffering from both conditions.

Methods

Thirty-eight inpatients with COVID-19 and comorbid acute psychiatric disorders (COVID-19+PD), 31 inpatients with COVID-19, and 38 inpatients with an acute psychiatric disorder (PD) were included in the study. Neutrophil, lymphocyte counts, serum ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), D-dimer, fibrinogen, Systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and C-reactive protein (CRP) were compared to evaluate inflammation levels.

Results

Patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection had older age compared to the PD group. CALL (Comorbidity, age, lymphocyte, lactate dehydrogenase) scores which predict the progression risk in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, of both COVID-19 groups were found similar. The COVID-19+PD had higher SII in the study sample. Additionally, the COVID-19+PD group had higher NLR, ferritin, and CRP levels than those of the PD group.

Conclusions

The prognosis of COVID-19 is not worse when accompanied by a psychiatric disorder. Laboratory assessment can guide clinicians to distinguish those infected with SARS-CoV-2 within psychiatric inpatient units. The biochemical assessment did not robustly support higher inflammatory levels in the comorbid COVID-19 and psychiatric disorder group compared to the COVID-19 group.

Background and objectives

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the young population has been suffering from an accumulation of psychological symptoms in northern Spain. The main objectives of this study were (1) to assess whether psychological symptoms persisted after one year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic in northern Spain sample of young people, and (2) to analyze whether pandemic-specific variables (having a chronic illness, living with a person who has a chronic illness, having been infected with COVID-19, having a close person who has died or believing that people are respecting the measures imposed) are related to psychological symptomatology.

Methods

Symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression were measured using the Depression and Stress Anxiety Scale-21 (DASS-21). An ad hoc online questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographical information related to chronic illnesses of the participants, living with a chronically ill person, contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19, having people close to them who have died of COVID-19, and their perception of whether or not people respect the health measures.

Results

Young people have suffered higher stress, anxiety, and depression levels than at the beginning of the pandemic.

Conclusions

The present study highlights the importance of addressing young people's mental health, and ensure that future adults emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic in a psychologically strong state.

We examine the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections among patients admitted to a Parisian psychiatric University Hospital Group (GHU).

A total of 548 patients were admitted to the GHU...s full-time psychiatric wards between April 6 and May 3 2020. More than 80% were tested. A total of 7 patients tested positive for the SARS-Cov-2 (1.3%), with 5 patients (in 92, 5.4%) testing positive in the first week.

GHU patients presented a low prevalence of SARS-CoV-2, even if all patients live in the hardest hit region in France. Social isolation and loneliness, as well as self-isolation of patients with symptoms could explain our results.

Background and objectives

With the population ageing, the identification of modifiable risk factors for dementia represents a public health priority. Co-occurrence of risk factors in the same individual is more frequent than an isolated appearance and may create synergistic effects, with an increased risk of negative outcomes such as dementia and mortality. We aim to study the cumulative risk of incident Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) in a community sample aged >65 (n= 3044).

Methods

To this end, we will examine the impact on the risk of AD of the co-occurrence of variables that have previously been shown to increase risk: age, gender, education, marital status, depression, anxiety, body mass index (BMI) and hearing loss.

Results

The most frequent number of co-occurring risk factors was 3. We found a cumulative increased risk of both death and AD by the confluence of 2 or more risk factors. Using a competing risk regression model, each increase in a co-occurring risk factor was associated with a significant increase in the risk of incident AD of more than two-fold. By the analysis of the Population Attributable Fractions (PAF) of AD due to several risk factors, we found that if 4 or more co-occurring risk factors could be eliminated from the population, the prevalence of AD would be reduced by approximately 38%.

Conclusion

Our study offers an estimate of the impact that preventive interventions could have if the number of modifiable risk factors of AD at a population level.

Background and Objectives

Individuals with specific psychological weaknesses are prone to mental problems during the coronavirus pandemic. This self-rating study assessed the combined effects of infection-related stress, resilience, worry, and loneliness on the likelihood of depression and anxiety among infected and non-infected individuals during the Tianjin Pandemic in 2022.

Methods

Individuals infected with Omicron (n = 249) and health residents (n = 415) were recruited from two hospitals and communities in Tianjin. Each respondent completed the following on-site assessment: Self-developed Scale of Demographics, Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), De Jong Gierveld Scale (DJGLS), and the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ). The respondents were categorized into depression or non-depression group by SDS scores, and anxiety or non-anxiety group by SAS scores.

Results

The overall scores of CD-RISC, DJGJLS, and PSWQ were significantly different both between the depression group and non-depression groups and between the anxiety group and non-anxiety groups. The greater likelihood of depression was associated with lower overall scores of CD-RISC and higher scores of PSWQ; the greater likelihood of anxiety was associated with higher scores of PSWQ. The likelihood of depression was also positively associated with having infection-related stress and three demographics.

Conclusions

This on-site study demonstrates the importance of specific traits in a small-scale pandemic: the worse resilience and the greater worry propensity related to the higher probability of depression, and the greater propensity of worry related to the higher probability of anxiety. Moreover, those experiencing infection-related stress, being male, living alone, and being unemployed are more likely to have depressive problems.