Revista de psiquiatria y salud mental最新文献

Introduction

The World Health Organization has developed a new classification of mental disorders in Primary Health Care (PHC), the ICD-11-PHC, in which there are changes in the diagnostic criteria of anxiety and depression disorder. In addition, 2 screening instruments have been developed for the detection of anxious and depressive symptoms according to the criteria of the new classification.

Objectives

To evaluate the capacity of the Spanish version of the 2 brief scales Dep5 and Anx5 to identify cases of depression and anxiety in PHC in Spain.

Method

A cross-sectional study conducted by 37 PHC physicians who selected 284 patients with suspected emotional distress. This sample was administered the screening scales (Anx5 and Dep5) and a diagnostic instrument (Clinical Interview Schedule-Revised) contemplating the new ICD-11 criteria as used as gold standard.

Results

The Anx5, using a cut-off point of 3, showed a sensitivity of 0.75 and specificity of 0.53. Using a cut-off point of 4, the Dep5 showed a sensitivity of 0.48 and a specificity of 0.8. The 2 scales together, with a cut-off point of 3 for each, classified correctly 73,57% as cases or non-cases. The diagnosis most frequently observed was anxious depression.

Conclusions

The screening scales for anxious and depressive symptoms (Anx5 and Dep5) are simple and easy-to-use instruments for assessing anxious and depressive symptoms in PHC. The reliability and validity data of each of the scales separately are limited but the figures improve when they are used together.

Background

Selecting the most effective treatment represents a critical challenge with the potential of modifying the long-term prognosis of individuals suffering a first break of psychosis. Head-to-head clinical trials comparing effectiveness among antipsychotic drugs in individuals with a first-episode of non-affective psychosis (FEP) are scarce.

Methods

The rationale and design of a 3 phases clinical trial (PAFIP-3, NCT02305823) comparing the effectiveness of aripiprazole and risperidone, and to additionally assess the benefits of an early use of clozapine in primary treatment-resistant patients is reported. The design encompasses of 5 work packages (medication algorithm, cognitive functioning, psychoeducation/vocational functioning, imaging and biological markers) addressing critical issues and needs of first episode psychosis individuals and their cares. The primary outcome measure was treatment effectiveness assessed by all-cause treatment discontinuation rate.

Results

266 individuals have been included in the randomization study phase I (risperidone vs. aripiprazole). At 3 months, the retention rate was of 94% (249/266), 48(19.3%) patients have gone through phase II (olanzapine treatment), and 7(2.8%) entered the clozapine phase (phase III).

Discussion

The PAFIP 3 clinical trial may provide relevant information about clinical guidelines to optimally treat patients with a first episode of non-affective psychosis and the benefits and risks of an early use of clozapine in treatment resistant patients.

Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02305823.

Up to 80% of first-episode psychosis patients suffer a relapse within five years of the remission. Relapse should be an important focus of prevention given the potential harm to the patient and family. It threatens to disrupt their psychosocial recovery, increases the risk of resistance to treatment and has been associated with greater direct and indirect costs for society.

Based on a previous project entitled “Genotype–phenotype and environment. Application to a predictive model in first psychotic episodes” (PEPs Project), the project “Clinical and neurobiological determinants of second episodes of schizophrenia. Longitudinal study of first episode of psychosis” was designed, also known as the 2EPs Project. It aimed to identify and characterize those factors that predict a relapse within the years immediately following a first episode. This project has focused on following the clinical course, with neuropsychological assessments, biological and neuroanatomical measures, genetic adherence and physical health monitoring in order to compare a subgroup of patients with a second episode to another group of patients which remains in remission. The main objective of the present article is to describe the rationale of the 2EPs Project, explaining the measurement approach adopted and providing an overview of the selected clinical and functional measures.

2EPs Project is a multicenter, coordinated, naturalistic, longitudinal follow-up study over three years in a Spanish sample of patients in remission after a first-psychotic episode of schizophrenia. It is closely monitoring the clinical course of the cases recruited to compare the subgroup of patients with a second episode to that which remains in remission. The sample is composed of 223 subjects recruited from 15 clinical centres in Spain with experience of the preceding PEPs Study project, albeit 2EPs being an expanded version with new basic groups in biological research. From the total sample recruited, 63 patients presented a relapse (44%).

2EPs arose to characterize first episodes in an exhaustive, novel and multimodal way, thus contributing towards the development of a predictive model of relapse. Identifying the characteristics of patients who relapse could improve early detection and intervention.

Introduction

The present study aimed to obtain a short form of the Spanish version of the WAIS-IV for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia that requires about half an hour to be administered. The reduced test can be very useful in clinical and research settings when an estimation of the intelligence quotient is required to decide about intervention programmes or to describe the sample.

Materials and methods

A sample of 143 patients participated in the study, 91 out of them were the test group, and the other 52 were used for a cross-validation analysis. To increase the content validity, the decision was made to create a short form composed of a subtest of each of the four cognitive domains that the scale measures.

Results

Several analyses showed that the best combination was composed of the Information, Block Design, Arithmetic, and Symbol Search subtests. Nine different criteria were calculated to evaluate the quality of the short form.

Conclusions

The data showed very good results for the criteria: correlations, difference of means, and cross-validation. The results were satisfactory for: category agreement, band of error, clinical accuracy, and reliability.

Schizoaffective disorder is defined by the appearance of positive psychotic symptomatology as well as affective features, even when it is considered a controversial nosologic entity, proving difficult to accord on its definition or diagnostic criteria. Due to these conceptual differences, it has been a challenge to study effective therapeutic measures and, consequently, the availability of data in the current literature, resulting in the extrapolation of clinical guidelines and recommendations initially established for patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The current study aimed to systematically search and summarize the published evidence to date about the use of clozapine in patients with schizoaffective disorder. Seven studies were identified, that are heterogeneous on their designs and methodology, including samples of patients mixed with bipolar or schizophrenic disorders. The evidence was summarized both in a table and a narrative fashion, suggesting that clozapine may be an effective treatment for both psychotic and affective symptoms, indistinctively of an acute or maintenance phase.