Search results

This paper aims to study the role of artificial intelligence (AI) agents in creating a climate of inclusion for people with special needs in the higher education sector (HES).

A qualitative methodology is used in this research that is mainly based on semistructured interviews conducted with the top ten universities in Lebanon with deans, information technology managers, professors and administrative officers.

This paper highlights findings related to the current status of the higher education institutions (HEIs) in Lebanon vis-à-vis their accreditation and quality assurance processes in accommodating and creating a climate of inclusion for people with special needs. The results show the important role of AI agents in aiding HEI in creating such a climate of inclusion for people with special needs.

The study sheds light on existing gaps in the literature related to creating a climate of inclusion for people with special needs in HEI. Additionally, there is yet a lack of research that focuses on the role of AI technology in general and AI agents in particular in fostering a climate of inclusion for people with special needs within the HES.

This study investigates the role of personality disorders in the context of counterproductive knowledge behavior.

Data were collected through a survey administered to 120 full-time employees recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Personality disorders were measured by means of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV.

Personality disorders play an important role in the context of counterproductive knowledge behavior: employees suffering from various personality disorders are likely to hide knowledge from their fellow coworkers and engage in knowledge sabotage. Of particular importance are dependent, narcissistic and sadistic personality disorders as well as schizophrenic and delusional severe clinical syndromes. There is a need for a paradigm shift in terms of how the research community should portray those who engage in counterproductive knowledge behavior, reconsidering the underlying assumption that all of them act deliberately, consciously and rationally. Unexpectedly, most personality disorders do not facilitate knowledge hoarding.

Organizations should provide insurance coverage for the treatment of personality disorders, assist those seeking treatment, inform employees about the existence of personality disorders in the workplace and their impact on interemployee relationships, facilitate a stress-free work environment, remove social stigma that may be associated with personality disorders and, as a last resort, reassign workers suffering from extreme forms of personality disorders to tasks that require less interemployee interaction (instead of terminating them).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work represents one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the notion of personality disorders in the context of knowledge management.

Research related to workplace accommodation requests for employees with mental illness is scarce, though evidence suggests that these individuals often fail to request accommodations even when needed. The authors' research study aimed to address these shortcomings by (1) assessing employees' knowledge of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) laws and how this knowledge influences employees' perceived need for and requests of accommodations; (2) examining the relationship between employees' perceived need for accommodations and employees' workplace outcomes and (3) examining the relationship between perceived need for accommodations and employees' actual accommodation requests, as well as how stigma influences this relationship.

The authors used two survey studies to investigate their research questions. Study 1 participants were recruited through Amazon's MTurk, and Study 2 participants were recruited through support groups for individuals diagnosed with mood disorders (i.e. depression and bipolar disorder).

The authors found significant gaps in both subjective and objective ADA-related knowledge among participants in their sample. The authors' Study 1 results also revealed an interaction between the perceived need for accommodations and accommodation requests in predicting job satisfaction and turnover intentions. When employees needed accommodations but did not request them, it resulted in worsened workplace outcomes. In Study 2, the authors aimed to identify barriers to requesting accommodations. The authors found that the relationship between perceived need for accommodations and actual accommodation requests was moderated by both public and self-stigma, thereby showing that stigma can impede individuals from requesting needed accommodations at work.

The authors' study sheds light on a population that has been relatively understudied in the workplace accommodations literature, namely those with mental illness. The authors first identify the perceived need for accommodations as an important factor in making accommodations requests at work, as prior work has failed to differentiate how the need for accommodations can vary across individuals. Next, the authors show how workplace outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and turnover intentions) are negatively affected when employees need accommodations but do not request them. Finally, the authors demonstrate how both public stigma and self-stigma can reduce the likelihood that individuals request accommodations at work, even when needed.

The purpose of this case report is to report the clinical experience of the use of gabapentin in the management of problem behaviors in a person with autism spectrum disorder and comorbid intellectual disability. Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a high prevalence of intellectual disability. Challenging behaviors in autism spectrum disorder are very common. In recent years, the hypothesis that the symptoms of autism derive from a deficiency of the inhibitory neurotransmission of gamma-aminobutyric acid is gaining considerable weight.

Exploring behavioral symptoms improvement in an adult man with ASD and severe intellectual disability taking gabapentin.

The rating scales used show improvement in challenging behaviors and aggressions. No side effects were observed.

Currently, there are no authorized drugs for the treatment of the symptomatic features of autism spectrum disorder, but drugs are used for comorbid psychopathological aspects. The authors want to speculate on a hypothetical function of gabapentin in remodeling the expression of alpha-2-delta subunits in people with autism and the processing of neural information.

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common form of anemia in the world, affecting children, women and the elderly, while also being a common comorbidity in several medical conditions. Several studies have suggested a possible association between IDA and neurological dysfunction. Epilepsy, one of the common neurological disorders, has an unknown association with IDA. This pa per aims to investigate whether there is a causal relationship between IDA and epilepsy using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) design.

This paper obtained summary data on IDA and epilepsy from the FinnGen consortium. Genetic variants significantly associated with IDA were used as instrumental variables (IVs). Epilepsy, focal epilepsy and generalized epilepsy were the outcomes. This paper used inverse variance weighted (IVW) as the primary estimate, and other MR methods were used as supplementary measures. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to assess heterogeneity and pleiotropy.

IVW estimates genetically predicted a causal relationship between IDA and the risk of epilepsy [odds ratio (OR), 1.15; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.05–1.26; p = 0.002] and focal epilepsy (OR, 1.978, 95% CI, 1.58–2.48, p ≤ 0.0001), while no significant causal relationship was found with generalized epilepsy (OR, 1.1, 95% CI, 0.94–1.3, p = 0.24). There was no evidence of horizontal pleiotropy and heterogeneity in the sensitivity analysis.

This two-sample MR study found that IDA has a negative effect on the development of epilepsy. Clinical control of IDA may be helpful in the prevention of epilepsy. There is a need for further studies to explain the underlying mechanisms of this association.

This study aims to provide an overview and quality appraisal of the current scientific evidence concerning the prevalence and characteristics of mental and physical disorders among sentenced female prisoners.

A mixed-methods systematic literature review.

A total of 4 reviews and 39 single studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. Mental disorders were the main area of investigation in the majority of single studies, with substance abuse, particularly drug abuse, as the most consistently gender biased disorder, with higher prevalence among women than men in prison. The review identified a lack of updated systematic evidence on the presence of multi-morbidity.

This study provides an up-to-date overview and quality appraisal of the current scientific evidence concerning the prevalence and characteristics of mental and physical disorders among female prisoners.

Down syndrome is one of the common genetic causes of intellectual disability. Adult with Down syndrome may have many psychiatric comorbidities. Therefore, their mental health status should be considered in legal proceedings such as criminal responsibility and legal capacity where they are involved. This study aims to highlight that individuals with Down syndrome are often referred directly to forensic psychiatry without undergoing an interview, despite the fact that this is a group with varied mental statuses.

This study analysed the socio-demographic, clinical and forensic characteristics of eight adult individuals with Down syndrome for whom the Council of Forensic Medicine (CFM) requested an opinion on criminal liability and other legal situations between 2018 and 2022. The CFM is an authoritative institution to which cases from all areas of Türkiye are referred.

The mean age of the individuals with Down syndrome for whom a forensic psychiatric opinion was requested was 24.63 (±7.95) and the mean IQ level was 54.13 (±13.38). All cases were male, 6 / 8 were referred for assessment of criminal responsibility and 4 / 6 of those referred for assessment of criminal responsibility were referred for sexual offences. It was found that 5 / 8 of the cases had moderate intellectual disability and 3 / 8 of the cases had mild intellectual disability.

Regarding the limitations of this study, the first one is the small sample size. Nevertheless, due to the low prevalence of people with Down syndrome in society, it is plausible that their stigmatization may not be reflected in the judicial system, even in cases involving violent behaviour. The second limitation is that the reports lack all psychiatric medical documents, including forensic psychiatric evaluations of individuals with Down syndrome. Additionally, additional diseases were recorded based on familial anamnesis. The third limitation is that this study is the first publication to investigate Down syndrome from a forensic psychiatric perspective. Thus, there is a lack of literature to make direct comparisons and references in the discussion section.

This is the first study about forensic psychiatric aspects for people with Down syndrome. The aim of this study was to examine the forensic psychiatric approach in Down syndrome, one of the most common genetic causes of intellectual disability, the situations in which forensic psychiatric assessment is required and the issues that might be considered important in this regard. Although there are various publications in the literature on the psychiatric conditions of individuals with Down syndrome, to our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate individuals with Down syndrome in terms of forensic psychiatric evaluation. People with Down syndrome are known to have varying degrees of intellectual disability and different types of psychiatric comorbidity.

People with Down syndrome are a heterogeneous group in terms of intellectual disability. The criminal responsibility and legal capacity of individuals may vary according to the legal situation. When requesting forensic psychiatric evaluation of these patients with psychiatric co-morbidity, patients should not be prejudged in terms of their level of mental competence and each case should be assessed individually.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of a novel offender personality disorder (OPD) higher education programme and the research evaluation results collected over a three-year period. Data from Phase 1 was collected from a face-to-face mode of delivery, and Phase 2 data collected from the same programme was from an online mode of delivery because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Phase 1, three modules were developed and delivered in a fully face-to-face format before the pandemic in 2019–2020 (n = 52 student participants). In 2020–2021 (n = 66 student participants), training was adapted into a fully online mode of delivery in Phase 2. This mixed-methods study evaluated participant confidence and compassion. Pre-, post- and six-month follow-up questionnaires were completed. Qualitative interviews were conducted across both phases to gain in-depth feedback on this programme (Phase 1: N = 7 students, Phase 2: N = 2 students, N = 5 leaders). Data from Phase 1 (face-to-face) and Phase 2 (online) are synthesised for comparison.

In Phase 1 (N = 52), confidence in working with people with personality disorder or associated difficulties improved significantly, while compassion did not change. In Phase 2 (N = 66), these results were replicated, with statistically significant improvements in confidence reported. Compassion, however, was reduced in Phase 2 at the six-month follow-up. Results have been integrated and have assisted in shaping the future of modules to meet the learning needs of students.

Further research into the impact of different modes of delivery is important for the future of education in a post-pandemic digitalised society. Comparisons of blended learning approaches were not covered but would be beneficial to explore and evaluate in the future.

This comparison provided informed learning for consideration in the development of non-related educational programmes and, hence, was of use to other educational providers.

This paper provides a comparison of a student-evaluated training programme, thus providing insights into the impact of delivering a relational-focused training programme in both face-to-face and online distance learning delivery modes. From this pedagogic research evaluation, the authors were able to derive unique insights into the outcomes of this programme.

This underscores individual and social implications for how mental disorders and mental well-being are constructed, conceived of and treated. Further, this paper aims to examine positive psychology’s role in supporting the advancement of a broader systemic and contextual approach to mental health. With that aim, this paper connects data on mental health and well-being with peace studies to describe the systems of value and social ecologies underpinning mental disorders, using public happiness/Felicitas Publica as a possible framework to enhance public mental health while intervening at the local level (Bruni and Zamagni, 2007; Marujo and Neto, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2021; Marujo et al., 2019).

Theoretical foundations and data on positive peace and mental well-being are described with the intention to propose a systemic, contextual, relational, communitarian, economic and sociopolitical perspective of well-being that goes beyond individual bodies and/or brains and, instead, views mental disorder and mental health as social currency (Beck, 2020).

The interventions using dialogic, conversational and community approaches are a possible path to promote peace, mental health and public happiness.

Examining the interplay between the fields of positive psychology, mental health and cultures of peace, this work contributes to the broadening of research and subsequent intervention topics through transdisciplinary approaches while reinforcing the role of systemic and social determinants and complementing the prevalent medical model and intraindividual perspective of mental health and well-being.

Adopting positive psychology to address mental health through public happiness concepts and interventions opens opportunities to respond to the ebb and flow of social challenges and life-giving opportunities. Therefore, the paper intends to articulate actor-related, relational, structural and cultural dimensions while moving away from discrete technocratic and individual models and pays attention to the way their implementations are aligned with both individual and social needs.

The work offers an inclusive, equalitarian, politically sensitive approach to positive mental health and positive psychology, bringing forward a structural transformation and human rights-based approach perspective while rethinking the type of social and political solutions to mental health issues.

Creating a critically constructive debate vis-à-vis the fluidity and complexity of the social world, the paper examines mental health and positive psychology simultaneously from a “hardware” (institutions, infrastructures, services, systems, etc.) and a “software” (i.e. individuals and community/societal relations).

Prisoners with substance use disorder (SUD) are at risk of mental health problems. Given the common co-occurring of psychopathic traits with SUDs, probably because of underlying impulsive traits (Ellingson et al., 2018), this study aims to examine the relation between psychopathy (impulsive antisociality and fearless dominance) and the functioning of incarcerated individuals with SUD. The authors investigated whether impulsivity (motor, nonplanning and attentional) can account for the relationship between one psychopathy facet (impulsive antisociality) and craving and mental health problems.

The authors assessed self-reported impulsivity, psychopathy, craving and mental health problems in 121 male incarcerated individuals with SUD and calculated cross-sectional linear regression analyses and mediation models.

Impulsive antisociality was positively related to all impulsivity facets, craving and mental health problems. Attentional impulsivity mediated the relationship of impulsive antisociality with craving and mental health problems. Fearless dominance was related to lower attentional and nonplanning impulsivity, craving and mental health problems.

Future studies should investigate these relations in longitudinal studies and evaluate tailored approaches, for example, mindfulness interventions.

Interventions to reduce craving and improve mental health might be important for those who display self-centered, antisocial behavior but are less relevant for those with fearless, dominant interpersonal behavior. Addressing attentional impulsivity may be of special interest in this regard.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study was the first to investigate the mediating role of different impulsivity facets for the association of impulsive antisociality with craving and with mental health problems in incarcerated individuals with SUD.