Search results

Childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS) refers to schizophrenia with onset of psychotic symptoms prior to a child's 13th birthday. Optimal treatment likely includes family-based services supplementing antipsychotic pharmacotherapy. However, family-based services can require adjustment based on parental psychopathology; there has been little literature exploring the frequency or type of psychopathology seen in parents of COS cases. This report includes the results of a structured psychiatric evaluation on 80 parents of a COS case with comparison to a sample of 304 parents. Having a child with psychosis and being of minority racial/ethnicity status increased risk for psychiatric illness. Psychotic disorders (15% vs. 5%), mood disorders (54% vs. 27%), anxiety disorders (30% vs. 18%), and substance use disorders (49% vs. 31%) were all increased in the parents with a psychotic child. Psychiatric illness is common in parents of a child with COS and will need to be considered as family-based services for COS are developed.

The aim of this study is to investigate the roles of psychiatric mental health nurses during their work experiences in inpatient clinical settings.

A focus group of 10 graduate psychiatric nurses with more than two years’ practice in inpatient psychiatric settings reflected on their last six months’ work placements and continuous employment. The transcripts and field notes were analyzed through thematic analysis of inductive data.

Two main themes emerged: management roles and clinical roles. The participants reflected on caring activities and obstacles encountered in fulfilling their professional roles.

Multiple practice issues emerged. The participants perceived that psychiatric nurse specialists are required to perform more caring functions than practicable in the inpatient setting due to an excess of noncaring duties, structural minimization of the caring role and inadequate training. They felt that many of the functions performed were not within their expectations of the caring role of a psychiatric nurse specialist and believed that changes in nurse education and attention to clarification of nurses’ roles might enhance the role they play in patient care.

How does the human brain absorb information and turn it into skills of its own in psychotherapy? In an attempt to answer this question, the authors will review the intricacies of processing channels in psychotherapy and propose the term transprocessing (as in transduction and processing combined) for the underlying mechanisms. Through transprocessing the brain processes multimodal memories and creates reparative solutions in the course of psychotherapy. Transprocessing is proposed as a stage-sequenced mechanism of deconstruction of engrained patterns of response. Through psychotherapy, emotional-cognitive reintegration and its consolidation is accomplished. This process is mediated by cellular and neural plasticity changes.

This study aims to examine the association of frontal functioning with subclinical bipolar spectrum by a newly developed convenient method. We investigated subclinical bipolar tendency and frontal lobe activation during word productions using multi-channel near infrared spectroscopy. Participants: 44 healthy university students (mean ages 20.5 years old, and 29 female) gave their written informed consent, and we strictly protected privacy and anonymity was carefully preserved. A 13-items self-report questionnaire (Mood Disorders Questionnaire; MDQ) and a 16-channel near-infrared spectroscopy were used to compare frontal activations between two samples divided by median (4 points) of the total MDQ scores and to analyze correlations between relative changes of cerebral blood volume and bipolarity levels. There was no case suspected as bipolar disorders by MDQ screening (mean 3.4, max 10). Significant differences in lower activations were noted in the right and left pre-frontal cortex (PFC) with higher bipolarity scores using the specific software to analyze the NIRS waveform (P<0.05). Total MDQ were correlated significantly with frontal activation negatively in many channels; therefore, we conducted multiple linear regression to select significant frontal activations using the MDQ as a dependent variable. Stepwise method revealed that activation in left lateral PFC was negatively associated to bipolar tendency, and this regression model was significant (R2=0.10, F=4.5, P=0.04). Differences in frontal functioning suggest that subclinical bipolar tendencies might be related to left lateral PFC activations. It should be confirmed whether the identical pattern can be identified for clinical subjects with bipolar disorders.

Genetic risk for depressive disorders is poorly understood despite consistent suggestions of a high heritable component. Most genetic studies have focused on risk associated with single variants, a strategy which has so far only yielded small (often non-replicable) risks for depressive disorders. In this paper we argue that more substantial risks are likely to emerge from genetic variants acting in synergy within and across larger neurobiological systems (polygenic risk factors). We show how knowledge of major integrated neurobiological systems provides a robust basis for defining and testing theoretically defensible polygenic risk factors. We do this by describing the architecture of the overall stress response. Maladaptation via impaired stress responsiveness is central to the aetiology of depression and anxiety and provides a framework for a systems biology approach to candidate gene selection. We propose principles for identifying genes and gene networks within the neurosystems involved in the stress response and for defining polygenic risk factors based on the neurobiology of stress-related behaviour. We conclude that knowledge of the neurobiology of the stress response system is likely to play a central role in future efforts to improve genetic prediction of depression and related disorders.