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Distinguishing between autism characteristics and trauma-related symptoms may be clinically challenging, particularly in individuals who have experienced early traumatisation. Previous studies have described a risk that trauma-related symptoms are misinterpreted and/or misattributed to autism. This study aims to describe and explore assessment strategies to distinguish autism and early traumatisation in the case of a young woman with mild intellectual disability.

A clinical case study outlining assessment strategies, diagnostic decision-making and initial intervention.

A multi-informant interdisciplinary assessment using multiple assessment tools, together with a comprehensive review of records from previous assessments and contacts with various services, was helpful in distinguishing between autism and trauma. This included specific assessment tools for autism and trauma. Autism characteristics and trauma-related symptoms appeared to interact, not merely co-occur.

The current case demonstrates that diagnostic overshadowing may occur for autism in the context of early trauma. The case further highlights the importance of not ascribing trauma-related symptoms to autism, as service provision and treatment need to take account of both. Overlooking autism in individuals who have experienced early traumatisation may result in a risk that intervention and care are not appropriately adapted, which may involve a risk of exacerbating trauma symptoms.

The possibility of recovery for persons with co-occurring addiction and mental health problems has been contested. Though, recent studies show that recovery might happen, but without connection to specific treatment interventions. The purpose of this paper is to analyse professionals’ perceptions of their contribution to improvement.

In all, 15 experienced professionals were interviewed. The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.

Recovery processes were dependent of the persons’ access to different forms of recovery capital (RC). Lack of RC was often associated with lack of trust in one’s self and others (identity and personal capital). Professionals had to be accepted as trustful agents through co-creating changes in the person’s life. Trusting a professional might be a basis for trusting one’s self as an agent in one’s recovery process and develop a social network (identity and relationship capital). Other aspects stressed by the professionals were to manage their own fragmentized organisations and societal shortcomings (economic capital).

Recovery has been described as a profoundly individual journey. However, it is also deeply social, involving other persons and contextual factors. Focusing on just one level might counteract the complex work behind double recovery.

Improvement was described as dependent on the presence of personal, inter-personal, organisational and societal factors. The findings give a deep and concrete understanding of the process constituting the development of a working alliance and its dependence on factors outside the direct relation between the staff member and the person.

Understanding parental psychopathology interaction is important in preventing negative family outcomes. This study investigated the effect of paternal psychiatric history on maternal depressive symptom trajectory from birth to 12 months postpartum. Maternal Edinburgh Postpartum Depression screens were collected at 1, 6 and 12 months and fathers' psychiatric diagnoses were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV from 64 families. There was not a significant difference in the trajectory of maternal depressive symptoms between mothers with partners with history of or a current psychiatric condition or those without a condition. However, mothers with partners with substance abuse history had higher levels of depressive symptoms relative to those affected by mood/anxiety disorders or those without a disorder. Our results call for a closer look at paternal history of substance abuse when treating postpartum maternal depression.

It is unclear whether information obtained from a one parent can be used to infer the other parent's history of psychopathology. Two hundred and one parental dyads were asked to complete psychiatric interviews. Based on maternal report, non-participating husbands/ fathers had higher rates than participating fathers of psychiatric illness. For fathers who did participate, maternal report did not match direct interview of paternal psychopathology with sensitivities less than 0.40 and positive predictive values of 0.33 to 0.74. Psychopa -thology may be over-represented among fathers who do not participate in research. Mother report of paternal symptoms is not an effective proxy. Alternative methods need to be developed to: i) improve father participation or ii) identify psychiatric status in fathers who do not participate in research projects.

Treatment satisfaction of different mental disorders is still poorly understood, but of high clinical interest. Inpatients of a general psychiatric care hospital were asked to fill out questionnaires on satisfaction and clinical variables at admission and discharge. On the basis of an exploratory approach, differences in treatment satisfaction among diagnostic groups were examined by means of one-way analysis of variance. Potential associated clinical and socio-demographic variables were studied using multi/univariate tests. Patients with personality disorders (n=18) showed a significantly lower treatment satisfaction (ZUF-8, Zurich Satisfaction Questionnaire) and a slightly lower improvement of symptoms (CGI, Clinical Global Impression) and global functioning (GAF, Global Assessment of Functioning scale) than that of other diagnostic groups (n=95). Satisfaction in patients with personality disorders correlated much stronger with the symptom improvement and slightly with the functioning level than in patients without personality disorders. Interestingly, in patients with personality disorders psychopharmacological treatment in general (present versus not present) was independent from satisfaction. This exploratory investigation suggests that a lower satisfaction of patients with personality disorders in a general psychiatric hospital is mainly based on a reduced improvement of the symptoms and of the global functioning level.

Acute and transient psychotic disorders (ATPD), introduced in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) diagnostic system in 1992, are not receiving much attention in developing countries. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to review the literature related to the diagnostic stability of ATPD in developing countries. A PubMed search was conducted to review the studies concerned with this issue in the context of developing countries, as diagnostic stability is more of a direct test of validity of psychiatric diagnoses. Four publications were found. According to the literature search, the stability percentage of the ICD-10 ATPD diagnosis is 63-100%. The diagnostic shift is more commonly either towards bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, if any. Shorter duration of illness (<1 month) and abrupt onset (<48 hours) predict a stable diagnosis of ATPD. Based on available evidence, the diagnosis of ATPD appears to be relatively stable in developing countries. However, it is difficult to make a definitive conclusion, as there is a substantial lack of literature in developing country settings.

Mental disorders lead to difficulties in social, occupational and marital relations. Failure to detect mental disorder denies patients potentially effective treatment. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and nature of mental disorders at the primary care settings and the recognition of these disorders by the attending physicians. Over a period of eight weeks, consecutive and consenting patients who attended three randomly selected primary health care facilities in Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun state were recruited and administered a questionnaire that included a socio-demographic section and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ). A total of 412 subjects took part in the study. Subject age ranged from 18-90 years with a mean age of 52.50±21.08 years. One hundred and seventy-six (42.7%) of the subjects were males. A total of 120 (29.1%) of the subjects had depressive disorder, 100 (24.3%) had anxiety disorder, 196 (47.6%) somatoform disorder and 104 (25.2%) met the criteria for an alcohol related problem. The PHC physicians were only able to diagnose disorders relating to mental health in 52 (12.6%) of the subjects. Health and work situations accounted for more than three-quarters of the causes of stress experienced by the subjects. We conclude that there is a high prevalence of mental disorders among patients seen in primary care settings and that a significant proportion of them are not recognized by the primary care physicians. Stress relating to health, work and financial problems is common among primary health care attendees. Physicians in primary health care should be alert to the possibility and the impact of undetected psychiatric morbidity.