Featured Articles from Mind & Brain, The Journal of Psychiatry

Life Satisfaction in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder: Impact of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy

Aba Delsignore, Steffi Weidt, Juliane Emmerich and Michael Rufer

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

Correspondence: Aba Delsignore, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Zürich, Culmannstrasse 8, 8091 Zürich, Switzerland. Tel: +41 (0)44 255 52 80; Fax: +41 (0)44 255 44 08; e-mail: aba.delsignore@usz.ch

ABSTRACT

This study focused on life satisfaction among patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and examined factors associated with gains in life satisfaction following cognitive-behavioral group therapy (CBGT). A sample of 121 patients with social anxiety disorder undergoing cognitive-behavioral group therapy was assessed in terms of domain-specific life satisfaction (FLZ) and symptomatology at baseline, posttreatment and 3-month follow-up. At baseline, patients showed decreased mean scores for life satisfaction especially in domains requiring social competence (friends, partnership, and family). Life satisfaction increased significantly in the course of CBGT and remained stable in the follow-up period. Symptom improvement was linked to life satisfaction gains during therapy. Men were more often singles and less satisfied with their partnership situation than women. Current partnership, employment, and no previous therapy experience were associated with higher life satisfaction at baseline. However, only the partnership situation was a positive predictor of life satisfaction gains at follow-up. In conclusion, our results showed that life satisfaction could be improved with CBGT for SAD. Additional interventions may be necessary to increase the satisfaction of men with their partnership situation and to support single patients in the practice of social skills outside of the group.

Correlation of High Maternal Perceived Stress During Pregnancy and Offspring Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Japan

Kouichi Yoshimasu¹, Chikako Kiyohara² and the Wakayama ADHD Study Group*

Affiliations: ¹Department of Hygiene, School of Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama; ²Department of Preventive Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

*Members of the Wakayama ADHD Study Group are listed in the Appendix.

Correspondence: Kouichi Yoshimasu, Department of Hygiene, School of Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, 8-1-1 Kimiidera, Wakayama 641-0012, Japan. Tel: +81 73-441-0646; Fax: +81 73-441-0646; e-mail: kyoshi@wakayama-med.ac.jp

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Although some evidence has suggested that maternal mental stress during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of offspring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), non-Caucasian studies with appropriate adjustments for confounding factors have not yet been conducted.

Objective

To examine the relationship between maternal perceived mental stress during pregnancy and offspring ADHD among Japanese.

Method

A total of 90 pairs of ADHD children and mothers as well as 290 corresponding comparison pairs were recruited throughout the study period. In brief, a psychiatrist interviewed all the mothers of ADHD and comparison children, and elicited information regarding their lifestyles during pregnancy including mental stress as well as other psychosocial, perinatal, and lifestyle factors. The diagnosis of ADHD was made by each physician in charge according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria.

Results

Severe antenatal mental stress was significantly associated with an approximately eightfold increased risk of offspring ADHD, even after adjusting for potential confounders such as socioeconomic and perinatal factors (OR 7.7, 95% CI, 3.1–19.2).

Conclusions

High maternal perceived mental stress during pregnancy might be a significant risk factor for offspring ADHD among Japanese. Our findings must be validated by prospective studies using a larger sample size and a more detailed assessment of mental stress in non-Caucasian populations.

Treating Anxiety Disorders with Anticonvulsant Drugs: Is There Any Evidence?

INTRODUCTION

Anxiety disorders are chronic conditions that may require long-term drug treatments. Antidepressants represent the current gold standard but they fail in up to one-third of patients. Moreover, benzodiazepines, currently used in the acute treatment, are limited by the high risk of tolerance, dependence, and abuse.

OBJECTIVES

This paper is aimed at reviewing international literature on the use of anticonvulsant drugs in anxiety disorders.

METHODS

References were identified by searches of Medline/PubMed and PsychINFO. Only papers published in English were reviewed.

RESULTS

Despite a considerable number of open studies and anecdotal reports, the number of controlled studies is scanty. The majority of publications have several methodological limitations including inadequate sample size; lack of placebo control; the use of different outcome measures; and lack of controlling for patient variables such as comorbidity, diagnostic subtype, and concomitant medications. Pregabalin is the only anticonvulsant with good evidence in generalized anxiety disorder. Pregabalin and gabapentin may be promising in social phobia but further controlled studies are needed. A number of compounds are still at an early stage of evidence and may deserve further controlled trials: topiramate in posttraumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, valproate and gabapentin in panic disorder.

CONCLUSION

Anticonvulsant drugs may be valuable options in some selected patients with difficult to treat anxiety disorders refractory to first-line agents. Further studies are warranted to identify specific clinical phenotypes where anticonvulsants may be successfully used in the acute and long-term treatment of anxiety disorders.

Contribution of Disulfiram Use to Retain Alcohol-Dependent Outpatients in Treatment: A Focus on Gender

Specificity of Predictors for “Psychosis” and “Neurosis”: A Comparison in a 50-Year Follow-Up of the Unselected Lundby Community Population

Bogren M, Mattisson C; Specificity of Predictors for “Psychosis” and “Neurosis”: A Comparison in a 50-Year Follow-Up of the Unselected Lundby Community Population. Mind & Brain, the Journal of Psychiatry, August 2010; 1(2):  1-12

ORIGINAL ARTICLE


Mats Bogren and Cecilia Mattisson

Affiliation : Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Psychiatry, the Lundby Study, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden

ABSTRACT

Premorbid anomalies related to personality and behavior may confer an increased risk of developing psychosis. Prospective studies have found that social anxiety, social adjustment problems, deviance in emotional reactivity, high neuroticism, low extraversion, psychoticism, features of schizotypy, neurocognitive impairment, and anhedonia are associated with an increased risk of developing schizophrenia spectrum disorders. As some of these factors—e.g., anxiety, neuroticism, and psychoticism—have also been found to be associated with depression, however, it is possible that such deviances related to personality and behavior may reflect an increased risk of developing any mental disorder, thus raising the question whether there are any premorbid traits that are specifically related to psychosis. We studied whether certain clusters of premorbid behavioral and personality-related signs and symptoms were predictors of “nonaffective and/or affective psychosis” and “neurosis,” respectively, in a 50-year prospective study of a complete general community population (n = 3563). Although we found that most personality-related predictors are probably shared between “psychosis” and “neurosis” outcomes, the result also suggested that premorbid proneness to anxiety, impairment in experiencing pleasure, affective flattening, cluster A resembling traits, hypersensitiveness, and distractibility may be more strongly related to the risk of developing “psychosis” than “neurosis.” Furthermore, impairments in experiencing pleasure and affective flattening may show some superior specificity for the risk of developing “psychosis” in comparison with “neurosis,” which accords with the hypothesis that psychosis proneness may be related to a salience disorder.

Keywords: Community Population, Prospective Study, Vulnerability, Risk Factors, Nonaffective Psychosis, Affective Psychosis, Neurosis
Correspondence: Mats Bogren, Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Psychiatry, the Lundby Study, Lund University Hospital, St Lars,
SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden. Tel: +46 46 174321 ; Fax: +46 46 174647; e-mail: mats.bogren@med.lu.se

Self-Protective Organization in Children with Conversion Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Study Looking at Psychological and Biological Correlates

Kozlowska K, Williams LM; Self-Protective Organization in Children with Conversion Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Study Looking at Psychological and Biological Correlates. Mind & Brain, the Journal of Psychiatry, August  2010; 1(2):  43-58

REVIEW ARTICLE


Kasia Kozlowska^1,2 and Leanne M Williams²

Affiliations : ¹Department of PsychologicalMedicine, The Children’s Hospital atWestmead,Westmead, NSW, Australia and ²Brain Dynamics Centre, Sydney Medical School and Westmead Millennium Institute at Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT

Conversion disorder remains a long-standing puzzle concerning the interconnections of brain, mind, and body. Contemporary psychological assessments and neurophysiological techniques create a new window for investigating those interconnections, but the widely varying presentations of conversion disorder have made it difficult to isolate clinically well-defined groups for controlled studies. To overcome such difficulties, we propose an integrative framework to link the conceptualization of symptoms with levels of organization, as assessed by brain–body measures. We conceptualize conversion symptoms as the motor-sensory components of broader self-protective patterns of response—integrated sets of reactions involving physiological, motor-sensory, and psychological subcomponents—or their unwanted consequences. We describe a research program aimed at testing these relationships in children presenting with acute “conversion symptoms,” including somatoform pain. These relationships are examined using a standardized test battery that includes psychological measures (symptoms, attachment strategy, distress, daily function, life-event profile), measures of cognitive performance (on both general and emotional domains), and neurophysiological measures of brain and body function (including electroencephalogram, event-related potentials, heart rate, and skin conductance). Enrollment is under way for a minimum target of 40 children with acute conversion symptoms, 40 children with medically unexplained pain, and 40 healthy, matched controls. Our expectation is that these data will advance our understanding of conversion disorder and also improve the clinical care of this patient population.

Keywords: Conversion disorder, Somatoform pain disorder, Medically unexplained symptoms, Self-protective organization, Biologicalmarkers,
Emotion processing, Dynamic-Maturational Model of attachment, Integrative neuroscience
Correspondence: Kasia Kozlowska, Department of Psychological Medicine, The Children’s Hospital atWestmead, Locked Bag 4001,Westmead,
NSW 2145, Australia. Tel: 61-2-9845-2005; Fax: 61-2-9845-2009; e-mail: kasiak@chw.edu.au

Using Neuroimaging to Predict Outcome in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

Ramasubbu  R, MacQueen G; Using Neuroimaging to Predict Outcome in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder. Mind & Brain, the Journal of Psychiatry, August  2010; 1(2):  59-68

REVIEW ARTICLE


Rajamannar Ramasubbu and Glenda MacQueen

Affiliation : Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

ABSTRACT

Variability in treatment response is a major challenge in the treatment of patients with major depression, and there are few reliable predictors of clinical outcomes. Recent advances in brain-imaging technologies offer promise that neural markers might be useful in the prediction of treatment outcomes. Emerging evidence suggests that hippocampal and anterior cingulate volumes and brain activity in the subgenual cingulate and amygdala may predict treatment response in depression. There are some obvious limitations to the routine use of imaging as a tool for predicting who will respond to a course of treatment. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to consider whether non-invasive brain-imaging methods such as magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography combined with sensitive clinical measures of early treatment changes will someday be routinely applied to guide treatment selection for people with depression.

Keywords: Major Depression, Antidepressants, Predictors of Treatment Response, Brain Imaging, Neural Markers
Correspondence: Dr Rajamannar Ramasubbu, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Special Services Building, 403-29th Street
N.W., Calgary, Alberta T2N 2T9, Canada. Tel: 403-944-1235; Fax: 403-270-3451; e-mail: rramasub@ucalgary.ca

Responses to Facial Expressions of Emotions in Social Anxiety Disorder: A Review of fMRI and ERP Studies from a Developmental Psychopathology Perspective

Biomarkers and Autism

Psychosocial Interventions to Improve the School Performance of Students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Tresco KE, Lefler EK, Power TJ; Psychosocial Interventions to Improve the School Performance of Students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Mind & Brain, the Journal of Psychiatry, August  2010; 1(2):  69-74

REVIEW ARTICLE


Katy E Tresco, Elizabeth K. Lefler and Thomas J Power

Affiliation : The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA

ABSTRACT

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically show impairments throughout the school day. A number of interventions have been demonstrated to address both the academic and behavioral impairments associated with this disorder. Although the focus of research has been on classroom-based strategies of intervention for children with ADHD, school-based interventions applicable for nonclassroom environments such as lunchrooms and playgrounds are beginning to emerge. This paper provides a brief description of the guiding principles of behavioral intervention, identifies selected strategies to address behavioral and academic concerns, discusses how school contextual factors have an effect on intervention selection and implementation, and considers the effects of using psychosocial interventions in combination with medication.

Keywords: ADHD, School, Intervention, Behavior, Psychosocial, Academic, RTI
Correspondence: Thomas J Power, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 34th St. & Civic Center Blvd., 3535 Market Street-Room 1471, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. e-mail: power@email.chop.edu