Stigma towards psychiatry and mental illness significantly worsens the quality of life of psychiatric patients. Negative prejudices in medical students make it difficult for future doctors to send patients to mental health services and promote an increased risk of premature death.

Our aim is to assess stigma towards mental illness and psychiatry in medical students, and to study the influence of real-world experiences, such as having visited a psychiatric ward, having personally met a psychiatric patient or having friends and/or family members who suffer from a mental illness.

One hundred and thirteen Italian medical students completed the following tests:

– Attitudes Towards Psychiatry (ATP-30);

– Community Attitudes Towards Mental Ill (CAMI);

– Perceived Discrimination Devaluation Scale (PDD);

– Baron-Cohen's Empathy Quotient (EQ).

Having visited a psychiatric ward correlates with a better attitude towards psychiatry (P = 0.008), rather than towards the mentally ill. Having personally known someone with mental disorders correlates with less stigmatizing scores in CAMI: total score (P = 0.002), authoritarianism (P < 0.001), benevolence (P = 0.047) and social restriction (P = 0.001). Similar results emerged in those who have close relationships with a psychiatric patient. There is no statistical significance as to empathy.

The students who have visited a psychiatric ward have a less stigmatizing vision of psychiatry, while having personally known psychiatric patients favors a less stigmatizing attitude towards them. Those who have not had this experience, have a more hostile and intolerant vision of mental illness, and consider psychiatric patients as inferior subjects that require coercive attitudes and that would be better to avoid because socially dangerous.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Stigma towards mental illness and psychiatry have a major impact on psychiatric patients’ quality of life; in particular, prejudicial beliefs make it more difficult for future doctors to send patients to mental health services, leading to a delay of necessary care.

Our aim is to evaluate the stigma towards mental illness and psychiatry, in a sample of Italian medical students. We studied the differences between the first-year students who have not attended the academic course in psychiatry, compared to the senior students who have attended the psychiatric lectures.

We tested 113 medical students, using the following questionnaires:

– Attitudes Towards Psychiatry (ATP 30);

– Community Attitudes Towards Mental Ill (CAMI);

– Perceived Discrimination Devaluation Scale (PDD), to assess the discrimination towards mental illness perceived in society;

– Baron-Cohen's Empathy Quotient (EQ), to measure empathy.

Among the 113 students, 46 have already attended the academic course of psychiatry and CAMI scores were less stigmatizing as total score (P = 0.014) and in authoritarianism subscale (P = 0.049), social restriction (P = 0.022) and ideology of mental health in the community (P = 0.017). However, there were no statistically significant differences in empathy, perceived discrimination in the society and stigmatization of psychiatry.

The 67 students who have not attended the academic course of psychiatry are more stigmatizing, considering psychiatric patients as inferior people that require coercive attitudes, socially dangerous and that should be treated faraway from the community. Studying psychiatry is therefore useful to reduce, in the future doctors, these prejudices toward mentally ill patients.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Studies have shown that sport participation is connected with a more positive self-image and higher self-esteem in adolescents (Bowkers, 2006, Kirkcaldy et al., 2002), whereas sedentary behavior is associated with negative mental health characteristics (Primack et al., 2009).

The aim of this study was to investigate whether physical activity influences adolescents and young people's emotions, self-esteem and generally mental health.

Questionnaires were redacted by the research team investigating participants’ habits, emotions and health benefits concerning physical activities.

Questionnaires were administered to 150 adolescents, aged 18–20 years old in Technological Educational Institutes, colleges and fitness centers in Patras, Southern Greece during 2015's spring.

Eighty-seven percent of the respondents worked out in fitness centers or in natural environment. Most of them answered that exercise contributed to revitalization and euphoria feelings (63%), stress relief (78%), better self-image, and better health (49%). According to 63% of the adolescents, exercise improved their school performance and 61% of them felt that exercise affected positively mental health.

Present study's results underline physical activities’ benefits in students’ mental health, self-esteem, feelings and school performance being in line with other studies’ results [Biddle et Asare (2011), Ekeland et al. (2005), Brown et al. (2013)]. Restrictions refer mainly to small size sample.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Participants were 5th- and 6th-grade children in two public elementary schools in Japan. The final samples were fifty-six children (25 boys and 31 girls). Participants completed a battery of three questionnaires just before (T1) and after (T2) an school-based universal prevention program for enhancing emotional coping abilities with others’ emotions, which was implemented in eight classes during one month. The questionnaires were utilized for assessing implicit positive and negative affect (IPA and INA), explicit emotional coping abilities to identify, understand, and regulate others’ emotions, and the adaptive status of children at school.

Hierarchical regression analyses showed that higher IPA at T1 was associated with higher explicit emotional coping and motivation for learning at T2. Also, higher INA at T1 was related to better peer relationship at T2. Moreover, higher IPA and INA at T1 were concerned with higher scores of classroom climate and approval at T2.

This study suggested that higher IPA leads to higher explicit emotional coping with others’ emotions. Also, it suggested that higher implicit affectivity (i.e., both higher IPA and INA) causes more adaptive status of children at school.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathophysiology of depression and anxiety disorders and may be influenced by antidepressant use.

This study investigated the association of oxidative stress, measured by plasma levels of F2-isoprostanes and 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), reflecting oxidative lipid and DNA damage respectively, with major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, panic disorder, agoraphobia and antidepressant use in a large cohort.

Data was derived from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety including patients with current (n = 1641) or remitted (n = 610) MDD and/or anxiety disorder(s) (of which n = 709 antidepressant users) and 633 controls. Diagnoses were established with the Composite Interview Diagnostic Instrument. Plasma 8-OHdG and F2-isoprostanes were measured using UHPLC-MS/MS. ANCOVA was performed adjusting for sampling, sociodemographic, health and lifestyle variables.

F2-isoprostanes did not differ between controls and patients, or by antidepressant use. Patients (current or remitted) using antidepressants had lower 8-OHdG (adjusted mean 38.3 pmol/L) compared to patients (current or remitted) without antidepressants (44.7 pmol/L) and controls (44.9 pmol/L, P < 0.001; Cohen's d 0.26). Findings for 8-OHdG were similar over all disorders and all antidepressant types (SSRIs, TCAs, SNRIs; P < 0.001).

Contrary to previous findings this large-scale study did not find increased oxidative stress measured by F2-isoprostanes or 8-OHdG in MDD or anxiety disorders. 8-OHdG levels were lower in antidepressant users, which suggests antidepressants may have antioxidant properties.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

It has been hypothesized that lowered antioxidant capacity, which leads to increased oxidative stress, may be involved in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders and might be altered by antidepressant treatment.

This study investigated the association of plasma uric acid, the greatest contributor to blood antioxidant capacity, with MDD, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, panic disorder, agoraphobia and antidepressants in a large cohort.

Data was derived from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety including patients with current (n = 1648) or remitted (n = 609) MDD and/or anxiety disorder(s) (of which n = 710 antidepressant users) and 618 controls. Diagnoses were established with the Composite Interview Diagnostic Instrument. Symptom severity was ascertained in all participants with the Inventory of Depressive Symptoms and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. ANCOVA and regression analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic, health and lifestyle variables.

Plasma uric acid was lower in those with current MDD and/or anxiety disorder(s) (adjusted mean 270 μmol/L) compared to those with remitted disorders (280 μmol/L, P < 0.001) or to controls (281 μmol/L, P < 0.001; Cohen's d 0.14). Within patients antidepressants were not associated with uric acid levels. Increasing symptom severity was associated with lower uric acid levels for both depression (β = –0.05, P = 0.001) and anxiety symptoms (β = –0.05, P = 0.004).

This large scale study finds that the antioxidant uric acid is lower in current, but not remitted, MDD or anxiety disorders and in persons with higher symptom severity, suggesting disturbances in redox homeostasis play a role in the pathophysiology of depression and anxiety disorders.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The influence of the immune deregulation on the risk and psychopathology of schizophrenia is increasingly recognized in the literature.

To assess the association between serum IL-1RA on schizophrenia psychopathology.

We recruited 88 schizophrenia patients (38 males and 49 females, mean age 38.12 ± 12.67 years) and 88 healthy adult control subjects (68 males, 20 females, mean age 40.63 ± 7.99 years). Lifetime psychopathology was evaluated using Operational Criteria for Psychotic Illness (OPCRIT) checklist, while current psychopathology was assessed using Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Serum samples were stored in aliquots at –80 °C. Serum levels of IL1-RA were measured using Immunoassay (ELISA).

There were statistically significant differences between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls (median ± interquartile range: 350,81 ± 227.04 and 888.74 ± 762.63, respectively [pg/ml]) (U Mann–Whitney test, Z = –7.99, P < 0.0001). There were no differences in serum IL1-RA levels between male and female among patients with schizophrenia (U Mann–Whitney test, Z = –0.22, P = 0.82) nor among healthy control subjects (U Mann–Whitney test, Z = –0.17, P = 0.86). Among schizophrenia patients, there was a trend-level association between IL-1RA serum level with negative symptoms (Spearman correlation coefficient, r = –0.23, P = 0.056), positive symptoms (Spearman correlation coefficient r = –0.22, P = 0.066), and on a statistically significant level with general symptoms (Spearman correlation coefficient r = –0.28, P = 0.018).

Serum IL1-RA level is higher in schizophrenia patients in comparison to healthy controls and it is associated with schizophrenia psychopathology.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Alterations on the innate inflammatory response may underlie the pathophysiology of psychiatric diseases, but the mechanisms implicated remain elusive. Current antipsychotics modulate pro/anti-inflammatory pathways, but the specific mechanisms involved remain elusive. One attractive possibility is the regulation of the intracellular signalling pathways of the innate immune receptors Toll-like 3 (TLR3), which triggers antiviral and inflammatory responses.

To elucidate the regulatory role of paliperidone on maternal immune activation (MIA) induced alterations on TLR3 pathway and on the two emerging endogenous antiinflammatory/antioxidant mechanisms NRF2/antioxidant enzymes pathway and the cytokine milieu regulating M1/M2 polarization in microglia.

Pregnant mice were treated with the synthetic Toll-like Receptor 3 (TLR3) agonist Poly(I:C) in gestational day 9 and chronically treated with paliperidone (0,05 mg/kg i.p.) in adult offspring. Animals were sacrificed one day after treatment and behavioral test. Inflammation oxidative stress-related mediators were analysed at mRNA and protein level in prefrontal cortex samples. In addition, behavioral test t-maze was conducted.

Paliperidone prevented TLR3 pathway activation and the subsequent MIA-induced neuroinflammatory response. Also, paliperidone induced an increment in the activity and protein expression of nuclear NRF2, as well as increased mRNA levels of the antioxidant enzymes HO1, SOD and catalase in the MIA model. Otherwise, paliperidone increases the antiinflammatory cytokines levels TGFβ and IL-10 in favour of a M2 microglia profile and increased the levels of the M2 cellular markers ArgI and FOLR2.

The modulation of neuroinflammation and enhancement of endogenous antioxidant/anti-inflammatory pathways by current and new antipsychotics could represent an interesting therapeutic strategy for the future.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Psychosis represents an uncommon but serious complication in the course of HIV infection, and always requires a careful differential diagnosis.

To provide an overview of psychosis in HIV-infected patients.

Literature review based on PubMed/MEDLINE, using the keywords “HIV” and “psychosis”.

Psychosis in HIV-positive individuals can be divided into psychotic disorders predating HIV infection and new-onset psychotic disorders in HIV-seropositive patients. The pathophysiology of psychosis in this population is complex and a multifactorial etiology is likely in most instances. The authors will analyze them and describe the differences of psychopathological pattern in first-episode psychosis between HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients. Antipsychotic agents are the treatments of choice regardless of the underlying diagnosis. However, they should always be used at the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible duration. Increased sensitivity to extrapyramidal reactions, high risk for dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia, potential interactions between HAART and some antipsychotic agents are also important considerations. Importantly, psychosis may be a harbinger of dementia. Cross-sectional studies have also suggested that psychosis may adversely impact the morbidity and mortality associated with HIV-infection.

Psychosis disorders may arise before or at any time during the course of HIV infection. A solid understanding of the complex relationship between psychosis and HIV allows for better evaluation and more effective treatment for psychotic individuals at risk for or infected with HIV. Thus, both HIV care programs and psychiatric care clinics should be made familiar with this important subject.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Existence of integration, mutual relations of nervous and immune systems, which cellular elements are characterized by expressed phenotype and functional similarity, means the possibility of immune cells participation in the regulation of higher nervous activity.

Previously, we demonstrated the possibility of targeted regulation of animal's behavior by the transplantation of immune cells with definite functional characteristics. Based on the our previous research results in the present study, we investigated the modulating effect of the immune cells, treated in vitro with chlorpromazine on the nervous and immune systems functional activity in aggressive mice.

(CBA × C57Bl/6) F1 aggressive mice, exposed to 10-days chronic social stress, were undergoing the transplantation of immune cells in vitro treated with chlorpromazine. Animal's behavioral parameters, cytokines synthesis in the brain and immune cells before and after transplantation were estimated.

It was shown that aggression is associated with the increased production of spleen T-helper 1 cell-derived cytokines IL-2 and IFNγ, as well as decreased TNFα production by the spleen mononuclear phagocyte cells. These alterations were more pronounced following mitogen stimulation. Spleen cells, obtaining from aggressive mice, were treated in vitro with chlorpromazine and then injected intravenously into syngeneic aggressive recipients. The cell's transplantation led to the reduction of the recipient's motor activity in the “open field” and Porsolt swimming tests and normalized cytokines synthesis in the brain and immune cells.

Research results demonstrated the neuroleptic effect in aggressive mice, obtained by the transplantation of immune cells treated in vitro with chlorpromazine.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Critical illness increases the risk of mental illness, including anxiety disorders. As critically ill patients exhibit high levels of inflammation and inflammation plays a role in mental illness, critical and mental illnesses may be linked by systemic inflammation.

To investigate whether anti-inflammatory drugs reduce the risk of subsequent anxiety disorders among intensive care patients requiring mechanical ventilation.

To assess the risk of anxiety disorders after intensive care requiring mechanical ventilation according to pre-admission use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), glucocorticoids, statins or combination. To compare risk in users with non-users.

This nationwide, registry-based, cohort study includes all patients receiving mechanical ventilation in Danish intensive care units during 2005–2013. Preadmission use of NSAIDs, glucocorticoids, statins or combinations will be identified from filled prescriptions. Risk of anxiety disorders in users and non-users of these anti-inflammatory drugs will be estimated using the cumulative incidence method, accounting for death as a competing risk. After propensity-score matching, risk in users and non-users will be compared using hazard ratios from a Cox regression.

N/A. The estimated number of patients is 100,000. Expected preadmission use is 14% for statins, 15% for NSAIDs, and 10% for glucocorticoids. The study will have 95% power to detect a 10% decrease in risk between users and non-users.

N/A. The study potentially will contribute knowledge about the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders and a mechanism linking critical illness and mental illnesses. If anti-inflammatory drugs reduce risk of anxiety disorders, this may guide trials.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

A family “constructs” an identity of its own derived from their assumptions about relationships and the social environment they live in. This identity transcends the individual while at the same time encourages individual differentiation. Family functioning is influenced from different factors like social context, qualitative characteristics, and from individual's medical or psychiatric condition.

To examined the effects of sociodemographic factors and individual psychopathology on the function of family in a non-clinical sample.

Cross-sectional study of participants and their families. The follow data collected:

• –demographics (age, gender, occupation, education);

• –description of the family (number of members, single parents family, adoption);

• –history of mental or physical illnesses;

• –Family Assessment Device (FAD);

• –Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90).

The sample constituted of 151 families, (453 individuals), in 48 families, 2 family members participated, in 56 families, 3 members participated, in 46 families 4 members participated and 1 family had 5 members participating. One hundred ninety-four (42.8%) were children and 259 (57.2%) were parents. The mean age of the children was 23.62 (SD: 6.35) and 68 (35%) were males. Mean age of the parents was 51.4 (SD: 8.2) and 117 (45.2%) were males. SCL-90 identified 183 participants as caseness. Multilevel analysis showed that individual psychopathology (caseness) was the only statistical significant factor for family dysfunctioning.

There is strong association between family dysfunction and psychopathology of a member. Dysfunctional families need further psychiatric evaluation of the members. Cause-effect cannot be concluded from this cross-sectional study.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Recent studies have underlined the importance of considering the form of thoughts, beyond their content, in order to achieve a better phenomenological comprehension of mental states in mood disorders. The subjective experience of thought overactivation is an important feature of mood disorders that could help in identifying, among patients with a depressive episode, those who belong to the bipolar spectrum.

Patients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) were compared with matched healthy controls (HC) on a scale that evaluates thought overactivation.

Validate the Italian version of a scale for thought overactivation (i.e. STOQ) in a sample of bipolar patients.

Thirty euthymic BD and 30 HC completed the Subjective Thought Overactivation Questionnaire (STOQ), the Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and global functioning (VGF).

The 9-items version of the STOQ has been back translated and its internal consistency in this sample was satisfactory (alpha = .91). Both the brooding subscore of RRS (b-RRS) (r = .706; P < .001) and STOQ (r = .664; P < .001) correlate significantly with depressive symptoms whereas only the first correlate with VGF (r = –.801; P < .001). The two groups did not differed in the b-RRS (HC = 8.41 vs BD = 9.72; P = .21), whereas BD where significantly higher in the STOQ total score (HC = 6.62 vs. BD = 14.9; P = .007).

Our results, although limited by the small sample size, confirm the validity of the STOQ and suggest that this scale could grasp a feature characteristic of BD, independently from their tendency to ruminate. The latter seems to impact more on global functioning.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The MOODS-SR is a self-report instrument consisting of 161 dichotomous items. It is designed to assess lifetime presence of mood spectrum psychopathology. Recently, it has been proposed that a subset of 33 items can be used to distinguishing bipolar disorder.

To evaluate psychometric properties of a 33-item subset and to propose a clinically relevant cut-off for screening for bipolar disorder.

Patients with mood disorders were recruited from outpatient services at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Patients and a convenience sample of healthy controls were offered to fill in the MOODS-SR. A post-hoc analysis was conducted for the 33-items subset of the MOODS-SR.

The subset showed high internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.95). The mean scores of patients with bipolar disorder (22.7 ± 6.4) were significantly higher than those of the unipolar (11.3 ± 4.9) and control group (7.0 ± 7.0, P < 0.005). A significant correlation was found between YMRS (r = 0.50, P < 0.005) and the 33-item subset, but not with MADRS (r = –0.22, P = 0.223).

The 33-item subset of MOODS-SR showed promising psychometric properties, including good known-group validity. It discriminated bipolar patients from unipolar patients and healthy subjects. The clinical usefulness of these finding needs further investigation.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

To examine the impact of appearance comparison behaviours, trait body dissatisfaction and eating pathology on women's state body dissatisfaction and engagement in disordered eating behaviours in daily life.

Using ecological sampling method (ESM), 116 women residing in Australia, completed a baseline questionnaire containing the trait-based measures, before being signalled by an iPhone app six times daily, for seven days, to self-report on their recent appearance comparison behaviours, current state body dissatisfaction and recent disordered eating behaviours.

Multi-level modelling revealed that upward comparisons (comparisons against more attractive individuals) elicited increases in state body dissatisfaction (β = 0.89, P < .001) and disordered eating behaviours (β = 0.29, P = .002). Contrastingly, downward comparisons (comparisons against less attractive individuals) elicited decreases in state body dissatisfaction (β = –0.31, P = .048) and, unexpectedly, increases in disordered eating behaviours (β = 0.46, P < .01). The frequency of appearance comparison engagement, regardless of whether it was upward or downward comparisons, was also predictive of increased disordered eating behaviours (β = 0.12, P < .001). In addition, eating pathology and trait body dissatisfaction were directly associated with higher state body dissatisfaction, and increased in disordered eating behaviours (all P < .001).

These findings highlight the general negative impact that appearance comparisons have on fluctuating states of body dissatisfaction and eating pathology, as well as illustrating how trait characteristics partially account for this volatility. These findings provide further information that may be used to inform eating disorder prevention and intervention efforts.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Disgust propensity (DP) and disgust sensitivity (DS) contribute to individual differences in the experience of disgust. Studies have shown that DP and DS are predictive of some anxiety (e.g., spider phobia and blood-injection-injury phobia) and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders.

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a Portuguese version of the Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale-Revised (DPSS-R; van Overveld= et al., 2006) for use in Portuguese-speaking populations.

Two hundred and six participants (162 females), with ages between 18 and 47 (M = 25.92; SD = 8.75), filled in the DPSS-R, which was first translated and adapted into Portuguese language by individuals highly proficient in English and then back-translated by a bilingual with no prior knowledge of the scale. Finally, the DPSS-R was subjected to a think-aloud procedure.

The results showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alfa = .833) for a DPSS-R. The two subscales displayed an adequate internal consistency (DPCronbach's alfa = .776; DSCronbach's alfa = .790). Test-retest analysis documented good intraclass correlation coefficient for the two subscales (ICCPropensity = .889; ICC Sensitivity = .900). We also confirmed the bifactorial structure using a confirmatory factor analysis, since we obtained appropriate values in all goodness of fit indices (χ2df = 1,906; CFI = .94; PCFI = .736; GFI = .93; PGFI = .607; RMSEA = .067).

DPSS-R obtained good psychometric properties and may therefore be proposed as a valid instrument to assess DS and DP in the Portuguese population. This instrument may provide an important contribute to study the development and maintenance of psychopathology associated with disgust.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Mood instability is an important problem but has received relatively little research attention. Natural language processing (NLP) is a novel method, which can used to automatically extract clinical data from electronic health records (EHRs).

To extract mood instability data from EHRs and investigate its impact on people with mental health disorders.

Data on mood instability were extracted using NLP from 27,704 adults receiving care from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) for affective, personality or psychotic disorders. These data were used to investigate the association of mood instability with different mental disorders and with hospitalisation and treatment outcomes.

Mood instability was documented in 12.1% of people included in the study. It was most frequently documented in people with bipolar disorder (22.6%), but was also common in personality disorder (17.8%) and schizophrenia (15.5%). It was associated with a greater number of days spent in hospital (B coefficient 18.5, 95% CI 12.1–24.8), greater frequency of hospitalisation (incidence rate ratio 1.95, 1.75–2.17), and an increased likelihood of prescription of antipsychotics (2.03, 1.75–2.35).

Using NLP, it was possible to identify mood instability in a large number of people, which would otherwise not have been possible by manually reading clinical records. Mood instability occurs in a wide range of mental disorders. It is generally associated with poor clinical outcomes. These findings suggest that clinicians should screen for mood instability across all common mental health disorders. The data also highlight the utility of NLP for clinical research.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Stimuli that are relevant to our survival, especially those that signal the presence of a threat in the environment (e.g., threatening faces), automatically attract our attention.

The same may be true for faces displaying subtle disease cues as they may signal danger of potential contamination and, hence, disease-avoidance behaviour, which was the focus of the present research.

The present study investigated, for the first time to our knowledge, whether faces with disease cues (DF), compared to control stimuli (faces without such cues) (CF), interfered with the participants’ performance in a letter discrimination task.

Eighty-six (44 women) university students volunteered to participate in a letter discrimination task where 240 DF and 240 CF were presented.

The results confirmed our hypothesis by showing that for DF, compared to CF, participants took longer to discriminate the target letters. Moreover, the results from a further rating task showed that DF, compared to CF, were rated as significantly more disgusting and associated with disease, thus confirming our experimental manipulation and suggesting that disgust may be driving automatic attention to DF.

Our findings provide important insights on the possible influence of exogenous attention to disease cues in social avoidance behaviour, which may have relevant implications in clinical disorders with disgust at its core.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Longer duration of untreated illness, longer duration of current episode, and severity of medication side effects may negatively influence the psychosocial functioning in major affective and anxiety disorders. Studies also suggested the involvement of sensory perception in emotional and psychopathological processes.

The objective of this study is to investigate the nature of the association between duration of untreated illness, duration of current episode, and severity of medication side effects.

The study is aimed to examine the relationship between sensory processing disorders (SPD), duration of untreated illness, duration of current illness episode, and the severity of side effects related to psychoactive medications.

The sample included 178 participants with an age ranging from 17 to 85 years (mean = 53.84 ± 15.55); psychiatric diagnoses were as follow: unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD) (50%), bipolar disorder (BD) (33.7%), and anxiety disorders (16.3%). subjects completed a socio-demographic questionnaire, the Udvalg for Kliniske Undersøgelser (UKU), and Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP) questionnaire.

Longer duration of current episode correlated with greater registration of sensory input and lower avoidance from sensory input among unipolar patients, lower registration of sensory input, and higher tendency for sensory sensitivity/sensation avoidance among bipolar participants. In addition? longer duration of current episode correlated with lower sensory sensitivity/avoidance among anxiety participants, respectively. Mean UKU total scores were associated with lower sensory sensitivity among bipolar individuals as well.

SPD expressed in either hypo-/hypersensitivity may be used to clinically characterize subjects with major affective and anxiety disorders.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

It is assumed that dysfunctional meta-cognitive beliefs about one's thoughts increase problematic appraisals and coping behaviors, which further contribute to the development of mental disorders (Wells and Matthews, 1994; Wells, 2000). Although this research interest originated around generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), recent studies have begun to examine similar meta-cognitive processes in other disorders. The majority of studies using Meta-cognitions Questionnaire (MCQ; Cartwright-Hatton & Wells, 1997) and its variants to assess meta-cognitive beliefs.

We conducted a meta-analysis to integrate empirical findings on group differences in meta-cognitive beliefs between healthy individuals and patients with various psychiatric disorders.

We followed the PRISMA guideline (Liberati et al., 2009). A systematic literature search was conducted. We included studies that involved a diagnosed psychiatric group and healthy controls (aged 18 or above), reported group comparisons of metacognition, and were published during the period of 1990–27 August 2015. Effect sizes were computed.

A final set of 43 studies was included. Large combined effect sizes were found on each subdomain of the MCQ, indicating increased levels of dysfunctional meta-cognitive beliefs in patients. Subgroup analyses were carried out based on psychiatric diagnosis (i.e. psychosis, n = 10; GAD, n = 7; obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD, n = 15; anorexia nervosa, n = 5). All patient groups were more dysfunctional on each subtype of meta-cognitive beliefs than controls. Effect size of U/D was particularly large for GAD, and that of CSC was particularly large for OCD.

Dysfunctional meta-cognitive beliefs are evident across several psychiatric disorders, with specific types of beliefs being more marked in certain diagnoses.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.