Studies reported close associations between functional outcome and symptomatic remission as defined by the Remission in Schizophrenia Working Group. This observational study was aimed at the investigation of deficits in daily functioning, symptoms and subjective well-being in remitted and non-remitted patients with schizophrenia.

Symptoms (PANSS), functional outcome (FROGS, GAF), subjective well-being (SWN-K) and other characteristics were assessed in 131 patients with schizophrenia (DSM-IV) within the European Group on Functional Outcomes and Remission in Schizophrenia (EGOFORS) project.

A significant better level of functioning was measured for remitted versus non-remitted patients, though remitted patients still showed areas with an inadequate level of functioning. Functional deficits were most often seen in social relations (40%), work (29%) and daily life activities (17%). Best functioning was assessed for self-care, self-control, health management and medical treatment. A moderate to severe level of disorganization and emotional distress was observed in 38% and impaired subjective well-being in 29% of patients defined as being in symptomatic remission.

The results confirm a close association between symptomatic remission and functional outcome. However, deficits in different areas of functioning, symptoms and well-being underline the need for combined outcome criteria for patients with schizophrenia.

Evidence based treatment of schizophrenia as well as antipsychotic drug utility patterns have changed considerably in recent years and the present study aims to investigate the current level of unplanned hospital readmissions in a cohort of patients with schizophrenia, and to determine the risk-reducing effects of current antipsychotic drug treatment.

An open cohort study included all consecutively discharged patients with schizophrenia in a 3-year period (n = 277). The treatment-dependent variables were entered in a multivariate Cox survival analyses with time to unplanned readmission as the dependent variable.

11.2% of patients were readmitted within 30days of discharge, and 44.8% were readmitted within 12months. Antipsychotic monotherapy reduced the risk of readmission by 74.9%. Treatment in CMHC also had a risk-reducing effect. The prescription rate of clozapine in this sample was 10.1%.

The over-all level of unplanned readmissions was in correspondence with the findings of others. Current antipsychotic drug treatment independently offers strong protection against unplanned readmissions. There may be a potential for further optimalizing antipsychotic drug treatment according to treatment guidelines.

Unplanned readmissions are very common for patients with schizophrenia but antipsychotic drug treatment is associated with a strong risk-reducing effect in this regard.

The clinical and dimensional features associated with suicidal behaviour in bipolar patients during euthymic states are not well characterised.

In a sample of 652 euthymic bipolar patients, we assessed clinical features with the Diagnostic Interview for Genetics Studies (DIGS) and dimensional characteristics with questionnaires measuring impulsivity/hostility and affective lability/intensity. Bipolar patients with and without suicidal behaviour were compared for these clinical and dimensional variables.

Of the 652 subjects, 42.9% had experienced at least one suicide attempt. Lifetime history of suicidal behaviour was associated with being a woman, a history of head injury, tobacco misuse and indicators of severity of bipolar disorder including early age at onset, high number of depressive episodes, positive history of rapid cycling, alcohol misuse and social phobia. Indirect hostility and irritability were dimensional characteristics associated with suicidal behaviour in bipolar patients, whereas impulsivity and affective lability/intensity were not associated with suicidal behaviour.

This study had a retrospective design with no replication sample.

Bipolar patients with earlier onset, mood instability (large number of depressive episodes, rapid cycling) and/or particular addictive and anxiety comorbid disorders might be at high risk of suicidal behaviour. In addition, hostility dimensions (indirect hostility and irritability), may be trait components associated with suicidal behaviour in euthymic bipolar patients.

Studies investigating indicators of recovery from schizophrenia yielded two concepts of recovery. The first is the reduction of psychiatric symptoms and functional disabilities (‘clinical recovery’), while the second describes the individual adaptation process to the threat posed to the individual sense of self by the disorder and its negative consequences (‘personal recovery’). Evidence suggests that both perceptions contribute substantially to the understanding of recovery and require specific assessment and therapy. While current reviews of measures of clinical recovery exist, measures of personal recovery have yet to be investigated. Considering the steadily growing literature on recovery, this article gives an update about existing measures assessing personal recovery.

A literature search for instruments was performed using Medline, Embase, PsycINFO&PSYNDEXPlus, ISI Web of Knowledge, and Cochrane Library. Inclusion criteria were: (1) quantitative self-report measures; (2) specifically developed for adults with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder or at least applied to individuals suffering from severe mental illness; (3) empirically tested psychometric properties and/or published in a peer-reviewed, English-language journal. Instruments were evaluated with regard to psychometric properties (validity and reliability) and issues of application (user and administrator friendliness, translations).

Thirteen instruments met the inclusion criteria. They were individually described and finally summarized in a table reflecting the pros and cons of each instrument. This may enable the reader to make an evidence-based choice for a questionnaire for a specific application.

The Recovery Assessment Scale is possibly the best currently available measure of personal recovery when all evaluation criteria are included. However, the ratings listed in the current paper depended on the availability of information and the quality of available reports of previous assessment of the measurement properties. Considering the significant amount of information lacking and inconsistent findings, further research on the reviewed measures is perhaps more important than the development of new measures of personal recovery.

Many immigrants face more economic strains and hardship than non-immigrants. Income inequality and an increasing social gap between immigrants and non-immigrants in Europe warrant further studies on the impact of socioeconomic factors on health in immigrant groups. The purpose of this study was to examine the association of socioeconomic status (SES) and emotional distress in women of Turkish descent and in women of German descent.

A total of 405 women of German or Turkish descent residing in Berlin were interviewed. Emotional distress was assessed by the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28), and SES was examined by level of education, employment status, and income. The associations of emotional distress and SES were estimated in multivariate linear regression analyses.

Unemployment was associated with increased levels of emotional distress in all women, with the highest level of distress in the group of unemployed Turkish women. The overall SES level was related to a greater level of emotional distress in Turkish women, but not in German women (−3.2, 95%CI −5.9 – −.5; p = .020 vs. −.8, 95%CI −2.7 – 1.2; p = .431). Further stratified analyses by relationship status revealed that the association of SES and emotional distress only remained significant among single women.

The impact of socioeconomic hardship appears to be complicated by social roles and expectations related to these. Further in-depth study of the complex nature of the interaction of social roles and socioeconomic position in female Turkish immigrants in Germany is needed to better understand differing risk patterns for emotional distress.

The German version of the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS) has proven to show very high model fit in confirmative factor analyses with the established factors inattention/memory problems, hyperactivity/restlessness, impulsivity/emotional lability, and problems with self-concept in both large healthy control and ADHD patient samples. This study now presents data on the psychometric properties of the German CAARS-self-report (CAARS-S) and observer-report (CAARS-O) questionnaires.

CAARS-S/O and questions on sociodemographic variables were filled out by 466 patients with ADHD, 847 healthy control subjects that already participated in two prior studies, and a total of 896 observer data sets were available. Cronbach's-alpha was calculated to obtain internal reliability coefficients. Pearson correlations were performed to assess test-retest reliability, and concurrent, criterion, and discriminant validity. Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC-analyses) were used to establish sensitivity and specificity for all subscales.

Coefficient alphas ranged from .74 to .95, and test-retest reliability from .85 to .92 for the CAARS-S, and from .65 to .85 for the CAARS-O. All CAARS subscales, except problems with self-concept correlated significantly with the Barrett Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), but not with the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS). Criterion validity was established with ADHD subtype and diagnosis based on DSM-IV criteria. Sensitivity and specificity were high for all four subscales.

The reported results confirm our previous study and show that the German CAARS-S/O do indeed represent a reliable and cross-culturally valid measure of current ADHD symptoms in adults.

Current diagnositic criteiria for sexual dysfunctions in the ICD 10 and DSM IV have been criticized for their lack of precision and failure to differentiate normal variation in sexual function from disordered sexual behavior requiring medical intervention.

The objective of this presentation is to review the rationale for proposed changes in diagnositc criteria in DSM V.

The aims of this presentation are to review proposed changes in diagnositc criteiria for sexual disorders which set severity and duration criteira.

Evidence for proposed diagnostic thresholds will be presented.

Proposed new defintions will incorporate severity (present of 75% of occasions) and duration (present for 6 months) criteria.

Clinicians have criticized these diagnostic thresholds because many patients seeking treatment for sexual problems will not meet diagnostic criteira.

There are no perfect diagnositic thresholds. One always has to balance the risk of false positives (misclassifying normals as ill) versus the risk of false negatives (misclassifying the ill as normal).

Antidepressants are frequently prescribed in patients with psychotic disorders, but little is known about their effects in routine clinical practice. The objective was to investigate the prescribing patterns of antidepressants in relation to the course of depressive symptoms in patients with psychotic disorders.

A cohort of 214 Dutch patients with psychotic disorders received two assessments of somatic and psychiatric health, including a clinician-rated screening for depressive symptoms, as part of annual routine outcome monitoring.

Depressive symptoms were prevalent among 43% (93) of the patients. Antidepressants were prescribed for 40% (86) of the patients and the majority 83% (71) continued this therapy after one year. Multivariable analysis showed that patients with more severe psychopathology had a higher risk to develop depressive symptoms the following year (OR [95% CI]=0.953 [0.912–0.995]). For patients with depressive symptoms at baseline, polypharmacy was a potential risk factor to keep having depressive symptoms (OR [95% CI]=1.593 [1.123–2.261]). Antidepressant use was not an independent predictor in both analyses.

Routine outcome monitoring in patients with psychotic disorders revealed a high prevalence of depressive symptoms. Antidepressants were frequently prescribed and continued in routine clinical practice.

Parents are considered to be crucial informants in child psychiatry, particularly for disorders in which age of onset is included in the diagnostic criteria. In detained adolescents, however, parents all too often are difficult to reach or reluctant to cooperate. The clinical relevance of gathering parental information in this context should therefore be demonstrated. This study examines if parent reports of attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and age of onset subtypes of conduct disorder (CD) predict official criminal recidivism.

Participants were 110 detained male adolescents from all three Youth Detention Centers in Flanders. Between January 2005 and February 2007, both youth and a parent were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Version IV. Two to 4years later, information on criminal recidivism was retrieved.

Youth self-reported ADHD and CD (subtypes) were not related with recidivism. Parent-reported ADHD, CD and childhood-onset CD predicted serious property recidivism, while parent-reported adolescent-onset CD predicted future violent arrests. In reverse, childhood-onset CD as reported by parents was negatively associated with violent recidivism.

Obtaining parental diagnostic information in delinquent adolescents is crucial for predicting recidivism. This finding emphasizes the need of including parents when studying mental disorder in detained adolescents.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the protective and risk factors of mental distress among Turkish women living in Germany.

105 Turkish immigrant women living in Berlin were investigated with measures of extraversion/neuroticism (NEO-FFI), general self-efficacy (GSE), social support (BSSS), social strain (F-SOZU) and mental distress (GHQ-28). Interrelations between psychosocial variables were assessed using simple Pearson correlations.

In all subjects, social strain (Pearson's r = .26**, p = .008) and neuroticism (r = .34**, p < .001) were positively associated with mental distress. In contrast, perceived self-efficacy (r = −.38**, p < .001) and extraversion (r = −.36**, p < .001) were negatively associated with mental distress.

Protective factors such as extraversion and self-efficacy seem to have a buffering effect on the process of migration. However, in addition to neuroticism, social strain seems to be positively associated with mental distress.

To identify from the literature, and to critically evaluate, all validated instruments currently available to measure self-harming behaviour in adults.

Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, Health and Psychosocial Instruments and Google scholar were searched, grey literature was sought and the reference lists of relevant articles were checked to identify instruments.

A total of seven validated instruments which met our inclusion criteria were identified and data were extracted regarding each instrument's format, administration method, psychometric properties and number of items and domains included. Considerable variation was observed in the overall quality of these instruments. Fourteen other instruments were identified which did not describe their psychometric properties or had not been published and were subsequently excluded from our review.

Although many instruments were identified in our search, only a small number had been validated with published psychometric properties. Of the identified instruments, the Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Interview (SASII) appears to be the most robust and comprehensive instrument currently available. Despite the absence of psychometric data, numerous other instruments have been used in published studies, including clinical trials.

Our results highlight the pressing need for a standardized, empirically validated and versatile measure of intentional self-harming behaviour for use in both clinical and research settings. The optimum characteristics of such an instrument are discussed.

Physical co-morbidity including type 2 diabetes mellitus is more prevalent in patients with schizophrenia compared to the general population. However, there is little consistent evidence that co-morbidity with diabetes mellitus and/or other diseases leads to excess mortality in schizophrenia. Thus, we investigated whether co-morbidity with diabetes and other somatic diseases is increased in schizophrenics, and if these are equally or more relevant predictors of mortality in schizophrenia than in age- and gender-matched hospitalised controls.

During 2000–2007, 679 patients with schizophrenia were admitted to University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust. Co-morbidities were compared with 88,778 age- and gender group-matched hospital controls. Predictors of mortality were identified using forward Cox regression models.

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus was increased in schizophrenia compared to hospitalised controls (11.3% versus 6.3%). The initial prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus was significantly higher in the 100 later deceased schizophrenic patients (24.0%) than in those 579 surviving over 7 years (9.2%). Predictors of mortality in schizophrenia were found to be age (relative risk [RR] = 1.1/year), type 2 diabetes mellitus (RR = 2.2), pneumonia (RR = 2.7), heart failure (RR = 2.9) and chronic renal failure (RR = 3.2). The impact of diabetes mellitus on mortality was significantly higher in schizophrenia than in hospital controls (RR = 2.2 versus RR = 1.1). In agreement, deceased schizophrenics had significantly suffered more diabetes mellitus than deceased controls (24.0 versus 10.5%). The relative risks of mortality for other disorders and their prevalence in later deceased subjects did not significantly differ between schizophrenia and controls.

Schizophrenics have more and additionally suffer more from diabetes: co-morbidity with diabetes mellitus is increased in schizophrenia in comparison with hospital controls; type 2 diabetes mellitus causes significant excess mortality in schizophrenia. Thus, monitoring for and prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus is of utmost relevance in hospitalised patients with schizophrenia.

To compare the readmission and the mortality rates of schizophrenia patients who were discharged against medical advice (AMA) and patients who were discharged by physician recommendation.

The records (1984–2005) of all consecutive admissions (n = 12,937) of schizophrenia patients (n = 8,052) were reviewed. Out of this group, 673 (8.3%) refused to remain in the hospital and signed a hospital form for discharge AMA. Their records were analyzed for rates of re-hospitalization and mortality at study closure. The records of AMA patients were compared to those of patients with regular discharge (n = 1345).

AMA patients were younger at admission (P<0.001), comprised more males (P<0.01), more were single (P<0.0001), and had a shorter duration of illness than the controls (P<0.05). A total of 49.9% of AMA events occurred within the first 2weeks of hospitalization. The readmission rate was significantly higher for AMA patients than for the controls (P<0.001). The mortality rate as a result of suicide (P<0.0001) and accidents (P<0.05) was higher for AMA patients compared to controls.

The schizophrenia patients discharged AMA have a higher readmission rate and a higher mortality rate due to suicide and accidents compared to non-AMA discharged patients. Patients with AMA discharge warrant special community surveillance to improve outcome.

To use the Hypomania Checklist (HCL-32) and the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), for detecting bipolarity in depressed patients.

One thousand and fifty-one patients fulfilling ICD-10 criteria for unipolar major depressive episode, single or recurrent, were studied. Patients were assessed using a structured demographic and clinical data interview, and by the Polish versions of the HCL-32 and MDQ questionnaires.

Hypomanic symptoms exceeding cut-off criteria for bipolarity by HCL-32 were found in 37.5% of patients and, by MDQ, in 20% of patients. Patients with HCL-32 (+) or MDQ (+) differed significantly from patients with HCl-32 (−) and MDQ (−) respectively, by being less frequently married, having more family history of depression, bipolar disorder, alcoholism and suicide, earlier onset of illness, and more depressive episodes and psychiatric hospitalizations. The percentage of patients resistant to treatment with antidepressant drugs was significantly higher in HCL-32 (+) vs HCL-32 (−) and in MDQ (+) vs MDQ (−): 43.9% vs 30.0%, and 26.4% vs 12.4%, respectively.

The results confirm a substantial percentage of bipolarity in major depressive disorder. Such patients have a number of clinical characteristics pointing on a more severe form of the illness and their depression is more resistant to treatment with antidepressants.