Heart rate vARiability and physical activity in inpatient treatMent of burnOut and DepressIon (HARMODI): protocol of a cross-sectional study with up to 8-week follow up.

Introduction: Chronic stress can cause an imbalance within the autonomic nervous system, thereby affecting cardiovascular and mental health. Physical activity (PA) may have a positive effect on the autonomic nervous system and stress-related disorders, such as depression and burnout. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a non-invasive marker of the autonomic nervous system.

Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace: Person-Job Fit, Job Burnout, and Physical Symptoms.

Person-environment fit has been identified as a key prerequisite for employee well-being. We investigated to what extent a misfit between motivational needs and supplies at the workplace affects two key health outcomes: burnout and physical symptoms. Individual needs (implicit affiliation and power motives) and environment supplies (motive specific job characteristics) were assessed in an online survey of full time employees (n = 97), using a picture story exercise measuring implicit motives and a scale listing affiliation and power related job characteristics.

Mental health-related stigma in health care and mental health-care settings.

This Review considers the evidence for mental-health-related stigma in health-care and mental-health-care settings. Do mental-health-care and other health-care professionals stigmatise people using their services? If so, what are the effects on quality of mental and physical health care? How can stigma and discrimination in the context of health care be reduced? We show that the contact mental-health-care professionals have with people with mental illness is associated with positive attitudes about civil rights, but does not reduce stigma as does social contact such as with friends or family members with mental illness. Some evidence suggests educational interventions are effective in decreasing stigma especially for general health-care professionals with little or no formal mental health training.

The film festival “AUSNAHME|ZUSTAND” (State of Emergency)--do feature films and documentaries on mental health reduce stigma and influence help-seeking attitudes?

The study aims at evaluating the impact of the Germany-wide film festival “AUSNAHME|ZUSTAND” on social distance and help-seeking attitudes of the adolescent audience. The festival, on the subject of mental health, was staged for the second time, aiming to give a podium to the topic mental health and to inform and entertain an adolescent audience that has not been in close contact with the subject before. A pre-post test was carried out to look for the effect of feature films and documentaries on social distance of the audience towards people with mental illness and on the change in help-seeking attitudes.

Perception of overweight and obesity from different angles: a qualitative study.

Aims: Up to this date, the obesity pandemic has yet to be confined, with prevalence rates still rising in most countries. Aside from numerous negative consequences such as comorbid diseases and a reduction in life expectancy due to excessive bodyweight and the economic impact of obesity on healthcare systems, negative outcomes in overweight and obese individuals are also affected by perceived stigmatisation and discrimination. Knowledge of common views and perception overweight and obesity in the general public as well as in specific populations (e.

Enriched cereal bars are more effective in increasing plasma quercetin compared with quercetin from powder-filled hard capsules.

The flavonol quercetin, is one of the major flavonoids found in edible plants. The bioavailability of quercetin in humans may be influenced by the food matrix in which it is consumed as well as by its chemical and physical form. The objective of the present study was to investigate the biokinetics of quercetin from quercetin-enriched cereal bars and quercetin powder-filled hard capsules.

Do patients think cannabis causes schizophrenia? - A qualitative study on the causal beliefs of cannabis using patients with schizophrenia.

Background: There has been a considerable amount of debate among the research community whether cannabis use may cause schizophrenia and whether cannabis use of patients with schizophrenia is associated with earlier and more frequent relapses. Considering that studies exploring patients' view on controversial topics have contributed to our understanding of important clinical issues, it is surprising how little these views have been explored to add to our understanding of the link between cannabis and psychosis. The present study was designed to elucidate whether patients with schizophrenia who use cannabis believe that its use has caused their schizophrenia and to explore these patients other beliefs and perceptions about the effects of the drug.

[The German version of the Inventory of Stigmatizing Experiences (ISE)--a new tool for assessing the prevalence and impact of "felt stigma"].

Objectives: Stigma research has been criticized for excluding the views of those exposed to stigmatizing reactions. While this changed with the advent of qualitative research into stigma, population-based data on the prevalence, severity and consequences of stigma experiences are lacking. The present study aims at field-testing the German version of the Inventory of Stigmatizing Experiences (ISE) , developed to investigate the epidemiology of "felt stigma".

The stigma of schizophrenia from patients' and relatives' view: A pilot study in an Italian rehabilitation residential care unit.

Objective: To identify the constituent elements of the stigma from the perspective of those having first-hand experiences of it.

Methods: Subjective experiences of stigma were explored in six focus groups: three with people suffering from schizophrenia and three with patients' relatives. Focus group sessions were tape-recorded, transcribed and analyzed by means of an inductive method, forming categories from the texts, as a basis for coding.

Stigma and mental health professionals: a review of the evidence on an intricate relationship.

In the past decade, mental health professionals have initiated a number of national and international efforts against the stigma of mental illness. While largely successful in beating stigma and discrimination, these programmes have, in part, been criticized to be largely uninformed by the lived realities of people with mental illness and their families. Some critics claimed that anti-stigma efforts led by mental health professionals were in fact a concealed attempt at de-stigmatizing psychiatry itself as a profession.

Caregiver burden in mental illness: review of measurement, findings and interventions in 2004-2005.

Purpose Of Review: This review summarizes recent evidence on caregiver burden in mental illness. It examines how the field has advanced in terms of measurement, results, and interventions in 2004/2005, and identifies potential for further studies.

Recent Findings: Burden has been studied in a much wider spectrum of diagnostic groups and types of caregivers, some brief and practical assessment tools have become available, cultural aspects of burden are better understood, and a high potential for caregiver appraisal to prevent negative consequences of burden has been identified.

What is schizophrenia? Secondary school students' associations with the word and sources of information about the illness.

Young people are generally assumed to be less prejudiced toward people with schizophrenia than are adults. This article presents findings from a survey of 293 secondary school students in Germany, exploring their associations with the word schizophrenia and sources of information. Results indicate that the majority of young people appear either rather well informed or totally lacking information about schizophrenia.

Proteinase-activated receptors (PARs)--the PAR3 Neo-N-terminal peptide TFRGAP interacts with PAR1.

Thrombin activates proteinase-activated receptor (PAR)1, PAR3 and PAR4 by a unique mechanism that involves cleavage of the receptor and exposure of a new N-terminal domain acting as a tethered ligand. Synthetic peptides based on the proteolytically revealed receptor sequence can selectively activate PAR1 or PAR4 independently of receptor cleavage. However, corresponding peptides for PAR3 have not been identified thus far.

PAR1-type thrombin receptor stimulates migration and matrix adhesion of human colon carcinoma cells by a PKCepsilon-dependent mechanism.

The proteinase-activated receptor1 (PAR1) was characterized as a functional receptor for thrombin in cells from different tumor entities. In colon carcinoma, its function has to be defined. In this study we demonstrate that the PAR1-selective agonist peptide TFLLRN induced activation of protein kinase C isoenzymes alpha and epsilon in human HT-29 colon carcinoma cells expressing PAR1 endogeneously.

Courtesy stigma--a focus group study of relatives of schizophrenia patients.

Background: Stigmatization of people with mental illness has been investigated in numerous studies. Little research, however, has been done to explore how relatives of people with schizophrenia perceive and experience stigmatization and how they can fight such stigmatization.

Method: Aiming to explore stigma from the perspective of relatives of people with schizophrenia, focus group interviews were conducted with 122 members of advocacy groups from different parts of Germany.

[The German version of the Community-Attitudes-Toward-the-Mentally-Ill (CAMI) inventory].

Objective: The German version of the Community Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill (CAMI) inventory developed by Taylor and Dear (1981) is presented.

Method: The questionnaire was applied in a mail survey which was conducted in 3 small towns in Germany.

Results: At the item level surprisingly positive attitudes toward people with mental illness were found.

Subjective experiences of stigma. A focus group study of schizophrenic patients, their relatives and mental health professionals.

Schizophrenia has been found to be one of the most stigmatising conditions. To the present, most research on stigma related to mental illness has drawn conclusions on the adverse reactions faced by people with schizophrenia from studies on public attitudes or analogue behavioural studies. The views of those exposed to the stigmatising reactions, however, has largely been absent.

The vascular endothelin system is not overactive in normotensive hemodialysis patients.

Background: The hemodynamic significance of elevated endothelin-1 (ET) plasma levels in hemodialysis (HD) patients is unknown. Therefore, we studied the role of ET in the regulation of vascular tone in normotensive HD patients and matched healthy controls (C).

Methods: The forearm blood flow (FBF) responses to adenosine, norepinephrine, the ET-A receptor antagonist BQ-123 (40 nmol/min), the ET-B receptor antagonist BQ-788 (1 and 50 nmol/min), and ET (5 pmol/min) were measured.