Psychoanalytic and cognitive-behavior therapy of chronic depression: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Despite limited effectiveness of short-term psychotherapy for chronic depression, there is a lack of trials of long-term psychotherapy. Our study is the first to determine the effectiveness of controlled long-term psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral (CBT) treatments and to assess the effects of preferential vs. randomized assessment.

Assessing somatic, psychosocial, and spiritual distress of patients with advanced cancer: development of the Advanced Cancer Patients' Distress Scale.

Objective: For adequate distress assessment in palliative care, we developed a screening evaluation tool.

Methods: Proven methods of scale construction led to a 53-item pilot form of the Advanced Cancer Patients' Distress Scale (ACPDS). We used Hornheide Questionnaire (HQ), Palliative Outcome Scale (POS), and Minimal Documentation System (MIDOS) for validation.

[The Gutenberg Health Study].

The Gutenberg Health Study is a population-based, prospective, single-center cohort study that started in 2007 at the University Medical Center Mainz. The project focuses on cardiovascular diseases, cancer, eye diseases, metabolic diseases, diseases of the immune system and mental diseases. The study aims at improving the individual risk prediction for diseases.

Validating the German version of the Quality of Relationship Inventory: confirming the three-factor structure and report of psychometric properties.

Research on psychosocial influences such as relationship characteristics has received increased attention in the clinical as well as social-psychological field. Several studies demonstrated that the quality of relationships, in particular with respect to the perceived support within intimate relationships, profoundly affects individuals' mental and physical health. There is, however, a limited choice of valid and internationally known assessments of relationship quality in Germany.

Detection of alcohol consumption in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis during the evaluation process for liver transplantation.

Alcoholic liver cirrhosis (ALC) is a commonly accepted indication for liver transplantation (LT). Any alcohol consumption is considered a contraindication for LT. However, the assessment of abstinence in everyday practice mostly relies on patient self-reporting, which must be considered highly unreliable.

Effects of a manualized short-term treatment of internet and computer game addiction (STICA): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: In the last few years, excessive internet use and computer gaming have increased dramatically. Salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflict, and relapse have been defined as diagnostic criteria for internet addiction (IA) and computer addiction (CA) in the scientific community. Despite a growing number of individuals seeking help, there are no specific treatments of established efficacy.

[Steadfast--effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral self-management program for patients with somatoform vertigo and dizziness].

The aim of the study was to evaluate a psychotherapeutic intervention for somatoform vertigo regarding illness perception, severity and psychopathology.Patients underwent a waiting-list control group design (n=10 control group; n=14 intervention group with diagnostics at baseline, post-intervention, 3- and 12-month follow-up). Psychometric assessments comprised the Illness Perception Questionnaire, Vertigo Symptom and Handicap Questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Physical Health Questionnaire.

Type D personality as a cardiovascular risk marker in the general population: results from the Gutenberg health study.

Background: Type D personality is considered as an independent risk factor for morbidity and mortality in cardiovascular patients and a vulnerability factor for distress in the general population. Because representative community studies are rare, we sought to determine the prevalence of type D personality and its relationship with demographic characteristics, different features of mental disorders, cardiovascular risk factors, health behavior, endothelial function and cardiovascular biomarkers in the general population.

Methods: The prevalence of type D personality and its correlates were analyzed cross-sectionally in a population-based sample of 5,000 Mid-Europeans aged 35-74 years from the Gutenberg Health Study.

[Unresolved attachment and remembered childhood trauma in patients undergoing psychosomatic inpatient treatment].

Objective: Clinical populations are characterised by a high level of childhood trauma and unresolved attachment status ("U"). Unresolved attachment status indicates the inability to integrate attachment-related dangers. Little is known about the interaction of traumatic childhood experiences and an unresolved attachment status.

Regulation of emotions in the community: suppression and reappraisal strategies and its psychometric properties.

Objective: The German Version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) has recently been published. The questionnaire investigates two common emotion regulation strategies (10 items) on two scales (suppression, reappraisal). Major aims of the study were to assess the reliability and factor structure of the ERQ, to determine population based norms and to investigate relations of suppression and reappraisal to anxiety, depression and demographic characteristics.

Nonsingular adsorption/desorption of chlorpyrifos in soils and sediments: experimental results and modeling.

At environmentally relevant concentrations in soils and sediments, chlorpyrifos, a hydrophobic organic insecticide, showed strong adsorption that correlated significantly with organic matter content. Chlorpyrifos desorption followed a nonsingular falling desorption isotherm that was estimated using a memory-dependent mathematical model. Desorption of chlorpyrifos was biphasic in nature, with a labile and nonlabile component.

[Assessment of communication skills with an OSCE among first year medical students].

In order to determine if first year medical students of a Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology course have adopted basic physician patient communication skills, we developed an appropriate Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). The parcours took place in a pretest condition (n=182) and in the following semester under test condition, now relevant for passing the course (n=181). Reliability of the OSCE reached a medium degree (α=0.

Oxidized starch solutions for environmentally friendly aircraft deicers.

Deicers currently used for aircraft deicing, including ethylene glycol and propylene glycol, pose significant threats to surface waters, as a result of high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and toxicity to aquatic organisms. Oxidized starch may provide a less toxic deicer with lower BOD. The freezing point depression of starch formulations oxidized using hydrogen peroxide and catalysts (i.

Adsorption and desorption of chlorpyrifos to soils and sediments.

Chlorpyrifos, one of the most widely used insecticides, has been detected in air, rain, marine sediments, surface waters, drinking water wells, and solid and liquid dietary samples collected from urban and rural areas. Its metabolite, TCP, has also been widely detected in urinary samples collected from people of various age groups. With a goal of elucidating the factors that control the environmental contamination, impact, persistence, and ecotoxicity of chlorpyrifos, we examine, in this review, the peer-reviewed literature relating to chlorpyrifos adsorption and desorption behavior in various solid-phase matrices.

A stepwise psychotherapy intervention for reducing risk in coronary artery disease (SPIRR-CAD) - rationale and design of a multicenter, randomized trial in depressed patients with CAD.

Objective: Depressive symptoms are highly relevant for the quality of life, health behavior, and prognosis in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, previous psychotherapy trials in depressed CAD patients produced small to moderate effects on depression, and null effects on cardiac events. In this multicentre psychotherapy trial, symptoms of depression are treated together with the Type D pattern (negative affectivity and social inhibition) in a stepwise approach.

Quality of life in melanoma patients during adjuvant treatment with pegylated interferon-α2b: patients' and doctors' views.

Treatment of malignant melanoma with IFN-α has been associated with significant side-effects. The aim of this retrospective monocentric non-randomized study was first to evaluate the impact on quality of life (QOL) in 30 melanoma patients treated with once weekly 2 μg/kg PEG-IFN-α2b for 18 months, and second to examine whether there is a difference in patients' and physicians' perception of QOL. Data on QOL were collected by means of the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire completed by the patient before consultation at baseline and every three months during treatment.

Type D personality is independently associated with major psychosocial stressors and increased health care utilization in the general population.

Background: Type D is considered as a non pathological personality trait and propensity for mental distress. Its relationship with mental distress has been mainly studied in cardiovascular patients and with respect to depression. The knowledge about the relationship of Type D with mental disorders, psychosocial stressors and health care utilization in the general population is insufficient.

Transfer of manualized Short Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (STPP) for social phobia into clinical practice: study protocol for a cluster-randomised controlled trial.

Background: Psychodynamic psychotherapy is frequently applied in the treatment of social phobia. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of studies on the transfer of manualized treatments to routine psychodynamic practice. Our study is the first one to examine the effects of additional training in a manualized Short Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (STPP) procedure on outcome in routine psychotherapy for social phobia.

Levels of Emotional Awareness: a model for conceptualizing and measuring emotion-centered structural change.

The need to establish the efficacy of psychoanalytic long-term treatments has promoted efforts to operationalize psychic structure and structural change as key elements of psychoanalytic treatments and their outcomes. Current, promising measures of structural change, however, require extensive interviews and rater training. The purpose of this paper is to present the theory and measurement of Levels of Emotional Awareness (LEA) and to illustrate its use based on clinical case vignettes.

Research advances and challenges in the microbiology of enhanced biological phosphorus removal--a critical review.

Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) is a well-established technology for removing phosphorus from wastewater. However, the process remains operationally unstable in many systems, primarily because there is a lack of understanding regarding the microbiology of EBPR. This paper presents a review of advances made in the study of EBPR microbiology and focuses on the identification, enrichment, classification, morphology, and metabolic capacity of polyphosphate- and glycogen-accumulating organisms.

[Clinical characteristics of computer game and internet addiction in persons seeking treatment in an outpatient clinic for computer game addiction].

Objectives: Since March 2008 we have offered outpatient treatment for computer game and internet addiction. This article presents the assessment and clinical characterization of the first cohort of one year.

Methods: The reasons for seeking help (phone consultations, N=346) as well as sociodemographic and psychometric characteristics (N=131) (assessment of computer game addiction; SCL-90R) are presented.

[Comorbid psychological disorders in patients with chronic somatic diseases].

Based on the literature, the assessment of psychological comorbidity in epidemiological studies is reviewed along with prevalence rates of psychological comorbidity and the effect of mental diseases on the development and course of chronic disease as exemplified by coronary heart disease. Psychological comorbidity is associated with reduced quality of life, disease progression, and increased mortality, as numerous studies in coronary heart disease and other chronic diseases have shown. In spite of available valid screening measures which enable large population surveys, diagnostic problems remain, especially with respect to separating mental and somatic symptoms and diagnosing somatic diseases reliably.

Distinctiveness and overlap of depersonalization with anxiety and depression in a community sample: results from the Gutenberg Heart Study.

Depersonalization disorder is considered to be a common clinical phenomenon and disorder with an enormous gap between prevalence and detection partly due to the common interpretation of depersonalization (DP) being a negligible variant of anxiety and depression. Therefore, we sought to analyze (1) the prevalence rate of DP in a large community sample (n=5000) according to a recently developed ultra brief two-item depersonalization screener; (2) the associations with depression, anxiety, physical and mental health status; and 93) whether DP contributes independently to the health status beyond anxiety and depression. The prevalence of clinically significant DP was 0.

Prevalence of distress, comorbid conditions and well being in the general population.

Background: The purposes of this paper are to determine the prevalence of distress in the community, to identify its determinants and to assess its relationship to somatic conditions and subjective well being.

Methods: Distress and associated factors were investigated in a random sample of 5000 participants (35-74 years) of a community-based, prospective, observational cohort study in western Mid-Germany ("Gutenberg Heart Study") between 04/2007 and 10/2008. The sample was stratified 1:1 for gender and residence and in equal strata for decades of age.

Regular and problematic leisure-time Internet use in the community: results from a German population-based survey.

In our study, we attempted to identify systematically the use of Internet applications in the German population in order to derive risk factors for problematic use. In a representative survey of the German population, we queried 1,401 women and 1,111 men between the ages of 14 and 94 years by specific questions and standardized questionnaires on depression, anxiety (HADS), and depersonalization (CDS-2). The majority of the German population (55%) used the Internet in their leisure time.