Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy for Pediatric Chronic Pain: Case Series of an Open Pilot Study to Test Initial Feasibility and Potential Efficacy.

Objective: Chronic pain is a common complaint in children and adolescents, placing an enormous burden on individuals, their families, and the healthcare system. New innovative approaches for the treatment of pediatric chronic pain (PCP) are clearly warranted, as drop-out rates in intervention studies are high and it can be difficult to engage patients with PCP in therapy. Here, animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) might be promising, since there is preliminary evidence for the approach in adults with chronic pain, and AAIs are generally known to foster the therapeutic motivation of patients.

Web-based counseling for families with parental cancer: Baseline findings and lessons learned.

This is the first study in Switzerland to report on psychological adjustment in children of a parent with cancer using a web-based intervention during cancer therapy. Twenty-two families participated in this randomized controlled web-based intervention program. Quality of life and emotional-behavioral well-being of children were examined using child self-reports, and parent proxy-reports.

Cenesthopathy in adolescence: an appraisal of diagnostic overlaps along the anxiety-hypochondriasis-psychosis spectrum.

Objective: To discuss the diagnostic validity of unusual bodily perceptions along the spectrum from age-specific, often transitory and normal, to pathological phenomena in adolescence to hypochondriasis and finally to psychosis.

Methods: Critical literature review of the cornerstone diagnostic groups along the spectrum embracing anxiety and cenesthopathy in adolescence, hypochondriasis, and cenesthopathy and psychosis, followed by a discussion of the diagnostic overlaps along this spectrum.

Results: The review highlights significant overlaps between the diagnostic cornerstones.

[Interrater reliability of the «Diagnostic Interview bei psychischen Störungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter (Kinder-DIPS)].

Objective: This study investigates the interrater reliability of the «Diagnostisches Interview bei psychischen Störungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter» (Kinder-DIPS; Schneider, Unnewehr & Margraf, 2009) based on child and parent interviews. It further investigates differences in the interrater reliability depending on age or sex of the children.

Method: 48 certified interviewers conducted 264 parent and 213 child interviews in various inpatient, outpatient, and research settings.

Cognitive functioning in at-risk mental states for psychosis and 2-year clinical outcome.

Background: Cognitive impairment is prevalent in at-risk mental states (ARMS) for psychosis.

Method: We studied cognitive functioning at baseline in ARMS individuals and investigated its power to predict ARMS persistence and remission at 2-year follow-up.

Results: 196 patients were recruited.

[Long-term evaluation of a psychological training for obese children and their parents (TAKE)].

Cognitive-behavioral parent-child-programmes have shown the best effects in treating childhood obesity so far. With TAKE (Training adipöser Kinder und ihrer Eltern) we introduce a psychologically-informed training, that includes physical activity, nutrition and eating behavior but also addresses psychological issues like self-confidence, body image, social and anti-bullying skills. Long-term data from up to 64 month-follow-up showed moderate effects on body-mass index standard deviation scores (BMI-SDS), and positive effects on children's psychological wellbeing.

Subclinical hallucinations in adolescent outpatients: an outcome study.

Objective: We assessed the continued prevalence at one year and association with clinical variables of subclinical hallucinations ascertained at baseline in a cohort of adolescent outpatients referred to a specialized early psychosis service. We further assessed the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in adolescents presenting subclinical hallucinations.

Method: 84 adolescent patients were sampled from a longitudinal, prospective study that assesses the course of clinical and neuropsychological measures in patients identified as at high clinical risk for psychosis.

[The mental status of overweight children].

Objective: Numerous studies based on parent questionnaires reveal that obese children are subject to both physical and psychosocial strains. Children are not included as informants in the assessment procedure, and there is a lack of clinical interview studies assessing DSM-IV-based diagnoses in overweight children.

Methods: Emotional and behavioural problems of treatment seeking obese children (N = 59; aged 8-12-years) attending a mental health service were assessed by means of clinical interviews (Kinder-DIPS) that included child and parent reports.

Randomized controlled comparison of two cognitive behavioral therapies for obese children: mother versus mother-child cognitive behavioral therapy.

Background: Parent-child treatments have been shown to be superior to child-focused treatments of childhood obesity. Yet until now, the comparative effectiveness of parent-only and parent-child approaches has been little studied.

Method: Fifty-six obese children and their families were randomly assigned to a 16-session cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for the parents only or for a combined treatment of parents and children.

Restrained eating in overweight children: does eating style run in families?

Overweight children show abnormalities in eating style, such as restrained eating and tendency toward overeating (comprising both emotional and external eating). Family surroundings play a major role in developing eating behaviors in children. We tested whether restrained eating and tendency toward overeating predicted the amount of food intake in 41 overweight children (23 girls and 18 boys) and their parents (40 mothers and 11 fathers) after receiving a preload.

Cognitive functioning in the schizophrenia prodrome.

In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in cognitive alterations during the early course of schizophrenia. From a clinical perspective, a better understanding of cognitive functioning in putative at-risk states for schizophrenia is essential for developing optimal early intervention models. Two approaches have more recently been combined to assess the entire course of the initial schizophrenia prodrome: the predictive "basic symptom at-risk" (BS) and the ultra high-risk (UHR) criteria.

Developing services for the early detection of psychosis: a critical consideration of the current state of the art.

Recent research has attempted to improve the identification of individuals at-risk of developing schizophrenia to permit targeted early prevention. Two sets of criteria, one characterized by a subgroup of 'basic symptoms' [Klosterkötter, Hellmich, Steinmeyer, Schultze-Lutter (2001) Arch Gen Psychiat 58:158-164] and one by the ultra high-risk model [Miller, McGlashan, Woods, Stein, Driesen, Corcoran, Hoffman, Davidson (1999) Psychiatr Q 70:273-287; Yung, McGorry, McFarlane, Jackson, Patton, Rakkar (1996) Schizophr Bull 22:283-303], have been associated with positive predictive values for later schizophrenia. This paper is a critical discussion of these predictive values.

Defining subjects at risk for psychosis: a comparison of two approaches.

The ability to detect individuals at high risk for developing schizophrenia before they express the disease will lead to targeted early intervention. It has been proposed that subjects at risk share a core deficit with people who already have schizophrenia. This includes cognitive impairment, affective symptoms, social isolation and decline in social functioning.

[Outpatient treatment of childhood and adolescent obesity].

Objectives: Obesity in childhood is an increasing problem in both industrial and developing countries. Prevalence rates are up 15% in the U.S.