The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two treatment modalities for patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). A total of 100 psychiatric patients diagnosed with BPD participated in this study. Among them, 50 patients were outpatients who attended the Reason and Emotion (RIO) program, and the remaining 50 were inpatients who were treated on psychotherapeutic ward at the same hospital.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Understanding causes and consequences of untreated psychosis is important since the duration of psychosis prior to the treatment initiation is a potentially modifiable prognostic factor, and comprehending its impact on outcome may enhance therapeutic strategies.
Subjects And Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on a consecutive sample of 105 participants, 47 first episode participants and 58 with multiple episodes. Primary outcome was the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP).
Background: The experience gained in working with psychotic persons as well as the findings from the literature have pointed to the need for systematic inclusion of the families of affected individuals, facilitating the creation of partnership within treatment, and to the need for a better understanding of family dynamics that reflects on the psychological conditions of the patients.
Aim: The aim of this paper is to explore the changes in self-esteem and loneliness of group members during the therapeutic process and whether the use of more mature defence mechanisms is the answer to the treatment of group psychotherapy.
Subjects And Methods: We followed three groups of 30 members (18 women and 12 men).
Psychiatric Hospital "Sveti Ivan" in Zagreb, Croatia, offers an outpatient Early intervention programme for patients with psychotic disorders (RIPEPP), consisting of psychoeducational workshops and group psychodynamic psychotherapy. Psychodynamic group psychotherapy presents a unique conceptual format not offered by other types of psychotherapy, and it is especially useful for population of patients with psychotic disorders. During group work, gradual establishment of communication and interactions, and creating a network of relations through experiences of corrective emotional symbiosis, affect the constellation of internal objects and relationships between members, and their restructuring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Treatment of early phase of psychosis is important not only for overcoming the acute symptoms but also for the later treatment and attitude towards the illness. Psychotherapeutic approach is an integrative part of this treatment. In Psychiatric hospital "Sveti Ivan" in Zagreb, Croatia both psychotherapeutic and sociotherapeutic methods are used on the inpatient unit for young people with psychosis along with medications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe hereby presented guidelines for the use of psychodynamic psychotherapy are based on references and research in the field of individual and group therapy and they refer to psychotherapy for patients suffering from the first psychotic episode, schizophrenia, schizoaffective psychosis, bipolar disorder and paranoid psychosis. The aim was to provide an overview of present literature and to give recommendations based on current knowledge. Clinical experience and research of the outcomes of psychodynamic psychotherapy encourage positioning of such treatments among recommendations for treating various mental disorders, as well as in the field of psychotherapy of patients with psychotic disorders (PD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Psychiatric hospital "Sveti Ivan" in Zagreb, Croatia, offers an outpatient Early intervention programme for patients with psychotic disorders (RIPEPP), consisting of psychoeducational workshops and group psychodynamic psychotherapy. The aim of this study was to describe sociodemographic and baseline characteristics of the participants, in order to provide better understanding of this population, and to assist with the development of more effective therapeutic approaches.
Subjects And Methods: Since 2008, a total of 245 patients with first episodes of psychosis and their family members participated in the programme.
Background: Despite the increased risk, the quality of somatic healthcare is lower for patients with mental illnesses. Currently dominant approach separates physical and mental, primary and secondary healthcare. Objective of our study was to explore whether somatic comorbidities are associated with a poor HRQoL independently of some sociodemographic and clinical factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to investigate the development of the group process through group climate parameter dynamics during long-term psychodynamic group psychotherapy for 30 outpatients with psychosis. The group process in four groups was monitored using MacKenzie's Group Climate Questionnaire-Short Form (GCQ-S) that was completed by the therapist after each session over the two-year period. The trends of engagement, avoidance and conflict parameters differed between groups, and no clear indicators of the development phases were found.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study aimed to examine the relationship between some personality characteristics of patients diagnosed with psychotic disorders and the quality of their engagement in psychodynamic group psychotherapy. Given that previous research has shown that self-stigma is significantly negatively associated with the engagement of patients, the measure of self-stigma was used as a correlate of patients' motivation to participate in group psychotherapy.
Subjects And Methods: A total of 48 outpatients (52.
Background: The Sveti Ivan Psychiatric Hospital in Zagreb, Croatia, offers foster home care treatment that includes pharmacotherapy, group psychodynamic psychotherapy, family therapy, and work and occupational therapy. The aim of this study is to compare the health-related quality of life of patients with schizophrenia treated in foster home care with that of patients in standard outpatient treatment.
Methods: The sample consisted of 44 patients with schizophrenia who, upon discharge from the hospital, were included in foster home care treatment and a comparative group of 50 patients who returned to their families and continued receiving outpatient treatment.
Background: In recent years, social functioning of patients has increasingly been used as a criterion for assessing therapeutic efficacy of the group psychotherapy. The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine whether social functioning of patients with diagnosed psychotic disorders changes during their participation in psychodynamic group psychotherapy.
Subject And Methods: The sample consisted of 30 patients involved in the psychodynamic group psychotherapy (PGP), and a comparative group of 30 patients treated only with antipsychotic medication therapy (treatment as usual; TAU).
Work with dreams in the group analysis represents an important part of the analytical work, with insight into unconscious experiences of the individual dreamer, and his transferrential relations with the therapist, other members of the group, and with the group as a whole. The way dreams are addressed varies from one therapist to another, and in line with that, members of the group have varying frequency of dreams. In groups of psychotic patients dreams are generally rarely discussed and interpreted by the group, with analysis mainly resting on the manifested content.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The "Sveti Ivan" psychiatric hospital in Zagreb, Croatia, offers an outpatient Early Intervention Program for psychotic patients. This program consists of psycho-educational workshops and group psychodynamic psychotherapy. Two important objectives of the program are improving and maintaining adequate cognitive functioning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Early intervention program for the first episodes of psychotic disorders (RIPEPP) at the Psychiatric Hospital "Sveti Ivan" in Zagreb encompasses patients hospitalized due to various psychoses (acute psychotic disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective and delusional disorder, bipolar affective disorder with psychotic symptoms) in the "critical period" of illness, i.e. within five years after the occurrence of the first symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe factors situated at the bases of the genesis and development of PTSD are divided in: biological, psychological and social factors. Primary factor is a stressful event of extremely dangerous and threatening nature. The sort and the intensity of the stressful event too play an important role, followed by the personality structure, the relation with the environment and the genetic constitution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiagnostic recognition and distinguishing of psychotropic side effects which are phenomenological Identical/similar to symptoms and/or signs of psychiatric disorders undergoing psychotropic treatment, is an integral element within the general diagnostic procedure. Unrecognising and undistinguishing of psychotropic-induced side effects from psychopathological phenomena and/or physical signs which are, according to relevant classification criteria, standard parts of psychiatric disorders, most frequently can cause increase the dose of the psychotropic medication, assigning of the unwarranted diagnoses, and/or addition of unnecessary medications. Some of the most frequent side effects that can be caused by the diagnostic difficulties and/or misjudgements of the phenomenological recognition and differentiating side effects from psychiatric symptoms and signs are: drug-induced akathisia, intensive anticholinergic pharmacodynamic effects including delirium, neuroleptic induced Parkinsonism, paradoxically antidepressants-induced worsening or re-emerging depression, acute dystonia and tardive dyskinesia and others.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchizophrenia and other psychotic disorders as well as the delirium caused by abstinence from alcohol and accute state of drunkenness appear at the very top of the list of factors, which are positively correlated with involuntary hospitalization of patients. This is at the same time a confirmation of the data found in literature considering psychosis an essential factor of involuntary hospitalization; the same referring to the male sex was not, however, confirmed by the results obtained in the first and second research period. Regarding the positive correlation between schizophrenia and other psychotic disturbances, dementia, delirium and other cognitive impairments including the delirium caused by abstinence from alcohol and an accute state of drunkenness on the one side and the high rate of involuntary hospitalization on the other, there is no statistically significant difference between the period preceding and the period following the alterations and amendments to the Law on the protection of patients with mental disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe effects of cisapride (10 mg three times daily) on the stool evacuation characteristics, laxative consumption (symptom diary) and motility pattern (rectoanal manometry) were assessed in patients with chronic idiopathic constipation who fulfilled Rome II criteria. After a 14-day basal period on a diet rich in fiber (phase I), patients were treated with placebo (n = 20) or cisapride (n = 19) (phase II). Anorectal manometry was performed at the end of each phase.
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