Assessing physical activity in people with mental illness: 23-country reliability and validity of the simple physical activity questionnaire (SIMPAQ).

Background: Physical inactivity is a key contributor to the global burden of disease and disproportionately impacts the wellbeing of people experiencing mental illness. Increases in physical activity are associated with improvements in symptoms of mental illness and reduction in cardiometabolic risk. Reliable and valid clinical tools that assess physical activity would improve evaluation of intervention studies that aim to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour in people living with mental illness.

Subthreshold Psychiatric Psychopathology in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders: Can It Be the Bridge between Gastroenterology and Psychiatry?

Background And Aims: Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGDs) are multifactorial disorders of the gut-brain interaction. This study investigated the prevalence of Axis I and spectrum disorders in patients with FGD and established the link between FGDs and psychopathological dimensions.

Methods: A total of 135 consecutive patients with FGD were enrolled.

Comorbidity between social phobia and premature ejaculation: study on 242 males affected by sexual disorders.

Several studies have reported high comorbidity between psychiatric and sexual disorders, particularly between anxiety and mood disorders and sexual dysfunction. The goal of the present study is to examine the comorbidity between premature ejaculation and Axis I psychiatric disorders. Of 242 males referred to an outpatient clinic of sexology between November 2000 and July 2003, 52 were diagnosed with premature ejaculation (PE).

Augmentation strategy with olanzapine in resistant obsessive compulsive disorder: an Italian long-term open-label study.

The present study reports the results of an open-label trial on the use of the combination of olanzapine (an atypical antipsychotic) serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) in 26 resistant outpatients affected by resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). All patients had been suffering from OCD, according to DSM IV criteria, for at least 2 years and had different comorbid disorders; they had been treated with an SRI at adequate dosages for at least 6 months, or had tried different augmentation strategies with no or poor response. As a result, olanzapine was added and continued for 1 year.

Measuring mood spectrum: comparison of interview (SCI-MOODS) and self-report (MOODS-SR) instruments.

Spectrum phenomena include, in addition to the typical DSM core symptoms, isolated or atypical symptoms, often of low severity, as well as trait-like behavioral features that arise as a result of coping with the psychopathology. We have demonstrated the psychometric properties of five Structured Clinical Interviews for the assessment of specific mood and anxiety spectrum conditions, including the Structured Clinical Interview for Mood Spectrum (SCI-MOODS). The present report describes the reliability of the self-report version (MOODS-SR) of the SCI-MOODS in a sample of 21 patients with a mood disorder and 20 control subjects.