Development and psychometric testing of an observation-based assessment tool focusing on work-related stressors among health professionals: the STRAIN-External Observation of work Stressors.

Background: Health professionals are especially affected by various stressors in their daily work, such as a high workload, physical and emotional challenges. The aim of this study was to develop and test the validity, reliability and usability of an observation-based instrument designed to assess work stressors in the healthcare sector.

Methods: Using a cross sectional design, 110 health professionals were observed during one entire shift by an external observer.

Impairment in emotion recognition abilities in patients with mild cognitive impairment, early and moderate Alzheimer disease compared with healthy comparison subjects.

Objective: To investigate emotion discrimination abilities in healthy comparison subjects, patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), early and moderate Alzheimer disease (AD).

Design: Prospective study design.

Setting: Outpatient memory clinic, Department of Psychiatry, Innsbruck, Austria.

Differential effect of catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met genotype on emotional recognition abilities in healthy men and women.

The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism modulates executive functions and working memory and recent neuroimaging studies implicate an association with emotional processing. We examined the relationship between the COMT Val158Met polymorphism and facial emotion recognition and differentiation in 100 healthy individuals. Compared to Met homozygosity, Val homozygosity was associated with better and faster recognition of negative facial expressions such as anger and sad.

Effects of age and mild cognitive impairment on direct and indirect access to arithmetic knowledge.

The present study aimed at investigating age-related changes and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) related effects in simple arithmetic. To pursue this goal, MCI patients, healthy old adults and young adults performed three computerised tasks. The production (e.