Contribution of the Economic Crisis to the Risk Increase of Poor Mental Health in a Region of Spain.

Previous research suggests that the economic crisis can affect mental health. The purpose of this study was to analyse the association of risk of poor mental health with various socioeconomic, demographic, health, quality of life, and social support variables; and to evaluate the contribution of socioeconomic variables most affected by the beginning of the economic crisis (employment situation and income) on the changes in the prevalence of the risk of poor mental health between 2005 and 2010. A study of prevalence evolution in adult population residents of the Valencian Community in the Spanish Mediterranean was conducted.

Five Interpersonal Factors Are Predictive of the Response to Treatment of Major Depression With Antidepressants in Primary Care.

Factors relating to the interpersonal relationship between the patient and their physician and social environment are important components, which contribute to their response to treatment for major depressive disorder. This study aimed to assess the influence of optimism, perfectionism, therapeutic alliance, empathy, social support, and adherence to medication regimen in the response to antidepressant treatments in the context of normal primary care clinical practice. We conducted a prospective study in which 24 primary care physicians administered sertraline or escitalopram to 89 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder.

Is recession bad for your mental health? The answer could be complex: evidence from the 2008 crisis in Spain.

Background: We explored the impact of 2008 recession on the prevalence of mental health problems in Spain.

Methods: Repeated cross-sectional survey design. Datasets from 2006 and 2011 were used, and temporal change was examined.

The impact of the 2008 economic crisis on the increasing number of young psychiatric inpatients.

Background: Little is published about the impact of the 2008 economic crisis on mental health services in Spain.

Method: An interrupted time series analysis was conducted to investigate a potential short-term association between the 2008 economic crisis and the number of psychiatric hospital admissions. The timing of the intervention (April 2008) was based on observed changes in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

EPA guidance on mental health and economic crises in Europe.

This European Psychiatric Association (EPA) guidance paper is a result of the Working Group on Mental Health Consequences of Economic Crises of the EPA Council of National Psychiatric Associations. Its purpose is to identify the impact on mental health in Europe of the economic downturn and the measures that may be taken to respond to it. We performed a review of the existing literature that yields 350 articles on which our conclusions and recommendations are based.

Changing trends in hospitalization rates associated with psychosis: Spain, 1980-2009.

Purpose: To analyze the prevalence of hospitalization attributable to psychosis in Spain over the last three decades.

Methods: Longitudinal analysis (1980-2009) of age-adjusted hospital discharges rates associated with psychosis (ICD9 290-8) in all Spanish hospitals.

Data Source: Spanish Hospital Morbidity Survey.

How does family intervention improve the outcome of people with schizophrenia?

Background: There is strong evidence of the efficacy of family psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia, but evidence of the role played by the attitudes of relatives in the therapeutic process is lacking.

Method: To study the effect of a family intervention on family attitudes and to analyse their mediating role in the therapeutic process 50 patients with schizophrenia and their key relatives undergoing a trial on the efficacy of a family psychosocial intervention were studied by means of the Affective Style Coding System, the Scale of Empathy, and the Relational Control Coding System. Specific statistical methods were used to determine the nature of the relationship of the relatives' attitudes to the outcome of family intervention.

Discordance between two national health statistics sources (EMH and EESCRI, 1990-2009). Analysis of psychiatric morbidity.

Introduction: Two statistical sources provide data on hospital stays and discharges for all Spanish hospitals: Hospital Morbidity Survey (acronym in Spanish: EMH) and Statistics of Health Establishments providing Inpatient Care (acronym in Spanish: EESCRI). Our aim is to contrast these two statistical sources to define their accuracy and relevance in psychiatric epidemiology studies.

Material And Methodology: The analysis is based on two aspects: 1.

Unmet needs in the management of schizophrenia.

Studies on unmet needs during the last decades have played a significant role in the development and dissemination of evidence-based community practices for persistent schizophrenia and other severe mental disorders. This review has thoroughly considered several blocks of unmet needs, which are frequently related to schizophrenic disorders. Those related to health have been the first block to be considered, in which authors have examined the frequent complications and comorbidities found in schizophrenia, such as substance abuse and dual diagnosis.

Inverse and direct cancer comorbidity in people with central nervous system disorders: a meta-analysis of cancer incidence in 577,013 participants of 50 observational studies.

Background: There is a lack of scientific consensus about cancer comorbidity in people with central nervous system (CNS) disorders. This study assesses the co-occurrence of cancers in patients with CNS disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), autism spectrum disorders, Down's syndrome (DS), Huntington's disease (HD), multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease (PD) and schizophrenia (SCZ).

Method: Comprehensive search in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus and ISI Web of Knowledge of the literature published before March 2013.

Standardised measures of needs, stigma and informal care in schizophrenia using a bottom-up, cross-cultural approach.

Background There is a lack of instruments to measure the needs, stigma and informal care of people with schizophrenia that take account of sociocultural variation and patients' and formal and informal carers' opinions and experiences. Aims To develop questionnaires to measure stigma, needs and informal (non-professional) care for people with schizophrenia. Method We undertook the study in seven countries and in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Psychometric behaviour of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) in the Spanish national health survey 2006.

Background: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a tool to measure the risk for mental disorders in children. The aim of this study is to describe the diagnostic efficiency and internal structure of the SDQ in the sample of children studied in the Spanish National Health Survey 2006.

Methods: A representative sample of 6,773 children aged 4 to 15 years was studied.

A short message service (SMS)-based strategy for enhancing adherence to antipsychotic medication in schizophrenia.

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a short message service (SMS)-based strategy on adherence to antipsychotic treatment.

Methods: A multicentre, randomised, open-label, controlled, 6-month study with clinically stabilised outpatients with schizophrenia was conducted. The patients assigned to the intervention received daily SMS reminders to take their medication for 3 months.

The opinion of psychiatric residents on the training they receive.

The results of a survey carried out by the Spanish National Board for Psychiatric Training among psychiatric trainees in their third and fourth year of training are presented and discussed. The aim of the survey was to know the resident's opinion and level of satisfaction on the training they had received. The results indicate that the majority of residents had complied with the National Program for Psychiatric Training requirements and that their level of satisfaction was fair.

No paradox, no progress: inverse cancer comorbidity in people with other complex diseases.

In the past 5 years, several leading groups have attempted to explain why individuals with Down's syndrome have a reduced risk of many solid tumours and an increased risk of leukaemia and testicular cancer. Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist, noted that a paradox could initiate progress. We think that the paradox of a medical disorder protecting against cancer could be formalised in a new model of inverse cancer morbidity in people with other serious diseases.

[Evaluation of the efficacy of involuntary outpatient treatment in reducing the use of mental health services in hospital].

Objective: To determine whether psychiatric patients in involuntary outpatient treatment (IOT) show reduced use of mental health services in hospital compared with a control group not subject to a judicial order.

Method: We compared a group of patients in IOT (n=38) with a control group (n=38), selected from involuntarily hospitalized patients during the same period. Patients in the control group had similar sociodemographic, clinical and psychiatric characteristics to the group with IOT.

Self-reported chronic mental health problems and mental health service use in Spain.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of self-reported chronic mental health problems (MHPs) and mental health service use and their determinants, among the Spanish population over 14 years of age.

Methods: Data from the 1999 Spanish Survey on Disabilities, Deficiencies, and State of Health were used. The survey is a cross-sectional study based on a multi-stage stratified sample of all the non-institutionalized Spanish population aged over 14 years (n=59,101, 11% non-responders).

Efficacy and effectiveness of individual family intervention on social and clinical functioning and family burden in severe schizophrenia: a 2-year randomized controlled study.

Background: Empirical evidence of the efficacy and effectiveness of psychosocial family intervention and of the specificity of its effects on the course of schizophrenia is limited. The aim was to study the efficacy and effectiveness of psychosocial family intervention with regard to clinical and social functioning and family burden after controlling for compliance and several prognostic factors.

Method: A 2-year randomized controlled trial with blind assessments.

Neurocognitive and clinical predictors of functional outcome in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder at one-year follow-up.

Objective: Many studies have reported that cognitive ability may be predictive of the functional outcome for patients with schizophrenia. However, no study has prospectively examined these aspects in schizophrenia and bipolar disorders simultaneously. The present study attempted to analyze if neurocognition and clinical status predicts the real-life functioning for patients with schizophrenia or bipolar I disorder, using a longitudinal design.

A 6-month prospective, observational, naturalistic, uncontrolled study to evaluate the effectiveness and tolerability of oral ziprasidone in patients with schizophrenia.

This multicenter, uncontrolled, naturalistic study evaluated the effectiveness and tolerability of 6 months of treatment with ziprasidone in 1266 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The percentage of responders (at least 30% reduction in PANSS total score) in the primary analysis sample (n=1022) was 47.3% (95% CI 44.

Posttraumatic stress disorder in primary care with special reference to personality disorder comorbidity.

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and disabling disturbance in primary care. Few studies have been carried out in primary care samples and none have taken into consideration the association between PTSD and personality disorder.

Aim: To describe prevalence and risk factors of PTSD and its comorbidity with personality disorder.

Persistent cognitive dysfunctions in bipolar I disorder and schizophrenic patients: a 3-year follow-up study.

Background: Neurocognitive impairment has consistently been considered a central and stable feature in schizophrenia. As this possibility has been far less studied in bipolar disorder, we aimed to prospectively investigate the stability and specificity of cognitive performance in bipolar disorder compared to schizophrenia.

Methods: Fifteen DSM-IV bipolar type I patients and 15 schizophrenic patients were assessed twice with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale over a 3-year follow-up.

The Section and Board of Psychiatry of the Union of European Medical Specialists (UEMS): achievements and perspectives.

The enlargement of the European Union (EU) creates new inspiration and challenges for the Section and Board of Psychiatry of the Union of European Medical Specialists (UEMS). The Section and Board, which have an active history dating back to the early 1990s, aim to promote and harmonise psychiatry throughout Europe, mainly by working to produce standards for training, including conditions for training and continuous professional development (CPD). However, European society is complex and in transition.