[Dramatic changes in the age structure for medical specialists in the field of mental health].

Background: Over the past 20 years the importance of treatment of people with mental and neurological disorders has greatly increased. Parallel to this development it has become more difficult to attract young physicians to this field. The aim of this study was to examine the development of the number of physicians specialized in the care of patients suffering from neurological, mental and psychosomatic disorders with special consideration of the age structure.

Telemedical care and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: results of a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are serious psychiatric disorders with a high disease burden, a high number of years of life lived with disability and a high risk for relapses and re-hospitalizations. Besides, both diseases are often accompanied with a reduced quality of life (QoL). A low level of quality of life is one predictor for relapses.

Effect of a 1-year short message service in detoxified alcohol-dependent patients: a multi-center, open-label randomized controlled trial.

Background And Aims: Existing evidence suggests that text message interventions can help people to reduce their alcohol consumption. However, studies with alcohol-dependent patients are lacking. In this study a 1-year automatic mobile phone-based short messaging service (SMS) intervention on alcohol consumption in patients after alcohol detoxification in hospital was compared with treatment as usual.

Chalice-Type Tridentate Silicon Lewis Acids of C Symmetry in a Single Step Starting from Hexadehydrotribenzo[12]annulene.

Tridentate Lewis acids with aligned functions were synthesized based on the rigid framework hexadehydrotribenzo[12]annulene. The backbone and its fluorinated analogue were synthesised in one-pot syntheses, with alkyne deprotection and Sonogashira cross coupling reaction being carried out in one step. Hydrosilylation of the annulene with chlorohydrosilanes proceeded highly selectively and afforded rigid poly-Lewis acids with three SiCl or SiCl Me substituents perfectly oriented to one side of the molecule in a single step.

Improving Medication Adherence With Telemedicine for Adults With Severe Mental Illness.

Objective: The study evaluated a telephone call and text message intervention to improve adherence to medication among patients with severe mental illness.

Methods: A randomized clinical trial was conducted, and outpatients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder were assigned to the intervention group or to a usual care control group. The intervention was provided by trained nurses.

Predictors of medication adherence among patients with severe psychiatric disorders: findings from the baseline assessment of a randomized controlled trial (Tecla).

Background: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are characterized by a high disease burden. Antipsychotic medication is an essential part of the treatment. However, non-adherence is a major problem.

The transition from primary to secondary school as stressful life event provoking risky drinking behaviors.

This study is based on a drug prevention project for children in the German-Polish border region known as "Pomerania." The aim of this project was to minimize risk behaviors while developing social skills as protective factors through project-specific training interventions. The present study especially investigates the development of social skills and risk behaviors at German and Polish primary schools in the critical transitional period from primary to secondary school.

Tecla: a telephone- and text-message based telemedical concept for patients with severe mental health disorders--study protocol for a controlled, randomized, study.

Background: Severe mental disorders like psychotic disorders including schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders have a 12-month-prevalence of 2.6, bipolar disorders of 1.5% in Germany.

Validation of life-charts documented with the personal life-chart app - a self-monitoring tool for bipolar disorder.

Background: Long-term monitoring in bipolar affective disorders constitutes an important therapeutic and preventive method. The present study examines the validity of the Personal Life-Chart App (PLC App), in both German and in English. This App is based on the National Institute of Mental Health's Life-Chart Method, the de facto standard for long-term monitoring in the treatment of bipolar disorders.

[Therapeutic management of bipolar disorder in France and Europe: a multinational longitudinal study (WAVE-bd)].

Background: Bipolar disorder is a complex disease which requires multiple healthcare resources and complex medical care programs including pharmacological and non pharmacological treatment. If mood stabilizers remain the corner stone for bipolar disorder treatment, the development of atypical antipsychotics and their use as mood stabilizers has significantly modified therapeutic care. At the present time, psychiatrists have a large variety of psychotropic drugs for bipolar disorder: mood stabilizers, atypical antipsychotics, antidepressants, anxiolytics… However, despite the publication of guidelines on pharmacological treatment, with a high degree of consensus, everyday clinical practices remain heterogeneous.

An observational study of inflammation in the central nervous system in patients with bipolar disorder.

Objectives: The potential influence of infections and immunological changes on the aetiology and pathogenesis of bipolar disorder (BD) has been discussed. Our aim was to detect intrathecal specific antibody synthesis against the neurotropic infectious agents that have previously been linked to BD.

Methods: Paired cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum samples from 40 patients with BD were analysed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect the concentration of antibodies against the following neurotropic infectious pathogens: Toxoplasma gondii (T.

Impact of alcohol-related video sequences on functional MRI in abstinent alcoholics.

The object of this study was the identification of brain areas that were significantly more connected than other regions with a previously identified reference region, the posterior cingulate cortex, during the presentation of visual cues in alcoholics. Alcohol-related and neutral video sequences were presented to 30 alcoholics who had been abstinent for at least 4 days. Participants underwent a psychometric assessment before and after the presentation of the video sequences.

Clinical management and burden of bipolar disorder: results from a multinational longitudinal study (WAVE-bd).

Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder which requires complex treatment. Current treatment guidelines are based on the results of published randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses which may not accurately reflect everyday clinical practice. This multi-national, multi-centre, observational cohort study describes clinical management and clinical outcomes related to bipolar disorder in real-life settings, assesses between-country variability and identifies factors associated with clinical outcomes.

Predictability of alcohol relapse by hippocampal volumetry and psychometric variables.

We examined the relationship between relapse risk/duration of abstinence and hippocampal volume as well as the moderating role of various psychological factors in 34 patients who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence according to ICD-10 and DSM-IV and 16 healthy controls (9 females and 7 males). This study is part of a single-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group treatment trial with the anticraving substance acamprosate administered for 3 months. Patients underwent a psychometric evaluation and a measurement of the hippocampus with magnetic resonance imaging before beginning medication (T0).

The impact of acamprosate on cue reactivity in alcohol dependent individuals: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Alcohol cue-induced brain activation has been studied extensively in alcoholics. However, little is known about the impact of standard treatment protocols on this phenomenon. The current study aimed at investigating the impact of the anticraving substance acamprosate on alcohol cue-related brain activity.

Impaired functioning in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder--HSV-1 as a predictor.

There is a possible association between infectious agents and psychiatric disorders. Previous studies in the US provided evidence for cognitive impairment correlated with Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection. For a replication study in Europe we chosed individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder to analyse the correlation with HSV-1 infection.

Clinical management and burden of bipolar disorder: a multinational longitudinal study (WAVE-bd study).

Background: Studies in bipolar disorder (BD) to date are limited in their ability to provide a whole-disease perspective--their scope has generally been confined to a single disease phase and/or a specific treatment. Moreover, most clinical trials have focused on the manic phase of disease, and not on depression, which is associated with the greatest disease burden. There are few longitudinal studies covering both types of patients with BD (I and II) and the whole course of the disease, regardless of patients' symptomatology.

Short-term prospective comparison of prepulse inhibition between schizophrenic patients and healthy controls.

Introduction: The prepulse inhibition (PPI) of acoustic startle reflex is impaired in schizophrenic individuals compared to normal controls, and has been suggested to be a biomarker for sensorimotor gating. In fact, some cross-sectional studies suggest a different type of effect on PPI changes depending on the kind of antipsychotic treatment but few prospective studies have been conducted to investigate the short-term course of PPI alterations during the first few weeks of treatment. This study aimed to investigate schizophrenic subjects and controls over 4 weeks to analyze the course of PPI changes between groups at baseline and during follow-up, to determine whether potential PPI alterations are influenced by type of antipsychotic medication and whether these alterations are accompanied by changes in psychopathology.

[Recovery and remission in schizophrenia. Results from a naturalistic 2-year follow-up inpatient study].

Introduction: Remission in schizophrenia is defined as a period of at least 6 months in which symptom reduction occurs. In comparison, the term recovery is defined to include not only long-term symptomatic improvement but also good psychosocial functioning and improved quality of life. The aim of this naturalistic study is to prospectively investigate all these variables and their interrelationship in a sample of subjects with schizophrenia over a period of two years.

The Hypomania Checklist-32 and the Mood Disorder Questionnaire as screening tools--going beyond samples of purely mood-disordered patients.

Background: Bipolar disorders are often not recognized. Several screening tools have been developed, e.g.

Aripiprazole as adjunct to a mood stabilizer and citalopram in bipolar depression: a randomized placebo-controlled pilot study.

Objective: The use of atypical antipsychotics (AAPs) for the treatment of unipolar and bipolar depression has been more and more frequently evaluated, and aripiprazole showed positive effects in the treatment of unipolar depression. However, no placebo-controlled studies of adjunctive aripiprazole for the treatment of bipolar depression have been performed yet.

Methods: In this prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial, 23 inpatients with bipolar depression according to DSM-IV criteria were included.

Cognitive functioning in euthymic bipolar I and bipolar II patients.

Objective: There is growing evidence of cognitive impairment as a trait factor in bipolar disorder. The generalizability of this finding is limited because previous studies have either focussed exclusively on bipolar I disorder or have analysed mixed patient groups. Thus, it is still largely unknown whether bipolar II patients perform differently from bipolar I patients on measures of cognitive functioning.