First results of a refeeding program in a psychiatric intensive care unit for patients with extreme anorexia nervosa.

Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with a high mortality rate. This study describes a compulsory re-feeding program established in Munich for extremely underweight patients.

Methods: The contract between the patient and the therapeutic team included mandatory inpatient status, establishment of guardianship and compulsory re-feeding with a percutaneous gastric feeding tube, as indicated.

Electroconvulsive therapy and corpus callosum aplasia: a case report.

The use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in mental retardation has been discussed in several case reports and case series. In this case, a 35-year-old patient with corpus callosum aplasia and severe therapy-resistant catatonia was treated with a series of unilateral ECT and improved considerably. Electroencephalographic recordings during ECT showed a complete interhemispheric synchronicity due to regular anterior and posterior commissural fibers.

Investigating disease susceptibility and the negative correlation of schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis focusing on MIF and CD14 gene polymorphisms.

Schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are both chronic diseases with an estimated genetic component of 60%. While RA is a well-known autoimmune inflammatory joint disease, recent data point to an active immune process also being involved in schizophrenia. Several studies confirmed the negative association between schizophrenia and RA, indicating genetic factors that predispose to the one disorder, while protecting from the other.