Conversations Regarding Personhood: Use of the Patient Dignity Question in an Outpatient Psycho-Oncology Clinic.

The Patient Dignity Question (PDQ) is a single question, which directly asks the patient, "What should I know about you as to help me take the best care of you that I can?" Research has demonstrated that the PDQ enhances quality health care within an inpatient palliative care setting; however, no research to date has examined the PDQ in an outpatient setting, particularly a psycho-oncology setting. The PDQ was administered as part of routine clinical care in an outpatient psycho-oncology clinic to enhance patient-centered care. Individuals diagnosed with cancer ( = 66) were referred for individual psychotherapy primarily for anxiety and/or depression.

Mixed-methods quantitative-qualitative study of 29 nonagenarians and centenarians in rural Southern Italy: focus on positive psychological traits.

Objective: This was a study of positive psychological traits in a group of rural Italians aged 90 to 101 years, and their children or other family members.

Design: Mixed-methods quantitative (standardized rating scales) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews) study.

Setting: Study participants' homes in nine villages in the Cilento region of southern Italy.

Hospice staff perspectives on Dignity Therapy.

Background: Dignity Therapy is a brief psychotherapy performed with patients at the end of life. Previous research has examined the effects of Dignity Therapy with patients and family, but none has examined hospice staff perceptions of the treatment.

Objective: The study objective was to investigate hospice staff perspectives regarding the impact and value of Dignity Therapy when provided as a clinical service.

Comparison of international medical graduates with US medical students and residents after a four-week course in palliative medicine: a pilot study.

Background: The need for doctors who have skills in pain management and palliative medicine is greatest in low and moderate resource countries where patients most frequently present to their health care system with advanced illness and greater than 80% of the global deaths occur. While medical students trained in the United States are required to have training in palliative medicine, international medical graduates (IMGs), who have completed medical school outside North America, may not have the same exposure to palliative medicine training as U.S.

Psychiatry resident education in palliative care: opportunities, desired training, and outcomes of a targeted educational intervention.

Objectives: To assess the educational offerings provided to psychiatry residents in palliative care as well as their concomitant interest in learning more about this subspecialty. To measure the pre- and post-levels of competence, concern, and knowledge exhibited by psychiatry residents when completing a formalized clinical rotation in hospice and palliative care, with additional comparisons to family and internal medicine residents completing the same clinical rotation.

Methods: Fifty-two Psychiatry Program Directors and 98 psychiatry residents completed an online survey assessing the current course offerings and level of interest in palliative care.

Dignity therapy implementation in a community-based hospice setting.

Background: Dignity Therapy is a brief, empirically supported, individualized psychotherapy designed to address legacy needs among patients at the end of life. To date, this psychotherapy has not been implemented in a "real-world" community-based hospice setting. This study was designed to offer information about the pragmatic aspects of implementing Dignity Therapy for patients receiving hospice care.

Subsyndromal depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older persons with schizophrenia.

Objective: The objectives are to delineate the nature of subsyndromal depressive symptoms (SSD) in midlife and older patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder by: 1) describing the relationship of SSD with a number of other clinical features; and 2) examining which specific depressive symptoms are increased in patients broadly defined as having SSD.

Methods: A total of 204 participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and SSD who entered a federally funded intervention study at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and University of Cincinnati were matched with schizophrenic and schizoaffective participants from the Geriatric Research Center at UCSD who had minimal or no depressive symptoms. The SSD and no depression groups were compared on a variety of clinical features including general psychopathology, positive and negative symptoms, medical and mental functioning, cognition, movement abnormalities, and specific depressive symptomatology.

Self-administered cognitive screening for a study of successful aging among community-dwelling seniors: a preliminary study.

Background: Cognitive functioning is a central component of successful aging. Yet, there are few published instruments for brief and reliable self-administered cognitive assessment that could be used in large population-based studies of community-dwelling elderly people.

Objective: We examined the utility of a self-administered cognitive screening instrument in a group of community-dwelling older adults, and we evaluated correlations of the performance on this measure with demographic variables and specific indicators of self-rated successful aging.

Diagnostic variability for schizophrenia and major depression in a large public mental health care system dataset.

Administrative datasets can provide information about mental health treatment in real world settings; however, an important limitation in using these datasets is the uncertainty regarding psychiatric diagnosis. To better understand the psychiatric diagnoses, we investigated the diagnostic variability of schizophrenia and major depression in a large public mental health system. Using schizophrenia and major depression as the two comparison diagnoses, we compared the variability of diagnoses assigned to patients with one recorded diagnosis of schizophrenia or major depression.

Depressive symptom patterns in patients with chronic schizophrenia and subsyndromal depression.

Background: Since subsyndromal depressive symptoms (SDS) are prevalent, under-recognized and clinically important problems in patients with schizophrenia, as well as in the elderly, the association and correlates of SDS in mid-life and older age patients with schizophrenia deserves more investigation. The purpose of this study is to learn more about the occurrence, pattern of symptoms and associated features of subsyndromal depressive symptoms in patients with chronic schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Method: The first 165 participants from the "Citalopram Augmentation in Older Adults with Psychoses" (NIH RO1 # 63931) study comprised the sample.

Correlates of self-rated successful aging among community-dwelling older adults.

Objective: There is no consensus on how to define successful aging. The authors sought to determine the correlates of self-rated successful aging as well as its correspondence with major researcher-defined criteria.

Methods: Participants were 205 community-dwelling adults over age 60.

Tri-ethnic variations of co-morbid substance and alcohol use disorders in schizophrenia.

Objectives: This study examined the differential prevalence of substance and alcohol use disorders among European Americans, African Americans, and Latinos with schizophrenia (n = 6424) who received public mental health services in San Diego County during fiscal year 2002-2003.

Methods: Data were obtained from the public mental health database used by the San Diego County Mental Health System. Chi-Square analyses and stepwise logistic regression analyses were used to examine differences regarding the prevalence of substance and alcohol use among clients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, and to analyze the sociodemographic variables associated with this co-morbidity.